At night, Song Xu lit the fire as usual and boiled hot water by the hearth to drink. After she had absentmindedly covered the nearby rock wall with drawings of little stick figures, she finally turned her gaze toward the quiet snake in the corner.
She made the sound of those rocking rides at supermarket entrances: “Little handsome guy, come play!”
Unlike usual, when she could stir up some movement and lure him over in just a couple of tries, today she called out several times, even sang a song, and still couldn’t call him over.
Could it be that the temperature had started to rise these past two days, and he no longer liked warming himself by the fire? Song Xu leaned closer and discovered that the big snake had completely turned into beast form. His large head—overall oval with a slightly pointed front—was hidden within a coil of his tail, resting on the dried moss padding she had piled there.
These past days, Song Xu had basically always seen him maintaining a half-beastman form, that is, half human and half snake. Only during the brief moments of hunting would he turn into a complete beast form. But right now he wasn’t hunting, so why had he suddenly turned into beast form?
She climbed over his horizontally stretched tail and carefully edged over to his head. “What’s wrong? Don’t want to play? Or are you uncomfortable?”
He didn’t speak, didn’t even hiss. Only his tail swayed slightly.
Song Xu stared at his big head for quite a while. Since she couldn’t see clearly, she brought over a torch, and only then did she notice something unusual.
Those dark-red eyes of the big snake seemed to be covered by a layer of white film, appearing misty, as if clear glass had turned frosted.
Song Xu immediately reacted. “Ah, are your eyes clouded over? Are you about to shed?”
Before shedding, snakes first go through a clouded-eye stage—first the eyes cloud over, then clear up, and only after some time does shedding actually begin. Clouded eyes are a signal that shedding is coming, and also a process of replacing the “eyelids” they use to protect their eyes.
At this stage, a snake’s eyes will turn white.
Song Xu had only ever kept snakes virtually and had never actually raised one herself. Now she had gotten a real snake, but it was a half-beastman—this wasn’t quite the same as the ordinary snakes she knew.
So Song Xu felt a little nervous. She moved the torch away, afraid of irritating this snake who was preparing to shed, and gently, lightly touched his snout.
“Be good, get some good rest. I won’t disturb you, okay.”
Wumu watched her come over, talk to him, and then return to her own spot, behaving with an unprecedented quietness. He was actually somewhat puzzled.
This puzzlement had existed for a long time, ever since the first time he saw this female squirrel beastman.
Even in the ferocious beast tribe where he grew up, as he got older, aside from his mother, very few beastmen dared approach him. The information his snake tongue captured from the air was always the scent of fear secreted by them.
But she—this female beastman—was clearly very weak, yet she wasn’t afraid when she saw him. Her scent was always full of excitement. Whenever she got the chance, she would grab his tail and touch it nonstop. Even when he accidentally bit her into his mouth, there was no fear. She seemed firmly convinced that they were playing.
In the limited knowledge Wumu still remembered, a female beastman and a male beastman who lived together were companions. But he had not hunted for her, nor built a nest for her. On the contrary, she had been doing these things all along.
She tidied up his cave, cleaned the ground, laid down moss and wood shavings, and even tried every day to share food with him. Although he didn’t like to eat it, it was indeed food she had found herself.
These behaviors, in the eyes of beastmen, were things only companions would do, and also behaviors of pursuing someone. So… did she want to be his companion?
Wumu thought about it very slowly for a long time before finally understanding this point.
But then he had even more things he couldn’t understand. How could a female want to become companions with a half-beastman? Half-beastmen were incomplete. If they couldn’t transform into a complete beastman form, sooner or later they would degenerate into completely irrational wild beasts, and in the end might even be hunted by their former tribe members.
He rarely thought about other beastmen anymore. On the rare occasions when he did think, it took a great deal of time. Most of the time, he thought about nothing at all.
This was not Wumu’s first time shedding. In the past, every time he shed, he stayed here alone, slowly waiting for the pain to arrive. He had never seen other snake beastmen and didn’t know whether other snake beastmen also found shedding so painful, or whether it was only like this for him. But half-beastmen experiencing more torment than beastmen was perfectly normal.
Wumu was puzzled, thinking.
Song Xu, meanwhile, was nervous—both expectant and anxious.
First time, no experience at all. What if snake snake had difficulty shedding? She needed to reduce the time she spent going out to play and stay here more to keep watch.
From this day on, Wumu never again changed into his half-beastman form, maintaining beast form the entire time. Song Xu watched him go through clouded eyes, then clear eyes, and then saw white begin to appear over his gorgeous snake body.
At last, he was about to begin shedding.
The rough stone walls inside the cave were covered with traces of where he had rubbed against them. He used these rocks to rub open the snake skin at the opening of his snout. Song Xu squatted nearby, anxiously watching, gripping a protruding stone. “You can do it, baby! You can do it!”
She watched the big snake’s slow movements, heart clenched. Unlike the pet snakes she had seen before at other people’s homes, which shed so easily, this big snake’s shedding was very difficult.
Small, healthy snakes shed in one complete piece. But very large snakes generally cannot shed a whole skin; it comes off in fragments. And if they aren’t healthy enough, shedding becomes even more uncomfortable. If they aren’t fully prepared or the environment isn’t suitable, bits of unshed skin will remain on the body. The big snake in front of her was exactly like this.
Watching him, Song Xu felt as distressed as if her partner were having a difficult childbirth. She couldn’t even chew the tender, juicy, sweet grass stems anymore and just stared at the big snake without looking away.
He seemed to be in great pain, restlessly slithering around the cave. Even the tail that had previously been completely still had begun to thrash. At first, Song Xu wanted to let him handle it himself, but seeing him struggle nonstop like White Lady after drinking realgar wine, she quickly couldn’t bear it anymore and decided to help.
Which snake owner could endure seeing their little cutie suffer so much while shedding and not help? When snake snake had no problems, he could handle it himself. If there were difficulties, then they should help solve them.
She used collected large shells to hold water, mixed in hot water boiled in the stone bowl by the fire to make warm water, then took a handful of clean moss and soaked it. Song Xu moved close to the twisting big snake, soothing him as she spoke, “Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous, I’m here to help you.”
His difficulty shedding might also be because the cave was too dry. Song Xu cautiously approached and used warm water and wet moss to moisten the areas where the skin wouldn’t come off.
His body was too thick. To wet him thoroughly, Song Xu had to run back and forth many times, constantly bringing him water and wet moss.
“It’ll be done soon, just try a little harder.”
The big snake had already shed the eye-cap scales, and his large eyes, looking especially clean, watched her every movement.
Although ordinary snakes were basically half-blind, beastmen were different—he could see. Song Xu moved closer and kept wetting his body. Wumu’s body, flailing chaotically from agitation and pain, didn’t stop. She didn’t mind, dodging while helping him deal with the stuck skin.
Wumu didn’t carefully listen to what she was muttering, but the emotions expressed in her tone could be clearly received. This made Wumu a little dazed. Even his mother, the only one who had ever cared about him, had never given him such soft emotions.
Seeing him staring at her and constantly flicking his tongue, Song Xu asked him, “Do you want to drink some water?”
She was already used to the big snake being dazed. After speaking, she got up to fetch water for him.
She had wanted to see a big snake drink water with her own eyes for a long time! Not in half-beastman form, but in full beast form, because that was just too cute! He would submerge his entire snout into the water, gulp gulp, burying his head to drink—so cute!
In the past, Song Xu could watch snake-drinking-water videos for an entire day. Now she finally got to see it live.
When Wumu was drinking, he heard her making strange laughing sounds beside him. Wumu took two sips, lifted his head to look at her. Song Xu urged him, “Drink more, drink more, hehe!”
Toward her behavior and actions, Wumu felt a kind of inexplicable confusion, yet didn’t know where that confusion came from. Trying to capture that subtle emotion and understand it was too complicated.
By midnight, Wumu had only shed half his skin. Normally, Song Xu would already be asleep at this hour, but today she was still staying by his side, waiting.
Wumu slithered around her, tearing off skin caught on protruding rocks. Occasionally he would stop to rest, and Song Xu would immediately touch his head and neck, cheering him on.
“Baby, you’re amazing. It’ll be done soon. Look how beautiful your scales are after shedding!” At this point, Song Xu had basically completely forgotten that what was under her hands was not her snake, but a half-beastman.
When Wumu occasionally listened carefully to what she was saying, the confusion in his heart only deepened… Why was she talking to him like this? The words he had heard before were things like “scary,” “ugly,” “huge,” and the “good boy,” “baby” she was saying now—were those addressing him?
Because beastman language was very simple, the forms of address Song Xu used, once translated, sounded even more sickeningly sweet to Wumu’s ears.
Song Xu also didn’t know what was going on. Even though her attitude was so gentle, the big snake squeezed his body into the corner, looking as if he didn’t quite dare to approach her.
Song Xu: Am I very scary?
Looking at her own normal hands and feet, small and cute, and then turning into a squirrel—fluffy fur, super cute no matter how you looked at it—so the big snake wasn’t afraid of her. He was just uncomfortable because of shedding!
Before dawn, Song Xu finally couldn’t hold on anymore and fell asleep. At sunrise, Wumu also finished shedding.
In the past, every time after finishing shedding, he would go to the nearby river to roll and soak, washing off the bits of lingering loose skin. This time, because of Song Xu’s help, his body was clean and spotless, and there was no need to go to the river to rinse anymore.
The big snake silently approached the sleeping Song Xu. His raised head stopped in front of her.
She was currently in squirrel beast form, her three-petaled mouth slightly open, cheeks fluffy, with a few whiskers trembling along with her breathing.
The big snake looked at her for a while, then used his snout to nudge her soft, fluffy belly.
The squirrel groggily rubbed her belly, rolled over, and didn’t wake up.
