The Wild Woman

"Uh, where am I?"

Jia Ruo woke up feeling weak all over, but the sharp pain in his chest had eased considerably, and his wound had been bandaged.

Jia Ruo propped himself up and looked around.

It seemed to be a shabby campsite, with a small tent nearby.

He was lying beside a little campfire, covered by a blanket made from the fur of some animal.

On the other side of the fire sat Neeko and Nidalee.

"You're awake!"

Neeko was delighted to see Jia Ruo come to.

"Here, eat this."

Neeko handed him a green fruit bigger than his fist.

Jia Ruo took it and bit into it. The fruit was sweet and delicious, bursting with juice. It stirred the hunger in his stomach, and he couldn't help devouring it in big bites.

When he had finished the fruit, Neeko handed him another one. "Good, isn't it? This Honey Fruit can heal wounds, too. Nidalee made the salve she used to bandage you with it."

Jia Ruo nearly choked.

"Did this fruit grow by the river?"

He held up half the fruit as he asked.

"That's right. Neeko picked it herself."

Neeko gave a sweet, innocent smile.

Nearby, Nidalee folded her arms and watched coldly as Neeko and the man spoke in a language she had never heard. Her expression didn't change.

In her eyes, this fair-skinned man had barged into the jungle without a weapon—or even clothes. He might as well have been trying to kill himself.

Neeko had said he'd nearly been pecked to death by a Rift Scuttler, and even after getting injured, he hadn't known how to stop his own bleeding.

Hmph. People like him belonged in the jungle as fertilizer, stepping-stones for other living things.

Jia Ruo noticed Nidalee, too. When Neeko had told him earlier that she had a friend who could transform into a cougar, he'd guessed it was Nidalee.

But seeing Nidalee in person left him dazzled: her long, powerful legs, slender waist, hunting paint on her face, and beautiful green eyes.

Everything about her radiated a wild beauty.

Neeko was adorable, too, but beside Nidalee, she was just a girl.

Nidalee met Jia Ruo's gaze without hiding her contempt. In the jungle, where the strong preyed on the weak, she couldn't see the point of saving him.

Neeko had insisted again and again that Jia Ruo was special, but Nidalee only thought he was absurdly pale and had far too little muscle. Taking him along would be nothing but a burden.

Under Nidalee's stare, Jia Ruo grew uneasy and looked away, turning to Neeko instead.

"Nidalee doesn't like you," Neeko told Jia Ruo. "She thinks you're too weak to be her friend."

Jia Ruo was momentarily speechless. He almost blurted out some grand declaration about how the tables would turn someday.

But he was under someone else's roof, so he swallowed the words.

Neeko, however, thoughtfully relayed his little thoughts to Nidalee. Of course, she translated them into Runeterra's common tongue.

Jia Ruo only saw Neeko say something to Nidalee. Nidalee then laughed, held her weapon upside down in one hand—the long spear decorated with the teeth of beasts—and raised her other hand high, as if energy were gathering there.

Jia Ruo seemed to hear a cougar roar. Then his whole body grew hot, his blood surged, and the wound on his chest began to itch and tingle.

Nidalee had called upon the life energy within Jia Ruo using her own cougar spirit, speeding up the healing of his wound.

It was one of Nidalee's abilities: Primal Surge.

Afterward, Nidalee said a couple of things to Neeko, then transformed into a cougar and ran off, vanishing into the night.

"What were you two talking about just now?" Jia Ruo was completely baffled.

"Neeko told Nidalee everything you were just thinking. Nidalee said you were kind of interesting after all, and she'll be waiting for your challenge."

Jia Ruo slapped his forehead. What was this supposed to mean?

He'd seen this sort of scene before, in domineering CEO novels: "Woman, you've successfully caught my attention."

Now he'd caught the attention of a wild, sexy woman, too.

"She also said you really are different from those hunters," Neeko said. "Those ugly hunters killed so many lives in the jungle even though they weren't hunting for food. This campsite we're at used to belong to a group of hunters. Nidalee warned them, but they wouldn't listen."

"And then?" Jia Ruo swallowed.

"Then Nidalee killed them all. She tore open their throats with her claws and teeth."

Jia Ruo drew a deep breath. "Neeko, if Nidalee suddenly kills me one day, it'll be all your fault."

"Huh? How could that happen? Neeko would never want to hurt you."

"Actually, Nidalee's a good person. She settled you here so you'd be away from the Lion Pride. She was afraid the other lions might hurt you..." Neeko looked aggrieved, her lips pursed.

A girl like Neeko really was adorable.

Jia Ruo rolled over and stood up. When the blanket slipped off him, he realized he was completely naked...

Neeko didn't look embarrassed, much less scream. After all, when the entire Wu Wei Clan had been connected through their souls, everything had been shared completely.

In some respects, she'd probably seen more than Jia Ruo had.

Jia Ruo was the one who flushed with embarrassment and hurriedly snatched up the blanket.

"Neeko took your clothes off earlier when she was wiping the blood off you."

"Neeko, why do I feel so groggy?"

Jia Ruo might have only said that to change the subject, but his face was getting redder and redder.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Honey Fruit has a side effect. It can affect your mind a little, making you feel kind of drunk."

No wonder eating fruit by the river in League of Legends slowed you down...

Jia Ruo fell asleep again.