Under the street lights, Hao Ren picked up the wolf fur which he found on the ground. Despite being drenched in cold sweat, he managed to regain his composure quickly thanks to the ‘training’ he had in numerous past encounters . He first wanted to make sure that there were no other suspicious signs within the vicinity—a lesson he learned while spending the previous two days with Lily and Vivian. The presence of ‘the other kind’ could usually be detected simply by identifying the characteristic signs and phenomena. For example, the breath and beastly smell of a werewolf or the blood-tinged chill of a vampire. He felt that the dream had to somehow be related to ‘the other kind’ (after all, he had bumped into many of them during the last couple of days) although, his sixth sense detected no trace of any anomalies.
"Landlord?" Lily looked at him, her eyes appeared unusually bright and spooky in the dark. "What’s wrong?" she asked.
"Did you find anything amiss?" Hao Ren knew that the wolf was a highly vigilant creature. He could still vividly remember the moment of the wolf’s attack in his dream.
Lily got down on the floor and sniffed around carefully. After that, she got up and shook her head. "None that I could find. Everything is as usual. You saw something unusual?"
"Never mind, let’s head back." Hao Ren took the wolf fur in his hand as he headed back home. Lily carried the deckchair and followed cluelessly from behind.
Back in the living room, Hao Ren sat on the sofa looking solemn and quiet. Sitting across him were Lily and Vivian who did not have a clue what was brewing in his mind. An old coffee table had been placed in the middle by Hao Ren as the previous one was wrecked by Lily and Vivian earlier on. Placing the wolf fur on the table, Hao Ren confessed to Vivian, "I saw something strange."
He talked about the strange dream he had in great detail. He told them especially about the vast grassland and two silver moons, hanging in the sky. "I got this when I woke up from the dream. I may have taken a shortcut to the other side or mastered reality warping superpowers," he joshed, pointing at the wolf fur.
Vivian did not find it amusing. She raised her eyebrows while picking up some of fur from the table. "It has the smell of an animal, not of black magic. This is definitely animal hair. Hey, big dog! Can you please confirm this?"
"Okay!" Lily took the wolf fur. "It smells very different from what I know. It has a different scent... the smell of another city—a mixture of soil and grass in it. This subtle variance can only be picked up by werewolves." Then suddenly, it hit her. She banged the table as she lashed out at Vivian, "Wait a minute, who did you just call a big dog?!"
"Oh c’mon, be gentle!" Hao Ren pleaded. The old table could have met with the same fate as the tea table if Lily was in a transformed state instead. He turned to Vivian, "So, what do you think? Was it some kind of magic?"
"It’s pretty simple to explain if it’s just a dream; sorcery and hypnotism could have achieved the same thing." Vivian’s eyebrows were still raised. "I could build a dream world big enough for hundreds to dream in without them realizing it was a dream. If one was creative enough, the person would believe he had made it to the other side. But I still can’t explain the object you brought out from the dream. As far as I know at least, there isn’t any magic which could have done that. It couldn’t possibly be magic. The dark side is a much more complicated world than I had imagined."
"Maybe, it could be this..." Lily eagerly interjected. "First, he was induced into a premeditated dream by way of sorcery or hypnosis, and the wolf fur could have been planted in his hand while he was asleep..."
"Oh please, can you say something more constructive?" Vivian chimed in before Lily could finish her sentence.
However, Hao Ren found that what Lily said was completely plausible. Her simple mind aside, her theory was a perfect explanation for what could have been an unsolvable mystery. Sometimes complex questions had simple answers.
Nonetheless, Lily had already ruled out the involvement of ‘the other kind’ so, her argument that it was a premeditated act did not hold up.
"I’m sure that what I got into was of something unusual; as sure as I am that God made little, green apples." Hao Ren sighed. "That’s just fate. Whatever comes, let it come but before that, I need to take a break!"
Both Lily and Vivian had learned that Hao Ren was conned into signing a fishy employment agreement with the self-proclaimed Goddess. Vivian was a smart girl—way smarter than Lily. She could see in Hao Ren the quality of extraordinary adaptability and guts as well as the ability to think on his feet despite his humble background as a sluggish youth, who wanted no trouble. Yet, Vivian did not know any ways to make him a superhuman overnight.
"Did Raven 12345 leave you any cheat codes or something?" Lily asked as she laid her face on the table. "I read from human novels that if you work for a God, the God will provide you with some kind of personal protective gears?"
"Hmm, she may have forgotten. I didn’t ask either," he said as it just crossed his mind. "I’ll ask when I see her. Anyway, I tried to call but I couldn’t reach her cellphone. I guess another trip to that place is necessary. I have a goddamn feeling that the Space Administration is a broken reed."
"You already had your first, strange dream. You need to fix the problem right at the source. I think it’s a day late and a dollar short now. As per sorcery norms, you’ll continue to experience the same dream again unless, you’re a bullfrog that doesn’t sleep." As Vivian talked, she slowly shapeshifted into a vampire. "I’ll give you an amulet. It will protect you from whatever sorcery or black magic."
The many talismans she wore caught Hao Ren’s eyes. "Do those things even work?" he asked cheekily.
"Who said that I was going to give you that?" Vivian’s eyebrows were raised. "What I mean is the power of the Blood Clan!"
Without hesitation, Vivian bit her finger and a drop of golden red blood was seen coming out from her fingertip. "Come over, I’m going to rub it on the back of your hand. It’s powerful enough to stop the worst sorcerous dream."
Hao Ren hesitantly reached out and looked on as Vivian rubbed the blood onto his hand. "Legend has it that vampire blood can help turn humans into vampires. So, am I being turned right now?"
"Not in a million years," she sneered. "Humans believed that a vampire bite is the vampire’s way to reproduce. If that’s true, we wouldn’t have to endure the persecution from the monster hunters and the church. We would have taken over the world since the bronze age."
While relating the history of human’s brutal persecution of the vampires, Vivian as a vampire herself, did not show signs of hostility towards Hao Ren.
"That’s impossible!"
Vivian yelled as she was shocked to see the drop of blood had disappeared the moment it made contact with Hao Ren’s hand.
The blood was completely absorbed.