I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 40: Why Are Crocodiles So Nice?!
But after she said that, she suddenly saw more crocodiles rising to the surface.
The sight was so shocking that Roxanna almost blacked out. Each of them was huge with long bodies that looked like they could reach ten meters or more.
What terrified her even more was how easily they had been hiding under the water. She hadn’t even sensed them at all until they chose to show themselves.
[So last night... did these crocodiles hear me moaning?!] Roxanna panicked inwardly. [I was so loud! Azul even had to kiss me to muffle my voice, and... and they heard it?!]
Zeir and Cyrus’s calm expressions cracked for a moment. Every time Roxanna thought about what had happened last night, the more they wanted to ban Azul from getting close to her for at least a month.
Besides, why did the crocodiles have the privilege of hearing her moans, while they could only imagine it?! They wanted to hear it too!
"Zeir! Zeir! I don’t think they’re all friendly!" Roxanna hid behind Zeir’s back again, her face turning pale as paper when the crocodiles began crawling toward her.
They growled so loudly it sounded like the dinosaurs she often saw in movies, the kind of sound that made her hair stand on end. One crocodile was already scary enough, let alone dozens of them.
"They won’t hurt you," Zeir reassured her. "Just like Zoey, they only want to greet you."
Roxanna stiffened in place, because she often heard in documentaries, crocodiles attacked people who panicked.
"They like you," Cyrus finally stood up and walked to stand directly behind Roxanna. "Look. They even brought you something."
Some of the crocodiles opened their jaws, and at that moment, Roxanna saw that they were holding many pebbles in their mouths.
The pebbles were slightly oval and shiny, their colors varied—white, greenish, bluish, and brown—and they reflected light when the sunlight hit them.
[I swear I’ve never seen crocodiles do something like this in documentaries,] Roxanna thought.
She had heard that birds or penguins sometimes gave stones to those they liked, but crocodiles? Roxanna had never seen or even heard of such a thing.
But then again, this world was completely different from her own, so it was only natural that animals here behaved differently. Besides, beastkin, perhaps, could form bonds with animals far deeper than humans ever could.
"That’s... that’s adorable!" Roxanna said softly.
The fear in her heart slowly faded as she looked at the colorful pebbles. Her eyes softened, and her brows relaxed as she looked at the crocodiles again.
"Go on, you can take the pebbles," Zeir said softly, gently pulling her hand so she would stop hiding behind him.
Roxanna held her breath and stiffened again when she heard Zeir’s words. Take the pebbles? Did that mean she had to take the pebbles from inside the crocodiles’ mouths?!
That was like playing Jenga! One wrong move and her hand would be gone, if not forever, then at least for a while.
However, she couldn’t possibly refuse gifts given to her, even if the givers were crocodiles.
That was why Roxanna hesitantly walked toward them. But before she could crouch down or reach out, the crocodiles gently lowered their heads and dropped the pebbles onto the ground in front of her.
Some of them even pushed the pebbles closer with their snouts, as if afraid she might not notice them.
"You put them down because you didn’t want to scare me?" Roxanna asked softly, deeply moved by the fact that these animals wanted to show her they weren’t a threat.
[How can crocodiles behave like this, while some humans can hurt me without thinking twice?] Roxanna pondered.
She looked at the pebbles again, then at the crocodiles. At that moment, all of her fears disappeared, and she suddenly had the urge to hug the crocodiles right then and there. Of course, she wasn’t brave enough to do that yet.
"Azul must treat you really well for you to be such kind crocodiles," Roxanna said softly. She reached out and gently patted their heads, one by one. "Thank you for being friends with him too."
Azul was the only water beastman among her husbands, so it was natural that he sometimes felt lonely, since land animals wouldn’t want to spend long periods of time in the water like him. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Luckily, these crocodiles could spend a long time in the water with Azul, keeping him company.
As Roxanna watched the crocodiles more closely, she suddenly thought of something a little shameless.
"Mr. Crocodile..." Roxanna spoke to the largest crocodile among them. It stood beside Zoey and had brought her the most pebbles earlier. "I know this is a very shameless request, especially since we just met... but I really need something from the bottom of the river."
She gave an awkward smile. "Could you and your fellow friends help me get some river stones from the riverbed? We want to build something in our hut."
The crocodiles, of course, didn’t give any answer other than a low growl, and Roxanna couldn’t tell whether that growl meant yes or no.
Not long after, one by one, they sank back into the river, and for a moment, Roxanna thought they were leaving because they were annoyed with her.
But to her surprise, the crocodiles soon resurfaced, each carrying river stones from the bottom of the river. They placed the stones along the riverbank, making it easy for Roxanna and her husbands to collect them.
"Oh my... you’re so kind!" Roxanna clapped her hands several times, completely surprised that there would ever be a day when crocodiles helped her.
Thanks to them, Roxanna finally obtained high-quality river stones that she could use to build a fire stove in her hut.
"Wow, that one is huge!" Roxanna exclaimed when the biggest crocodile brought up a large stone. "Mr. Crocodile, thank you for your help, and please send my gratitude to your fellow crocodiles as well. I’ll bring you gifts someday!"
Roxanna couldn’t hold back and finally gave Mr. Crocodile and Zoey a brief hug. She even kissed their snouts, making Zeir and Cyrus feel jealous because they had never been kissed by their wife before!
