Chapter 310 - One Hundred and Ten - He has an unexpected reunion (2/2)

”Aw, I was hoping you knew someone with a breeding pair,” the girl couldn't help exclaim, her friends nodding in agreement.

”Sorry,” Tor apologised to be polite.

”Will it breed soon? What will you do with the pups?”

Tor couldn't help choke on the bluntness of the question. Xiào Xiào was less than a year old, cooshee tended only to begin such things at two years, so it wasn't something that had occurred to him either. Still, it wasn't wrong for Tamers to consider such things, but he really couldn't imagine Xiào Xiào in rut. He looked down at his best friend with a pained expression, but the young hound simply tilted his head, ignorantly.

”Or maybe you'd be willing to trade the cooshee with me for something...”

”Song Lan!” The girl making the proposition was tugged back sharply by her friend, who had noted most quickly that the tall, amicable youth before them had suddenly become cold and unyielding.  She knew that her friend had taken things too far.  She sighed and attempted to explain for her thoughtless friend.  ”Please don't take her words to heart.  Song Lan is a mage, doesn't understand the bond between Tamers and their beasts.”  The other girl frowned, unhappily, still not understanding what she had done wrong.

”Don't be foolish,” another friend chided her.  ”It's true this young cooshee is cute now, but it is still a dangerous beast at the end of the day, not a pet.”

”I still don't see the problem,” the unrepentant girl muttered, her arms crossed about her c.h.e.s.t.  ”My older sister owns a tiger that everyone warned her was too dangerous to keep, but it acts like a soft pillow around her!  This beast is smaller and much more adorable, how is it more dangerous than a tiger?!”

”Song Lan,” the girl who'd first warned her said plainly, ”that tiger was raised by your sister as a cub and can only be considered ordinary.  There are still risks even then.  A cooshee is a beast with cultivation potential and it will grow to be far stronger and more powerful than Song Ren's tiger.”

”Gao Ran, you meanie!” Having lost the argument, Song Lan resorted to tears.  ”You never let me have what I want!”

Watching this, Tor immediately became uncomfortable and his friend whistled softly before retreating in a roundabout manner, leaving Tor to get himself out of the tight spot alone.  However, Tor was at a loss.  There weren't many females in his family and those there were tended to be on the tougher side being the wives and daughters of beast tamers, martial artists and the like.  His own mother was one of the softest, most s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e women he knew, but she'd never resorted to such a tactic.  Then again, she'd been born the daughter of a Concubine and not of the main branch of his maternal family.  She hadn't been particularly favoured, but while she wasn't treated badly, she grew up knowing that tears would not aid her in anyway.  So the only time he'd ever seen her cry was when her Concubine mother passed away two years prior.

”I wouldn't want such a cooshee if I were you,” an unpleasant voice boomed over the shrill cries of the spoiled young woman suddenly.  ”Who knows what mongrel bloodlines that thing has!  Just like it's Master!”

The cooshee growled as Tor's frame stiffened, his aura becoming dark and hostile.  Just this alone startled the group of girls and the tearful Song Lan instantly stopped crying as she flinched.  As one, they glanced back to see a group of young masters in quality silk clothing all led by a young man of rounded stature.  With beady eyes, he looked over the girls as well as the Institutes' students with unveiled disdain.  ”A dog for a dog, makes sense if you think about it,” the large youth sneered.

Tor didn't rise to his provocation, but his tone was frigid like ice.  ”What do you want, Caprian?”