Little Gray held the fishing net in its jaws and raced across the ice sheet.
Su Lin followed behind.
He kept watch on the surroundings as well.
This time, they did not encounter another polar bear.
The polar bear in this area had hunted a beluga whale yesterday.
Judging by its size, that beluga whale had weighed at least close to a ton.
It was enough to feed it for a long time.
Before long,
Su Lin and Little Gray left the ice sheet.
The fishing net was extremely tough.
Even though Little Gray clumsily dragged it along and accidentally slammed it into chunks of ice and snow several times, it was completely undamaged.
After leaving the ice sheet, there was no longer any aurora.
The night returned to utter darkness.
Beneath the night sky, the surroundings were silent, without the slightest sound.
Only the rustling of Little Gray dragging the fishing net echoed through the darkness.
Along the way,
let alone prey, they had not even seen a single hunter.
Not even the bloody scent wafting from the fish had drawn any animals over.
Su Lin knew that this deathly silence also reflected the worrying state of many hunters.
Most likely, the majority of hunters were barely clinging to life in their dens, conserving what little strength they had left.
They were only waiting for that faint glimmer of light to return to the sky.
By his calculations,
in a little over a month, the polar night in this area would recede.
This month or so was the darkness before dawn, the hardest time to endure.
At that moment, Su Lin and Little Gray swiftly weaved through the darkness.
The two of them were very fast, and it did not take long before they arrived at the cave where Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom were staying.
Looking at the familiar cave,
Su Lin felt somewhat dazed.
When he had first been a cub, he had lived in this very cave.
Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom had doted on him greatly as well.
In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.
"Awoo!"
Su Lin let out a long howl.
His wolf howl carried far into the distance, informing Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom that he had returned.
Not long after that howl,
Wolf Dad's agile figure appeared at the mouth of the cave.
Wolf Dad's fur was as thick and lush as ever.
Including his wolf tail, his wolf body measured a full two meters. Though he might not have been as large as Su Lin, he was still tall and powerfully built.
His pair of eyes, glowing green in the darkness, quickly noticed Su Lin and Little Gray.
His keen sense of smell told him that they were his own cubs.
Wolf Dad had not expected Su Lin, who had left to venture out on his own, to have grown another size larger and completely surpassed him.
This made Wolf Dad deeply gratified.
He responded with a long howl as well, then sprinted out from the cave.
Rushing over in excitement, Wolf Dad stuck out his tongue and licked Su Lin's fur.
As the head wolf, Wolf Dad rarely displayed such affection.
Su Lin could tell that Wolf Dad was truly surprised and delighted to see him.
Beyond that, he also noticed that Wolf Dad had grown somewhat thinner during this time.
It was clear that
under the polar night, Wolf Dad and the pack had been having a hard time as well.
"Awoo!"
He gave a low howl, signaling Wolf Dad to look at the fish in the fishing net.
Wolf Dad had never eaten fish before.
But as the head wolf, he had seen much of the world,
so he recognized fish.
He sniffed the several fish in the net. Smelling their highly tempting bloody scent, he could not help swallowing.
"Awoo!"
Seeing this, Su Lin pulled a fish from the fishing net with his jaws
and tossed it before Wolf Dad, signaling him to eat it.
After all, he had brought these fish specifically for Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom.
Su Lin had already left Wolf Dad's pack,
so he no longer had much influence on Wolf Dad's position within the pack.
Therefore, Wolf Dad was no longer as embarrassed as before. He opened his jaws and began tearing into the arctic salmon.
But the arctic salmon's entire body was covered in smooth, slick scales. Wolf Dad tried several times, yet could not bite through them.
In the end, Wolf Dad keenly noticed that the salmon had fewer scales on its belly. His sharp fangs pierced its abdomen, tearing off a large chunk of flesh.
"Awoo!"
After finally tasting the delicious fish inside, a glimmer of light immediately flashed through Wolf Dad's green eyes.
In all his years roaming the Arctic Circle, he had never tasted anything as delicious as fish.
But he soon felt the sharp bones within the flesh.
As for those sharp bones,
Wolf Dad had intended to chew them up and swallow them, but one pricked him.
This left Wolf Dad with no choice but to spit it out.
"Awoo!"
At that moment, the simple-minded Little Gray stepped forward to teach Wolf Dad that he needed to spit out the bones when eating fish.
After all, yesterday, because it had wolfed down its food,
it had been stabbed several times by fish bones.
One small fish bone had even gotten stuck in its throat,
and it had dry-heaved for a long while before coughing it out.
Wolf Dad looked at Little Gray, which had grown several times larger and now rivaled an adult Arctic Wolf in size.
His wolf eyes were filled with surprise as well.
He truly had not expected it.
The two cubs he had watched grow up
had changed so greatly in such a short time that it was as though they had been reborn.
"Smack!"
Watching Little Gray howl and whine, Su Lin gave it one claw.
Telling it to behave itself.
After all, Wolf Dad was still the head wolf and needed to save face.
Rather than having a simpleton like Little Gray teach him, it was better for him to figure it out himself.
When it came to eating, all kinds of wild animals possessed an instinctive talent for learning without instruction.
"Awoo!"
Seeing that its boss was angry,
Little Gray sheepishly returned behind Su Lin.
Meanwhile, Wolf Dad
had completely accepted the fact that the two cubs had undergone a complete transformation.
He let out a low howl, signaling Su Lin and Little Gray to enter the cave.
Su Lin missed Wolf Mom deeply as well,
so he followed Wolf Dad into the cave first, while Little Gray dragged the remaining fish in the fishing net behind them.
Before you continue