Chapter 50: Deaf or Dumb
This time Nemo reacted the fastest. He quickly took out the tattered book from the bag besides the goat and handed it to the figure with both hands accompanied by a polite bow.
“We only have this book and music score.” He asked solemnly, “did you lose this?”
As soon as Ann’s hand touched the spear, Oliver’s sword was only half drawn out, and Adrian was already ready to fight. At this moment the, their action solidified, and the scene fell into an awkward silence for a while.
“I look much better than it!” the parrot exclaimed. “Why are you so polite to it?”
The deformed monster didn’t seem to expect this either. It wandered suspiciously a few steps away from Nemo, dragging its hands hard against the ground. Its eyes weren’t visible not white like birds but closer to humans. If they ignored the twisted flesh, they looked like beautiful cyan eyes. It was a pity that its feathers were all sticky, and its skin was full of filth that exuded an unpleasant sour smell. The vague beauty immediately dissipated.
“…Thank you?” there was still a bit of doubt in its voice, and it didn’t get any closer.
“I’ll put it here.” Nemo picked a place with thicker grass and gently put the book on the ground. He felt a bit regretful. Even if it was a fairy tale with an old-fashioned ending, he had only read half of it in the short amount of time. “Come and get it yourself.”
As he retreated, the monster quickly swept back a few steps. It was extremely fast and seemed to be guarding against possible attacks, but nothing happened. It tilted its head, slowly moved to the grass, stretched out its twisted forelimbs, and carefully picked up the book. But that sharp and deformed fingers was not suitable for turning a book, so the tip of its finger almost pierced the already dilapidated book. Fortunately, the monster reacted quickly enough. It deflected its finger and only scratched its palm. Blood gushed out along the wound, bright red, that was very similar to humans.
The monster lowered its head, as tears slowly gathered in its beautiful eyes. It let them drip on the pages of the book. It gave up flipping through the book and clumsily picked it up and held it between its wings and arms, as if it was embracing a fragile soap bubble.