Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 427: Xiao San’s Early Transformation
The days at the Merman tribe flew by like a whirlwind.
The entire beach was now covered in shallow salt pits, and the tribe was busy working from sunrise to sunset.
Rong Ye and Han Jue were always down at the shore, acting like supervisors and showing the mermen how to scrape the white crystals into baskets.
Back at the cave, Hu Yan, Xuan Long, and Shi Feng made it their mission to treat Su Qinglan like a fragile treasure.
They didn’t allow her to lift a single heavy branch or carry water.
Of course, Su Qinglan didn’t like being idle. She would often push them away from the fire with a huff, insisting on cooking her favorite meals herself.
She also spent her time wandering the nearby forest, collecting wild herbs and fruits to stock up for their journey.
It was just another peaceful afternoon. The three cubs were playing in the tall grass outside the cave, their happy yaps and hisses echoing in the air.
Suddenly, Xiao San, the little snake cub, stopped playing. He slithered toward the cave as fast as his little body could go.
He looked distressed, his tiny tail twitching nervously. He slid into the cave and went straight for Xuan Long.
"Hiss... hiss..." (Father... Father... something is wrong with my body...)
Su Qinglan, who was nearby sorting some dried herbs, noticed her son’s strange behavior.
She couldn’t understand his hissing, but she could see the panic in his tiny eyes. She dropped her herbs and followed him worriedly.
Xuan Long was sitting on a stone bench, skillfully sewing a beautiful dress out of soft white animal skin for his female.
He immediately stopped when he heard his son’s voice. He picked up the little snake, placing him in the center of his palm.
As he looked closer, Xuan Long’s eyes widened. He felt a strange, powerful energy fluctuating from the cub’s body. It was a surge of heat and strength that shouldn’t belong to a tiny snake.
"Xiao San, calm down," Xuan Long said in a deep, urgent voice. "Don’t be afraid. You are going to..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a bright light flashed from the cub’s body.
Su Qinglan blinked, shielding her eyes. When the light faded, the tiny snake in Xuan Long’s palm was gone.
In its place was a small, soft, and completely naked human baby.
Su Qinglan froze, her breath catching in her throat.
The baby had short, silky black hair just like Xuan Long’s, but when he opened his big, blinking eyes, they were the exact shade of light green as her own.
The little boy looked up at them, his tiny hands reaching out to grab Xuan Long’s thumb.
"Xiao San?" Su Qinglan whispered, her voice trembling with shock.
She rushed over and took the baby from Xuan Long’s hands, wrapping him in a piece of soft fur. She couldn’t believe it.
In the beast world, cubs usually took a long time to learn how to transform into their human forms, sometimes two years or more. But Xiao San was around six months old.
"He transformed," Xuan Long said, his voice full of pride and a hint of disbelief. "Our son has already reached the stage of transformation."
The baby let out a soft gurgle and buried his face in Su Qinglan’s neck. He looked so small and precious that Su Qinglan felt her heart melt completely.
"My little Xiao San is a human baby now," she murmured, kissing his forehead.
Just then, the two tiger cubs, Xiao Yi and Xiao Er, tumbled into the cave to see what the fuss was about.
They stopped dead in their tracks, staring at the strange "hairless cub" in their mother’s arms with wide, confused eyes.
On the other hand, Xiao San was clearly thrilled with his new limbs. He reached up with his tiny, chubby hands, grabbing Su Qinglan’s cheeks and pulling her face down to give her a wet, messy kiss on the cheeks.
Su Qinglan’s heart didn’t just melt; it turned into a puddle. "Oh, my little treasure! You’re so handsome!" she squealed, peppers and herbs completely forgotten.
She began kissing his chubby red cheeks so rapidly that the baby started kicking his little legs in pure delight. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
At that moment, Hu Yan and Shi Feng walked into the cave, carrying bundles of firewood and fresh water. Both of them stopped so abruptly that Hu Yan almost tripped over his own feet.
Clatter!
The wood hit the floor. Hu Yan’s jaw dropped so low it looked like it might hit his chest.
"What... what is that?" he stammered, pointing a big finger at the tiny human in Su Qinglan’s arms. "Where did the snake go? Who is this hairless cub?"
Shi Feng was equally stunned. He simply rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Xiao San? That’s a human form. But he’s only six months old. This is a miracle of the Beast God!"
While the adults were in a state of shock, the two tiger cubs, Xiao Yi and Xiao Er, were having a much more critical reaction. They didn’t see a miracle; they saw a weird, pink intruder.
The two tigers began to circle Su Qinglan’s legs, their tails twitching with intense suspicion.
They stretched their necks out, sniffing Xiao San’s dangling toes with deep concentration.
"Meow gruu?" (Why is he so smooth? Where did his beautiful scales go?) Xiao Yi huffed, looking up at the baby with a very judgmental squint.
Xiao Er wasn’t convinced either. He stood on his hind legs, putting his paws on his mother’s knee to get a closer look. He poked Xiao San’s soft stomach with a cold, wet nose. Xiao San just giggled and tried to grab the tiger’s ears.
The tiger cubs looked at each other, their feline faces full of disgust.
In their eyes, their brother had turned into a giant, noisy, hairless caterpillar. Xiao Yi let out a small, mocking sneeze.
He seemed to be saying, "If this is what growing up looks like, I’m staying a tiger forever. At least I have fur to keep me warm."
"Don’t be mean to your brother!" Su Qinglan laughed, swatting at the tigers’ playful paws.
"He’s just reached his transformation early. He’s still the same Xiao San."
Xiao San, feeling very smug in his mother’s arms, looked down at his hairy brothers and blew a big spit bubble right at them. The insult was clear.
Hu Yan finally recovered from his shock and stepped closer, looking at the baby’s black hair and green eyes.
"He looks exactly like a mix of Xuan Long and you, Lan Lan. But he’s so small. Why did he transform so early?"
The shock for them was clear. All the transformed babies they had seen were toddlers or bigger babies, but Xiao San looked like a one year old human baby, which they had never seen. He looked so fragile.
"He is still young, that’s why he looks so small. It’s not like he won’t grow up," Xuan Long said with a calm expression, taking the little baby in his arms. He was clearly the calmest one because he had already known Xiao San would soon transform.
