Beauty and the Beasts

“Why do you wish to keep a male bird? It’s not like it can lay eggs,” Parker asked strangely. Male birds were much fiercer than female birds. Seeing that Parker wasn’t looking at it, the male bird stuck out its neck to peck him.

 Parker sent the male bird flying with a kick.

 Bai Qingqing said, “Keep it for mating. One is enough.”

 Parker made a “tsk tsk” sound, staring at the male bird enviously. “What a lucky fellow.”

 Us beastmen have difficulty even finding one female, yet this male bird is free to choose its mate. It will definitely become a public enemy.

 Actually, sometimes beastmen would envy ordinary animals, for their gender ratio was more balanced, so they didn’t face a problem in the continuation of their species. As for the strongest beastmen, they struggled with even the most basic issue—the continuation of their species. There were too few females, and what’s more, their probability of conception was low. For a female that went into heat fifty times, if out of those fifty times she managed to conceive ten times, that was considered a high rate of success already.

 Parker transformed back into a beast to capture the birds. Without other beastmen hindering him, he managed to capture alive twenty over short-winged birds very quickly, which he also bound using vines. Also, he found over one hundred bird’s eggs.

 “Sha sha sha—”

 It started drizzling in the forest, and the rain beating upon the tree leaves conjured a piece of elegant background music.

 Bai Qingqing, who hadn’t had enough fun, looked around and said, “Let’s find somewhere to seek shelter from the rain.”

 Curtis sheltered her head with his hand and flicked out his tongue. “Ssss… the rain will get heavy very quickly. Let’s go back.”

 Parker nodded in agreement. He put on his skirt and carried the full bamboo basket on his shoulders, saying, “Curtis, you bring Qingqing back first. Leave the stuff to me.”

 Bai Qingqing pouted and said helplessly, “Alright, since you two have decided to go back, I’ll listen to you guys.”

 With his large hand over Bai Qingqing’s head, Curtis speedily rushed towards the City of Beastmen. Shortly after he had vanished into the forest. Holding the string of birds in both hands, due to the basket of fragile bird’s eggs on his back, Parker could only move slowly.

 What a small world. Halfway through, Parker met Shuu in his human form. Shuu was holding a bunch of tender green grasses, decorated with a few small white flowers. It looked adorable.

The sharp-eyed Shuu noticed the basket on Parker’s shoulders. His expression froze, then he strode towards Parker. “Qingqing has given birth?”

 At the thought of how the bamboo basket was filled with bird’s eggs, Parker hurriedly turned to face Shuu face-to-face, refusing to let him get to his back. “What are you looking at?”

 “My defeated opponent.” Shuu ran behind Parker in a swift motion. With qualms about the eggs in the basket, Parker didn’t dare move too much. Very quickly, Shuu managed to grab the basket.

 “So it’s snake’s eggs,” Shuu said as he stared at the yellowish-orange eggs in the bamboo basket, his expression somewhere between joy and grief, the corners of his lips curled. He held the bunch of grass between his chest to free up his hands to touch the eggs inside. “So adorable…”

 “Hmph!!” Parker snorted, clearly displeased. Tugging on his shoulder straps, he walked on and said, “These are bird’s eggs.”

 “What? Qingqing has an eagle beastman mate? Why have I never seen him before?” Shuu’s brows furrowed. He followed Parker and said after thinking for a moment, “Is it that eagle beastman who rescued Qingqing? I should have thought of it.”

 Parker felt extremely remorseful. He knew he had forgotten something. So he forgot about this. He should have hidden the bird’s eggs underneath the fungus. Surely nobody would think Qingqing gave birth to a nest of fungus?

 “Get lost, wolf beastman.” Parker shrugged his shoulders in annoyance. “Stop looking. These are the eggs of a short-winged bird. I’m bringing them back for Qingqing to eat.”

 They’re really just bird’s eggs?

 Shuu finally let go. The bunch of grass nearly slipped from his chest, so he hurriedly caught it with both hands.