章 48: Beast City?

Jessica looked into the distance after crossing some large bushes with a smile, but she instantly became frozen when she saw a lion with a freshly hunted deer hanging in his mouth with dripping blood at a distance of forty meters, looking around enquiringly.

For a moment, she forgot to breathe because it was the first time that she saw a wild animal other than Cera, and this suddenly brought an innate fear inside her. Jessica noticed the dead deer, and the first thought that came to her mind was that she definitely didn't want to end up in that same position!

Since the animal in front of her was a lion, she was sure that he didn't have anything to do with her pet, so the best and only possible way to prevent her early death was to escape as soon as possible, but the doubt that she would be able to outrun a real lion was genuine.

Jessica calculated the distance between her potential predator and herself without moving; this relieved her heart because she wasn't close, so she decided that instead of running, it'd be best if she could go away silently, without alarming the lion, so she took a step back very carefully, but maybe luck wasn't on her side today because her very first step snapped a twig into two while creating that cracking sound that somehow sounded pretty louder than usual.

The sound instantly made the lion look in Jessica's direction, who was stupefied because of her mistake as cursing words left her mouth, "fuck!"

Jessica noticed that the moment Lion looked at her, the deer he was holding in his mouth dropped to the ground. This stimulus was enough for Jessica's reflex action to come into force because she instantly turned around and started running in a random direction while screaming "BLAZE! LEVI! ELEANOR!" as loudly as she could.

Jessica didn't even once try to look back because from the sound she could tell she was being chased, and that too at a pretty fast pace. Somehow, this fact made her run at an insane speed without paying mind to what was passing because the fear that was getting bigger inside her because of the nearing of that dashing sound was definitely something she really didn't want to experience again! Not even in her dreams!

Jessica screamed again. "BLA-" But before she could finish, her foot became stuck in a raised tree root, causing her to miss her step and start falling down.

Jessica doesn't know why, but she felt like everything was happening in slow motion because she was literally seeing how she was going to hit her face directly on the ground.

She instinctively closed her eyes while covering her face with her hands as she waited for the obvious, which was her fall and her becoming prey... but she suddenly felt an arm around her waist, which stopped her midway through the fall.

Jessica instantly opened her eyes on that unfamiliar touch, but the first thing she saw was a big black python and a majestic white tiger who came dashing from the forest and halted at some distance. At the very same moment, a phoenix who was flying above turned into a handsome guy as he landed on the ground looking worried.

Levi and Blaze turned back into their beastmen form, and the moment they looked at her, their worried look instantly turned into a relieved one as they both sighed in relief. Blaze looked at her with a smile as he took a step in her direction while saying, "Oh! C-" but was stopped by Ell, who instantly covered his mouth with his hand to stop him from completing his words.

Jessica took a relieving breath after seeing the familiar faces, so she finally looked down at the muscular arm with a pale skin tone holding her.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" A sound came from behind her; the tone was soft and the voice sounded pretty calm.

Jessica instantly stabilised herself by standing straight with the help of 'the arm'. She turned to look at the owner of that voice, who was the prettiest man she had ever seen.

The guy standing behind her was tall, just like her fiances, with a wonderful muscular build and a skin tone even paler than Blaze and Levi's. He had pretty long wavy golden blonde hairs , which were looking even more mesmerising under the sun's rays.

She looked at his face to find that he had pretty chiselled facial features and beautiful thin pink lips, while he was looking at her with his beautiful and deep sapphire eyes with surprise and curiosity.

Both of them looked into each other's eyes, and when Jessica realised that she was still holding onto his arm, she immediately let go of it as she distanced herself from him. She slightly bowed her head as she said, "Thank you for saving me from falling," which instantly surprised the guy in front of her because he told her that it was nothing, and with this, it got pretty quiet between the two of them.

Because of the distance, Jessica was able to get a good look at the guy when she noticed two golden-colored lion ears on his head and a long golden fleece skirt with something like a cape on his back, which instantly made her realise that he was the lion whom she had misidentified as a wild animal, and now that it was confirmed that he was a besatman, she recalled that the lion's fleece was indeed pretty golden, unlike wild lions, and his size was definitely larger than the wild species even when he was standing pretty far away.

The reason she didn't notice earlier was just because she was so busy creating a plan for her escape that she missed those pretty details.

"If both of you are done, then shall we go back?" Ell suddenly asked in a pretty loud voice to attract their attention.

Jessica instantly reacted and turned around to walk toward her fiances when the new guy asked, "Can you tell me your name?" which made her halt and look back at the same time.

She noticed a slight pink hue on his already beautiful face as he looked at her with some anticipation, which surprised Jessica because it was the first time she met him, but she still replied, "My name is Jessica; what is yours?"

Her question instantly brought a glow to the new guy's face; he smiled and took some steps in her direction. He kneeled on one knee in front of her and stretched out his hand in front of her with a look of anticipation.

Somehow, this whole situation made Jessica recall the day Ell took her for a flight, so she knew what he was trying to do, but still, for confirmation, she looked back towards her fiances to find that they were having a pretty neutral expression, so she hesitantly placed her hand in that guy's hand.

Jessica's response instantly brought a calm smile to his face. He gently held her hand as he touched it to his forehead, after which he looked into her eyes and said, "My name is Carl, Fourth Prince of the Thousand Beast City, introduces himself" in a pretty confident, heroic voice, just like a prince, and Jessica thought he indeed looked like one; after all, isn't that the description they use to make princes in children's story books?

Jessica smiled at his words; she said while retracting her hand, "Nice to meet you, Carl," and looked towards the trio with confusion because it was the first time she heard the name 'Thousand Beast City'.

Her message was perfectly received by all of them, so Ell replied, "That place is just a slightly bigger gathering of beastmen living on the ground." leisurely, as he walked toward her.

Jessica looked again at Carl, who got up from the ground and gave a sigh while looking at Ell.

Ell took Jessica's hand, which was being held by Carl, and kissed it. While sneering at Carl, he deliberately tried to lick her hand, which definitely made Cral's nerves tighten, but he held it within and tried to look away, but to his surprise, the beautiful female retracted her hand as she said, "Elaenor! Stop acting childish!" which in turn made Ell smile as he chuckled; he instantly apologised and placed his head on her shoulder, but the female ran into Blaze's arm as she told him, "Blaze! "Transform fast, we have to go back before Ell catches us!" cheerfully, which indeed made Blaze turn back into his beast form as he dashed away with the beautiful female on his back.

Ell turned into a big phoenix and chased the duo via air while Levi was looking at the departing image of Blaze and Jessica with a soft and calm smile, which was something Carl had never seen.

Levi looked toward Carl and said, "What are you waiting for?" teasingly and slithered into the forest after transforming into a big black python.

Carl gave a helpless smile because he is sure that the beautiful female has definitely changed everyone, and that too for the better, and with this he instantly turned into a big golden lion and also went behind everyone while recalling the moment he felt her presence.

When he was coming back from the Thousand Beast city, he suddenly felt an unknown presence in their dark forest territory, so he started searching for it.

Only after getting more inside the territory did he realise that there was the scent of a female in the air, and that too of a sweet smelling female. It would have been easy for him to find the trespassing female if only her scent wasn't mixing in a pretty irritating herb scent, which was making it hard for him to locate a particular place, but to his surprise, the female in question herself came in front of him,

and he has to agree that the moment he saw her, he really felt as if he was hallucinating because he had never seen a female this beautiful, and the most beautiful thing was her eyes because not even in a single clan had he seen someone with those beautiful and mysterious amethyst eyes.

But he noticed that she was horrified after looking at him, which greatly surprised him because it was the first time that a female showed that expression to him.

He wanted to step forward and ask her the reason, but before he could've done that, he noticed that she turned around and started running more into their territory, which made him alarmed because he was worried that if his brothers find her, it definitely won't end with just her leaving all sound and safe because he knew what kind of beast Levi is when it comes to someone trespassing their territories. The worst part wasn't just his killing spree but his weird hobby of collecting beastmen's skins if they caught his attention.

Carl increased his speed because he couldn't let that beautiful female get into Levi's arm because he hates females. Even though Carl knew that even Levi wouldn't be able to take his eyes off the goddess looking female, but he still couldn't take any chance when suddenly he heard the female calling those familiar names, which surprised him.

He increased his pace because he wanted to ask the female about how she knew those names when he noticed her clothes and the snake skin covering her lower half. This instantly caught her attention because he suddenly realised the fact that maybe she had already met the others and that the snake leather was a prominent proof that even Levi wasn't able to resist her just like himself.