CHAPTER 122: CHAPTER 122: TWO TAILS

Zerra stopped her movement, staring at him with her watery eyes. Laziel sent her a bewildered look. "What’s wrong, Foxy? I don’t have something on my face, right?"

At this moment, Alaric and Nerith entered the room. Nerith had a worried look on her face, but Alaric squeezed her hand in order to calm her down.

Since Laziel even gave a nickname to Zerra in her fox form, he must have been familiar with her too. It was just that he didn’t know the fox was actually Zerra.

Zerra jumped from the table and climbed onto Laziel’s head. He had said something about carrying her, so this liar should keep his promise! Well, it didn’t matter even if he had said that to the human Zerra instead of the fox form.

"Dad, M-mom... where is Cassias? Why is Foxy here?" He tried to catch Zerra’s tiny figure, but she was extremely slippery. After a while, he just gave up and let her do as she wished, like occasionally giving a harmless kick to his head.

Bored, Zerra jumped down from Laziel’s head and curled on the sofa.

"Cassias visited us earlier, but the fox didn’t want to leave, so we just let her stay here." Alaric made up a reason quickly without batting an eye.

His son just let out a long ’oh’ sound before sitting beside Zerra.

"How about you? Why did you come back? I thought you were going somewhere far for a few days." Alaric asked.

Laziel pouted, then embarrassment covered his face. "I-I think I didn’t get up early enough, so Eldest Sister and others had left."

Zerra stared at him with disdain as she licked her paw. As expected of her elder brother. Well, he wasn’t lying after all, just unfortunate.

He shifted his attention elsewhere, trying to mask his shame. Then, something on the fox beside him caught his attention.

"Eh, how come there are two tails now?" Laziel stared at Zerra in amazement. His hand subconsciously reached for her fluffy tails but Zerra’s paw swatted him away.

"Stingy," he grumbled.

"Has Zerra woken up?" He spun to his dad and asked.

Yesterday, when the parents came back home after going out for a while to exchange some necessities for crystal cores, they came back home thoroughly shocked.

Alaric lectured them briefly before making them clean the room. Inexplicably, the bystander Nyra got dragged in too, but she didn’t protest, just quietly joined her younger siblings in cleaning the room.

It had taken them a few hours because they had to pick the fruits too. Otherwise, they would have been wasting Zerra’s power for nothing.

This time, it was Nerith who spoke. "Zee went to find Isryn. They both have wood ability, so it’s easier for her to teach Zerra. You see, she couldn’t control her power yet."

Laziel blinked, puzzled. "Eh? I didn’t see her at the main base."

"The base is so wide, and there are many people. It’s natural you didn’t see her." Alaric snorted.

Laziel walked into his room, then the kitchen and took a few grapes, snacking on them. He returned with a basket full of fruit.

"There are too many of them. Unfortunately, we don’t have a freezer to keep them fresh. It would have been a pity to waste them." He sighed.

He offered them to his parents, too. "Do you want some, Dad, Mom? I don’t know if it’s just me, Zerra’s fruits are even sweeter than those previously sold on the fruit stalls before the apocalypse."

His chatter continued. After he gave a bowl of fruit to his parents, one each, he turned to Zerra. "Do you want some too?"

Zerra, sitting on her hind two legs and leaning against the sofa, merely glanced at the fruit in Laziel’s basket with a disinterested gaze. Her expression was quite human-like.

"Tsk, so picky." Laziel commented as he withdrew the fruit offered to Zerra.

"Let Zee store those fruits later." Nerith muttered, "They shouldn’t go bad then."

"Oh, silly me. I almost forgot we have Zee," Laziel mumbled.

Alaric saw Zerra’s empty bowl and filled it with crystal cores again. She immediately went to enjoy her snacks, her tails twitching in happiness–swaying back and forth.

In the afternoon, Zerra finally managed to shift to her human form again.

Laziel had gone back to the base to find his girlfriend then. Zerra packed the fruit in her hands. She wanted to give them to Cassias tomorrow when he came to visit.

For the next week, Zerra used her time to practice her power. Whenever any of the family members were injured, she would rush first to try to heal them.

They no longer needed to ask for Isryn’s help then.

Her control over her power had increased tremendously. She even felt that her third tail was slowly forming. However, even though she had a power similar to level four ability user, her wood ability was at level two.

It was like the number of her tails.

The level four power should belong to her zombie form.

"Cassias, do you still have some land you don’t use?" She asked Cassias when he picked her up to escort her to the Research Institute’s garden. "Kind of like unused fertile farmland."

She went to visit Isryn again. It had been a while since they had met. The last time she had interacted with Isryn was before she had awakened her wood ability.

Her parents had told her that Isryn had treated her when she got a fever.

"Do you want to use it to farm?" Cassias had a look of contemplation on his face, instantly guessing her purpose. "I will take a look later."

"Thank you," she beamed. "Just tell me what kind of supplies you need me to prepare."

Not long after, they arrived at the Research Institute.

Zerra walked inside with familiarity, noticing that some plants seemed more lush.

"Miss Zerra, you are here again. It’s been a while."

She turned around to face Derek, who flashed her a smile. "Looking for Isryn again?"

She nodded. "Hello, Mr. Ashford. Yes, I am looking for Isryn."

Just like last time, Derek guided her to Isryn’s place before he bid her farewell, smiling. It was a little strange, but she didn’t think about it much.

She approached Isryn, who was watering the vegetables. When she arrived, Isryn smiled at her. "Zee, you are here."

"Sister Isryn, it’s been a while." She mumbled. "My parents didn’t let me leave the house often, so I had no choice but to stay at home."

Speaking of parents, Zerra remembered the Ashborn siblings’ parents. The base, according to Evan, has been keeping a lookout for them too.

"How about your parents? Is there any update?" she asked worriedly.

Every time she went to exterminate zombies, she would try to find people who were similar to the figures in the photo from Isryn’s pendant.

Isryn’s smile faded slightly. "Oh, my teacher is also helping me to find them, so don’t worry too much."

She immediately changed the topic. "What ability did you awaken, Zee?"

Zerra’s eyes lit up. "It’s wood ability like yours. Do you want me to show you?"

Before she could touch the small cabbage, Isryn grasped her hands. She looked around, shaking her head, and whispered to her. "Don’t do that here."