𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙊𝙛 𝘼 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙮

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 17

In the vast skies, a streak of black smoke gushed up into the clouds.

❝Screech—❞

A giant eagle hovering in mid-air suddenly emitted a high-pitch whistling. With a turn of his wings, he started dashing downwards.

Just as he was about to land on the ground, he suddenly transformed into a youth with three animal stripes on his face, vigorously and steadily landing on the ground.

Following his descent, the beasts running on the ground halted. The leading leopard transformed into a human. ❝Muir, what have you found?❞

❝Someone released a black smoke signal, which indicates that a female has been captured. It's highly possible she's Parker's female.❞ The three-striped youth called Muir replied.

❝Great. Let's rush over right away!❞

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Curtis weaved through the mountains Mariette in his arms. Seeing her devoid of all strength, he asked worriedly, ❝Are you hungry?❞

Mariette rolled her eyes and shot Curtis a look that implied he was asking the obvious. Unfortunately none of her current skills are useful against hunger.

❝Do you have a flint?❞ She asked.

❝I have one wrapped in my snakeskin. Don't tell me rice needs to be roasted as well?❞ Curtis answered, clearly shocked.

Mariette did everything in her power to resist face palming.

Ok, there's a source of fire so now they can boil the rice inside the small pot Mariette requested from the sheep village's doctor.

Gazing around at the leaves of the plants surrounding them, she wondered if she could fold the large tree leaves into plates. Then, she suddenly caught sight of several large bamboos.

❝We could try using those.❞ She exclaimed as she pointed at the bamboos. ❝We can serve rice in bamboo plates.❞

Although Curtis didn't understand what that was, he slithered towards where his mate was pointing.

The bamboos were sparsely grown, but every single one of them was thick as the surface of a bowl.

❝Can you find me a sharp rock? I'm going to break the bamboo.❞

Curtis laughed. ❝Breaking them is a simple feat.❞

He placed his hands on the bamboo, his transparent nails indistinctly reflecting a sharp glow. When he gently sliced the bamboo with his fingernail, a large opening appeared in the bamboo, and it then lost balance and fell to one side.

Dumbfounded Mariette stared fixedly at Curtis's fingernails.

❝You like it? I'll give you a piece then.❞ He said and shook his tail.

He lowered his head and looked at his snake's tail. Then, after a careful selection, he pried out a red scale from his stomach the size of a chicken's egg.

❝Be careful, don't hurt yourself.❞ Curtis handed his scale to Mariette with a faint smile.

She tried the sharpness of the scale's edge with her hand, and right away, she felt a piercing pain from her finger as a bloody slit formed.

❝What are you doing?❞ Curtis anxiously yelled, grabbing her hand and placing her finger into his mouth.

❝I didn't know your scale was so sharp. I won't do it again.❞

❝If there's a next time, I'll take back this scale.❞ Curtis glanced coldly at her, before letting go of her finger.

❝Since you gave it to me, it's mine now. You can't take back a gift.❞ Curtis's green pupils quickly shrunk a little, his heart beating furiously.

Seeing that Curtis was silent, Mariette quickly moved away and crouched down beside the broken bamboo poles to fully curve them.

Mariette was weak. Hence, even though the snake scale was unusually sharp, it took her more than ten minutes to cut down four bamboo bowls.

❝Is there a water source? I can't cook rice without water.❞ She stood up holding the bamboo bowls.

Curtis found a water source in no time as he spent his years wandering through the jungle and naturally loved the water. Before long, the two of them started a fire by the river.

She sowly stuffed the stone pot with rice that had been washed. When it was about 70% full, she filled the pole to the brim with water and then propped it up against the fire to boil it.

Curtis idly immersed himself in the water and spaced out as he stared at his female. Simply looking at her was mesmerising.

In the past, he was used to being alone and was okay with it. But now, he found his former life so lonely that it scared him. He had to keep her close to him at all costs.

Mariette smelled the aroma of rice. The amount of time that had passed was enough for the rice to cook.

❝The rice is ready. Let's eat.❞

Curtis swam up to her. His snake-like lower body remained immersed in water while his human upper body laid on the shore.

❝It smells good.❞ She was so surprised that her eyes lit up. Who knew that she would be so excited to eat rice after weeks of feeding on only meat.