Seeing her panicked little face, Cassias nudged Zerra, who instantly threw the pipette away and turned around, clutching Cassia’s arm as an instinctive gesture.
"It’s fine, Zee..." He brushed her fur, which was raised because of fright.
She remembered that in her last memory she was heading to her room. However, she wasn’t in her own room. Instead, she ended up in her parents’ room in fox form!
Her little fox brain instantly guessed what had happened.
Cassias was fine. Even though she didn’t like how nonchalant he was about it. She was relieved and kind of annoyed at the same time. However, if it was her parents... would they accept her?
When her parents saw the fear in her eyes, their hearts clenched. They instantly knew what she was thinking about.
"Your parents already know. They are worried about your condition, so they called me." Cassias stepped in, bringing her back to the pillow and handed her over to her parents. "Don’t be anxious."
"Don’t be afraid. You are still cute no matter what." Alaric gave encouraging words.
Nerith nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "You are the cutest fox ever."
The fear in Zerra’s eyes faded, slowly replaced by curiosity. She opened her mouth, but the only sounds coming out were small, squeaky yips.
Her temples twitched. She forgot she couldn’t speak in her fox form. She blinked, then turned to Cassias, who had taken his chair closer to them.
He always knew what she was trying to say. Maybe he was a fox spirit in his previous life too, cunning with a lot of insidious plots in his head.
Cassias cleared his throat.
Zerra grimaced. He wouldn’t know she was slandering him in her head, would he? But looking at that impassive face, it shouldn’t be. When he plotted someone’s murder, he was usually smiling.
She let out soft, squeaky yips. Like a little hamster chattering away. Then, with gleaming eyes, she waited for Cassias to translate it for her parents.
"Zee says that her condition is fine. She never feels discomfort when she is in her fox form, so you don’t need to worry about it too," Cassias said.
Zerra nodded in confirmation. It was exactly what she wanted to say. Then, she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. She almost forgot about it if it weren’t for the circumstances.
How did Cassias always know what she wanted to convey? This man wasn’t the worm in her stomach.
As if her parents could read her mind too, Alaric turned to Cassias with a slightly questioning look. "You... how can you understand what Zee wants to say?"
Cassias seemed to have prepared an answer. "I have mental power, so I can detect what she means through soul resonance, like spirit communication but through sounds. I can understand what she wants to say as long as I use my power."
Zerra tilted her head. She let out a few soft yips, questioning him.
Cassias raised his eyebrows and explained. "No, I actually can not understand if they are normal animals. They generally have low intelligence, and their thoughts are mostly chaotic."
She blinked. Was it like brain wave communication? But it also didn’t seem so.
"Maybe because Zerra is also a human." Cassias added, clearing a bit of her doubt. It made sense and didn’t seem that absurd anymore.
Alaric was disappointed when he heard that. He couldn’t talk to Zerra directly when she was in fox form. "When can she turn into a human again?"
Zerra spoke again, explaining. Then, she turned to the translator.
"The transformation is out of her control. She could turn into a human or fox anytime." Cassias answered. He added his own conjecture. "But I noticed that most of the time, Zee would instantly turn into a fox when she got too exhausted."
"She would need to restore the energy she had used." With that, Cassias took out a crystal core and handed it over to Zerra, who immediately clutched it with her paw. She startled nibbling on it.
Nerith’s heart almost jumped out of her chest when she saw that. The crunching sound was...
"How can she eat something ? Would it hurt her mouth?" She frowned, almost reaching out to stop Zerra from gnawing on that stone.
Zerra stopped when she noticed her mom’s horrified expression. She held up the crystal core with her paw and waved it in an attempt to soothe her.
Cassias, afraid he would be misunderstood, hurriedly explained, "Crystal cores are actually beneficial for Zerra when she is in her fox form. It’s just that she shouldn’t eat it when she is in her human form."
"She also can’t eat human food when she is a fox," Cassias added.
He wondered whether he had seen it wrong. Zerra’s parents were one second away from kicking him out had he not explained it clearly. He felt like he was a stranger who lured children away with candy and let them eat junk food...
Zerra was taken aback. Cassias really knew a lot about her, and he even remembered such a minor detail.
Alaric’s countenance turned serious when he saw the crystal core in Zerra’s hand. He was determined to get more so that Zerra wouldn’t need to get her snack from others.
Seeing that her parents’ frowns were eased, she stopped playing with the crystal core in her paw and began eating again.
"Are you also an ability user?" Alaric suddenly recalled something.
Cassias nodded. "I am a dual user, lightning and mental power. Actually, all of us are ability users. Zerra has space ability..." The source of thɪs content is novel✦fire.net
He listed Laziel and Nyra’s power under Nerith and Alaric’s astonished gaze. All of them had awakened powers.
Now, only Nerith didn’t awaken any power in this house. Alaric grasped her fingers and gave them a gentle squeeze to soothe her.
"Zerra has space ability..." he murmured. The rings she gave them have space inside. Was it related to her ability? But humans didn’t awaken their power until the beginning of the apocalypse.
There were a lot of supplies on the space ring too. Oh, speaking of supplies, Alaric recalled a small detail Cassias had just told them.
"Zerra can eat human food when she is in her human form, right? Why can’t she eat it when she is in her fox form?" His face was full of bewilderment.
He wanted to make sure that Zerra didn’t say that because she wanted to be frugal. The supplies in his space ring alone could last them a few years. They could also find more in the meantime.
Zerra felt like the words were stuck in her throat. Cassias also fell silent.
The question finally came. She dreaded it the most because she had to tell she was no longer human.
A moment later, she sighed. She turned to Cassias and let him tell her parents what was wrong with her.
Actually, she was afraid that she would infect them too if she stayed too close to them. She didn’t want to hurt her parents. Cassias was special because he was the male lead with protagonist halo. No matter how many times she bit him, he still stayed as a cunning human—no signs of zombie transformation.
"Is it something serious?" Nerith’s shoulders tensed again. Alaric also turned serious.
Cassias took a deep breath. "Actually, Zerra has become a zombie."
Immediately, there was pin-drop silence.