The Record of Unusual Creatures

The first thing the Nangong siblings saw after coming back home with their parents was to see Hao Ren and Lily huddled together studying something. As a veteran demon hunter, Nangong Wudi immediately sensed the presence of some fluctuating magics. Looking at the tea table, he asked. “What are you two looking at.”

“A grimoire.” Lily shook her tail excitedly. “Little Battie sent Battie a book, and Battie was drawn like Sun Wukong in it…”

There’s no changing the husky’s way of doing things.

Nangong Sanba let out yawn as he threw himself on the soba as he felt the cold breeze in the air he took a deep breath. “That feels good…. This air-conditioning is much better than my sisters. She almost turned me into a popsicle when I just asked for a small one earlier…”

“Say, have you managed to get anything from the trip?” Hao Ren smiled and Nangong Wuyue. “Have uncle and auntie found a way to earn a living?”

He was just asking out of courtesy but he never thought Ayesha actually nodded. “Yes. There’s a shop selling shaobing that is going to close. The owners of the shop is moving to the city to live with their children. We are preparing to buy that shop down. I have some culinary skills, perhaps we can start selling breakfast or something.”

Hao Ren was surprised. He never thought that Mr and Mrs Nangong were such determined characters. “Wow, that’s fast… But have you gotten used to the modern society? Like the currency, or the local laws on opening a shop and whatnot?”

“There’s no issues with the lifestyle.” Nangong Wudi smiled. “When me and my wife was in the sanctuary, wasn’t the place there even more high-tech than Earth? We have managed somehow. As for money and opening shops, it’s even simpler. Hawking and paddling goods have been around for thousand of years and have never changed. Would be rather simple to pick up.”

Hao Ren thought for a bit a nodded. While the two had indeed been detached from human society for a good hundred years, they had been living in a highly advanced sanctuary for the same amount of time. So it was a simple matter for them to operate all the modern electronics and there was not much issue in adapting back to modern life on Earth. But Hao Ren still decided to mention it. “Actually, you don’t have to worry about the cost of living. You can live here and everything will be taken care of. The Space Administration will be bearing the cost.”

Ayesha shook her head. “No, we just can’t stay idle. We need to do something so that we feel alive. It’s different than you youngsters…”

Lily immediately pointed towards the kitchen and with a whisper. “Don’t mention that, there’s a ten thousand year old freeloader there.”

Vivian’s voice responded almost just as quick. “Doggie, are you gossiping about me?!”

Lily’s ears shuddered. “Why is Battie’s ears even more sensitive than mine…”

Hao Ren looked at Nangong Wudi. “So you are starting a business. Do you have enough for capital? I can help with that.”

“No worries.” Nangong Wudi smiled as he pulled out a dense cloth sack from his coat. “I still have some silver coins and gold nuggets from back then. I suppose that even today, such things are worth something right? Demon hunters aren’t usually broke.”

Hao Ren shook his head. “Won’t do. I’ll help with the capital then. Lugging that amount of gold these days is just asking for trouble.”

Nangong Wudi then passed the sack of gold and silver to Hao Ren. “Then it’s all yours. I have no use for them anyway. Please don’t refuse it, both me and my wife owe you our lives. These are not something that can be repaid with just a sack of gold.”

With Nangong Wudi already putting things that way, Hao Ren had nothing to say. He took the dense sack wondering what he should do with it. Bereft of any ideas, he simply threw it into his Dimensional Pocket. It was Lily who was staring at the sack, mumbling to herself. “I want a piece to grind my teeth…”

Hao Ren glared at her. “Using gold to grind your teeth, guess you too have a death wish.”

By that time Nangong Wuyue had already started studying the book on the teatable. While she was not a demon hunter, she could sense the faint magical resonence from the pages. Turning the grimoire from the middle ages around, she saw the pictures and the Latin written in cursive. The book reeks of foul heresy between the lines, and the blasphemous magical knowledge that was inscribed throughout the book simply made anyone reading it uncomfortable. Frowning hard, she asked. “What is this? Why are you studying that?”

“Oh oh! We are planning to summon Battie!” Lily, excitable as ever quickly explained the origins of the book to Wuyue. “Battie doesn’t want to muck with it but we could do something with it. Tonight is a full moon anyway…. so wanna give it a try?”

Wuyue have Lily a confused look. “You… Vivian’s here, so what’s the point of a summoning ritual? Besides, do such a nonsensical ritual even work?”

“I think that this ritual actually has something to it.” Lily rubbed her cheeks. “And don’t you think it’s pretty interesting? If it really works we might be able to pull Battie out of her room… and give her a scare!”

No one present knew what to say about the husky’s thought process.

Regardless, the grimoire had indeed piqued everyone’s interest. A grimoire that contain information on how to summon an evil spirit, and that ‘evil spirit’ is someone they knew. If this were to happen to anyone, it would be something new. And thinking how Vivian was up and about running all over the place since the dawn of time, her appearance in ancient tomes or some religious rituals is not hard to imagine. Imagination is one thing, but seeing it happening is another. Imagine someone who was studying a paranormal activity actually running into one?

“What are you guys on about?” Vivian said as she noticed the group studying the grimoire as she came out of the kitchen holding the rice pot in hand. Frowning, she continued. “What’s the point of studying that useless tome anyway, it’s just a book written by some fools with loose screws in their head to ek out a living, and now there’s no value to it but putting it in the shelves. So put a stop to that and come eat. Doggie, go get Y’zaks and Y’lisabet back. They are fixing the motorcycle at the back.”

The motorcycle Y’zaks and Y’lisabet were fixing was Hao Ren’s old junk of a bike. Two days ago Y’zaks took Y’lisabety for a ride, but due to the mismatch of body type and them not knowing that the bike were already rickety at some places, the moment he got on and slammed the ignition, one third of the bike’s frame flew away, with Y’lisabet in tow…. While Hao Ren wasn’t too concerned about that junk of a bike, the two demons were rather determined to fix the bike. Their progress so far was to successfully dismantle the remaining two-thirds of the bike, and Y’lisabet wanted to put a demonic engine on it.

Because the original engine was destroyed by her dad.

And with that, the demonic way of life is really precarious.

Thus the day passed peacefully and dusk came, with the full moon in tow.

While Vivian herself was not interested with the summoning ritual written in the grimoire, but with Lily’s urging, everyone decided to give it a try.

The night was clear and the full moon hung high. A full moon was the perfect time to perform those evil rituals, mumbo-jumbo it may be. And the ritual side was behind the house. It was an empty field and would not create a commotion that could scare the neighbours.

Lily was like an excited kid lighting fireworks and was the first to go to the ritual site. By the time the rest got there she had already prepared the summoning circle and had placed most of the ritual items. The werehusky excitedly circled the summoing circle as she look at the full moon with a dumb laugh. Nangong Wudi was perplexed as he saw the situation. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Werewolf wannabe syndrome. Had been like this ever since.” Hao Ren quipped as he turned to look at the back of the house. Vivian was still inside the house. She was actually in the dark of their plans. Lily had gotten her to give Rollie a bath, and knowing how that dumb cat would react, they expect Vivian to be to preoccupied to notice what was happening outside.

No one actually told Vivian of the plan to test the summoning ritual, and that was of course Lily’s idea. The husky had planned to keep any possible intereference at minimal and to test the summoning ritual when Vivian is totally defenceless.

“To think that I’d actually joined in on this.” Hao Ren spoke wit a sense of self-mockery. It was true that the past few peaceful days and got him about as bored as Lily was. He flipped the grimoire open and studied the picture with the aid of the moonlight.” Heh, now that you mention it, it does look like Wukong…”

As the moonlight glowed upon the goatskin pages, a faint blood colour slowly appeared in the middle of the bright moon.