The Record of Unusual Creature

The door creaked as Hao Ren pushed it. The supernatural trio, who were lounging in the living room watching television, all turned their heads in unison. Lily who caught sight of the metal toy in Hao Ren’s hand bounced towards him screaming, “Big discovery! Big discovery!”

Lily was the most agile of the lot and she had the best reaction time among them. Before Hao Ren could even say anything, she was right in front of him in a flash, bouncing about for the metal toy. It took her a while to realize that she was reacting similarly to a pet dog and she bashfully went back to watching the telly with her tail wagging.

Hao Ren glanced nervously at Lily. “Why are you in werewolf form? Losing control again?”

Lily’s ears stiffen at the mention of ‘losing control’ as she was rather sensitive towards those words. She quickly brushed it aside. “Nah, just giving the tail a breather.”

“So, how was it?” Vivian stood up after Lily was done with her antics. “I suppose the trip to The Plane of Dreams was smooth?”

“Yeah it was pretty smooth. I fought like seven dozen of feral wolves and got thrown up into the sky by a vortex. I woke up after that,” Hao Ren gingerly described his experience. “But the key point is, I brought something back from there and it’s something you’re familiar with too!”

Vivian was just about to take a jab at Hao Ren until she saw the object in his hand. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Wasn’t… this the thing we found in the basement a few days back?”

“Yep, that’s the one.” Hao Ren grabbed Vivian by the wrist and pulled her towards the stairway to the basement. “I suppose you remember where we shelved that thing? Let’s look for it again. The resemblance is just uncanny!”

After Hao Ren and Vivian went down the staircase, Y’zaks looked at Lily with a confused face. “What’s with the two of them? I’m not sure what’s going on…”

“Oh, they must be having an affair,” Lily just blurted out without much thought. “The people on the TV said so.”

Y’zaks simply nodded. After contemplating for a moment, he asked, “So… when are they getting married?”

The next 10 or so minutes was then spent talking about the rites of marriage on Earth. They are not pertinent and can be ignored for now.

Hao Ren and Vivian found the wooden box where they placed the metal toy in no time. All his tattered childhood toys in the box seemed to have worn out much further. The diamond-shaped metal object looked like a loose component in a pile of old junk. Hao Ren lifted the entire box of stuff and placed it on the study table in Vivian’s room. Both of them quickly went about investigating the two metal objects. Well, not like there was much to even begin with. The objects looked identical at first glance.

“You’re sure you brought it out from The Plane of Dreams?” Vivian slowly stroked the pattern on the object. The one Hao Ren brought back appeared newer and the layer of rust on it was not as bad as the first one. “The pattern is the same and so is the material.”

“Yeah.” Hao Ren nodded earnestly. He followed with a recap of his experience in the plane the night before; including his acquisition of the Steel Membrane Shield, but he quickly went back to the metal object. “I found it in a nomad’s hut in the plains. Didn’t see anything else around though, it was sitting all pretty on the ground. Oh, the hut also looked like it had been deserted for a long time.”

“What is The Plane of Dreams like?” Vivian had curiosity written all over her face. “Does it have mountains and rivers and other humans? Like what we see in the real world?”

“Haven’t met a living person, I’m afraid. But the rest is pretty much the same as the normal world but even the talking wolves there would form a pack,” Hao Ren described what he saw in detail. He made mention of the weird pack of wolves, an endless grassland, starry skies, the small hut and of course, the most important of all, the twin moons which appeared in the The Plane of Dreams. “There were two moons there. One was bigger than the other. The small one was about the size of a fingernail while the bigger one was many times bigger than the one we have rotating around Earth! It looked really amazing at night… If only I could bring all of you there. You think Lily will go stark raving mad when she sees the twin moons? One on Earth was enough to have her waggling about.”

“Two moons…” As a vampire, Vivian was also sensitive towards moonlight and upon hearing his story, a faint glow appeared in her eyes. “I do want to see it. Please bring me there someday! Oh yeah, I also dreamt about seeing two moons a long time ago. It’’s still fresh in my memory like it was just yesterday. Under the protection of the moon I finally got rid of my ill luck and I was filthy rich… only to be woken up by the landlady, screaming for rent money…”

Hao Ren as usual, had no response to Vivian’s past, which was worthy of a soap opera.

Vivian regaled Hao Ren with her dream of being filthy rich and it took her a good while to snap back to reality. She quickly wiped her saliva off the side of her mouth and became serious again. She fiddled with the two metal objects. “It seems like both of these objects were brought out from The Plane of Dreams. It’s quite impossible for someone in the real world to create something so similar to something from The Plane of Dreams. Furthermore, it looks like useless junk. You mentioned that you got this when you were young… Do you remember anything about it?”

“Nope, not a clue.” Hao Ren shook his head. “Like I said, it just somehow appeared without me noticing it.”

“Then, there are two possibilities. Someone went into The Plane of Dreams before and brought the first one out. After that, it ended up in your hands, somehow. Raven 12345 did mention that many people had entered the plane and brought something out. You’re not the first and you won’t be the last.” Vivian wiggled her fingers as she continued, “The second possibility is that you went there when you were still a kid and the metal object was brought out by you. Which sounds more plausible to you?”

Hao Ren took both the metal objects from Vivian and looked at them. After contemplating for a moment, he shook his head. “Neither sounds plausible at all. Too much coincidence for the first. Based on what that crazy goddess said, it takes a few centuries for someone to communicate with The Plane of Dreams and come out alive, much less bring something out from it. And for that item to end up with me after all this time. Nope, don’t think so. For the second one, I was about five? With men-eating wolves running about or strong gales enough to topple buildings; with both my entries into the plane almost being fatal. If not for the body strengthening hack that I have… The possibility of me entering and coming out of The Plane of Dreams at that age is nil. That said, I don’t even remember anything like this.”

“However, the chances of the second possibility happening is a bit higher.” Vivian tapped Hao Ren’s shoulder. “You just need to be super lucky. Sides, most children don’t remember things well and they tend to avoid bad memories naturally. So, there is a possibility that just simply forgot about it. Don’t you see me forgetting things most of the time?

Hao Ren glanced at her but, did not dare to retort. “It’s because you’re a bloody grandma for god’s sake…” He wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

“What do you think this does?” Hao Ren quickly diverted the topic to avoid verbalizing his thoughts.

“Seems like an accessory…” Vivian guessed. “A small metal object like this; no sharp edges on it and not particularly sturdy. It doesn’t look like a weapon or a tool either. I think it’s a bit like an heraldic accessory, something you see engraved on walls and what not.”

“A nomad practicing heraldry?”

“Well, who can be sure of what’s going on there?”

Hao Ren pondered, and thought that there was some truth to that. The place had wolves speaking like Beijing Opera actors (granted, he was using the translation function of the MDT) so, who’s to say what’s real and what’s not.

The origin of the metal object still remained a mystery to them and Hao Ren had no recollection of obtaining the item in the first place. Nonetheless he could now be sure that the item originated from The Plane of Dreams. Raven 12345 said that the plane was a web that connected to the real world. Based on the evidence they had at the moment, Hao Ren and Vivian had a slightly better understanding on the matter.

There were the two metal objects and a ball of wolf fur that he brought out earlier. Hao Ren decided to store them in a sturdy metal box. He thought that he would probably come across even more interesting items from The Plane of Dreams and decided to start collecting them.

A few days passed without much happenings but soon, there was going to be a full moon. It was time for Lily to undergo her evolution.