Beauty and the Beasts

They weaved through layers after layers of tree crowns, and only after a long while did they fall into the lake with a splash.

Even though Muir was hugging her, Bai Qingqing could still feel her internal organs trembling from the impact of the fall. Next, a small amount of water entered her nostrils.

With a flushed face, before Bai Qingqing could cough, she felt her body suffer another impact, following which she felt herself land in the depths of the lake.

Muir’s claw was tightly gripping onto Bai Qingqing’s shoulder. She struggled to pat him, but the latter was unresponsive.

Bai Qingqing anxiously twisted her head to look at him, only to see that the black eagle’s eyes were tightly shut, and traces of blood were seeping out of the corners of his mouth.

He must have been hurt from the impact of the fall when they fell into the water!

Bai Qingqing hurriedly tried to pry the eagle beastman’s claw, but his claw was closed in a deathlike grip and wouldn’t move an inch, like concrete iron, as though it had solidified.

As though sensing Bai Qingqing’s anxiousness, the unconscious eagle beastman suddenly loosened his claws, allowing Bai Qingqing to escape from his grasp.

Pulling Muir, before she depleted the last bit of oxygen, Bai Qingqing floated to the water surface.

Thankfully, the trees here were very large and the tree crowns were layered. Also, Muir had deviated from the original spot he was supposed to land on when he fell into the forest. Hence, those eagle beastmen had yet to discover their location.

Bai Qingqing’s eyes quickly swept over her surroundings. To her surprise, she realized that this was the waterfall Curtis had once brought her to before.

1

The water from the waterfall flowed on and off. As they were back-facing the light, when one looked towards the waterfall, he would find it hard to even open his eyes with the sunlight directly shining into them. Due to this, one wouldn’t be able to tell that there was a cave in there.

Too flustered to consider all the escape routes available, Bai Qingqing swam towards that cave with Muir. It was only by utilizing the power that Curtis bestowed upon her did she manage to send Muir—who weighed several hundred kilograms—into the cave, with the rapid waterfall raining upon them.

Although she was starting to feel weak, she didn’t dare to slacken her pace. Using Parker’s agility once more, she flipped into the cave herself.

Gritting her teeth and summoning the remainder of her strength, Bai Qingqing dragged Muir to the innermost area of the cave, before covering him with a layer of moldy grass.

Knowing that eagles had the best eyesight out of all the beastmen, she had wanted to bury herself too, for she wasn’t sure that those eagle beastmen wouldn’t be able to see the cave like her.

However, her body couldn’t take it anymore. Before she knew it, Bai Qingqing blacked out and collapsed behind Muir.

With her front facing the entrance of the cave, she indistinctly saw a black figure flashing by behind the silver-white waterfall through the weeds covering the cave.

“Screech—”

The screeching of the eagles gave Bai Qingqing an affirmative reply.

Holding her breath, she nervously gazed outside.

[We didn’t see them anywhere. Could they be hiding in the water?]

The eagle beastmen were talking amongst each other, but all Bai Qingqing could hear were screeches that went on and off. This made her feel all the more nervous.

[Let’s go into the water to take a look.]

[Darn it! We should have brought along a beastman with a keen sense of smell. With Muir injured, I’ll bet they can’t run too far away. We ought to have caught them long ago if we could follow their scent.]

This screeching suddenly stopped. Bai Qingqing saw that the black figure on the waterfall was getting nearer and nearer. It seemed like they were discovered.

Bai Qingqing closed her eyes. All the cells in her body stopped breathing at this moment.

An eagle beastman was hovering above the center of the lake, and he was gazing right at the waterfall.

“Have you discovered something?” An eagle beastman who had transformed into a human asked.

His words were like an inauspicious confirmation to Bai Qingqing.

[Nothing.] The eagle beastman who was staring at the waterfall shifted his gaze away, thinking that what he sensed earlier was probably his hallucination.

Bai Qingqing, who had no idea when the eagle beastmen outside had left, laid with a stiff body the whole time. She didn’t even have the energy to check if she had recovered her strength.

It was only when Muir let out a frail cuckoo sound in front that she snapped out of her trance. If it weren’t for the fact that Bai Qingqing was near to him, it was almost impossible to hear that amidst the loud sounds of the waterfall.