The Record of Unusual Creature

The trio found shade under a huge rock where they could camp for the night.

There was a water source just behind the rock. The rock was greyish brown in color and it stood on the rock-filled beach like a small hill. A recess in the rock formed by natural erosion was a perfect shade. It kept them from the frigid night wind. Plus, as the recess faced the jungle, they had an easy view of the situation in the jungle, even though there was actually nothing they had to worry about the jungle. Y’zaks created a fire wall using his demonic runes along the outside perimeter. The strange-looking, evil, green fire would scare off most predators.

As they finally settled in, Hao Ren realized how thoughtful the vampire maiden was. As he opened his luggage, he found PVC fabric and a blanket in every suitcase as if the vampire knew they were going to sleep out in the open. He felt so touched yet so sad: the vampire maiden probably went through an unimaginable hardship in her life which made her as considerate as she was.

Because of the frigid night wind on the planet, Y’zaks made a bonfire nearby. The three of them sat there and began filling up their stomachs as they recalled their amazing journey that day. Hao Ren was the first to speak his mind—he felt like he was an outcast.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve been shortchanged.” His face looked sad like he was heart-broken. “Shouldn’t people who serve the goddess be entitled to some kind of privileges that come with the job? You know what, aside from traveling expenses, Raven 12345 has given me nothing. Everything else is on me. If not for Y’zaks, I would have had to learn bow drill fire starting…”

Y’zaks smiled guilelessly. “So, you mean I’m a walking lighter?”

“Stop pretending,” the MDT mumbled as it laid on Hao Ren’s lap, playing a movie. “You’ve got pretty good benefits. Look, I’m already moonlighting as your personal TV. Aren’t you satisfied? By the way, can’t you have better taste? A low-budget thriller? C’mon, this is a holographic display… Ahh, that chubby guy, he’s the villain.”

A PDA with its own sense of aesthetics, a PDA that wants a say in which movie to play and leaks spoilers —it even tagged the masterminds from the beginning to the end. It was anti-human and anti-climactic.

“How interesting is it to watch TV together with your TV?” Nangong Wuyue looked on with amusement while Hao Ren and the MDT bickered. She had lots of fun ever since she met Hao Ren. The best part of it all was, she could go on an interstellar travel. And she had made up her mind that she was going to stay at Hao Ren’s house.

“What are you doing?” Hao Ren’s curiosity was aroused when he saw Nangong Wuyue facing the fire light with something in her hand.

“It’s a kind of a conch but, it doesn’t look like this on Earth. It has valves on its shell, many of them.” Nangong Wuyue waved the white, cone-shaped object in her hand. “Let’s see if I can turn it into a musical instrument.”

In just a brief moment, Nangong Wuyue turned the conch, which she picked up from god-knows-where into a horn. She put it to her mouth and started to blow air into it. It sounded like an awful whistle. She kept fine-tuning it and it finally gave out a sweet sound.

Hao Ren was in awe of her musical sense and ability. He felt that his understanding of the siren needed some updates. He shoved the MDT back into his pocket and lay on his back to enjoy the amazingly soothing music of the siren.

As the night went on, the sound of splashing waves on the shore was the only thing filling the air—it was hypnotizing. The roar and howl of foreign animals during the day had gone completely. There were only sounds of fluttering leaves as they swung in the night wind, and the singing of strange insects occasionally. Amid all these, the unknown yet captivating music played by Nangong Wuyue became even clearer and distinguished. Hao Ren felt everything else had subsided into the background. He was immersed in the enchanting music of the siren, every sense of his body drowned in its mesmerizing lure.

The world had come to a stop. Everything seemed so eternal. Nothing existed except the sound of the conch filling the air.

A sudden sense of weightlessness jolted Hao Ren awake.

He opened his eyes. The conch music was gone. The only thing left was the screaming wind in his ears. The sense of weightlessness coupled with the wind’s howling suddenly struck him: he was falling, fast!

“Holy moly!” Hao Ren was horrified to see the steppe beneath him was closing up toward him quickly―he was falling mid air. All he could utter was, “What’s happening…”

Then, he hit the ground. No-one could have survived falling from that height and at that speed. But, he did. Not a single scratch on his body except the illusion of his skeleton falling apart. He was proud of himself. He lay face down, playing possum on the grassland for a while with a cheesy grin on his face. Spitting out the straw in his mouth, he scanned his surroundings wondering, “Am I in… The Plane of Dreams again?”

Before his eyes was the all familiar steppe where the soft and wild grass was so different from that of the earth. He rolled himself over and stood up, staring blankly into the distance.

He was certain he was in the steppe of The Plane of Dreams. It was morning. It was the first time he saw daylight in The Plane of Dreams.

“Looks like you’ve entered The Plane of Dreams by accident,” the MDT spoke. The familiar voice made Hao Ren less nervous: although this little partner was a pain in a** most of the time, it was now his only company in an alien place.”

“How is this possible?” Hao Ren gazed around in disbelief. “Doesn’t it take a special kind of self-suggestion and spiritual guidance to come here?”

“The flute. The music of the siren.” The MDT hovered in front of him. “Although I know little about the siren species, the music the little girl played created a spiritual resonance and you were then pulled over to the other side. I guess she didn’t do it on purpose. She was still playing enthusiastically not noticing at all that you had fallen asleep.”

Hao Ren did not care whether Nangong Wuyue did it on purpose or not. He was only interested to know one thing. “Why did I fall from the sky?”

“Do you still remember how you left The Plane of Dreams the last time?”

Hao Ren tried to recall. “Okay, I remember. I was blown and carried by a typhoon into the air.”

“That’s it. You were still in the air when you got out last time. So, when you re-entered you emerged from the same spot where you got out the last time.” The MDT shook its body and said, “Hmmm, that’s good. We’ve again figured out yet another law of The Plane of Dreams.”

“Good, my foot!” Hao Ren wished he could smash the big mouthed device into pieces. But right after he said so, he heard the brisk pounding of hooves behind him.

“Look, it’s really a human!”

A young voice was heard from the distance. He quickly shoved the MDT back into his pocket. As he looked over his shoulder, he saw a very young girl riding a ‘horse’. She was staring at him curiously.

It was a human. A human who lived in The Plane of Dreams!

Hao Ren was overwhelmed with his excitement at meeting the first native of The Plane of Dreams. He did not exactly see how the girl looked like. Dear psycho woman, this was the second surprise he received following his first encounter with the wolf pack.