Beauty and the Beasts

After digging away a layer of soil, a dark pit that strongly smelled of a snake appeared.

Parker was confused. Since when did the little snake become so heavy?

Suddenly, a small and fair hand reached out from within the dark pit and covered the pit with soil.

“Roar!”

Parker instinctively jumped away.

Standing outside the cave, Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but step forward. “Parker?”

Parker distractedly glanced at her with a shocked expression on his face. “I’m okay,” he said.

Relieved, Bai Qingqing swallowed her saliva and continued waiting.

Parker carefully and cautiously walked over to the pit. The hand was no longer there.

Whose hand was that? It was so small—even smaller than Bai Qingqing’s. It couldn’t have been a male.

But a female wouldn’t have acted so murderously, either.

Parker poked at the ground with his legs before continuing to dig.

His movements seemed to aggravate the thing in the pit as the sounds of it rubbing against the ground became more frequent.

Before long, Parker dug a hole big enough for him to jump in and jumped into the hole while supporting himself with one hand.

“Howl—”

The leopard cubs let out sharp cries and anxiously dug at the snow as they could no longer see their father.

Bai Qingqing bent down and nervously bit her finger.

Muffled fighting sounds could be heard from below. Before long, Parker climbed out of the hole while gripping someone. That person put up a great struggle, and only his red shoulder-length hair could be seen.

Bai Qingqing let out an “Eh?” as she walked into the cave.

Was it a female? Bai Qingqing thought as this person had a small figure and she had never seen a young male before. But this person was a bit too aggressive to be a female.

Ssss~

The red-haired person seemed to let out a hiss. Upon hearing Bai Qingqing’s voice, he had a pleading look on his face.

His skin was as white as snow, and his lips were as red as blood. He opened his mouth and mumbled stiffly, “Snow!”

As Parker dragged the young man along, his tail was dragged out. The skin from his upper body was on his tail.

Bai Qingqing finally came back to her senses. She then quickly ran over and shouted, “Parker! It’s Little Snake!”

“Ah?” Parker stopped in his tracks.

In the short time that Parker stopped, the young man bared his sharp fangs and moved towards his arm wrapped around his chest.

Parker realized the young man’s intentions at the last minute and immediately swung him away, sending the young man flying.

Little Snake landed near the pit and immediately crawled into it.

Bai Qingqing exhaled as she walked over to Parker. “Are you alright?”

He nodded and scrunched up his nose. “How did he transform into his human form so quickly? No wonder the stench was so strong that my nose hurt and I couldn’t recognize it.”

“I don’t know,” Bai Qingqing replied.

Little Snake stayed in the pit after crawling into it. Only the faint sounds of it rubbing against the ground could be heard.

Bai Qingqing said, “The weather’s so cold now. Let’s make a fire to warm him up. Maybe he’ll have more strength to shed his skin after that.”

“Okay,” Parker replied.

Parker had stored large amounts of firewood and flint in the cave during the rainy season. The fire was quickly made, and there was the smell of firewood and smoke in the cave.

Bai Qingqing sat on Parker’s legs as the ground was too cold and hard, and lay back against his warm chest as she warmed up in front of the fire.

“Say, how did Little Snake transform into a human?” Bai Qingqing asked as the corner of her mouth curved upward one moment and curved downward the next, unsure whether she should be happy or worried.

Little Snake was only two years old. In Bai Qingqing’s eyes, he was just a tiny two-year-old baby. She didn’t think that he would have already transformed into a human, one who resembled a 14-year-old boy at that.