"Are you messing up with me?"
His low and hoarse voice was scary, but it didn't faze Atasha from contemplating about his state of mind. Like seriously, who's messing with who?
The man phrased his words incorrectly! Shouldn't he be asking first why she would even want to procreate with a random guy, and not just a man, but a beast man whom she just met for the first time?
Admittingly, what happened between her, and the black snake was an honest mistake on her part. She must have been influenced by her unfulfilled urges in the heat of the moment. Having said that now is not the same!
While it was indeed sudden, she didn't dislike the idea of that guy being close to her. Besides, he had treated her well before that! On the other hand, the man in front of her…
Atasha frowned and looked at him unfavorably. He's already acting unscrupulous and rough at their first meeting!
"I..."
*Ding--- dong!
*Ding--- dong!
*Ding--- dong!
Atasha's eyes suddenly dimmed as the sound akin to cathedral bells buzzed loudly in her head.
'I-is it the third warning already?'
The slow banging chimes that only she could hear made her grow nervous with every tick of the clock. Her mind gradually turned fuzzy, the only thing that was running on her head was to eat!
She hasn't eaten anything ever since she got transported here. As someone who had been starved for a day or two, Atasha's mind was filled with the thoughts of consuming anything that would satiate her hunger.
Truthfully, Atasha's condition was not entirely a product of her derelict lifestyle. For the daughter of a nutritional scientist and molecular scientist, who both study the area of nutrigenomics, it's unnatural to neglect one's diet.
When Atasha was born, she was diagnosed with a mysterious illness, they then called taotie physique. Her excessive consumption first appeared after draining her lactating mother dry one night. She was able to consume milk like a bottomless pit whenever her hunger meter struck at a certain point.
Thankfully, a newborn's eating habits can still be tamed. By carefully observing her manner and routine, Atasha's parents made her follow a strict diet and scheduled mealtimes to maintain her normal bodily function and assist her healthy growth.
It all turned out well, not until she reached the age of thirteen…
As a young adolescent, Atasha started to feel conscious about herself. She started to admire and imitate the female idols she saw on TV and followed them like crazy.
Wanting to look good in front of her fiancé, Leo, she stopped adhering to her parents' dietary regimen and limited her food intake thinking it would make her figure similar to the females onstage.
By the time her parents found out, her illness relapsed. It was the first time that Atasha became aware of her condition and had heard of the warning bells that had thrown her to the depths of the abyss. Without any control over her body, the insatiable feeling of hunger consumed her.
Instead of getting the body she longed for, Atasha gradually turned fat and became a target of scorn and bullying. In that same year, her parents went overseas to find her cure and that was when her nightmare truly began.
***
Perhaps due to her bizarre physique and condition, hunger became something that she could not tolerate. Regalus, who was feeling mad about her words, came back to his senses after hearing her stomach grumbling.
'So, she was referring to this when she said she won't reproduce with me?'
He felt ashamed of himself for not realizing her meaning or so he thought.
'That's right, how can she partake in the mating process without energy.'
His dark expression brightened after thinking it through. He saw that Atasha remained standing still in front of him, mumbling words he couldn't understand.
"Strawberry parfait, crème de la crème, strawberry cake, matcha ice cream…"
Atasha is now having hallucinations about her favorite desserts. She swayed her body like a zombie and looked at the cake tower drizzled with toffee fondue in front of her.
Regalus shuddered and became conscious of how the female looked at him.
'Straw… berry… pafey? Strong… very… puffy…? Strong yet very puffy!?'
Regalus was horrified at her sentence and ended up looking at his buffed figure.
'These are all muscles not fat!' he cried in protest.
"Is she… okay?"
Zethus, who couldn't help it, also went closer to check on her. Upon hearing another voice, Atasha turned her gaze and saw the incoming man's milky complexion.
"Mozzarella… I've been waiting for you for so long!" Atasha said almost drooling with heart-shaped eyes.
Zethus stopped in his tracks and looked at the female who was acting weird.
'Mat-se-re-la? Who's that?'
Did she mistake him for someone? He should have properly introduced himself to her. His name is Zethus, not Matserela or whoever that is!
'But why is she looking at me like she wants to gobble me up?' His cold and pale complexion, heated up like a blacksmith's chimney.
"Hey, be careful!"
Without a warning, the girl jumped forward and pounced on him. Thankfully, the white snake caught her in his arms in time but before the two men could feel relieved a distinct chomping sound fell on their ears.
"Haaamp! Hmm… hmm…"
With a two "chomp, chomp" sound, a prickly sensation arose from his bare chest as her teeth sank into his bare white skin. Zethus was frozen stiff and unconsciously straightened his back.
She bit him!
The strange female is trying to eat him!
Beads of cold sweat covered his forehead and palms not knowing whether to move away or stay still in his spot.
"Luckily, I haven't gotten rid of the dried persimmons I acquired from the wandering goblin." Regalus took out a small pouch containing the treats. "Give me the female, I will feed her-hey, why are you puffing off steam?"
Zethus turned to him with his flushed face and teary eyes, "B-brother… Angh!"
The other person looked at him with wide-open eyes unable to make out why his brother was making such an inappropriate expression resembling that of a promiscuous fox, far from his usual frigid persona.
One moment later, a familiar scene emerged and broke into him. Regalus muttered curses under his breath as the reality dawned on him.
He unknowingly crumpled the small leather sack in his hand. His trembling eyes were fixated on his second brother who was being swallowed by a white mist together with the female.
The golden snake man tried to rush in, but an invisible barrier denied his entry.
"Damn it!"
Regalus gathered his strength in his arms and conjured lightning on both sides. He strode forward and struck the barrier, but it only deflected his attack and repelled him with the same force causing him to be thrown and knocked back by a few blocks.
"Argh!" Regalus groaned and coughed out blood due to the impact. His sharp, piercing cat eyes stared mercilessly at the sacred mist like his natural enemy.
His jaws tighten as the area of the white mist grows and stabilizes, blocking his vision from seeing what's happening inside. Two people trapped in a hazy atmosphere, a lone female and a robust unmated adult beast man...
"Why does it have to be Zethus!" Regalus roared and punched the wall creating a huge crack that stretched like a tarantula's web.
No matter how he thinks about it, he just couldn't accept it, nor he would want to imagine what could happen between the two. This freaking anomaly is something out of scripture!
Besides, it should be him in there. The female already expressed her interest in him earlier, right? Why did she grab Zethus and not him?
Regalus felt lost and frustrated. That man is a nut-job, "Shit!"
He was still feeling disgruntled and down on the ground when a rustling sound drew closer to the chamber.
Nemus who had just returned was greeted by an unfamiliar ghastly white steam, which he mistook as a part of his second brother's frosty dominion, coupled with his oldest brother's battered appearance.
"Whoa! What happened to you, older brother? You're all beaten up."
After what he did to him during their fight, the black fellow's attention was filled with gloating over his plight. He can still feel the soreness of his muscles which makes him feel mad at times!
Looking at his sorry state makes him feel a little satisfied. He put down the things he had just toiled and reluctantly aided his brother up.
Regalus clicked his tongue and did not bother with his taunt. The black snake couldn't care less. He shifted his gaze and scanned the chamber as though looking for someone.
Upon realizing the two people's absence, Nemus grew nervous. He turned anxiously to his golden brother and inquired, "Where's the female and second brother!"
Were they kidnapped that's why he's in this condition. Nemus hissed in panic.
"Stupid fool!" Regalus glimpses at the agitated idiot with dissatisfaction. He darted his eyes in the direction of the 'hateful' mist-induced barrier, "Look ahead and think of it yourself."
Regalus leaned his back on the wall and lightly pressed on his bruised abdomen, checking how many broken ribs he had incurred.
Nemus stared blankly at the white mist, thinking what his brother meant.
"White mist…" It took him a while to figure it out since he had no inkling about the things that did not fascinate him.
"White… mist…? Is that a sacred unity mist? How? There's no way!"
Nemus looked at his brother as if he was waiting for him to correct his hunch, but the latter's eyes were cast on the same thing bearing a serious expression.
"Damn it! How did that thing appear out of the blue? What did you guys do!" Nemus bellowed in frustration.
He strode forward to enter its range, but just like Regalus, he was repelled and pushed back. Denied of an entry.
"Ah, shit!"