It has been a month since Shylie's funeral. Not many Razortails attended that funeral...after all, Shylie was considered as a traitor who destroyed their trust in her and severed her loyalty to them. The only ones who bothered to attend was Sherul, Aldred, Julia, and Skaal. According to demonic beast custom, a demonic beast must have a proper burial ceremony in order to move on to the afterlife. Different demonic beasts had different burial ceremonies. For the deceased Earth Scorpioins, they would have their bodies cremated and then buried so that their essence may fuse with the Earth. However, for Shylie's case, she was given a traitor's burial despite Aldred's and Julia's protest. Shylie did not have the honor of cremation and was buried whole...her corpse left to rot and significantly lowering her chances of fusing with the Earth.

In that month, Aldred and Julia would either come together or come separately to Shylie's burial site and clean it once a week. One day, while Aldred was cleaning Shylie's burial site, he sensed a disturbance in the earth. He looked at the burial site and sensed a presence...this...is this Qi? Could there be a scavenger trying to eat Shylie's corpse? After all, she was not buried in a container but rather just dumped into a pit and then covered. Aldred used his senses and his Qi to locate where exactly was the presence. The presence was moving...but very slowly. It was digging upwards! Where did it come from?

Right as the presence left the vicinity of Shylie, Aldred reached forward and pierced his hand into the ground. Grabbing a hold of the presence, Aldred pulled his hand out. What he grabbed shocked him. This...a baby creature? It looked like a rat or a mouse with a scorpion tail. The tail was like that of the Razortails, the pointed end was shaped like a razor blade. The claws of the creature's front feet had nails that were large, thick, and sharp like the fangs of a scorpion. What kind of creature was this? Wait! Mouse...scorpion...hybrid...isn't this Shylie and Nomil's child?! How can this be? How can this child survive?! I need to report this to Aunt Sheila.

Aldred carefully held the creature in his arm. This tiny baby was currently weak given that it had survived off of the decaying nutrients of its own mother. But even so, its dead mother could only provide about a week's worth of nutrients...then, what happened for the rest of the month? How did it survive then? What did it live off of? Not to mention it had survived being buried alive and dug its way towards the surface. This child was tenacious...a natural survivor. Upon arriving, he immediately went to the Matriarch's room.

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

"Come in." A tired voice answered.

"Excuse me then." Aldred replied as he entered the room and walked towards the table where the Matriarch, in her Human Form, was sitting at and sorting through some papers.

"Ah! Aldred, how are you doing today? Is there something you need?" The Matriarch looked at Aldred with a tired smile.

"This." Aldred replied as he held up the baby hybrid by its neck. The baby was too tired and weak to resist and just hung there staring at the Matriarch with feeble eyes.

"This? What is this?"

"I found this at Shylie's burial ground. This...I believe this must be the child of Shylie."

"WHAT!? H-how's that possible?!"

"It must have lived off of its mother's dead body."

"But even so, that only lasts like what? A week? What about the rest?"

"That's what I thought too. Maybe this creature had started absorbing other creatures?"

"No...it looked too weak. Do you think it's an ability of some sort?"

"Doesn't seem like it.... Could...could it be that it absorbed the nutrients from the earth directly?"

"That?! To absorb the nutrients of the earth...that is an abominable nature. It is taboo for the Earth Scorpions to rob the earth of its nutrients."

"There was no choice in that matter for this kid. It wasn't at fault."

"True...but even so, this is still an unthinkable act of abomination. Not many demonic beasts will accept it if they knew what it had done. What will you do with this...this...what do you even call this? This is neither a Toxic Razortail nor a Sharpfang. In fact, I didn't even think it was possible for this type of mix breed to exist."

"This...then...let's call it a Sharptail. Sharptail isn't taken is it?" Aldred asked...he's naming sense was bad and he did not know if the term Sharptail was already taken or not.

"Sharptail...that could work. In the past, there was a species known as Sharptails. They were powerful rodent-like demonic beasts with furry, spear-like tails. But, they became overconfident with their power and strength that they defied the Heavens. They were exterminated by the other families as punishment. This baby can be considered as a Sharptail, except his tail is like that of a Razortail."

"Then, Sharptail it is." Aldred replied as he lifted the baby and stared at it. "Kid, you're a Sharptail now. Remember that."

"Okay...the only problem left...is what are we going to do with that Sharptail? I don't think any of the other Razortails would take care of a traitor's child. Even Elder Croa, given her personality, would most likely refuse as well."

"Then, I'll take care of it. This demonic beast...it seems I can feel a special connection with it." Aldred responded. He had felt a resemblance of Qi in this demonic beast. Could this demonic beast have cultivated Qi in his desperate situation?

"Hmm, fine. If you can take care of it, then so be it. This is the least I can do for Shylie. Although she was a traitor, she was still family."

"Okay, then, I'll be going now."

"Alright, take care. I'll notify the other elders of this child."

"Alright."

Aldred left the Matriarch's room and headed towards his room. There, Julia and Skaal were busy training. When the door opened, they looked at Aldred. When they saw the baby Sharptail in Aldred's hand, they all rushed over with questions.

"What's that? Where did you find it?" Skaal asked.

"Aww, such a cute little baby, what species is it from? Whose kid is it?" Julia asked, her eyes sparkled.

"This is a Sharptail...I named its family. This is...Shylie's child." Aldred responded.

"Impossible!" Skaal and Julia yelped in shock.

"How is that possible? Shylie and her child died that day. You yourself checked for any signs of life!" Skaal questioned in disbelief.

"I know. I thought so too."

"Then, what caused this to happen?" Julia asked.

"I think I know how. We all underestimated Shylie...and her motherly love for her unborn child."

"What do you mean?"

"It seemed even in death, she forcefully concentrated all of her nutrients and energy to her womb...keeping her child alive as long as she could. This tenacious will can only be described as Motherly Love."

"I see...so, you going to take care of it?" Skaal asked.

"Yea."

"What's its name?" Julia asked.

"I haven't decided yet. Did Shylie ever mention to you about her child...maybe like what she will name it?"

"Hmmm...actually, she did mention it. She said that both her and her lover, Nomil, loved singing...so they decided to name their kid either Soul if it's a boy or Hymn if it's a girl."

"Hmm...yep, it's a boy. I guess Soul it is." Aldred replied after checking the child's gender. He faced the little Sharptail and said, "From now on, you are Soul the Sharptail."