Beauty and the Beasts

They were like many ants crawling up his skin, onto his nose, eyes, eyelashes…

Curtis looked at the sand behind him, once again turned into his full beast form, placing his weight onto a further spot before slowly and steadily dragging out his tail.

By this time, Alva had only one arm and half his lower thigh left above the ground.

Curtis straightened his tail and pushed it into the sand, curling him up and slowly pulling out.

Pffft!

The moment Alva came out, he spat out sand from his nose and mouth, quickly backing off. When he sensed the soft sand under his feet, he immediately jumped up like an alarmed bird, turning into his beast mode and flying up.

Gah gah gah gah!

A peacock in the sky cried out like a lunatic, causing the group of beastmen in the distance to cast strange looks at him.

“Is Alva alright?” Bai Qingqing leaned in Parker’s warm embrace and asked, laughing.

The tiger beastmen also laughed. Parker was the only one unmoved.

He extended his neck and looked in Alva’s direction. As he had the responsibility to protect his mate and a child, he only wanted to know if there was any danger ahead.

Alva flew crazily in the air for a while before coming to take a rest.

Parker drew his gaze back and said, “It shouldn’t be anything serious. I’ll ask him after he comes back later.”

“Mm.”

Alva also hesitated for very long before he landed on the sand fearfully once again. He carefully stomped on the ground a few times before turning into his human form. However, he didn’t dare to move a single step.

“When I came to the desert for the first time, I saw a lot of moving sand. I was busy rushing on my way and didn’t have the time to check them out. I didn’t expect them to be so scary.”

As Alva said this, he bent over to look toward the quicksand river, saying with certainty, “There must be something inside pulling me! Otherwise, how is it that I’m unable to crawl back up?”

“It’s inertia,” Curtis replied calmly. “The sand moves and forms a natural force. It’s that force that pulled you down.”

“This means that there isn’t anything in the sand?” Alva said in disbelief.

Every single grain of sand was very clear at night. In the day, they become dazzling. The scorching light made it hard for Curtis to look straight at it.

Curtis suddenly asked, “Are you able to see the quicksand in the day?”

Hearing that, Alva’s heart sank.

“It’s too bright in the day, and it’s hard to see things clearly.”

Alva said, “I only know that the closer we get to Flame City, there’s more of such quicksand regions. We’ll have to inform the rest to be careful and not step on them.”

Curtis remained quiet, waving his tail and slithering elsewhere.

“Hey, are you still not going back?” Alva asked loudly. He then took a look at the calm sand under his feet and took a careful step forward, following behind him gingerly.

“There are predators in the sand. I’m going to find them out,” Curtis said in a deep voice. Even though those predators knew better and didn’t dare to show their faces, he still wanted to take a look before he could feel at ease.

Alva was surprised again and mumbled, “Are there predators? Why didn’t I notice them?”

“I’ll go with you.” Saying that Alva turned into his beast form and circled in the air, following Curtis and becoming his binoculars.

After doing one round of checks, Curtis and Alva returned to the group. Alva told everyone about their discoveries.

The tiger beastmen and Parker were all greatly surprised. Parker immediately pulled Alva with him to check out the quicksand river.

However, by the time they rushed over, the quicksand river was no longer there.

This caused them to come up with another conclusion.

The quicksand river moved.

This conclusion was even more terrifying than the previous one. No one knew if a quicksand river would suddenly move below them.