Chapter 117: The Aberrant Creature in the Forest

Since that morning, Thomas had been silently watching the girl.

She was like the man in a Xia Kingdom tale who fretted that the sky might fall—she would gaze up at the sky from time to time, her eyes terribly complex, as if hiding boundless hatred, helplessness, fury…

When facing Miranda and him, she would return to calm.

One day, he was sorting his paintings in the studio and saw Yang Yi through the back window, watering and picking vegetables in the backyard. Her movements were brisk, as if these chores had long become bodily habit. But her thoughts had clearly flown off somewhere—she stood before a patch of lettuce, staring blankly into the distance, lost in thought.

Suddenly, as if drained of strength, she dropped the hose, her body hunched over, both hands covering her face, her body trembling.

A picture frame crashed onto his foot; Thomas started awake, only then realizing he had been watching her the whole time.

Thomas wanted to go downstairs, to say something to the girl, but his footsteps hesitated.

She did not want to tell anyone what had happened.

In the forest, she had not spoken; that morning, she had nearly broken down completely, and still said nothing. After venting, she had drifted back to her bedroom, lost and dazed.

What was the point of asking her again? Thomas thought, almost viciously—since she liked to keep things bottled up inside, let her bear it herself.

Though he thought this, his gaze still followed the girl's figure.

He saw her glance around in a daze, spot the vegetable-picking scissors at her feet, pick them up without hesitation, and stab viciously into her own left arm.

Thomas nearly cried out.

The girl stared blankly at the wound; fresh blood seeped along with the water into the mud. In a short while, the wound healed.

She sat motionless and silent for a while, seeming grieved by her futile act. Then she rinsed her arm and the bloodstain on the ground with the hose, erasing the traces.

Afterwards, she went on watering the vegetables as if nothing had happened.

Thomas suddenly understood—the unspeakable anguish and pain she carried had become unbearable; she needed physical pain to temporarily disperse the attention concentrated upon it.

Thomas recalled that day, her hollow eyes gazing at him: "Do you know? I have no way, I have absolutely no way!"

What on earth could have driven her into such a desperate corner, feeling surrounded by an abyss on all sides?

The weather was nice today, one of those rare brilliantly sunny days. Yet he felt clouds of gloom gathering in his heart.

Suddenly, Miranda hurried in. "Thomas, Polly and Colin are missing. The Huntingtons and the Woolleys are gathering villagers to help search."

"Have the police been called?" Thomas immediately went downstairs. "When did they go missing?"

"The police are on their way. Mrs. Huntington said Polly finished her homework and went to find Colin to play, and never came back. Mrs. Woolley said Polly and Colin said they were going to the village playground; when she finished making lunch and went to the playground to look for them, she couldn't find them anywhere." Miranda said worriedly, "Two kids only seven or eight years old—where could they have run off to? Could they have gone into the forest?"

Thomas frowned and shouted, "Timms! Come here!"

A dog immediately darted out of the garden, ran to Thomas's side, and circled around him.

"Let's go, to the Huntingtons'."

Yang Yi heard the commotion and came out from the backyard. "What happened?" she asked.

Her expression had already returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

"Two little ones in the village are missing; we're going to help search." Thomas said concisely.

He looked at her calm eyes, pressed his lips together, and said nothing.

"I'll go too, to see if I can help." she said.

The three of them arrived at the Huntingtons' house. Mrs. Huntington was anxiously waiting for the police. Hearing Thomas's request, she hurriedly took out the jacket Polly had worn but not yet washed and handed it to Thomas.

Thomas let Timms sniff it, and Timms happily ran outside.

"Miranda, you stay here with Mrs. Huntington. Frisa and I will go look for them." Saying so, Thomas and Yang Yi chased after him together.

On the way they met others who were helping search; nearly the whole village had turned out.

"How many people in the village? Are people searching in all eight directions?" Yang Yi asked.

"Aside from the elderly and children who can't help, there are about forty people, and minus those at work, around twenty-plus. Miranda just said they've already split up."

They followed Timms's trail to the playground. Timms circled around the swings and slide, tilted his head, seeming quite puzzled.

Suddenly, he lowered his head and sniffed the ground in a circle, his body trembling. He lay down on the ground and tucked his head under his front legs, seeming very frightened.

"Timms, what's wrong? Did you find something?" Thomas crouched down to soothe Timms. "Don't be afraid—help us find Polly and Colin, okay?"

A whimpering sound came from Timms's throat; no matter how Thomas scolded him, he would not get up.

"Timms is afraid of something." Thomas said urgently. "Polly and the others must be in danger!"

Yang Yi was silent for a moment, then crouched beside Timms just as Thomas had. As she moved, Timms's body trembled even harder.

Yang Yi reached out and placed her hand on Timms's head, saying softly, "Timms, you must have found something, didn't you? Take us there!" she commanded, pressing her hand down on the dog's head.

With Yang Yi's press on his head, Timms began trembling all over as if sifting chaff, his tail clamped tight between his legs.

Ignoring Thomas's strange look, Yang Yi took Polly's jacket, held it under Timms's nose, and let him sniff it again.

Seeing this action, Timms understood Yang Yi's command. Trembling, he stood up and quickly ran toward the forest.

"Timms is afraid of you." Thomas said. He silently finished the second half in his mind: and far more afraid than of the danger that had taken Polly and Colin.

"Dogs bully the weak and fear the strong by nature." Yang Yi said evenly. Her gaze drifted for an instant, as if falling into memory, but immediately cleared again. "Let's go."

They quickly caught up with Timms.

It was now noon; outside the sun shone brilliantly, but inside the forest it was dark and damp. Timms's pace grew slower and slower, and he would lie on the ground shivering from time to time. If Yang Yi had not kept urging him on, he would likely have turned tail and fled back the way he came.

Yang Yi's nose twitched; she stopped walking and listened carefully to sounds in the distance.

After a moment, she pretended nothing was wrong and said to Thomas, "You and Timms go back and get the police. The forest is so big—the two of us are too few."

Thomas raised an eyebrow, pulled his phone from his pocket, and dialed the emergency number in front of her, reporting his location. Then he tucked the phone back into his pocket. "Let's go!" he said.

Yang Yi sighed helplessly and grabbed his arm. "Listen to me—it's very dangerous here, there are aberrant creatures. Go back quickly!"

Before her words had faded, from deeper in the forest came a roar that seemed to come from some ancient beast.

The forest erupted; countless wild animals burst out from the depths—squirrels, foxes, deer, wolves, leopards, pheasants, brown bears… Many of them were clearly predator and prey, yet now they thought only of fleeing.

They passed by without even pausing.

Timms whimpered once, no longer caring about his master beside him, and turned tail and fled.