8 Chapter 8: Dax and Nina

Scarlet followed the source of the blood curdling roar and surprisingly the rabbit also followed behind her. She passed through some bushes and thick trees before spotting a giant white tiger. Scarlet was momentarily stunned. Never in her life she had imagined to witness a live tiger so close in the wild, on the top of that it was a gorgeous white tiger.

This 'gorgeous white tiger', had the glittering pure white fur, which didn't have a speck of dust. Only the black stripes on it corrupted the purity. But this corruption as if acted as a catalyst to intensify the wild ferocious beauty of the tiger. The tiger's pupils were pale blue. As it perceived the presence of Scarlet from the side, the ' white tiger ' focused it's penetrating gaze towards her. One pair of red and blue eyes locked onto each other. The tiger glared at Scarlet. It raised it's head proudly, placed it's front legs majestically, swung it's tail arrogantly and then roared at her ferociously.

Scarlet, "..."

After a while, Scarlet said a few words expressionlessly, ".....not cute at all."

But contrary to her expressionless face Scarlet's eyes were glowing with a dangerous glint of red. And unknown to Scarlet, the almost ignored small rabbit was staring at her glowing red eyes without blinking as if it was completely hypnotised.

The tiger looked at Scarlet's glowing red eyes and unknowingly lowered it's gaze to avoid the uncomfortable gaze but to it's immense displeasure it again met with another pair of red eyes from the rabbit. Only the rabbit's gaze was not directed to itself. The tiger had been the top of the hunting chains for as long as it could remember but at the moment before the strange gaze of Scarlet it felt that a cold shiver had run down throughout it's spine. It's instinct told it that it was no longer the hunter but instead became a prey. The tiger slowly forgot what it was doing before and backed down a bit.

Scarlet at this moment had only one thought in her mind. ' Hungry...want to drink blood. This tiger is ferocious...so it's okay... hungry...so hungry....'

Scarlet raised her one hand instinctively and slowly neared the tiger. The white tiger shuddered. It wanted to run but suddenly realised that it couldn't move it's body. The tiger's pale blue eyes widened in fear. At Scarlet's feet the ignored little rabbit's red eyes glowed suspiciously.

The white tiger froze in one place without any ability to move, it waited it's grave future in fear and started to whimper throwing it's all dignity. But Scarlet didn't hear anything. She had already reached the point where she couldn't wait even a fraction of second for blood. Her last reasoning stopped at the ' the tiger is ferocious ' sentence. Although she had suppressed all of her extreme emotions, a new vampire's extreme thirst for hunger was very dangerous. It couldn't be suppressed.

Scarlet soon reached the ' majestic ', whimpering white tiger. The huge tiger's height almost reached her bosom. Scarlet leaned her head a little, her pale long fingers gently caressed the tiger's nape. The white tiger's throat ran dry. It didn't dare to whimper anymore. Tears clouded it's blue eyes. At this moment it really looked very pitiful and a little cute. If Scarlet was in her right mind at this time she might start to consider to let it go or not. But alas!! She had already made her move.

Soon the surprised tiger felt intense pain on it's neck, like someone had bitten it ruthlessly. But when it was preparing itself for further pain, the suffering completely disappeared. And a unspeakable pleasure spread in every direction of the tiger's body. It felt that it's blood was flowing in opposite direction. The tiger moaned in pleasure.

As blood slowly touched her tongue, Scarlet slowly regained her reasoning, but she just couldn't stop drinking. Although this tiger's blood was not as good as the handsome boy's, it was still manageable. Suddenly Scarlet realised that she was not at all repulsed by her drinking blood. She felt a little uncomfortable. In her mind she sighed. She truly turned into a monster. But soon, she discarded any lingering thoughts. ' Well don't the humans also uses blood for cooking and meat for eating. It's just I drink blood raw and they just drink it by cooking...Right. '

As she was thinking, Scarlet didn't notice she had drank considerably a large amount of blood from the tiger. It was when the white tiger's body began to wobble because of blood deficiency, that Scarlet came to sense. She hurriedly withdrew her canine from the tiger's neck. Although Scarlet was hungry for blood, she never wanted to drink until the ' blood donor ' died.

Scarlet raised her head as she saw the tiger feebly fell on the ground. She felt a little bit guilty. But it was not for a long time. Scarlet delightfully found out that drinking animal blood had no side effect like human blood. She was really in a good mood when suddenly under her very eyes she discovered that the huge white tiger slowly started shrank in size until it became a baby white tiger. This baby white tiger was so cute that Scarlet's previous good mood shattered. She began to feel guilty again and this time the guilty meter didn't break so easily.

Scarlet hurriedly picked up the half conscious tiger and sat down on the ground to provide it comfort. The tiger half opened it's eyes and dazedly looked at her with pale blue eyes. It's face looked like it was extremely wronged. It bit one of the Scarlet's fingers which was gently caressing it's head. A little bit of red cold blood soon emerged from the wound and rolled down along the finger. The little tiger licked the blood and consumed it. Scarlet didn't retract her finger. There was a slight humour in her red eyes. She raised the tiger cub to face it's eyes and said, " Oh, you are quite revengeful huh?.....Well fine, I bit you and you bit me back. I drank your blood and you drank my blood too. We are equal now... right?...."

The tiger looked at her strangely. Scarlet was hundred percent sure that it was mocking her. She said coldly, " Oi, who are you mocking for? It's true that I drank a large amount of your blood but I thought you are a adult tiger. But who knew you were a magical one and would turn into a baby. And my blood is very precious, you know...I can't produce my own blood....I think....well I am not sure....I am absolutely a new vampire... anyway.....hey.... don't ignore me..."

The baby tiger already turned her head around. Although Scarlet's long explanation seemed full of expression if read from a journal but in reality she said all that in a very dull, flat and emotionless tone, which made the tiger a little sleepy. So it turned it's head to look around the forest to remain awake.

Scarlet wanted to say more when all of sudden she noticed some changes in the tiger as well as in herself. She looked as the white tiger's black stripes slowly turned into blood red one by one. The tiger cub looked into her as slowly it's eyes turned into blood red like Scarlet's.

Scarlet, "huh?"

But, it didn't stopped here. To her immense surprise, her heart started to beat. Yes, her heart which had stopped after her death actually started to beat again. Although a little bit slowly than the average humans but it still was beating. Scarlet looked at the tiger cub in astonishment. Her expressionless face cracked a little. Scarlet was so surprised that she didn't notice her ink black long hair had already turned into pure white in colour.

" What...what did you do..just...just now?" Scarlet said in amazement.

"Of course! I formed a contract with you.....After all you are still alright even after drinking so much of my blood.....Any other beings would have bursted already..."

Scarlet looked at the tiger who was clearly speaking in a childish tone. She was speechless. Her hands that still held the tiger in front of her face, itched very much to throw this talking animal away but she control herself.

Scarlet, " Stop talking."

White tiger, " Why?"

Scarlet," A talking tiger looks very strange."

White tiger,"...."

The tiger's heart broke like a frail glass mirror.

White tiger, " hmph!!"

The small tiger hmphed and climbed down from Scarlet's embrace. Then it faced Scarlet and sat down on the ground. After a while it's red stripes began to glow with reddish tint. The glow became more and more intense until the red light completely surrounded the tiger cub. Sometimes later the glow began to subdue and from the dim light a five to six year old boy came to view. Scarlet gave up. This tiger had been continuously giving her surprises in that one day. She had already grown immune to it's abnormality. So transforming into a human was nothing to be surprised about. At least in this way talking with it or him won't be strange anymore. But...

"Where is your clothes?" asked Scarlet.

The transformed confused tiger," Clothes?"

Scarlet sighed. This mystical tiger might have never worn clothes she thought. At this moment she suddenly felt a light tug on her lower skirt. Scarlet looked down only to see the rabbit was biting her skirt, staring at her with it's large ruby red eyes. Scarlet realised she had completely forgotten about this cute little rabbit. But she thought again and found it strange that a small rabbit didn't fear the tiger while following her. She thought, ' Are all the creatures of the dream forest this strange and mystical ? '

Then Scarlet noticed a piece of clothes beside it. She picked the clothes and found it was a pair of shirt and trouser. And also the size exactly matched the transformed six year old boy's body size. ' Wait, has the rabbit brought it? ' Scarlet then knew that the seemingly ordinary rabbit was not ordinary at all. First of all the rabbit understood their speech and it was of high intelligence. Scarlet was a little afraid that it would also begin to talk like the tiger. Imagine a little rabbit suddenly began to talk like human. How would you feel?

Scarlet was still thinking how to proceed this little rabbit when suddenly she heard a loud childish laughter beside him. She turned to look at the transformed boy beside her who was rolling on the ground from intense laughter. Scarlet's eyebrows twitched slightly. She was seriously considering if the boy had some mental problem in the head. The boy controlled his laughter very difficultly and then said between small giggles," Oh my god!!...ha..ha....I can't believe...ha..ha.. I have formed my contract before you Nina....ha..ha..ha..."

The rabbit glared at the boy dangerously.

The boy was giggling happily when without any signal a hard blow landed right above his head. He screamed and looked at Scarlet aggrievedly. Scarlet emotionlessly looked at him and said," explain"

The boy could only hide his grief and explain.

" My name is Dax and the rabbit here is Nina, although she isn't a normal rabbit at all. We are a subgenre of Mystical race - ' The Albinos '. Most of us are born in animal forms. We assist the other mystical races by forming contracts with them. This is our life's purpose. And unless we from a contract with any beings, we can't gain our human form. Also our strengths will be immensely suppressed. You see, me and Nina were born as the strongest among all of the albinos. The ' life God ' created us at the same time under the same star. At the time of our birth the elders of our race were so very happy and proud to have us. They thought we will glorify our race by finding a powerful master but as time past our power grew stronger and stronger. We couldn't find a powerful master who was stronger than us or who had the potential to grow strong. The elders searched in every mystical races but all in vain. Well it was true that we missed the Vampire race among the mystical genre. But it was also true that decades ago the vampire race disappeared suddenly. Many greedy ones among the mystical races also tried to drink our blood to form contract but they couldn't hold the power and would burst.

As time didn't stop, we reached the age of twenty but as we didn't turn into human form, our mental growth stopped at the childish stage. Although I don't think I am child...hmph.... anyway, there is a rule in our race that if one surpasses the age of twenty and still can't find their master, they have to leave the race for searching on their own. Nina and me thus left our race. Well, we decided to search in different direction. As we were born under the same star, our master will be the same one. So we vowed that if any of us find our master first, the other will inform him(her). But look we have found you at the same time. Well this was the story...."

Dax finished his long explanation. Then he looked at the rabbit or Nina and a bit hesitantly said," I have seen too many ordinary and weak rabbit that I have completely forgotten that you were a rabbit too Nina....."

Dax then looked at Scarlet and said, " Master, form a contract with Nina too....."

Scarlet was listening to Dax's explanation quietly this whole time. She asked at last, " My heart is beating, is it because of you?"

Dax said cautiously, " Yes. As I have formed contract with you, half of my characteristics will be transferred to you. And as you know I am a living being but you are an undead so to match with me, your heart will beat slowly. Once you form contract with Nina, your heart rate will increase. And also your blood will be a little warm, you will be able to generate your own blood a little, you don't have to drink that much blood either, once in a week will do the work. And the most convenient thing for contracting with us is your reproduction system will start to work again meaning you will be able to have child. Isn't it amazing? Generally, the vampiress can't have child....And also you could use our powers. So hurry and form a contract with Nina."

As Dax told the benefits of the contract, Scarlet also began to waver. But even if the contract had no benefit she still would have formed it. Scarlet didn't want to live her long endless life alone after all. She said in a calm tone, " Fine".

As she said it, Scarlet exchanged her blood with the rabbit. As soon as the contract formed, the rabbit didn't wait a minute and changed into a little girl. But unlike Dax, she was completely dressed. Scarlet also felt that her body mechanisms had changed. Her heart was beating like a normal person. She looked at the two little children. One naked, one elegantly dressed like a princess. A smile itself formed on her cold face. The little girl Nina jumped onto her embrace and called out affectionately, " Master!!!"

Dax couldn't find any chance to act spoiled and felt extremely wronged. Scarlet looked at him and sighed, "Come here and change into this clothes. You will feel cold if you remain naked."

"Alright" Dax happily went and changed into his clothes although Scarlet helped him mostly. After that she looked at the two children's face carefully and said, " Why do I feel you two look a little bit like me when I was a child?"

Nina answered in a sweet voice, " Of course, our human form always takes after our masters."

A strange desire then slowly formed into Scarlet's heart. She said emotionlessly, " Then call me mom". Although her voice was cold, her eyes were very gentle and full of longing. Nina and Dax were stunned. They were about to answer when all of a sudden a black spatial tunnel formed above their head out of nowhere and instantly swallowed them. The three disappeared without a trace. But at the last moment Dax's guilty voice still could be heard, " Oops..I totally forgot...."

....

...

In Fye Empire, In the training hall of the largest academy, A certain Second Prince was vigorously sharpening his sword techniques, while also practicing his ice mana with it. The Second Prince Edwyn, since returning from the dream forest had increased his training time by twofold to stand equally beside his partner.

Louis was observing silently the maniac childhood friend of his for a while. At last he couldn't help but ask, " Say Edwyn, what has actually happened to you? Since returning from the dream forest you are training like there is no tomorrow..."

Edwyn was just about answer when suddenly the tattoo on his right wrist glowed intensely with red light. And at the same time a black spatial tunnel appeared behind him. Before Edwyn could react he was swallowed by it.

Louis who was waiting for answer, "...."