The oval egg was anything but stable and kept rocking in small arcs. Hugging his tiny, plump tail, Long Ming struggled painfully to stand. Unsurprisingly, he performed several magnificent belly-flops against the inside of the shell before finally steadying himself. Once he did, he noticed that something also seemed strange about his shoulders.
His shoulder blades itched, and something there kept moving involuntarily.
But staring into the complete darkness, Long Ming decided that escaping the shell came first. The pitch-black environment was terribly inconvenient. He could not see anything, he did not even know what sort of egg this was, and the shell was so thick that not a trace of light penetrated it.
How was he supposed to hatch?
For Long Ming, that was a serious problem.
Especially when he had almost no strength right now.
Hugging his restless little tail, Long Ming increasingly suspected that he had turned into an entirely different species.
While he was struggling to think, that unfamiliar voice came from outside again, sharp and hurried. He still could not understand a word despite listening for quite a while. Soon afterward, something struck the shell several times with great force. The egg immediately rocked like a little boat, making Long Ming dizzy and nauseous inside. Hugging his tail, he roared, “Awooo~!”
Unfortunately, the sound was soft and babyish and carried absolutely no threat. Long Ming heard his own milky little howl and fell into suspicious silence.
Strangely enough, the pounding outside stopped.
Panting, Long Ming braced his chubby little body against the inner shell. The egg tipped over with his movement, leaving him sprawled against the side. After hesitating for a long time, he reached out and patted the shell. Nothing happened.
He increased his strength and smacked it hard, then gathered strength in both legs and kicked. The tiny tail behind him swished involuntarily. At last, the egg rocked faintly a few times…
Why was this shell so hard?
Long Ming stared at the shell, which had not budged at all, and sat down dejectedly. At the same time, his stomach began to growl. An intense hunger swept through his whole body. The eggshell gave off a distinctive milky fragrance, and even the milky scent in the slime suddenly smelled pleasant, like the fresh-milk calcium tablets he had eaten before.
Long Ming rubbed his soft belly and swallowed. Tilting his head, he remembered that many newborn animals in nature ate the shells they hatched from. In that case, he should be able to eat his too… right?
Perhaps because he had suddenly become an egg-born cub, Long Ming felt that even his thoughts had slowed a little.
After mentally preparing himself, he quickly felt his face, not daring to linger. He could at least confirm that it was not a human face. His eyes seemed rather large, there was a tiny pointed tooth in his mouth, and his face was covered in scales. Even though he already knew he had become some other kind of creature, actually feeling his face still made Long Ming feel an uncontrollable flash of sadness.
He really did seem a little ugly…
The eggshell continued rocking like a cradle. Long Ming lay against it and stretched out one short little hand to touch his pointed tooth again. There was only one, and it was tiny. He had no idea whether it could bite through the shell.
His hunger grew worse. Smelling the milky fragrance of the shell, Long Ming finally lowered his head and bit it. To his surprise, he actually broke off a small piece. The rich milk fragrance was sweet and delicious; the shell was crisp yet thick, and it cracked loudly between his teeth. The moment he swallowed it, a warm current spread through his body and filled him with strength.
Long Ming’s eyes lit up. Clinging to the broken edge of the shell, he began gnawing enthusiastically. The more he ate, the more delicious it seemed. Although he only had one tiny tooth, it did nothing to slow him down. On the contrary, the energy from the shell made Long Ming feel his strength steadily increasing.
No wonder newborn animals in nature ate their shells. They really were delicious. Long Ming buried his head and ate furiously, cheeks bulging with food, while the tiny tail behind him began wagging on its own and would not stop.
So focused was he on eating that Long Ming failed to notice a small hole had appeared in the shell and was gradually growing larger.
Gelu, who had painstakingly carried the egg outside into the snow, stared dumbfounded as the shell gradually cracked apart. Then a little fat tail emerged, wagging freely from left to right.
Inside, the cub had its plump little bottom stuck up in the air as it sprawled over the white shell. Its entire round body was chubby. Two short little arms clutched the shell while it ate with its head down, both fat hind legs kicking rhythmically behind it. Tiny wings fluttered at its shoulders. The little creature was covered from head to toe in black scales and possessed an astonishing appetite. In only a few minutes, it had eaten more than half of that huge white shell.
Gelu clutched his chest, heart aching as he watched his egg turn into a cub.
What was he supposed to do now? Should he put this ugly little thing into the pot and cook it? Gelu, who had never eaten anything alive, shuddered. Or should he leave the cub out in the freezing snow until it died and then eat it? But what if the Lightning Leopard next door got to it first?
Gelu stared at the freshly hatched, plump little cub, caught in an agonizing dilemma. At that moment, the cub seemed to realize something as well and abruptly turned to look at him.
Gelu could not help taking one step backward. He saw the cub’s brilliant golden vertical pupils, beautiful as flowing molten gold yet somehow filled with an oppressive presence. That pressure disappeared almost immediately, but Gelu was now certain this had to be the cub of an extremely powerful magical beast.
After all, its tiny pointed tooth gleamed coldly in the daylight.
A powerful carnivorous magical-beast cub. Gelu instinctively wanted to flee. He took several steps, then stopped. Staring at the cub, which only reached his lower leg, an unprecedentedly bold idea suddenly flashed through his mind—one no goblin before him had ever dared imagine.
This was a cub. A newly born cub of a powerful magical beast. If… if he raised it…
Gelu’s eyes began shining as he stared at the cub on the ground.
Wouldn’t he have an endless supply of food in the future? Even after it grew up, the scraps it left behind would be enough to fill his stomach. And if it became stronger than the Lightning Leopard next door, then once it grew up, it could chase that hateful leopard away and seize its territory. Gelu would no longer have to suffer in such a tiny patch of land…
This was an investment with enormous returns!
Staring at the unfamiliar cub’s tiny fang, Gelu firmly decided that this had to be the greatest idea in the history of goblinkind.
Long Ming stared upward at the beastman not far away, disbelief flashing through his eyes. Everything around them was white. Heavy snow poured down as if it cost nothing, quickly covering the short beastman’s dingy, dirty fur.
The little beastman had strangely long, thick arms, wore no clothes, and had short lower limbs and a hunched back. Dirty fur covered his face as well. His eyes were tiny, and he had no eyebrows.
A pair of animal ears even protruded from his tangled, matted hair. Right now he wore an eerie smile that exposed his yellow teeth. As he approached, Long Ming had to tilt his head farther and farther back. From a distance the beastman had looked short, but up close he was enormous compared with Long Ming.
It was like a baby staring at an adult.
“…Splat.”
Seeing him come closer and closer, Long Ming spun around and tried to run without thinking. Unfortunately, his tail was right beside his left foot. In his haste, he tripped over it before he knew what had happened. Top-heavy and unsteady, he toppled face-first into a snowdrift with a splat.
Gelu watched the cub flail its little fat arms helplessly in the snow and could not help laughing. Then he bent down to pick it up.
He pulled…
He could not lift it.
Gelu stared at his own hands. Those hands had always been his best tools for digging, and he had always taken pride in their strength. Now he could not even lift a newborn cub? Just how heavy was this fat little thing? Gelu looked helplessly at the chubby cub still floundering in the snow, took a deep breath, and a faint earthy-yellow light immediately spread over both hands.
“Merciful Earth Goddess, please grant your child the power of the earth. Gelu shall serve you forever.”
Only after finishing his prayer and receiving the power of earth was Gelu barely able to pull the chubby cub out of the snow. He panted, bending even farther at the waist. There was nothing he could do. This little fatty was simply too heavy. When Gelu noticed the cub staring curiously at his glowing hands, he relaxed somewhat.
He looked around, then, with tremendous effort, carried the cub all the way back to his underground home.
The beastman placed Long Ming on a pile of dried grass. Long Ming lowered his head and stared at his short, plump claws covered in black scales. He moved his little feet—if they could even be called feet. They looked exactly like his hands: five-toed claws covered in scales, with what seemed to be small hooks at the ends. One of them was currently engaged in an inseparable struggle with a scrap of cloth.
Long Ming reached down, tore the rag free, tossed it aside, then looked curiously around the shabby home with wide eyes.
Could this beastman possibly be his relative? But they looked nothing alike. Long Ming had a tail and scales, while the beastman had neither. And what had that light from his hands been just now?
When Gelu finished preparing things and turned around, he discovered that the cub he had found was sitting obediently on the pile of grass, its beautiful big eyes fixed straight on him. Having never spent time with a cub before, Gelu sighed in relief. Looking at it this way, the little thing was actually quite well behaved. While he worked, it neither cried nor caused trouble. A strange feeling of tenderness rose in Gelu’s heart.
Long Ming saw yellow light appear around the beastman’s hands again, and then he was lifted once more. The beastman walked to the iron pot and tried to lower him inside.
Long Ming looked down and saw the hot water. He immediately began struggling.
What was this creature doing? Was he going to boil him alive?
Panic surged through Long Ming. He thrashed harder, his tail whipping everywhere, his claws scratching wildly at the beastman. Gelu suffered miserably as he poured more earth power into his hands and panted with the effort of restraining the wildly flailing cub, completely throwing his tender feelings from a few minutes ago out of his mind.
Obedient, my goblin backside! Why did every cub hate water? Oh. Right. He hated water too.
By the time Gelu finally used every ounce of strength he possessed to lower the cub into the warm water, he was too exhausted even to speak. This chubby little thing was absurdly strong. It had only been born a short while ago!
Long Ming blinked and finally realized the water in the pot was not hot at all. He rubbed himself haphazardly with his claws, and the slime covering his body quickly washed away.
So the beastman had only wanted to bathe him?
Long Ming looked at the beastman collapsed on the ground nearby and felt a tiny bit guilty.
After resting for a while, Gelu painstakingly replaced the bathwater with fresh warm water for this little ancestor of his. Naturally, he was not doing it out of pure kindness. He had to make certain the chubby cub no longer carried the distinctive milky scent of a newborn.
Many magical beasts that went hungry during winter loved newborn cubs most of all. Their flesh was soft and tender, practically melting in the mouth—a rare delicacy. Gelu did not want some magical beast following the scent and finding his fat little cub. His entire retirement plan depended on this creature.
For that reason, Gelu carefully went back and collected all the scattered fragments of eggshell that had fallen in the snow.
Warm firelight filled the cave. Long Ming sat heavily on the dried-grass pile, his little fat legs stretched straight out, and used a short claw to hold a piece of shell as he ate. His tail swished unconsciously behind him. Once he finished, Long Ming looked at the beastman who had remained beside him. He had just opened his mouth to speak when all that emerged was a soft, babyish, “Awooo~”
Gelu looked approvingly at the cub howling at him and casually pulled a handful of little trinkets from beneath his bed. Most were human things: a pocket watch, badges, sword hilts, even silver and copper coins from the human empire, along with broken beads and several booklets. He dumped the whole pile in front of the chubby cub.
Faced with the heap of objects, Long Ming spotted the dusty booklet. He needed knowledge right now. He reached out a claw to pull it toward himself—but when his claw returned, it was clutching a handful of sparkling gemstone chips instead.
Huh?
Long Ming turned his head and discovered that his tail was wagging furiously with excitement. It had swept silver coins and bits of gemstones toward his claws, and his short, fat tail was still working hard to hook a tiny ruby fragment that had fallen farther away.
He lowered his head and stared at the glittering pile of gemstone chips and silver coins. He was even cradling a little handful of them in his claws. The fragments reflected the firelight with such beautiful, enchanting brilliance that they dazzled his eyes—and his heart.
It took Long Ming a very long time to tear his gaze away. He needed knowledge. He could not allow these useless sparkly things to blind him!
So Long Ming forcibly hugged his own tail to keep it from moving, then finally reached out and took the booklet. He flipped through it. The writing looked like ornate Western-style script, but he could not understand it. Long Ming quietly hid the book behind himself, only for his gaze to drift involuntarily toward the gemstone chips and silver coins again. Their tiny points of brilliance glittered beneath the warm yellow firelight like little stars.
They were so pretty.
Long Ming could not resist reaching for the little ruby fragment lying farthest away. Now all the sparkling things were gathered around him. He did not know why that made him so happy, but a huge sense of joy welled up from deep in his heart. Resting his little tail atop the glittering pile, Long Ming held a handful of gem fragments and stared at them through narrowed eyes until, filled with immense satisfaction, he fell asleep.
Sparkly things are so pretty, Long Ming thought before drifting off.