Beauty and the Beasts

“Okay,” replied Bluepool.

When she got home, Parker happened to be finished with his duels, so they went home together.

An’an fell soundly asleep as she laid in the grass. When Bai Qingqing retrieved the luminous pearl from her mouth, the saliva on it had yet to dry.

Parker removed his armor and laid down in the nest, and his snores started ringing almost instantly.

Bai Qingqing shoved at him. “You stink! You’re going to wake An’an up with your awful odor! Quick, go take a bath!”

Roaaaar~ [I’ll go later.]

The leopard lying in the nest responded in a muffled tone.

Bai Qingqing shoved hard at Parker a few times, but all that did was to make him fall into a deeper slumber. Taking in a deep breath, Bai Qingqing crawled to his butt and forcefully tugged at his tail.

Roaaaar!

Parker leaped to his feet right away.

“Go. And. Bathe. Now!” Bai Qingqing roared sternly.

With drooped ears, Parker walked out listlessly.

“Wait.”

Bai Qingqing found an animal skin towel and skirt, then instructed, “Transform. After you take a bath, put on clothes before coming back.”

Forcing his eyes open, Parker transformed into a human and crouched with all four limbs on the ground.

Caught between laughter and tears, Bai Qingqing softened her tone. “Come back and sleep after you take a bath. On your way back, bring this to Bluepool.”

“Got it.”

Parker put on the skirt and yawned as he went out the door. His incredibly exhausted manner made Bai Qingqing feel like laughing.

“Curtis, everyone in the village has made armor for themselves. Aren’t you giving it a try?” Bai Qingqing walked back and said.

Ssss~

Curtis lazily revealed his head and transformed into a human, before saying, “I have scales.”

“Oh, right.” Bai Qingqing stuck out her tongue. She had nearly forgotten that Curtis’s scale was tougher than blades and should be pretty resilient as well.

Bai Qingqing glanced at the wooden case, and, with an embarrassed chuckle, edged closer to it.

“Err… let’s make another piece of clothing for An’an.” As Bai Qingqing spoke, she retrieved the last piece of snakeskin from last year.

Curtis frowned in displeasure. He cast a cold glance in the direction of the asleep An’an and said, “She already has two sets of clothing that she can switch between.”

“But this piece of snakeskin is too fine and doesn’t suit me,” Bai Qingqing said meekly. She picked up the fishbone needle and snakeskin, then shamelessly walked towards him.

Curtis felt a headache. From his awareness as a snake for so many years, snake beastmen’s things belonged to their spouses. Could he let his partner’s baby use his snakeskin? Even though An’an was a female baby.

Bai Qingqing sat down by Curtis’s side and nudged at him. “Help me cut it, will you?”

Curtis let out a sigh and helplessly took the snakeskin and needle from her. “This is the last piece.”

Bai Qingqing merely smiled and didn’t say a word.

Curtis skillfully cut out a piece of fabric that fit An’an, then pulled off a strand of his hair and started sewing it.

After Parker came back from a bath, he finally could sleep with ease.

However, just as he was sleeping soundly, he was awoken again.

An’an woke up from her sleep and actually still remembered the luminous ball, so she was rummaging through the nest.

“Ah, ah…” An’an let out shrieks as she searched for it.

Bai Qingqing thought to herself “Oh no” at the sight of this.

She quickly retrieved the wooden rod with the embedded luminous balls, then went over to coax An’an with it. “An’an, don’t be anxious. We have one here too.”

As it was already bright inside the house, the luminosity from the balls on the wooden rod wasn’t quite visible. An’an merely cast a glance at it, before turning her head away. But she didn’t cry, simply continuing to search for it in her nest.

Bai Qingqing had no idea what other kids were like, but she was beginning to suspect something wasn’t quite right with her An’an.

Being at such a tender age she was already searching for things on her own, instead of asking the adults for help. Wasn’t she being a tad too independent?

Or perhaps autistic.