Seraphina watched the giant wolves eat up the dead jackal - dog - like humanoids and then leave one after another. She had originally thought that they would occupy this lair, but they had no such intention.
The numerous wolves dispersed in the forest within a few minutes, and she was left with only Auris by her side again.
"The jackal - dog - like humanoids won't come back, right?" Seraphina said to herself. Auris yawned with a "huhu" sound, as if despising the driven - away tribe.
"Yes, you have driven them further south in the forest." Probably only some of them died in the lair. The remaining jackal - dog - like humanoids were driven by the giant wolf clan and fled to places far away from them.
She didn't know if such ethnic disputes happened every year. Even if the jackal - dog - like humanoids would also remember to take revenge, as long as they hadn't evolved into humans, the giant wolf clan was probably still the top species in the food chain.
Maybe because a matter had been settled, Auris wasn't as anxious on the way back as it was on the way there. The human and the wolf walked slowly in the forest, and she even discovered several small animals she had never seen before.
There was a kind of small - sized rodent scurrying among the dead branches and leaves. Its fur color was the same as that of the leaves, making it hard to distinguish. She named it "Ground Mouse". She guessed that this thing probably ate the insects and fruits on the ground and played the role of a nature's cleaner.
There was also a kind of flightless bird that looked a bit like a pheasant and had very beautiful feathers. She named it "Brocade - flower Chicken". She liked its beautiful colors, but this kind of bird was small in size and agile in movement, so it wasn't worth asking Auris to make the effort to catch it.
After they strolled home like shopping, Seraphina found that her fire was almost extinguished. "Oh no!" She quickly broke some small branches and threw them in, and blew hard for a long time until the weak flame became bright again.
Fortunately, it didn't go out. If she lost the kindling, she would have to make fire by drilling wood...
Seraphina placed a large bundle of firewood. When she turned around, she found that Auris had jumped to the stream under the slope to take a bath. It was a clean - loving wolf. Because it was covered in blood from the fight, it must have felt uncomfortable.
However, the fur would be very cold after getting wet in winter. She felt the north wind blowing, and then the wet wolf sneezed several times by the stream.
"Hahaha!" Seraphina covered her stomach and laughed. The giant wolf in front of her immediately looked smaller after getting wet. She hadn't noticed before, but today it looked just like a wolf cub. "Little Gray Gray!" She pointed at it and laughed without any grace. Auris walked over silently.
It ignored her and sat alone by the fire. Its wet wolf fur was hanging messily, and it didn't lick or shake it dry as usual.
"Auris, are you angry?" Seraphina sat beside it. The giant wolf even deliberately turned its head away from her. The low growl in its throat was like blaming her, which made her even happier. She didn't expect that the giant wolf clan also had a petty side.
"Don't be angry, Auris. You are the most beautiful." Seraphina couldn't help praising it when she saw its awkward look. "I can recognize you at a glance among the wolves. Besides the wolf king, you are the most handsome!"
While saying nice words, she also kept stroking its wolf fur with her hands. After being served like this for a while, Auris calmed down. It stared at her with its wolf eyes and came over to lick her face. The panting sound in its throat also changed, becoming longer, like a murmur.
After they played for a while, Auris lay by the fire acting as a dryer, and Seraphina got busy. She washed the piece of meat that Auris left for her, cut it into strips, and skewered them with branches and roasted them beside the fire. She had no salt, so she could only apply some fruit pulp for seasoning to make the meat less fishy.
While preparing her dinner, Seraphina, looking at the many small trees that Auris had broken for her, decided to start the big project of building a house.
She didn't know how cold the winter here would be. She didn't have the conditions to build a tile - roofed house. So for the time being, building a thatched cottage that could shelter from the wind and rain was much better than sleeping in the open.
She selected small trees of similar lengths and buried them one by one in the soil according to the position she had planned. This was a labor - intensive job. If they were not buried deep enough, they would easily shake, and the walls of the house would not be solid.
For this reason, Seraphina wanted to move a relatively large stone to the vicinity of the foundation. It would be a good choice for a workbench or a footstool. She couldn't move it by herself, so she set her mind on Auris.
She cut some tough vine plants and wrapped them around the stone in circles. After prying the bottom of the stone loose with wood, she let Auris bite one end of the vine, and then it pulled in the front and she pushed in the rear. With the strength of the giant wolf, they dragged the big stone under the tofu tree.
"Huhu" Seraphina collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath from exhaustion. But after a while, she got up because Auris came over to lick her eyes. The breath in its mouth didn't smell good. It was the unique smell of a wild beast. She pushed away its big head in disgust. "You stink. Go away!"
Auris looked at her aggrievedly and then silently walked back to the firewood pile and watched the fire, only showing its round, furry butt to her. Seraphina looked at its pitiful back and knew that it was actually tricking her because its big tail was still swaying left and right. Obviously, it was in a good mood.
With the help of the big stone, Seraphina could stand at a high place and use the small stones in her hand to hit the top of the small trees, making the sharpened lower parts of the trees insert deeper into the soil. By the time the roasted meat was cooked, the thirteen small trees serving as the foundation of the fence wall were already firmly in place.
Her small cottage was a rectangle facing south. The thirteen piles each had a one - meter spacing. The four corners in the southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest were composed of four of the thickest trees. There was a one - meter gap in the front where the door was to be opened. Seraphina didn't know how to make a hinged door. She thought that she could probably make a roller shutter door or a leather curtain to block the wind.
Even when she was eating, Seraphina's mind was full of the structure of her small cottage. The giant wolf Auris nestled at her feet, using its big, furry tail to wrap around her waist to keep her warm. She stroked its fur intermittently. Suddenly, a cold wind blew, and she shivered.
'Ah, I've been here for so long already.'
Autumn had passed and winter had come. The originally fragile girl had become good at working. This was something she had never thought of before.
"You'll stay with me, right?" She stroked Auris's thick neck fur. Whether it was severe winter or hot summer, forest or big river, she was not alone. The strange world couldn't defeat her or make her break down.
This was roughly the prototype of the fence - wall cottage. She cut many vines with a military knife and tied them evenly around the outside of the thirteen trees to fix them and prevent them from shaking.
At this time, the broad - leaved coconut tree showed its advantage. Its leaves were big and thick. Seraphina tore them in half along the veins, imitating the feathers of a bird and piling them up layer by layer, and then draped them on the outside of the fence wall like making a coir raincoat.
The leaves were waterproof. This kind of layering placement was a common method of making thatched cottages in the rainforest. It could always keep the floor inside the house dry. The disadvantage was that because the leaves would rot, they had to be replaced frequently.
Just picking the leaves and tying them took Seraphina the whole afternoon. But by night, they had a roughly formed room to sleep in.
Auris was obviously very curious about this square thing. It jumped up and down to look at it several times. Finally, it calmed down and lay in the middle of the house with Seraphina under it.
She nestled under its warm fur. Under her were several layers of dry thatch and leather. Although the fence wall was not tight, it did block the wind blowing from all directions. The ceiling hadn't been completed yet. When she looked up, she could see the bright and clear sky. Countless shining stars blinked on the black curtain, like night - lights turned on for her.
They were almost home.
The next day, Seraphina continued to build the house, and Auris went out to patrol the surrounding area as usual. Before long, it brought back a whole brown - haired sheep, but only ate half of it. It seemed that it wanted her to roast the other half.
She guessed that it was probably trying a new way to store food because even a mighty giant wolf couldn't hunt a sheep every day.
While roasting the sheep, she noticed that the weather was wrong. The clear sky last night seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. Dark clouds were pressing in from the horizon, like a mass of black cotton wool.
She looked at the sky and sped up her work.
Actually, from the very beginning, she had expected that the difficulty in building the house was the roof. A horizontal roof was prone to water accumulation when it rained, and she didn't know how to make a triangular ceiling with mortise - and - tenon structure.
So she had considered building the house next to the huge tofu tree. Using the thick branches extending from it, she fixed small trees on them to form a natural roof beam. Then, by covering it with broad - leaved "tiles", her roof would no longer be afraid of rain.
To prevent the wind from blowing the roof away, Seraphina firmly tied the leaves with many vines and also picked up many not - so - light stones and placed them on the four corners respectively.
Then, when the wind was howling and raindrops were hitting the ground, they had already hidden in the thatched cottage that sheltered them from the wind and rain. She moved the fire inside and placed it beside the big stone to prevent it from burning the walls too vigorously.
Auris nestled beside her, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the leaves on the roof. Obviously, this house, different from a cave, had a great impact on it, so much so that it didn't fall asleep all night.
Seraphina felt extremely proud. All along, it was Auris that had saved and protected her. Now that she could help it even a little, it was enough to make her feel that she was a useful person.