Beauty and the Beasts

As she had snapped off the tree leaf in a hurry, the instant her hands grazed against them, two large gashes appeared in her palms, and blood started seeping from them like a stream.

Howl~

The leopard cubs panicked. They instantly surrounded their mother and stuck out their necks to crawl onto her, resulting in a long muddy streak as their paws slipped from her.

Bai Qingqing had completely given up. Since she was already covered in filth, she gave up on admonishing her cubs and simply let them step all over her.

“Mommy is fine.” Hiding under a banana leaf, Bai Qingqing raised her head and gazed in the direction of the cave. “The rain is getting heavy. You three should go to the cave first.”

Howwwl~

The cubs shook their heads unanimously.

“Well, up to you then.” As Bai Qingqing spoke, she suddenly felt something hugging her.

At first, she had thought it was one of her mates. But when she turned around, there wasn’t a single person behind her.

She felt mildly delighted. Shifting her vision downwards, it turned out that this “banana leaf” was now encircling her waist like a belt.

So, it was a carnivorous plant.

The cubs, who also realized it, hurriedly leaped towards the plant and bit at the leaves. Thankfully, this was a small tree that only seemed capable of capturing small-sized prey like rabbits and rats, so the leopard cubs easily munched the tree leaf encircling Bai Qingqing’s waist to pieces in a few bites.

Bai Qingqing whipped out the snake scale Curtis gifted her. She boldly struck and sliced off a tree leaf haphazardly, then covered An’an’s head with it, before turning around and running.

Roar!

The cubs ran even faster, and in no time overtook Bai Qingqing. But every time they overtook her by a certain distance, they would turn back and wait for their mommy.

Heartened by this sight, Bai Qingqing’s anger from the earlier incident subsided.

She was alarmed to find that she was useless without the protection of males and couldn’t do anything without them in the wilderness.

Worried that she might step onto something, Bai Qingqing started paying attention to the road. And she really did see a few wild snakes, but she increased her speed before she managed to take a close look at them.

At this moment, she did regret leaving the house. Even if no ferocious wild beasts appeared to eat her up, simply some small poisonous creatures would be enough to claim her life.

By the time she finally reached the cave, Bai Qingqing was panting heavily as she propped her hand against the stone wall, unable to even straighten her back.

There was a layer of water droplets upon her hair and clothes, but she wasn’t soaked entirely. With a shake, more than half of that moisture fell off, and merely her pants were wet.

There wasn’t a single drop of water on the well-protected An’an.

As for the leopard cubs, they were in a disheveled state—having moved through the grass, their bodies were completely drenched. They stood at the cave entrance and shook off a large patch of water droplets.

“Little snake?” Bai Qingqing smoothed her hair and arranged her clothes as she sized up the cave and called out.

On the contrary, the cubs forgot their original intention and carefully surrounded their mother.

Roar! Roar!

Understanding what the cubs were trying to say, Bai Qingqing stroked their heads with her uninjured hand.

“Mommy is fine. Search in the cave and see if your snake brother is here.”

Roar! The cubs responded loudly, then dashed right into the cave.

Since the little snake didn’t even come out with this great commotion, seemed like he wasn’t in.

It took her so much trouble to come here, yet she didn’t get to see the little snake and was now even stuck at this cave. Bai Qingqing felt incredibly vexed right now.

Drenched from the rain, Bai Qingqing felt a tad cold. She blew upon the wound on her right hand and said, “Let’s light a fire. Babies, can you help me find some firewood?”

The cubs let out a whimper in response.

Bai Qingqing chose a windless spot in the cave, then carried a pile of soft grass and set it down beside her, before untying An’an from her chest and carefully placing her on top of it.

The cubs came to and fro ferrying dry firewood, and also brought back a flint between their jaws.

Bai Qingqing was about to try lighting a fire with the flint when An’an started flailing her tiny arms and legs. Seems like the baby was hungry.