The Record of Unusual Creature

Everyone had gathered around in the living room. Shaqira was lying on the sofa, and her body length meant that the entire sofa was completely taken up. Rollie was very unhappy when she saw this. She meowed for a good while to signal that the sofa armrest was her territory. It took Hao Ren a box of cat biscuits to distract her.

Shaqira took a curious glance at the various unusual creatures at home. “I’ve never seen a place like yours. There are so many different races mingling together. Won’t they fight? I’ve heard that werewolves and vampires are mortal enemies.”

Hao Ren pointed at Vivian and Lily. “They did fight when they first arrived, but things have gotten better. A harmonious co-existance is the motto of this place. Regardless of what sort of fight you’ve had outside, once you’re here, you’re family. The lanky guy seating across you is a demon hunter by the way.”

Shaqira’s tail automatically shrunk as she heard that. However, that was the extent of her surprise. “Whoa! How did you do that?”

“Is it me or does the siren not seem to be that afraid of demon hunters?” Hao Ren whispered to Vivian as he noticed Shaqira’s reaction.

Vivian nodded. “I told you before. The sirens are the only race that were not hunted by the demon hunters. Even if they were to meet, its usually without conflict. So to a siren, the demon hunters are just a scary-sounding bunch.”

“So, how did you end up like this?” Nangong Wuyue had also transformed into her serpentine form. Perhaps it was easier to gain Shaqira’s trust this way. She used her tail to point at the latter’s. “Why are you hurt? Why are the dwellers of the deep catching their own people? What were the royal guards up to?

“It’s a long, long tale. Let me start from the beginning.” Shaqira took a deep breath as she told her story, “I came to shore 100 years ago amongst the last of my batch. I remembered that there was a war going on back then… It was chaotic. I even got hit by coastal artillery. We followed the instructions of our seniors who had left before us and split up before looking for otherworldlings who were hidden. I first went to South America and lived with a group of werewolves. After that, I came over to Asia—”

Hao Ren interjected. “We already know that part. Did your people still work as a group after that? Do you still keep in touch?”

“We do, but very sporadically.” Shaqira’s tail was poking about with Wuyue’s. “We all knew where our batch went, as well as how many met with accidents and where they resurrected. But aside from that, nothing else. We all had our own mission, and that was all we needed to worry about before we waited to be summoned back to sea. I never expected to receive bad news from the deep.”

Hao Ren was intrigued. “What was your mission? Was it about the prophecy of the Day of Return? What is that prophecy about?”

Shaqira looked hesitant, and the sharp-eyed Vivian caught it. “Is it something that you can say? I suppose you can tell us since you’re already spreading the message to the otherworldlings in various sanctuaries. Small as we are here, this is still one of those sanctuaries.”

Shaqira had a rather complicated look on her face. “That’s not it… It’s… I don’t know how to explain it to you. We were only meant to bring word to the rest. The prophecy was passed down to us by the Queen herself, but she never explained the meaning of the prophecy to us.”

Everyone present looked at each other while Shaqira tried to jog her memory. “Umm… Let me recall… The original prophecy was something like this: ‘The Day of Return is coming, an ancient power from our homeland is summoning its lost kin. The darkness shall end, and a glorious dawn like that of the ancient times awaits all. A gate will open, and you will hear a voice, But before that, rally your kin, and let everyone have the opportunity to bask in the glory of the Day of Return. No one shall be left behind.’ This was what Her Majesty told us. Our task was to bring this word to all otherworldlings on land. Occasionally, we had to explain it based on our own understanding.”

“So, the whole ‘Day of Return’ is based on these few lines?” Hao Ren blinked. “And all of you just memorized these lines without actually finding out what they mean?”

Lily tilted her head as she added, “Some families actually mentioned that your kin were all very mysterious, and the prophecy sounded more like a con-job than anything. So, it was really all down to you guys not being sure on how to explain it?”

Shaqira was not the least bit embarrassed. “Yes, since we didn’t know how to explain, we just went with what we understood. How would I know that the surface races would interpret it that way.”

Vivian was trying to decipher the whole mumbo-jumbo on her head. Looking up at Shaqira, “Where did the Siren Queen find out about the prophecy? Did she only tell you what to say to the surface races and nothing else?”

Shaqira shook her head. “I don’t know. The Queen must have her own reasons. She arranged the rest as well. We are mere servants, we shouldn’t be asking too many questions.”

Hao Ren shrugged. There you go, a typical lackadaisical siren.

Even Nangong Wuyue was speechless towards her own kin. Her voice was rather stiff, “So, why did the royal guards suddenly want to bring you back? How did you know that they were here to arrest you instead of take you home? Weren’t you waiting for news to return?”

“At the very beginning, we didn’t suspect anything when someone was taken back.” Fear suddenly appeared on Shaqira’s face. “But things started to go wrong very quickly: The Queen was taking people back by force. We had already been on land for 100 years, and some of our friends had already gotten so used to living on land. They even had families here. They weren’t willing to go back, yet they were forcibly taken away by the Queen’s guards. This was not the same as what we were told. Supposedly, we could act on our own accord once we got on land, and we could pick the time once we completed our mission and received the summons. No one said anything about being dragged home.”

As Shaqira continued, she shook the tip of her tail. “A few of our friends then started to alert the rest. We aren’t sure of the source of the message though. Maybe it was one of the Queen’s guards who said that the Queen had undergone a massive change. She wanted to open a Gate of Return ahead of time and the captured sirens were being used as sacrifice or fuel… It was just so surreal that I immediately ran. Even then, I almost got caught. Just how unlucky am I? Who did I offend?”

Hao Ren immediately frowned when he heard this.

Something big had truly happened in the deep. He heard from Vivian before that the sirens were a peaceful race without quarrel with other races, and Shaqira was pretty much the embodiment of that trait. Yet, the Queen, the prophecy and the arrest as well as capture of their kin did not ring “peaceful” and “without quarrel” to him.

Lily thought for a bit before she asked, “How was your queen previously? Was there anything weird about her when she asked you to go to shore?”

“The Queen was a very wonderful person; a very wise one.” Shaqira rubbed her face. “However, I do remember a few things that were rather weird… The Queen had suddenly ordered the dispatch of messengers without much forewarning. And in the days after the dispatch, she was almost manic. She locked herself in her castle. Her closest confidantes said that she was thinking, and up until the time the last batch left, she never did once step out of the castle… Ugh… why am I telling you this?”

Hao Ren pushed himself forward. “This is important! Maybe we can help you solve this issue. We may be able to help not only you, but also your captured kin.”

Vivian also joined in, “That’s right. Just look around. We have many races here, and we’ll be glad to lend a hand. Tell us everything you know. What unusual actions did the Queen take when she ordered the dispatch… Or, were there any odd happenings in the city you lived in? These are all important.”

Shaqira blinked as she looked at the weirdos around her. She then decided that she would cooperate. She tried to jog her memory once again, and remembered a very important detail. “Oh right! I don’t know if this has to do with anything, but before the Queen ordered the dispatch, we had captured a weird-looking sea monster. The Queen only started to act all weird after the capture.”

“Sea monster?” Hao Ren eyes met with Vivian’s. “What kind of sea monster?”

“It was a blob of oddly-shaped red flesh with tentacles.” Shaqira tried to draw the shape of the monster in the air. “It looked almost like a swollen brain.”