Wolf-man? Werewolf? Twilight?

A human voice suddenly came from behind.

It was a language with strange pronunciation, the voice seeming to come from deep in the chest, exceptionally low and rich. It sounded wonderful-a voice lover's delight.

Ghost could find no remotely similar language in his memories, yet he could understand it.

What shocked her was: why had she suddenly heard a human voice?

She whipped her head around, then whipped it back even harder, nearly wrenching her wolf neck...

This was way too thrilling...

If she were human right now, her face would probably have been hot enough to fry an egg. Bullet comments cascaded through her mind again.

Only one thought remained in her mind-big♂♀ and %?

Fuck, now is not the time for dirty thoughts. Calm down, Bai Xiaoling! That's a wolf, a wolf... not Sekiro, an actual wolf!!

Could she have entered the world of Twilight? How else could she explain a giant wolf suddenly performing a transformation into a living person, becoming a n*ked man?

A primitive, wild man without a stitch on, at that...

The hunk was doing something or other, nagging her nonstop, word by word. "I told you ages ago to stop hanging around those humans so much. Not only do you stink of humans now, but your brain's become like theirs too. Stupider."

Uh... this wolf-man seems to know me? Could I get away with pretending to have amnesia like a human?

Fuck, can wolves get amnesia? Help, I don't want to get eaten T﹏T

But it sounded as though the wolf pack had dealings with humans.

She seemed to have quite a close relationship with humans too? Just what kind of world was this?

If the hunk could turn from a wolf into a human, did that mean she could too? Then were they werewolves, or wolf-people? Or neither wolves nor people? Could there be vampires in this world too...

Ghost's head was stuffed with question marks, and his mind drifted into all sorts of wild speculation.

Before long, a hint of roasting meat pulled her thoughts back.

Where was that smell of roasting meat coming from??

Suppressing his embarrassment, Ghost turned back and discovered that the hunk had somehow started a fire and was sitting on the ground, carefully turning the deer that had died with its eyes wide open over the flames.

She felt as though she were suffocating. Sure, that thing was blocked from view, sparing her the embarrassment of seeing it.

But... couldn't you take off that poor dead deer's head and strip its hide first?...

And even more fantastical was how the fire had appeared out of nowhere.

Phew... never mind. At least wolf-man bro knows how to roast meat. Let's not ask for too much...

His movements were overly cautious, and he kept a considerable distance... as though the fire before him might explode at any moment.

So even though he could turn human, he was still afraid of fire, and his movements were clumsy too. Warmth filled Ghost's heart, and he instinctively reached to take the branch skewering the venison from the man's hands. What he extended were two wolf paws.

Ghost silently withdrew his paws and tucked them beneath himself. Then, while waiting for the meat, he took the opportunity to study wolf-man bro.

His hair was thick, neither long nor short, and hung messily over his shoulders. Its color was a little different from his wolf coat: dark gray.

His skin was dark, his entire body bulged with muscle, and he had long arms and legs, with thick upper arms and thighs.

His face was well-shaped, but his features unexpectedly didn't quite match his build; his face looked a little small for his body. The proportions were somewhat odd too. His features fell somewhere between European and African, giving him a touch of exotic flair.

He wasn't ugly, but somehow, his face as a whole gave Ghost the impression of a failed character customization attempt.

Feeling curious.

The wolf-man paid no attention to Ghost's gaze and tossed him the half-cooked deer. He himself grabbed the other half, still raw and dripping blood, and began chewing in great mouthfuls.

He might as well have eaten in wolf form!

The human Ghost felt a little nauseated, as though he might throw up, but wolf instinct still governed his body. The smell of blood stirred his appetite. Unable to resist any longer, he seized the half-cooked deer in his jaws and began tearing into it...

Driven by extreme hunger, Ghost could no longer worry about much else. His sharp wolf teeth tore effortlessly through skin, flesh, and tissue. The half-cooked venison mingled with sweet blood, and Ghost felt as though he had eaten it all in just a few bites.

The two people (wolves) devoured the entire deer at a pace that truly deserved to be called wolfing it down.

Ghost watched the wolf-man, still in human form, plant his forelimbs on the ground and lie down comfortably. He yawned and said lazily:

"The cubs caught the humans who hurt you. Don't go down the mountain again. Once we get back, we'll offer these sinners to Great Snow Mountain."

Ghost had plenty of questions, but he wasn't stupid enough to ask the wolf-man outright what their relationship was. Or what exactly this world was like...

For now, she couldn't find a way back to her original world either, so that could wait. For someone as unathletic and severely nearsighted as her, being a wolf was a novel experience!

Besides, she was extremely curious about this peculiar werewolf race.

Ghost yowled urgently. All he wanted to know right now was how to transform into a human.

Hurry, hurry. This wolf body is too inconvenient.

Listening to her howls, the wolf-man's expression grew a little strange. "You're saying you can't transform because you're injured?"

"What does being injured have to do with it? To turn human, don't you just have to picture a human form in your head?"

Ghost: Just as planned √

Wolf bro seems pretty easy to fool...

The wolf-man scratched his chin and complained stiffly, "Honestly, I shouldn't have let you go out to play alone. I told you to stop dealing with humans so much. They've made you stupid."

Ghost: "Awoo, awoo, awoo?"

How am I stupid?! This is my first time being a wolf!

After eating and drinking their fill (?) and resting briefly, wolf bro spoke, interrupting Ghost's attempts to transform:

"Let's head back. We need to reach Great Snow Mountain before sunrise tomorrow."

Ghost nodded and got up, and the wolf-man charged ahead...

...She had already done her best not to look, but a wolf's field of vision was simply too wide.

The wolf-man was no slower at all in human form, moving as nimbly as Tarzan of the Apes. Ghost put every ounce of his strength into moving his four legs and barely managed to keep up.

Perhaps Ghost was simply too useless...

Just as she was wondering why he was running in human form, the wolf-man launched himself high off a low slope and, during that brief moment suspended in the air, smoothly completed an entire transformation from human to wolf.

The giant wolf, his black-and-gray coat sleek and glossy, landed steadily and abruptly accelerated into a sprint.

Ghost was so excited he wanted to clap his little paws for him: 100 pointsss!!!

Two giant wolves, one large and one small, darted through the mountain forests, and Ghost felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration.

Silvery moonlight descended soundlessly, shrouding the earth like mist, like gauze. To a wolf's senses, the mountains at night were bustling with life.

Nocturnal predators lay silently in wait for unwitting prey. Insects large and small made all manner of wondrous, crisp chirps, and Ghost could even hear little animals digging beneath the soil...

Ghost's eyes glowed a dim green, the world presenting itself before him with such clarity and completeness.

This was freedom!

They kept running to their hearts' content, running for a long time. Until the moon set and the sun rose...

Although the sun had come out, the temperature had noticeably dropped. Even Ghost, with his built-in fur coat, felt traces of a chill.

A human's pace was simply no match for a wolf's. They had already crossed lush mountain ridges and highland forests, making their way toward steep, snowy mountains that towered into the clouds.

Gradually, only scattered patches of mossy vegetation could be seen on the ground, and snow covered the earth. Everywhere was a boundless expanse of white...

Ghost stopped, staring blankly at the almost sheer cliff before him...

With an agility completely at odds with his size, the giant wolf leaped upward, scaling several meters of the vertical cliff face in an instant.

Through his wolf vision, Ghost could see that the places where the giant wolf planted his paws were barely the size of a fist... he relied entirely on his powerful limbs to move as though on level ground.

For a moment, she wondered whether she was looking at a variant of the cliff-dwelling mountain goat-a cliff-dwelling mountain wolf...

The giant wolf paced impatiently on a recessed ledge. Seeing her still staring at the rock face like an idiot, he sprang lightly down.

A sharp pain suddenly shot through Ghost's tail, exactly like getting a finger caught in an iron door, and he couldn't help howling:

"Awooo, awooo, awooo!"

Turning her head, she looked straight into the giant wolf's cold, green eyes.

The giant wolf gave a threatening growl. "Climb, or I'll bite your tail off."

Ghost: ...Fuck your mother. This is so hard.