The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-98

Chapter 98: Kidnapped?

Hao Ren and Vivian waited for Lily until 12 o’clock in the afternoon but she still did not return.

Lily had a strong sense of time, at least, when it came to meal time. As a husky, she would not give anyone the opportunity to rob her of food. So usually, she would have reached home an hour before lunch time. This should have been the case, especially on that day. She told them earlier that she would reach home before noon. Therefore, this left Hao Ren puzzled.

“She’s late for lunch for the first time.” Vivian put the dishes on the table, looked at the gate oddly and said, “Has something happened?”

“I’ll give her a call.” Hao Ren took his cell phone out and dialed Lily’s number. After a long while, he shook his head and said, “No one’s answering the phone.”

Vivian and Hao Ren looked at each other for a while. Finally, Vivian spoke first, “Does she have any other friends or places to go here?”

“No. Like you, she came here alone and she’s not really familiar with this place.” Hao Ren stood up slowly. He was getting more and more worried about Lily. He then said, “And usually she won’t hide anything from us. If anything happens, she would call back to inform us at once. Is she in trouble now?”

“What could have happened to her? Her combat power isn’t just for display,” said Vivian. “You worry too much.”

“You’re right. She’s a werewolf after all… at least she’s a powerful dog.”

Although Hao Ren said so, the feeling of uneasiness still lingered inside him and he did not know why he felt this way. Lily had only been out for a few hours and they just could not reach her for the time being/ It should not have tensed him up. However, deep inside, Hao Ren’s sixth sense was telling him something was not right. His highly accurate sixth sense stirred inside him again. He was a little irritable but unsure of what to do.

“I’ll release a few bats out and search the streets nearby.” Watching Hao Ren feeling all fidgety, Vivian stood up, conjured a few black bats and said, “I kinda know the places she usually goes. If the bats can’t find her, we will go out and look for her.”

When Hao Ren was just about to nod, the phone sitting on the sofa’s armrest suddenly rang. He quickly picked the phone up and found that the phone screen showed Lily’s face, a white husky. Hao Ren changed Lily’s picture for no reason the night before. The picture was a screenshot from the video of Lily’s evolution two days ago.

“Hello, Lily?” Hao Ren waved to Vivian, signalling that Lily called. “Where are you? Why didn’t you come back?”

“Landlord, Landlord, I met two psychos.” Lily lowered her voice and spoke in a hushed tone, “Two foreigners. They said they’re my ‘parents’ and want to take me home. I don’t know where I am now.”

Hao Ren was on alert at once and looked serious. Vivian also immediately leaned in and asked, “What’s going on?”

Hao Ren signaled her not to speak and hurriedly asked, “Where are you now? What do the two foreigners look like? What did they tell you? Are you safe now?”

“I don’t know where this place is.” Lily’s voice sounded as usual. It appeared that she was not hurt but confused about what had happened to her. “They’re so secretive. I can’t understand what they’re talking about. By the way, one of them is very tall, about 1.9 meters in height, strong like a bear and the other man is about the same size as you, with a hooked nose and a sickly look…”

Hao Ren was confused by Lily and could not understand what she was talking about. He could only tell that Lily had been abducted. He suddenly got a little exasperated and spluttered, “Why are you so dumb? So easily abducted by strangers!”

“I didn’t want to go with them!” Lily’s sounded very angry. “I was taken away by some black smoke! The big guy knew magic and brought me over with using Dark Fog. I found myself in a room after the black smoke dispersed. Usually I would have beaten off guys like these but these two men seemed pretty strong. I didn’t know if I could beat them so, I dared not fight with them… Landlord, come and rescue me!”

“Vivian and I will go out now. Try to tell me what you see so I’ll know where you are. Also, what about the foreigners who kidnapped you? Will they find out that you’re calling me?”

“They went out to buy me some food but, one of them did not go far. I can still smell him. However, he’s quite a distance from here and there’s a wall between us so, he can’t hear me.” Lily dropped her voice to a whisper and Hao Ren could barely hear her. It seemed that thd husky was not so dumb after all. “I’m in a shabby room. The walls are grimy with peeling paint. It looks like an abandoned house. The big man sealed the door and windows with Dark Fog so I can’t go out or see the situation outside. But, just now, when they opened the door, I took a quick glance. It looks like a warehouse outside.”

Hao Ren paused for a moment. What could he find out from such little information? There were lots of abandoned warehouses in the entire city and there were more than hundreds of possible warehouses…

“Look around the room to see if there’s any sign.” Hao Ren found that he could not find any valuable information from the clues provided by Lily and quickly thought of other ways. “If the warehouse was in use, people might have left signs or waste there. Go and look for any of them.”

“Sign…” A rustling sound came from the phone. “Although it’s shabby here, it seems that the two crazy men have cleaned this place. So, it’s clean and there’s nothing much in the room. Ah, I found it! Here’s a scrap metal board. The words on it are so blurred, I can only read the words ‘Hao Yun’… Is that useful?”

“Hao Yun?” Hao Ren immediately searched the words in his head desperately, trying to recall any old warehouses which were related to ‘Hao Yun’ in the city. Suddenly, he heard the faint crash of an iron door coming from the phone. It sounded like the gate of the warehouse was pushed open. “They’ve come back. I’ll hang up first,” said Lily.

“Be careful!” Hao Ren spoke quickly before Lily hung up, “Try not to fight with them. They know magic!”

“Hmm.” Lily quickly replied and hung up.

“How is she?” Vivian leaned in and asked. Although the both of them had conflicts on a daily basis, she was also quite worried of Lily at that moment.

“That stupid girl’s been kidnapped… It sounds like a kidnapping.” Hao Ren had calmed down but, he could not suppress the worries in his heart. “She’s so powerful yet she still got kidnapped… The world is really dangerous.”

Hao Ren then roughly explained to Vivian what had just happened. When Hao Ren finished talking, Vivian breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Don’t worry, the Doggie will be fine.”

Hao Ren gave Vivian a strange look and Vivian reminded him. “Still remember that Casar Ebben guy you met?”

Hao Ren immediately felt the goose bumps on his back. “That muscular gay?”

“Why is it that you only remember the word, ‘gay’?” Vivian stared at Hao Ren. “If I’m right, Lily was taken away by Casar Ebben. She’s been discovered by her own ‘kin’.”

“The same species?” Hao Ren reacted at once and asked, “You mean that gay dude’s a werewolf?”

“It’s the Ebben Family. If I’m not mistaken, it should be them.” Vivian sighed and looked upset.

“Tsk, I really shouldn’t be so careless. It seems that being too comfortable for more than 100 years has made me become less vigilant. I should’ve thought of them when I heard the word ‘Ebben’.”

Hao Ren blinked and asked, “Since they’re also werewolves, what did they kidnap Lily for?”

“What else could they have done? They’ll bring her back of course.” Vivian shrugged. “The Ebben Family is one of the few heterogeneous families that’s still fantasising about reviving the Mythological Era and the only native clan who heeds the concept of clans. They have been searching for lost compatriots all over the world. At the very beginning, they just gathered their family members or their kin. But then, in the recent 200 years they have enlarged their scope to the entire werewolf population. As long as they’re werewolves, they’ll be courted. Lily… unless they see it with their own eyes, who would think that she’s actually a husky?”

Hao Ren was speechless.

Apparently, the two hapless werewolves, who kidnapped Lily had been fooled.