"A drumstick?" Xue Yao stared at the huge drumstick in her hand. "How is this supposed to tame a beast?" The drumstick was as big as half her body.
Puzzle pieces she couldn't put together floated above her head. She looked up at the bird which appeared as surprised as she was.
"Time for me to feed on a human, I heard their blood is great nourishment for our cultivation. There is no way I'll let this one escape from my grasp… then I'll finally be able to grow stronger and be like the great Phoenix." The bird clasped its feathers-like hands together, its brown pupil dilated in a dreamy state.
Xue Yao's blood boiled with anger. As far as she was concerned, she was the predator between the two of them.
She looked at the drumstick one more time before resigning to her fate. She pointed the drumstick at the beast.
"Hey, you treacherous beast, I'll teach you a lesson on behalf of humankind!" Her eyes narrowed, already thinking of Plan B.
'Xue Yao, if you can't subdue it, you'll go hungry and if you go hungry, you will become weak and if you become weak, you'll become beast food… but running away is better than dying here… he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.'
"I'll beat you into a pulp with this drumstick, I'll make a new drumstick out of you."
"How dare you?" The bird screeched and charged at her.
Xue Yao turned around and ran zigzag through the woods. The bird wobbled to the left and right chasing her.
Then she made a U-turn, her eyes fixated on a tree with uneven bark with some branches sticking out of its stem.
Xue Yao jumped mid-air, stepping on the stem of the tree. She used the branches to elevate herself in the air, before doing a backflip.
Just as she had calculated, the bird was already in the estimated position, it looked up at her with a baffled look.
Before the bird could figure out what the petite-looking human was up to, Xue Yao had already landed on its back.
With the drumstick in her hand, she lifted it with all her strength and struck it on its head.
Stars danced in the eyes of the bird for a second, and it shook its head, as if to clear out the pain tearing through its skull.
"The human is stronger than I expected…" the bird said in a panicked voice and suddenly took to the sky trying to shake her off.
"Ahhhh!" Xue Yao's scream pierced the sky. She held onto the bird's feather tightly. "Are you crazy! Stop moving around!"
"You think you can tame me?! Keep dreaming!" The bird said diving straight for the earth.
Xue Yao felt the air leaving her lungs. Her eyes widened in horror. It was scary at the same time exhilarating to her. The thrill, the adrenaline rushing through her veins made her feel good.
Closing her eyes, she calmed herself before pulling herself up, the feathers she was holding onto were plucked away.
"No, no, not my beautiful feather… Human, you must pay for this!" The bird screeched, descending faster.
"Keep dreaming!" Xue Yao snorted. The wind rushed through her, widening her mouth.
She squinted as she stared at the earth getting closer and closer.
She held onto the bird's back, unsure of what to do next, her fingers tightened around the drumstick and she lifted it with one hand, striking it again and again on the bird's head.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The bird cried out in pain.
They plummeted faster, and in the next second the bird crashed onto the forest floor, sweeping through the debris, before crashing into a tree.
"Oooooow." The bird drawled half-dazed.
Xue Yao lay on her fours with her butt facing the sky. "That was the most horrific landing in history." She blew air from her mouth, pushing the debris away from her face.
She shook her head before standing up, and she picked up the drumstick that was lying on the ground beside her.
Then she walked to the front of the bird pointing the drumstick at it. "You want more?"
The bird waved her feather-like hands in the air. "No more, no more." It cried.
"Sister… forgive this poor bird for her oversight. I was just desperate to get a human elixir but I never expected I would be beaten so hard.
I have lived for more than two hundred years but I'm still stuck in level one. I'm so pitiful, I even had to be an egg before I was born… and for several days I couldn't fly and had to depend on the little food my mother found.
And the first time I took flight, I fell and broke my head, and I had to hunt for food…" The bird burst out in tears bawling its eyes out.
Xue Yao scratched the back of her head, how was she supposed to deal with an emotional bird?
"Shut up! You think you are the only one who has had it hard. I had to remain in my mom's stomach for nine months before I was born… and not just that, I was born naked, can you even imagine the amount of shame I felt? I was helpless about it, and as if that wasn't enough, they had to hit me on my butt so I would cry.
As I cried, they were all rejoicing. For ten good months I couldn't speak, couldn't walk, all I did was cry, I even had to bear the discomfort of being pecked by different people, some even kissed me on the lips…eww. I ate food I didn't like, even when I wanted meat, they gave me milk." Xue Yao sniffled.
"I'm more traumatized than you are." She added shamelessly. "So will you do the honour of ending your life or should I do it? cause I'm so, so hungry."
The bird was baffled by the comeback. She was supposed to feel sympathy for the bird, but how come she weaponized it against it?
The bird raised its feet, "sister. Please don't eat me."
"Then you have to prove you are more useful to me alive than dead." Xue Yao replied without batting an eye.