P.S. “Crow” has been renamed to “Claw”
Chapter 272: Cats are Disadvantaged Animals? All of It! [Part 2]
Wheeze sniffed Dantu once before shooting a disdainful glance at the gun and bow lying next to the boy. Cillin was right, this place really was poor and backward. On the other hand, the boy’s constitution wasn’t quite as bad as his equipment. It could test the worms on him later.
There were only three worms left by the time it was done digging. Wheeze had only wanted to knock out the parasites, but it wasn’t able to grasp the right amount of force at the beginning and accidentally killed or gravely wounded several. It wasn’t sure if the parasites would recover, but it wasn’t really an issue. Worse comes to worse, it could always capture a couple more of these sharp-clawed beasts and find more. One of them had to have a parasite or two in their stomach.
Wheeze didn’t have anything that could hold the three knocked out worms and the gravely wounded ones. However, Dantu did have a tough leather pouch that was made out of the sharp-clawed beasts’ processed skin. Therefore, it should function as a temporary pocket.
Meanwhile, Armadillo and Rubu were already making their way towards Wheeze. They had come to the consensus that they would stop Wheeze from feeding on the human and take him back to the ship for interrogation instead. However, the moment they got closer to Wheeze, they were immediately greeted with a flying leather pouch.
“Hey you two, help me carry that stuff, will you?” Wheeze said while pointing at the pouch containing the worms.
Armadillo and Rubu immediately moved away from the leather pouch like they were avoiding a plague.
“Take that yourself! We’d rather drag that human back ourselves!” Rubu said.
“I can’t allow that! I need him for my experiment!”
Wheeze ignored Armadillo and Rubu after that and tied the leather pouch to Dantu’s body instead. For safety, it even reinforced it with a length of rope it found among Dantu’s possessions. Finally, it grabbed the boy’s collar with its mouth and started dragging him towards the spaceplane. The activity wasn’t really a slog to Wheeze, however. A couple of steps later Wheeze started leaping large distances while looking completely effortless.
Armadillo and Rubu exchanged a glance with each other before shaking their heads. Then, they followed closely behind the gray cat. They had no idea what Wheeze was planning to do the boy once they got back to the ship. Experiment? What experiment? Was it planning to stuff the worms into a human body? How disgusting!
Meanwhile, back at the spaceplane, Nikki had begun her task of hacking into the city’s network and had acquired some basic information as a result. The city’s network was simple and not up to date, and the equipment the citizens were using might as well be relics in their eyes. While Cillin and the rest took their time to absorb the new data and analyze the potential problems they might encounter during their trip, but they still weren’t able to find the mysterious “rat” Wheeze had spoken of earlier. Just where in this city was this mysterious person hiding?
The gang was just discussing the viability of capturing a local and interrogating them for information, when the image of Wheeze dragging a human towards the spaceplane was displayed on the screen.
Everyone looked at Cillin in unison. Cillin spread his arms and denied any responsibility, “It wasn’t me.”
Sediya gave him a thumbs-up. “You sure train your pet well, friend!”
Cillin curled his lips in response because he was a hundred percent certain the cat hadn’t dragged in a human for the reason they were thinking of, and he was right. After the ins and outs had been explained thoroughly, everyone showed great interest in the worms Wheeze had spoken of. However, it was dangerous to conduct an observation in the open, so they brought the worms into the isolation room first. Heeding Rubu and Armadillo’s advice, no one entered the isolation room for a closer look after the isolation barrier was lowered. Instead, they would be observing from the other side through the transparent isolation barrier.
By now Cillin was very familiar with the procedure, having worked together with Wheeze many times in the past. First, he used a device to simulate a stomach-like environment. Then, the three worms that had already awakened from unconsciousness and the gravely wounded worms excitedly clung to the stomach walls and secured themselves. The stomach walls where the parasites had clung to were a lot thinner than the untouched areas, and the parasites soon began absorbing the nutrients inside the stomach. Miraculously, the gravely wounded parasites started regenerating even the torn parts of their bodies.
“So? It’s great, isn’t it?!” Wheeze declared proudly.
“It’s fine.” Cillin sealed the parasites inside the small box he had used to simulate a stomach-like environment while saying, “However, they’re not quite useful to us right now. We’ll soon be facing a bunch of robots, and robots don’t have stomachs, do they?”
Wheeze twitched in ears in a bit of dissatisfaction.
“But, you did a very good job this time. You deserve praise!” Cillin rubbed Wheeze once on the head, and Wheeze narrowed its eyes while thinking: now that’s what I’m talking about. It wondered if it should capture a couple more sharp-clawed beasts and see if it could find more of these worms. It was boring to stay holed up in this spaceplane and do nothing anyway.
Now that the parasite research was over, everyone turned their attention back to the boy Wheeze had dragged back to the ship. The boy only looked to be fourteen or fifteen years old, but his physique, attire and carried equipment all pointed towards him being a formidable person.
Dantu immediately tensed up when he woke up and opened his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar environment and breathing unfamiliar air. It didn’t look like he was in any one of the cities on this gray-colored planet, and it was so alien that it might as well be from another world altogether.
In the next moment, Dantu spotted the gray cat sitting on a stranger’s shoulder. That cat was the culprit behind the mess he was in right now!
Surprisingly, Dantu felt less afraid than when he saw Wheeze for the first time. Humans were at least a known, more reassuring factor compared to a creature he couldn’t make head or tails of. Even better, he couldn’t sense any malice from these strangers, although of course it could just be an appearance.
Wheeze gave its paws a lick while it was sitting on top of Cillin’s shoulder. Its movement frightened their newly awakened captive so much that he shuddered and shrank backwards a little.
Cillin gave Wheeze’s ear a flick and asked, “What did you do to him?” It was obvious that the kid had had quite a huge fright before.
Sediya glanced at Wheeze first, then at Armadillo and Rubu before sighing. He never thought that there would be a day that they would be less fearsome than a tiny cat.
The young boy was clearly on his guard, so Nikki stepped in and took over the reins. After all, a girl about seven to eight years old of age — at least in appearance — was obviously going to look a lot less intimidating.
“Don’t be afraid, we won’t hurt you as long as you don’t struggle. We just want to ask you a couple of questions.” Nikki said.
Dantu stared at the supposedly seven to eight years old girl that felt absolutely off for some reason and stayed silent.
Nikki tried a couple more questions, but Dantu still stayed silent and tensed.
It was at this moment Chi Lafang pointed at his mouth and said, “Does he understand our language?”
Nikki slapped herself in the forehead. She couldn’t believe she had actually forgotten about this!
The imperial common language wasn’t the lingua franca on this planet, and their native language was so minor that even the empire didn’t have a corresponding record. Thankfully, Nikki had gathered enough bits and pieces of the native language to setup a language package for the translator while Wheeze, Rubu and Armadillo were out hunting earlier, so Nikki simply activated the translator and repeated her question.
Finally, Dantu spoke up in a somewhat raspy voice, “What do you want to know?”
Cillin passed him a drink. “It’s a fruit juice. There’s no poison in it.”
Dantu hesitated for a moment before sneaking a glance at Wheeze. The gray cat was currently licking its paws lazily and not paying attention to him. Dantu carefully accepted the offering, took a sip and paused for a second. Then, he abruptly poured the entire content of the box down his throat at once, licking the mouth of the can longingly even after he had drank everything.
Cillin passed him another can of fruit juice. This time Dantu didn’t hesitate too long before he accepted the fruit juice and drank in big gulps.
Dantu had never drank something like this in his life. It was more delicious than even the most expensive drink the city had to offer! He would like to bring this fruit juice back to Uncle An because he knew the old man had probably never drank something this tasty in his life despite his age, but unfortunately his own life was in danger right now. He didn’t know if he could ever see Uncle An ever again.
Dantu’s guard barely went down despite the gift, but his voice was no longer raspy, and he seemed to have calmed down.
This was a good sign.
Now that Dantu had calmed down, he was able to answer several of Nikki’s basic questions. For example, he had told the group his name, and the name of those black creatures with sharp claws. In their native language, “Claw” basically meant “sharp claw”.
However, “Claw” was just a general term used to address those black creatures because they were actually made up of many different species, and they were mostly hybrids. However, there were some special Claws named “Glass” that were several times larger and more powerful than the average Claw. However, their numbers were comparatively fewer.
Nikki then asked if it was possible for Dantu to bring them into the city, but the boy shook his head and said, “No one except the city guards and hunting squads are allowed to enter or exit the city, unless they were granted permission by the castellan himself.”
“Castellan? What kind of official rank is that?” Nikki asked.
Although she had learned a little about the city through their communication network, there was a limit to what she could do because the network was so backward that the people here seldom communicated with one another through it at all. It was the kind of social relationship and setup that was cultivated in a special technological environment like this.
“The castellan is the highest official in our city.” This time it was Dantu who asked a question after a pause, “You guys are from another planet, aren’t you?”
Nikki didn’t attempt to deny the question. It would’ve been utterly pointless. “Yes, we’re visitors from another planet.”
“In that case, there’s even less of a chance you’ll be let into the city. We are naturally averse towards aliens, and our castellan even more so. There was a spaceplane that had entered our planet because it had suffered a malfunction, but it never went back to where it came from. Although it hadn’t happened in our city, I heard that something similar had happened in our city before.”
“Are you threatening us?” Nikki smiled disdainfully at him.
“No, I’m just giving you fair warning.” Dantu looked down and stopped talking after that. His hidden expression kept anyone from figuring out his thoughts.
It was at this moment Wheeze opened its mouth and said, “I think this kid hasn’t told us the whole truth. Should we test the worms on him?”
Both Rubu and Armadillo standing at the back thought in unison: Cats really are evil creatures!
Dantu abruptly looked up as fear flashed across his eyes. He tried to reach for his gun and hunting blade out of habit, only to touch nothing and recall that his possession had all been confiscated by these aliens. Although he wasn’t tied up, he knew full well that he was no match against them, not to mention that that cat was right there.
“Stop trying to scare the kid, ”Cillin gave Wheeze a flick again while the latter snorted in response. Scaring the kid was all it was trying to do. How boring.
Nikki asked a couple more questions after that, but she wasn’t able to get the answers she wanted. For now, there was no way they could release Dantu, so they had no choice but to keep him locked up for now. Plus, they could always refer to him once they had gotten any new intel.
They gave Dantu a small room of his own. Although the room was just a simple room to Cillin and the others, it was unimaginable luxury to the boy, not to mention that there were fruit juices and food he had never eaten before in his life. That being said, the boy’s nerves were constantly challenged to the point where he wondered if he would diagnosed with mental illness in just a couple of days. It was because that cat kept visiting him during its free time, doing nothing in particular except sitting and licking its paws. Every time Dantu saw its paws, he couldn’t help but recall the time Wheeze had disemboweled a Claw with ease. He would then tense up and be on his guard all day.
On the contrary, Wheeze was very satisfied with this setup: I can’t believe there’s someone who’s afraid of cats!