In 40 minutes Zhao Wei had reached the top of the cliff. Walking straight to his sleeping quarters and entered through the furniture as usual. Inside, on top of a bundle of sheets, Panda was resting. Ever since the fight, she hadn't opened her eyes. After 3 days he became frightened as her weight had dropped drastically from not eating.
He had taken a thin piece of bone and emptied out it's mid-section. Using this piece he would take up some soup or water and put it through her small throat to inject the food right into her stomach. After a week or so, her condition stabilized but even now she didn't wake up.
Zhao Wei was worried at first but something surprised him, after sometime, the black spot around her left eye expanded to cover half her face, by now it had reached her shoulder and was still progressing daily. Besides that, her body seemed to be changing, he'd notice her weight got heavier every day when he carried her to sleep, her bones felt like they were tougher than before.
Zhao Wei didn't know what was going on, but he continued to feed her the way he did while she stayed unconscious. Today he began to feed her the daily meal, syringe by syringe.
"Wake up soon", he said. Although she was getting better, he still felt guilty of almost losing her. Once he was done he moved her outside to let her catch the last rays of the morning sun.
Sitting beside her, he took a piece of jerky and threw it towards the ground. It landed where his shadow was but didn't bounce on the ground, instead it disappeared into the shadow. He'd brought Myra (Special short chapter for this name later :)) back home with him after he'd dug out Panda from the Clay Eater.
When he saw that Panda was still breathing most of his anger had dissipated but he was still going to kill her. He walked towards her body which was still without much strength on the ground and prepared to break her neck.
But he looked at her eyes, it was different, it wasn't the despair that most animals showed when they were going to be killed by him, it was pure indignation. She didn't want to die. Looking at the rest of her body, although her fur looked perfect, under it there were many bite and claw marks on her skin. She'd struggled as he did to survive until now.
Zhao Wei knew only one breed of wolves around this forest and that was the Dire Wolves which moved in a pack of 30. They were a large breed, the fighters reaching up to the size of trucks. But their fur was grey and white while Myra was pure black. Additionally, according to the disproportionate size between her body which was still growing and her head and paws which had become fully grown, she was in the teenager stage. For Teenagers of the Dire Wolves, their bodies would be at least the size of a pick up truck while Myra was just slightly taller than him if they stood side to side.
All their characteristics were the same as she could use their characteristic trait which was sonic projection. The Dire Wolves could compress sound vibrations in their diaphragm which they would release either as a close range blast using their roars or as a ball of vibration which would explode upon contact though it would dissipate after a hundred meters or so.
Myra was probably the runt and black sheep of the pack due to her size and color. By his analysis of her wounds, many of the older ones came from other wolves as well. But the kicker was that her pack was killed off. He'd went to hunt once and discovered the leftovers of this pack and another beast's fight. Even if some of them survived there would at most be one or two left judging by the intensity of the battle.
After seeing this, Zhao Wei decided to let her go, but somehow she followed him back by entering his shadow. He could shoo away a beast if they were physical but how could he kick out something that was living in his shadow, so somehow he gained another companion. All through the day, Myra would stay in his shadow, only coming out at night to sleep in the room, laying down on the floor next to his mattress.
Once the night came Zhao Wei climbed back down alone. He didn't bring anything but bird beast meat, his tooth blade and some knives. Once he got down, he set his direction and kept walking until he reached a part of the forest where vines hanged down the trees.
Coming to the border of it, he pulled on a vine causing the trees become sonorous for a few seconds. The was no one to greet him, no uproar to welcome him for a meal. He walked in directly to the heart of the village where they used to live. The hanging homes and carved out caves were empty.
It'd been empty since he returned. Maybe he was being selfish in that moment, when he came back, he wanted to know that he put Panda in danger for something. But he'd come to the village already a ghost town. Gowan had decided to move ahead of schedule due to the threat.
He frantically searched the village thinking maybe they were doing something and the whole village went out. But as he arrived at Gowan's cave he knew the result had been set in stone. There in the middle of Gowan's cave was several pots and pans his size made of the heating stones. His wife probably commissioned the job, but he understood what it meant. "Take care of yourself."
He understood it clearly, deep down he might've expected to be a hero. Who helped those who needed him, who would make everything better, who would end his story well. But this wasn't that kind of story.
He knew as clearly as ever, he was a straggler in this insane world, not knowing where he was going or how everything was going to end.