Anomalous Creatures

As soon as the plane took off, Lily and Michelle seemed to have switched personalities.

At home, Lily was always the lively one, a werewolf girl full of energy and curiosity. She would enthusiastically study anything she saw for a long time, even picking up a rock on the street and putting it in her mouth to test its hardness if no one was around. On the other hand, Michelle was much more mature and steady, and although she was constantly unlucky, the vampire girl always maintained her special pride and reserve as a "vampire," appearing much more composed than Lily.

But now, their behaviors were completely opposite: Lily was lying comfortably in the spacious first-class seat, waiting for her meal while casually searching for interesting programs on the LCD TV beside her. Meanwhile, Michelle was excitement itself, clinging to the airplane window and gaping at the clouds racing by outside. After a long time, she exclaimed, "Oh, we're really flying! And so high!"

Embarrassingly enough, this was also Kevin's first time flying on a plane. He could understand Michelle's current reaction, but he couldn't help but say, "You can fly normally, so why are you so surprised?"

"Flying by myself is different from this!" Michelle said confidently, "And I usually don't fly this high. Flying too high can easily attract lightning, and high-altitude, low-temperature clouds are dangerous. Once, I flew too high when I wanted to study the stars in the sky, and I got frozen into a big block of ice and fell down. Because of that, I was almost discovered by demon hunters, so I rarely fly above a thousand meters since then."

Kevin pursed his lips and looked puzzled. "So did you travel around the world by low-altitude flying? Aren't you afraid of being shot down by arrows?"

"When traveling around the world? Sometimes I fly, sometimes I walk. Anyway, my physical strength is stronger than humans, and time is not a problem, even walking around the Eurasian continent wouldn't be difficult for me," Michelle said proudly. "And it's not like I never fly high. When I encounter demon hunters, I still have to hide in the clouds. Demon hunters rarely have the ability to deal with high-altitude targets. By the way, speaking of arrows, I'm not afraid of them. Welsh longbowmen can't hit me. Do you think how far can it fly when shooting upwards? Actually, I was accidentally shot down by an anti-aircraft gun once during World War II..."

Kevin was stunned, while Michelle patted her chest with a lingering fear. "Wow, your humans are too skilled at creating these dangerous things. Not long ago, you were still throwing stones at each other, fighting with swords and spears, and relying on prayer to save lives from headaches and fevers. But in the blink of an eye, you can launch more than ten tons of steel plates into the sky. I thought the anti-aircraft gun was a new type of catapult. If it had hit me in the face, I might have become the vampire with the most fancy way to die in the world if I hadn't dispersed into bats in time."

The first time flying in an airplane made Michelle, the poor vampire, a bit excited, so these embarrassing secrets that shouldn't be casually mentioned came out one after another. At first, Kevin could still communicate with the girl with a smile, but later, he could only stare and listen in silence: Some things were completely beyond his understanding, and he didn't even know how to make a facial expression!

When Michelle mentioned that an old acquaintance of hers had been killed by a meteor while joyriding over North America, Kevin decided to change the topic and turned to Lily. "You seem quite at ease. Do you often fly on airplanes?"

The werewolf girl lazily looked up and smiled. "I rode on the old Stinson airplane back in the day."

Kevin was puzzled. "What's that?"

Michelle sat up trembling. "From the Republic of China era... How rich were you back then?!"

"I couldn't afford a plane ticket from the Republic of China era either," Lily waved her hand. "But I could squeeze into the machine compartment, or the luggage rack. For the last leg of the journey, I was even hanging outside the airplane. Security wasn't as advanced back then, and no one inspected those places too much. And with my skills, it was very easy to bypass ordinary people's eyes. The only difficult part was landing at the station. I had to jump down early. Although I wouldn't die from the fall, it was pretty scary."

Kevin exclaimed immediately. "Duh, a normal person like you hitching a ride like that would be dead halfway!"

Lily stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, I gained experience from that time. So, as I said, this bat is too rigid. Sometimes, she's not as smart as me. You don't know how to make good use of your physical abilities."

Michelle turned her face away. "I don't think hanging outside an airplane to evade the ticket is something to be proud of."

Even though she said that, she couldn't help but discuss with Lily. Their main topic was how to safely hang onto various human transportation modes. Lily taught Michelle how to sneak into the luggage compartment, while Michelle taught Lily how to dodge anti-aircraft artillery. They were all topics that sounded completely unreliable to Kevin. But no matter how unrealistic the topics were, these two rivals finally reached a temporary truce in this bizarre area: They were both quite interested in these outrageous things.

Looking at Lily with a happy expression, Kevin thought that this werewolf girl was probably much more impressive than she looked. Hanging outside a passenger airplane and flying over half of China wasn't scary. What was scary was that she dared to do it during the Republic of China era. How many horrifying experiences did this seemingly dimwitted girl have behind her? Kevin thought about modern Chinese history and immediately didn't want to think any further.

The rest of the trip was silent. This strange trio flew in the sky for eleven hours and finally arrived at their destination, Heathrow Airport in London, on a cool and breezy morning.

Kevin dragged Lily, who was almost asleep, and Michelle, who was full of energy, out of the terminal. He took a deep breath of the cold air in this foreign land and exhaled slowly: "It seems there's no difference from the air back home..."

Michelle looked up at the sky. It was still early in the morning, and it wasn't fully light yet. The weak morning sun was slowly spreading from beyond the horizon. A layer of mist like covered the sky, making the already dim daylight even darker. The streets of this foreign land, the chilly morning breeze, and the dim morning sun in the mist - these three elements might make ordinary people feel depressed, but they were just to Michelle's liking, the vampire girl. She nodded satisfactorily. "This kind of sunshine is just right, good for the skin. I've been sunburned badly these past few days. Have you ever seen a vampire come out to bask in the sun all day?"

Kevin rolled his eyes back at her. "Duh, have you ever seen a vampire go out to look for a job all day?"

Michelle awkwardly scratched her face and then tried to change the subject. "Er... speaking of which, the scenery here looks a bit strange. It's not quite what I imagined England to be like."

Lily, with her sleepy eyes still open, couldn't resist making a remark. "You couldn't even afford a plane ticket before. How could you possibly know the way to the airport!"

Kevin suddenly felt a sense of crisis for no reason, and Michelle's next words confirmed his feeling. "That's not what I meant. I meant... er, in my memory, this place should be all wasteland or rocky beaches... if my vampire's sense of direction is correct."

Kevin almost choked on his breath. He finally understood what had been bugging him since they left: "When was the last time you came to England?!"

Michelle thought for a while and slowly lowered her head. "I remember there was someone called the Lionheart or something who was fighting a war..."

Kevin's mouth opened nearly into a perfect circle, and he almost sat down on the ground in shock: "That's in the freaking year 1190!"

It was evident that Kevin's knowledge of world history was quite good.

"How could you be this dumb sometimes?" Kevin rubbed his chin and looked at Michelle in disbelief. He never expected someone to be this confused. Even if there was someone like that, it should be Lily, the ditzy one.

"I've lived for so many years, can't you allow me to make a few mistakes in some details?" Michelle tried to make her voice sound more authoritative, but in the end, she lowered her head. "You know I'm a bit forgetful, right?"

"So what do we do now?" Kevin felt a bit lost. Perhaps if it was someone who traveled frequently and had seen the world, they might handle this situation better. But Kevin was a true homebody who had never been far from home. Now, his only reliance for translation and guidance was as lost as he was. And his task was to go to a small, unknown rural place in a foreign country, to find a "client" whose name and appearance were unknown. His first task since taking office was indeed a bit tricky.

Michelle gritted her teeth: "It's okay. At least I speak the language. That's better than you, right?"

Kevin thought about it and nodded, although he still felt something was off.