It is night already; the moon is right above my head, I've been waiting for any predator that smells the blood of the stag I took down earlier but it is longer than I expected. I feel snow is raining around me and the temperature is extremely cold. I just want something to appear so that I could shoot him with my bow. Even if a bear appears, I can penetrate its' body easily with my longbow. I like cold weather, but it is while I'm in my room, reading my favorite books with a cup of coffee nearby. This harsh weather is one of the most terrible things I have experienced in this world. Of course, it is nothing compared to being bathed by 5 maids at once, which still makes me feel embarrassed when recalled. The norms here are somewhat much different from that of Earth, I'm still getting used to it.
Suddenly, I hear the sound of a wooden branch wrecked, and a bush nearby me starts to shake. A couple of dire wolves appears, I start to hide my breath and observe the newcomers. Nonetheless, they are the most beautiful creatures that I have ever seen. Their eyes are blue like an emerald. Their furs are as white as the snow, and one of them has a little black fur, maybe it is a male one. They slowly surround the tree that I put the stag there and look around to check if there is anything aside from them. They are cautious creatures, I guess. I'll wait for them to start to eat the stag and then attack; when eating, their caution will be minimum, a shot for each one will be enough.
Direwolf might be not as strong as bear🐻 but they are much faster. Especially, they cooperate with their comrades so it is nearly impossible for a hunter to kill and bring a direwolf back safely. I don't see other wolves around here so maybe this couple gets lost and is separated from their pack. If I bring them back as my hunting harvest, I'll get immeasurable popularity among the citizens of the city like my father did when he managed to kill a bear when he was 8, which will help me to rule them when the day comes.
After seeing nothing suspicious around them, the dire wolves put off their guards and sit down to enjoy the meal. I take out my bow and aim at the male wolf; suddenly, both of the dire wolves raise the head and get back to fighting stance. I think they notice me but they are staring in a different direction. And when I see what they are staring at, I lose my breath and freeze in fear.
It is a huge creature with four eyes, green skin, its length must be 3 meters and its height must be 1,5 meters. The thing that frightens me is its' mouth, which is as big as that of a desert crocodile, but its' teeth look much stronger and give me the feeling that they can crush a person's head easily without effort. Moreover, its' fangs are as long as a sword, and their sharpness must be superior to one, if not equal. This creature is definitely a Taotie, which I heard my father talk about them when I was small. They are often ridden by Beastmen generals, but the Beastmen live in the far north of the forest, hundreds of miles from here so I can't understand why it appears here.
The two dire wolves are feared but they refuse to step back. The male one goes forward and stands in front of the female one as if to protect her. Without warning, the Taotie charges forward and the battle begins. The male one distracts the Taotie and barely succeeds to avoid its' bite while the female one jumps on the taotie's body and bites its' neck. Being wounded, the taotie roars in anger and move violently to kick the wolf out of its' body, the female wolf is kicked out and crush into a tree nearby. Still feel anger, the taotie rust toward the female wolf, intend to take her life. The male one, to save his mate's life, stand between them to stop the taotie, but with just a bite, the taotie heavily wounds the wolf, he cries out loud in pain. However, he doesn't step back, he stands weakly to face the taotie, his eyes show that he is willing to die to protect the female wolf.
I don't know if anything hit me or not but I jump out of the tree I'm hiding, stand firm, I aim, and shoot at the taotie. The arrow with a sharp iron head pierces the taotie's body and it cries out in pain. Notice the new opponent, the taotie change the direction and charge toward me, I manage to shoot another arrow and it hits the taotie perfectly but it doesn't slow down before? I see its' fearful teeth right in front of my eyes, this scene is familiar, like the image of the truck that killed me in my last life. Am I going to die? I use my power to slow down time and observe around me, I see nothing that can save my life from the taotie's teeth. So I'm going to die, huh? after experiencing the love of a father the first time, after having so much fun training with Charles and Sir George. My power loses its' effectiveness and time becomes normal again; I close my eyes and wait for the death coming but nothing happens and I hear another roar of pain from the taotie. I open my eye and see that the female wolf has recovered and, and with the male wolf bite the taotie's tail and pull it over from me.
They're trying to save me, huh?. But the taotie soon recovers from the pain and swings its tail, both dire wolves are thrown away brutally. I reload my bow and fire again, this time the arrow hits one of the taotie's eyes. It roars and rolls all over the place in anger and pain. Not stop, I shoot continuously until I run out of arrows. Finally, the taotie stops moving and shows no sign of life.
Sign in relief, I move toward the wolves to check their condition. The male wolf is dead, but the female one is still alive, although very week. I kneel and pat her head, she gently licks my hand. She gives me a gaze that makes me feel she is asking me to do something. I look at her stomach and see something moving, huh, she is pregnant and close to giving birth? I see that her backbones have been broken and her death is certain, so she wants me to save her children? But I know nothing about helping a wolf to bear. I remember that I'm 8 years old now and I haven't used my blessing yet. I activate it and golden letters floating in front of me?
- Is it the knowledge that you desire?
- Yes, it is.
- Which aspect do you want to learn?
- I want to learn about how to help a wolf bear children.
The golden letters disappear and a book named: Wild Animal Caring appears on my hand. I quickly open the book and find the dire wolf part. In there, I find instructions about helping an ill wolf to give birth. I follow the instruction and 15 minutes later, 4 beautiful young wolves are held in my hands, I show them to the female. She looks happy, closes her eye, and maybe rest in peace forever. And I'm too exhausted from what I've experienced today, my body loses balance and I faint.