The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-95

Chapter 95: A Pair of Claws

There were several advantages to Lily’s husky lineage, it granted her a strong and sturdy nerve with an open-minded attitude. Hao Ren sensed that the maiden had become so open-minded that she wouldn’t have minded if someone threatened to exterminate her family. Thanks to this open-minded perspective of hers, Lily didn’t pass out when Vivian broke the news of her one-sixteenth Pekingese bloodline.

But it was Hao Ren who had collapsed and fallen to the floor.

Hao Ren’s reaction had been more intense. When he got up from the floor, he scurried over and asked Vivian, “What did you just say? What does this Pekingese bloodline mean?”

Vivian had been calmer all this while, after all, she had been through a lot in life. “Even a werehusky could become a werewolf, what’s there to be surprise about the Pekingese bloodline? Who knows, besides the husky breed, there’s a Pekingese sub-breed within the werewolf race?”

“What has gotten into werewolves in today’s world?” asked Hao Ren.

“Get over it. It isn’t just you, I’m equally surprised.” Vivian gave a pat on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Frankly, I’ve never seen a ‘werewolf’ like her in me entire life… but the truth has written on your face, other than that we could only guess.”

“I think Lily isn’t a werewolf after all,” clearing his trashy thoughts. Hao Ren began to speak with a clear state of mind, “werehusky is of enough b*llsh*t. Now what? Pekingese? I wouldn’t buy that sub-breed crap.”

Lily curiously glanced at Hao Ren and then Vivian. “Then who am I?”

Hao Ren held Lily’s hand tightly and said, “You’re a real husky… Let’s not talk about this anymore, shall we?”

“OK.” Lily thought about it but she couldn’t come up with an explanation to this unexpected situation. The take-the-easy-way-out got the best of her, she nodded as if she had accepted her fate. “Then, what should I do from now on?”

“Just live however you like.” said Vivian. “You’ve been living your life as you’ve always been, with or without husky bloodlines. Moreover at our current stage where the-other-beings are on the sideline, even the aristocrats of the Blood Clan are near extinction; given at such circumstances, would anyone still talk about bloodlines? It’s not that a pure bloodline could feed your stomach though. Living in peace is the best thing anyone could do for now.”

Vivian had always been looking on the bright side of things. As a pauper herself, her ultimate life goal was to have a warm meal a day and she was contented with it—such perception on life was what Lily needed right now.

Nothing had worried the werewolf maiden like this time around. May the force of the husky bloodline be with her. While Lily was sitting on the couch, while engrossing herself thinking about life, Hao Ren took the opportunity to chave a chat with Vivian. “How did you figure out the one-sixteenth Pekingese bloodline? Granted vampire has the talent… you would still have to understand what Pekingese bloodline is all about in the first place.”

Vivian gave a slight smile. “I had tasted Pekingese’s blood before. I’ve no problem identifying the different hereditary characteristics of felines and canines.”

Hao Ren was stunned. “You drank the blood of dogs and cats? Why?”

“Because of poverty.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

It was hard to imagine how many times Vivian was left to starve in the past, the only reason she could still survive to this day was because of the rich biodiversity on Earth.

“Let’s talk about something more pleasant, Doggie.” said Vivian. She quickly steered the topic away as she felt that her humble past wasn’t something to be proud of. “Do you feel any changes? Besides atavism, have you gained any new abilities after the evolution?”

Hearing that, Lily was overjoyed and wagged her tail. “Ta-da, look at his…”

The werewolf maiden raised her hands up in the air, mimicking a claw posture. And, this astounding thing happened:

A strange glow of light wreathed upon her hands. It slowly transformed into something substantial. In one hand, the glow was cold and icy blue while in the other it was hot and blazing red. The glows slowly extended out from each of her hands and stopped when it reached half-a-metre long where they began to gradually ‘condense’ into a solid state and formed into claws which looked like a weapon.

The claw on the left was cold and icy blue, while the right one was so hot that people could feel it from as far as two meters away. Apart from the contrasting colors, both claws were identical in shapes and sizes, it looked similarly to a customized weapon in the shape of wolf claws.

“This is it!” said Lily happily. “I had dreamed about myself getting these claws last night, didn’t expect it was true! Isn’t it beautiful?”

Vivian: “…..”

“What’s wrong?” Hao Ren noticed that the vampire maiden had fallen into an unusual silence.

“It’s beyond comprehension!” Vivian’s facial expression seemed bizarre from what she saw, it was beyond description. She looked at Lily as though she was a monster. “These claws are all you’ve got after all the troubles of evolving? They don’t seem to be the result of your transformation last night! I thought you would’ve gained some special abilities, like what every other werewolf did when they become an adult. But you… you have gotten only two claws?!”

“I don’t know.” Poking her face with her claw, Lily was somewhat worried. “Werewolves get a pair of new claws too as they grow up, don’t they? If not, does it mean my evolution process has gone wrong?”

Hao Ren quickly chimed in. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a husky. It’s not fair to compare with them…”

Lily: “…..”

“Let it be.” Vivian waved as if she gave up. “Even a husky could be this epic, there’s nothing that couldn’t be done. For now, two things are assured— one, you could either transform into a giant fighter husky just by eating a truck load of spicy strip; or two, you could reinforce your claws as a werewolf. Right?”

Lily nodded proudly in agreement. “Yes, awesome!”

Now Vivian felt that she couldn’t possibly involve Doggie in the normal sense, so she danced to her tune instead as she waved to Lily. “Okay, let me take a look at your claws, I might find out whether there are traces of science or magic in there.”

“OK.” Lily nodded happily as she took down the claws. “Have a look, but be careful. The red one is hot. Although I didn’t feel a thing, you might get hurt.”

After a night of hoo-ha, it seemed that Lily and Vivian were finally starting to compromise and show acts of concern for each other. This wasn’t the focus of the story, however. It was the moment when Lily detached her claws, the whole house turned eerily quiet.

“This… this thing is detachable?!” Vivian’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “You could remove them?”

Hao Ren was speechless. He had again found himself light years away before his worldview could be rebuilt—it might take a lifetime if he kept hanging around with his strange tenants.

“Of course it’s detachable.” Lily nodded as a matter of fact. “They don’t grow on my arm—they’re hand-held.”

“How the heck is that possible at all? I’ve never seen such things in my life…” Vivian’s mouth somewhat cringed to aside. She mumbled as she reached out for the strange husky claws. However, the moment her hands touched the claws, her hands immediately backed off as if she got an electric shock. “Whoa… it’s hot!”

The claws itself weren’t harmful to Lily. The discharge of coldness and heat weren’t an illusion. Both of them, especially the red hot claw, weren’t something one—not even Vivian—could handle.

Vivian pulled her hands back while Lily loosen her grips of the divined weapon, Hao Ren called out in panic, “My….”

One of the claws fell onto the table, a thin layer of frost instantly formed and covered the entire surface; the other claw fell directly and got stuck within the table too, but it burned a hole through the table as if it was sticking a red-hot knife into a butter.

“…table…” At last, Hao Ren shouted out the remaining words.