June's silence deepened as the summer heat grew more oppressive. Especially near the Silent River, where the forest was dense, the wind scant, and moisture rose in the air, the stifling heat lingered among the trees, making everyone increasingly irritable.
The Huodou had been sleeping poorly at night, and all of them were in foul moods.
Buck and Maodou had barely exchanged a few words in front of the bushes before a wave of threatening growls rose from the Huodou camp. A few of those voices made Buck tuck his tail instinctively.
"Lie still and behave!"
Buck glared viciously at the dusty gray Doggy before him and sent a thought his way. "Move, and I'll bite you to death!"
The little dog looked at Buck with utter innocence, opening his mouth as though he wanted to meow a couple of times again.
The night watchman was swift with his claws. He plucked a short stick from the ground and shoved it into the gray dog's mouth with a pop.
"Quiet!"
He warned him again with his eyes.
Maodou finally gave up on meowing and obediently lay on the ground. A cricket crawled over a pile of damp fallen leaves and onto Maodou's tail. The gray Doggy caught sight of it from the corner of his eye, flicked his tail, and smashed the little bug into pulp.
Buck stared at the bug on the tip of Doggy's tail and hesitated for several seconds.
Almost no Huodou could meow, but what if?
What if this fellow had been raised by a cat? What if he was exceptionally good at foreign languages? What if his throat was simply uncomfortable, making his voice sound rather thin? Stories the old Huodou had once told Buck around the lava pit surfaced in his mind one after