The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren had no idea that Raven 12345 got busy repairing her mansion after he left. While spending his time at home, he pondered about the inexplicable questions that the goddess had asked him, thinking about what she meant for the next few days. He did not believe that those irrational and emotional words that Raven 12345 uttered were because she thought it was fun, or she was feeling bored. She would not do meaningless things although she was neurotic sometimes.

He had been thinking about the meaning of the boundless chaos and the ‘person’ he was looking for in the chaos. He had dreamed of trekking in a thick fog for two nights consecutively. He guessed there must be some hidden meaning to all this, which was probably related to the Goddess of Creation.

The thought had been bothering him, day after day. On the third day, the question finally went to the back of his mind.

The weather was getting colder every day, and the winter in the north was early this year. Lily finally completed her hair shedding, no more hair everywhere in the living room and no clean up every day. Vivian had planned to make a scarf out of the dog hair, but it seemed that there was not enough dog hair this time around. She had to give up the idea.

Hao Ren took a large aquarium to the table by the window, filled the aquarium with warm water and installed an electric heater. Lil Pea was waiting impatiently at a side. As soon as Hao Ren finished prepping the tank, she jumped into the water and made a splash. Swimming comfortably in the warm water, the little guy occasionally flipped upside down, exposing her belly and spouting water from her mouth to entertain herself. After the little guy warmed up, Hao Ren opened the window so that fresh air could come in and ventilate air in the house. Hao Ren quivered a bit as a gust of cold wind rushed in, waking him.

Seeing the window was opened, Lil Pea swam to the edge of the aquarium and looked out the window. Shivering from the cold air, the little guy slid back into the warm water. Now, the little mermaid already acknowledged that she was a tropical breed. To prevent accidental hibernation, she even asked for warm water herself unlike back then where she would run out into the snow outside and risked getting frozen into a popsicle.

Lily was sitting on the sofa in the corner of the living room, typing on her notebook. Her ears could not help quivering as cold air was coming in through the opened window. “What are you doing, Mr. Landlord? It’s cold!”

“Oh come on! You’re a sled dog!” Hao Ren said without even looking. “The house needs some fresh air, it has been without ventilation for three days and almost become a separate ecosystem different from the outside.”

At this time, Rollie slid out of her room. Wearing a black woolen hat and sneaking out to the doorway along the wall like a thief, she thought that no one would notice her. She leaned against the wall and tried to turn the knob on the door with her tail. Before she could open the door, she heard Hao Ren snapped, “Don’t slip out.”

Rollie was stunned and standing still in position, her tail puffed. She then bared her teeth at Hao Ren. “Meow—” she protested.

“I say don’t slip out and I mean it.” Hao Ren closed the window and turned to grab Rollie by her collar and dragged her back in. “You didn’t put your hat on while out yesterday. It was fortunate that no one found out that your ears were real. You plan to go out again today?”

Rollie grabbed her tail and tucked it inside her clothes instinctively and then looked up at Hao Ren playing dumb. Hao Ren glared back at her. At last, she lost her patience. Taking out her tail again, she muttered, “I’d lose my balance if keeping the tail inside the clothes.”

“You’ve not practiced enough to walk upright. Don’t blame it on the tail!” Hao Ren still glared at her. “I don’t have a tail but still walk steadily,” he said.

Rollie looked seriously at Hao Ren. “I don’t discriminate against a disabled cat.”

Hao Ren did not know what to say anymore.

In all fairness, the dumb cat had been more obedient since transcending into human form. She had made quite an improvement intelligence-wise and language-wise. The once unruly cat was capable of learning through words. Hao Ren and the other family members had been working very hard trying to train Rollie to become a good sensible monster, and they had already achieved excellent results. At least when the cat maiden was hungry, she would go to the living room and wait for the meal instead of running to Hao Ren’s room and scratching the door. When the cat maiden knew it was not right to gnaw slippers when she was bored. Even in rare cases, she could take care of others. Other than that, she was still a troublemaker.

Hao Ren had lost count of how many times the silly cat had tried to sneak out and how many times she made it out successfully. Though he had taught the cat maiden how to use the portal in the basement to go to places like Aerym, the cat demon had a different worldview, and in her opinion, Aerymian city and Helcrown were not as excited as 13th Avenue of the old town in Southern Suburb. After the cat maiden made countless attempts trying to sneak out of the house, Hao Ren knew he could not lock this guy up. He had to make a concession and gave the silly cat some roaming space on the condition that she must put on her hat, tuck her tail, not salvage leftover food in the trash bin, and not beg for food at food stalls. The good news was that the cat understood the instructions, but the bad news was that she did not seem to follow the instructions.

Of course, Rollie had shown some willingness to abide by the rules. For example, she had remembered to put on her hat, but not tucking away her tail. To expect a cat to follow every instruction to the letter was an impossible mission. Perhaps the cat thought that listening to the command of Hao Ren once in a while was already a significant concession and that Hao Ren should be grateful to her and not making too many demands.

Hao Ren looked at Rollie’s nonchalant face and felt an ache in his head. He dragged the cat maiden back in and vented his frustration. “This fella has become more and more recalcitrant,” he said.

Lily looked up. “Have you not learned yet?” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“If you have the time to reason with a cat, why not bring her out for a stroll?” Lily threw her hands in the air. “See? She is crawling to the door again. It is not that you don’t already know cat’s temper. She is going out today no matter what. Just take her out with you.”

As soon as Lily’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren sensed a burning gaze coming in his direction. He looked down; Rollie was squatting on the ground and looking up at him with a pair of eyes that said ‘walk me.’ He thought for a while and then grabbed the cat maiden up. “All right, you are the boss, let’s go out. First, tuck away your tail, put on your Acuvue, and your ears—get a bigger hat, the weather is cold today.”

The cat maiden went back into her room excitedly and got dressed up, only coming back out like a wind in a short moment. She grabbed Hao Ren by his arm and hurried him out. “Walk me, walk me.”

Staggering towards the door, Hao Ren looked back at Lily over the shoulder and said, “Why don’t you go out for a walk too? Isn’t that what you like to do?”

Lily was holding her laptop sinking herself in the sofa, typing away while grabbing something from a snack bag next to her and stuffing it into her mouth occasionally. Hearing Hao Ren’s words, she said without lifting her head, “I’m writing something. Serious stuff.”

Well, Hao Ren had almost forgotten that the husky maiden was the most successful person in the family. He nodded at the literary maiden while being dragged away by the cat maiden.

Lily bowed her head staring at the screen while glancing at the snack pack with her peripheral vision, sucking while writing her review. “Brand X, crisp and fresh, but low in protein and fat content. Not recommended for young husky,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren and Rollie had come on the street. Looking at the silly cat jumping around him, he let out a sigh, wondering what was wrong with the sled dog who had become inactive at home while the cat was energetic and wanting him to walk her. It reinforced his belief that none of the creatures in his house was normal.

A man and a cat—two people in the eyes of the passers-by—were mooching around in the old section of Southern Suburb, which was slightly deserted. Old habit dies hard as Rollie still tended to poke her head into the garbage bins on the sidewalks checking what was inside. Hao Ren had to keep an eye on her. In case she got down on all fours, he would have to grab her up immediately. Such manner of strolling had almost become a norm every time the two went out together.

Hao Ren focused his attention on the restless cat demon and did not notice another thing.

When he and Rollie left and were about a few hundred meters from the house, his shadow behind him became darker and longer, and slowly appeared to be inconsistent with his movements.