CH 3

A Weird Beastkin

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

Bai Yao “…”

He finds himself losing his cool, looking at the oyster in his hand.

Is he being made fun of here? He might be able to hold his temper, but he still thinks he must give this sea otter a stern talking to as a human. He’s going to make him apologise for treating a fellow beastkin like this, at least!

Furrowing his brows, he sternly orders, “turn to your human form, now!”

Then the little sea otter shudders and makes another whimper.

His forehead twitching, Bai Yao can’t help but wonder if his nose has failed him. Does he have a cold from the AC last night? This is clearly a real sea otter, and not a sentient beastkin of a sea otter. Scaredy, defensive, dumb, and can’t turn into a human.

Feeling like it’d be a waste of time to continue trying to interact with the sea otter further, since he doesn’t even appear to truly understand human speech, and with his restaurant’s prep work and unpeeled potatoes still waiting for him, he decides to leave.

“Listen, I don’t know if you’re acting silly at my expense, or if you’re actually retarded,” though Bai Yao thinks he’s being the retarded one here, if he is still actually trying to communicate with this clearly sentient sea otter that might be toying with him.

Then he looks back down at the oyster the sea otter gave him. It’s looking a little stale already. Who knows how long it’s sat in the sea otter’s pocket.

So he lets the oyster fall back down onto the beach, and turns to walk back up the stairs towards the entrance of his restaurant. Though soon enough, he hears scuffling. Behind him, the little dummy is still following him, until he sees Bai Yao has stopped, and lies back onto the ground for a rest.

He’s picked up the oyster Bai Yao threw away once more, holding it close to himself like it’s a valuable treasure. Then he quickly moves his arm behind himself when he sees Bai Yao looking at the oyster again, but still appears to fear for its safety, as he decides to lift his paw up, and put it back inside his pocket.

Patting it firmly, ensuring that it’s not going to fall back out.

Bai Yao tries to ignore the little sense of guilt that’s bubbling up inside of him, and walks back once more, hearing the scuffling along the way.

When Bai Yao stops, so does the sea otter. When Bai Yao walks, the sea otter quickly crawls after him.

He’s not going to leave him alone, is he?

“What do you want? Speak,” Bai Yao turns back around, and with his arms crossed, coldly stares at the sentient sea otter on the ground.

There is no answer, save for a single grumble that might have easily gone unnoticed by human ears. Still, Bai Jun’s sharper senses has picked it up just fine.

It’s from the little sea otter’s stomach.

Bai Yao raises his brow, “hungry?”

The little sea otter makes an affirmative ‘woop,’ before finally letting himself fall completely onto the sand. He’s gasping. His little paws are shaking, presumably from the strain.

Bai Yao sighs. Fine. He’s chipped away at his heart enough. He looks at the sandy, dirty fur of the little sea otter, and thinks that he might be no better than those teenage coyotes that bullied him if he still heartlessly left him alone like this.

Maybe he’s lost. A little beggar that would look even worse in his human form, thus refusing to turn.

“Come on up. I’ll make you a little something.”

Bai Yao turns to lead on. He’s tall with long strides, so it takes barely any time before he notices the little sea otter isn’t even remotely able to keep up. So he slows down, that the sea otter might be able to crawl over.

Then comes the stairs leading back up to the main road. It’s not a long way, but it is steep. Bai Yao takes the steps slowly, waiting for the little sea otter to catch up after every step.

About halfway up, the little sea otter gives out entirely. His webbed feet are already ill-suited for walking on land, and does even worse walking up stairs. He slides and falls flat onto the steps.

It probably hurts. He whimpers. There are a few drops of tears, while the otter gasps on the ground.

Then he looks longingly back at the coastline. Maybe he’s wondering why he’s decided to follow this unkind and scary person all this way out.

Yet, when he sees something in the distance, he shudders, and lowers and shrinks his head.

Bai Yao looks in the direction as well, and from the taller vantage point, easily spots a small group of sea otters that have moved to the coast near the beach recently. All of them are clearly bigger in size than the little sea otter. They are actually round and plump, and are soaking up the sun.

The little sea otter makes a ‘whoop’ sound before turning around and hurriedly tries to climb up, to be as far away from those otters as possible. It is still too exhausted, though, collapsing again the next step up.

Bai Yao scowls a little, but gives in. He’ll help him.

He crouches and lifts the sea otter off the ground, but the motion seems to have scared the little scaredy cat, who shrinks and is baring his teeth again.

“Still want your food or not?” Bai Yao tries to speak in as gentle a tone as he could in spite of his frustration, while pretending to retract his hand.

The little sea otter then tilts his head, until finally, he shakes himself a little to loosen the sand, and lets Bai Yao hold him in his lap.

Bai Yao is quite strong, and is holding the sea otter with just one hand in his lap. The water on him is making his clothes a little wet, but Bai Yao’s attention is drawn more to the fact that he can feel the bones through the fur. The sea otter is even more emaciated than he thought. There is almost no fat to speak of, like he’s been starving up to this point.

He’s so light he could be mistaken for being a large stuffed toy.

The taller viewpoint seems to make the little sea otter nervous, as he has tensed up. As Bai Yao walks, he seems to conclude that all is well, and relaxes once more, letting his paws rest on Bai Yao’s arms.

Sea otters aren’t a rare sight on the waters close to the beach. They’re generally plump and cute, attracting tourists soon after appearing.

The waters around the town are quite rich in food sea otters enjoy. Oysters, sea urchins, abalones, even crabs dot the shallow ocean floor. Even if this sentient sea otter is a lost little beggar, Bai Yao can’t imagine him starving if he spends his time as his animal form.

It’s a mystery how small and meek this scaredy sea otter is.

At the top of the stairs, Bai Yao lets the otter back down on the ground gently, and walks towards his restaurant. The sea otters follows behind him as best as he could, staying about three to four steps behind.

The town is small, and the neighbours generally know each other. Grandpa Xü lives across the restaurant in a small, two-storey building. He’s sunbathing with a fan in his hand, and sees Bai Yao walking back to his restaurant from the stairs. He greets him, “xiao-Yao! Getting ready to open soon?”

Bai Yao replies with a smile, “yeah. Finishing up the prep work right now.”

Grandpa Xü can no longer see as well in his advanced age, so he asks about the grey blob following behind Bai Yao, “is there a thing following behind you?”

Bai Yao’s smile turns a little forced, as he explains, “he’s a small sea otter. I think he’s hungry, so I’m trying to get leftovers for him.”

Though actually, people who live by the sea knows wild animals are extremely unlikely to come to humans for food. And even if they do, they should not feed them. It is not good for the biosphere, and they might also doom the animal if it comes to rely on people for sustenance.

So Bai Yao quickly regrets speaking the truth as-is. Grandpa Xü might tell him to take the sea otter back to the ocean. Oh, gods, what’s he going to do if the sea otter turned to his human form right here?!

The beastkin have always kept their identities secret from the humans, so grandpa Xü has no idea this little sea otter is actually sentient, and different from the pure animal sea otters that are sunbathing on the ocean surface.

Bai Yao isn’t sure how to explain the animal following him at all without that explanation either.

Grandpa Xü is furrowing his brows a little. When suddenly, the little sea otter bares his teeth and makes a growling noise.

“Hey, careful! It looks like it’s going to bite!” Grandpa Xü leans forward from his sunlounger, putting his fan down as well.

Bai Yao tells him not to worry, as he hurriedly carries the sea otter in through the restaurant’s entrance.

The sentient sea otter is weird. Really weird.