Beauty and the Beasts

There was an awful stench in the bird’s shelter, reeking of the smell of bird feathers and poop. Parker cleared out a space with his foot for Bai Qingqing to sit on the ground.

 Bai Qingqing asked Parker to catch a short-winged bird. Then, after she looked at its wings, she gestured a length. “Clip these feathers away.”

 “Even after we clip it, I think it would still be able to fly.” Although Parker wasn’t certain, his actions were very swift and accurate, chopping off the bird’s feathers in one stroke.

 “Gah!” The short-winged bird let out a pitiful cry, startling Bai Qingqing.

 Bai Qingqing had thought that the short-winged bird was merely crying because it had suffered a shock, but very quickly she saw blood seeping from the feathers, which were of the same thickness as straw. All of a sudden, she could feel her shoulders aching. She covered her face with her hands and said apologetically, “Sorry!”

 She recalled seeing the grandpas in the countryside raising chickens this way when she was young. However, those birds had their wings and feathers clipped right after their feathers just turned stiff. She guessed that this was happening because these birds were too old and their feathers were too stiff.

 Thankfully, the short-winged bird didn’t bleed a lot. If one didn’t look carefully, the bleeding would go unnoticed.

 Parker, who was used to killing and seeing blood, wasn’t at all affected. He grabbed the other wing of the short-winged bird and chopped down. Pitiful cries could be heard again. After he let go of the short-winged bird, it maniacally flapped its wings, but that only resulted in some flapping sounds, and now it could no longer fly.

 The two of them felt relieved.

 Parker did the same thing to the other birds, chopping away the feathers on their wings, before letting go of them.

 The short-winged birds naturally still yearned to escape, but now when they flapped their wings, they weren’t able to fly anymore and could only walk on the ground. After they got drenched in the rain for a bit, they obediently went back into the bird’s shelter to squat.

 Bai Qingqing’s heart ached for the pain they had gone through, so she asked Parker to feed them with more food today. The short-winged birds ate whatever they were given, and they did so very quickly. As there were many of them, they even got into fights and snatched food from each other from time to time. Anyhow, it was completely different from rearing chickens.

 After this trip to the bird’s shelter, Bai Qingqing found herself covered with feathers. When she returned to the stone house, she changed out of the tattered animal skin to a new piece.

 “I hope they won’t get sick.” Bai Qingqing shivered. “The weather suddenly turned so cold.”

 Holding Bai Qingqing, Parker walked to the fire, which had yet to completely extinguish. He added a bunch of dry and thin tree branches into the fire, and after blowing into it, the fire started again.

 After Curtis finished digesting his food, he transformed into half-beast form and slithered into the main room.

 Bai Qingqing was weaving bamboo again. This time it took the form of a round plate, resembling a pot lid. Parker polished the bamboo slices until they became nice and even.

 Curtis’s heart softened. He slithered to Bai Qingqing and hugged her waist with both arms. “Are you weaving a nest for your snake babies?”

 Bai Qingqing got flustered. “Ahh!” She felt a sharp pain on the tip of her index finger and a drop of blood rolled down.

 Parker instantly looked up at Bai Qingqing, only to see that Curtis had already grabbed her finger and sucked it in his mouth.

 “Hur hur…” Bai Qingqing laughed stiffly. Can I just say I was just weaving a basket to contain vegetables? That basket felt so painful on my shoulders.

 With her finger being grazed by sharp teeth, Bai Qingqing tried to retract her hands. “Don’t get poison into my wound.”

 Unable to speak with Bai Qingqing’s finger in his mouth, Curtis looked up and cast her a reproaching look, biting her on her finger punishingly with a force that was neither too great nor too gentle.

 Bai Qingqing’s petite face scrunched up, and her shoulders shrunk back. “It hurts.”

 F*ck. You’re crushing my bones! Curtis, do you have any idea how enormous your strength is?

 “Roar!” Parker let out a low growl as he stared at Curtis, ready to pounce on him any moment.