Beauty and the Beasts

“Gah gah gah!” The startled short-winged bird flew from a tree branch towards the neighboring tree.

 The leopard scurried up the tree, dashing up to the thin tree branch the short-winged bird had landed on rapidly. With a forceful kick, it went flying out. He caught the short-winged bird in his mouth and steadily landed on the neighboring tree.

 The hunting process took a mere few seconds, and it happened in one fluid movement.

 Bai Qingqing let out a gasp of admiration. “Parker is incredible.”

 Although she had known Parker for a few months now, Bai Qingqing hadn’t seen him hunt prey that many times. Every time she witnessed it, she was left in awe. Beastmen are incredible. It feels like I’m watching a Western action flick.

 “Huff—” Parker sneezed, startling the short-winged bird in his mouth into making cuckoo noises.

 Parker stood up and transformed into a human, his mouth still holding the short-winged bird’s neck in place. Half of his handsome face was hidden by the short-winged bird, making it look like he was wearing a mask.

 “Pff!” Bai Qingqing sputtered with laughter.

 Parker spat out the bird’s feathers in his mouth and gazed around. He tugged off some vines lying everywhere on the ground and bound the short-winged bird’s wings, then tied it to the strap on his basket.

 Despite struggling with all its might, the short-winged bird couldn’t move the basket by an inch as it was filled with stuff.

 “There’s plenty of short-winged bird poop here. There must be many short-winged birds around. I’ll go and catch a few more,” Parker said.

 A look of anticipation welled up in Bai Qingqing’s eyes. “Sure. Let’s rear a few more. When the cold season comes, we can even kill them to eat.”

 Speaking of eating, Bai Qingqing recalled the simmered chicken she got to eat at New Year’s. That was one truly flavorful dish. Argh, she had a craving for it now. What to do?

 Ah, then just eat it today. There’s plenty on the mountains, anyway. Hehehe…

 Parker responded with an “mm”, then transformed into a leopard and ran away.

 “Screech—” The eagle beastman quietly following them screeched a few times, and it started hovering in the skies.

 Bai Qingqing looked up at the sky. “Are there wild beasts getting near us?”

 “Ssss—” Curtis flicked out his tongue. He removed his skirt with one hand, transformed into half-snake-half-human, and crawled up a tree.

 Not far away, several tigers and one wolf could be seen.

 Since the eagle beastman warned them, it meant they were a threat. Bai Qingqing asked, “Are those wild tigers? That can’t be it. Wild tigers can’t possibly mix around with wild wolves. Beastmen?”

 “Mm.” Curtis gave Bai Qingqing an affirmative reply.

 A short-winged bird was pecking on some rotten meat on the ground when it suddenly looked up and gazed around. Seeing that everything was normal, it lowered its head and continued eating.

 With its body crouched on the ground, the leopard quietly went closer, step by step. Then it came to a stop as if brewing something. Just as he was about to pounce, a black wolf suddenly leaped out from behind a tree.

 The startled short-winged bird made some “gah gah” sounds and abruptly took flight.

 Parker quickly sprung up to bite the short-winged bird. Attacked from both front and back, the short-winged bird was so alarmed it fell to the ground. The black wolf that ran out first snapped the short-winged bird’s neck with its mouth in one swoop.

 “Howl!” Parker was so furious to see the short-winged bird dead that his lungs were about to explode.

 With the dead bird in its mouth, the black wolf stared at Parker, a smug look evident in his long and narrow eyes. Shaking his fur that was damp from the moist air, with the prey in its mouth, it walked away.

 Regardless of how angry Parker was, there was nothing he could do about it. This was the law of nature—the prey belonged to whoever captured it, there was no such thing as first come first serve.

 Parker instantly found new prey. He had just set his sights on a short-winged bird when out dashed another tiger. Now that he was hindered a second time, regardless of how dumb one was, it was clear to Parker that they were provoking him intentionally.

 This was usually a gesture only shown by males who possessed a female. He hadn’t expected that Rosa’s males would be so senseless, to come in a group to provoke another female’s male.

 It was not a big deal to have his prey snatched away. But what infuriated Parker was that they had killed the short-winged bird that Bai Qingqing wanted. That was unforgivable!