It was another day without catching the ice-cave beast. Muli patted the frost that had condensed on his body from the dampness, shaking as he walked, brushing all the snow and dust clean.
In the distance, he saw a wild beast howling as it ran madly toward him. With one glance, Muli saw that the eyes of that tall, sturdy, big-nosed beast had an arrow stuck in one of them.
That was Meili’s arrow. She practiced drawing the bow and shooting every day in the lighthouse. He often watched, so he recognized it immediately.
Muli’s steps paused for a moment, then he suddenly burst forward. He swept across the snow with violent fury, pouncing straight at the injured beast. With a single strike he tore open its neck, forcefully ripping off half of its hide, then dragged the beast, still bleeding endlessly, and ran quickly back toward the lighthouse.
Meili still could not get used to the wind, snow, and cold outside. She always stayed properly inside the lighthouse and never came out. The fact that this big-nosed beast had Meili’s arrow stuck in its eye could only mean it had gone near the lighthouse and threatened Meili’s safety.
The more ferocious and high-level the magical beast was, the less it could tolerate having its territory encroached upon. Half anxious and half furious, Muli dragged that big-nosed beast across the ice, sprinting wildly. By the time he returned to the lighthouse, the beast only had half a bloody body left.
Meili was still holding her bow at the top level of the lighthouse, watching outside through the window.
Her arrow had luckily struck the beast’s eye and scared it away, but she did not dare relax, still wary of other enemies appearing.
She was not sitting by the fire. Even though her body was painfully cold, she did not go down to warm up. In case other beasts were attracted over and broke into the lighthouse, staying up here would be the safest. The bigger the beast, the less likely it could come up.
Seeing Muli’s familiar gray-black figure running close, Meili happily stomped her feet and went down the stairs.
Muli stopped at the door, threw down the half-beast corpse in his hand, opened the door and drilled inside. Seeing Meili coming down the staircase, she gave him a happy smile.
“Muli, just now a beast came to steal fish and prey, but I chased it away!” Meili felt extremely excited about having driven away a beast.
The fur Muli had bristled all the way from anger suddenly softened. He stopped his hurried steps, let out an “Oh” after a while, then turned his head and went out again, bringing back an arrow stained with blood and handing it to Meili.
“Ah, my arrow, great.” Meili wiped the recovered arrow clean and stored it away.
She only had this one quiver of arrows, with no other replacements. Losing one meant one less.
That night, Muli ate the meat of that big-nosed beast, chewing fiercely, finishing the entire half of it. Hearing the crunching sounds he made, Meili felt an ache in her teeth.
Seeing that after finishing he still sat there with his arms folded, sulking, she dissolved sugar cubes in hot water and brought him a bowl of sweet sugar water.
Muli hugged the bowl and drank the sugar water, yet he still did not seem to calm down, sitting there with a fierce air about him. Meili was no longer afraid of him. Seeing that there was still a shiny trace of sugar water on his nose, she raised her hand to wipe it off, then took away the bone bowl in his hands.
After being angry for a while, Muli’s gaze followed Meili involuntarily——watching her walk back and forth in front of him, sometimes tidying the bedding, sometimes sorting the new hides and bones. She also heated water and, hiding at the side, wiped her body.
Muli did not know about avoiding impropriety. This was his territory, and he was used to always watching Meili. Seeing her hide in a corner to wipe her body, he also looked over.
The illuminated parts of her were coated with a warm golden glaze by the orange firelight. The hollows and her sides flickered with dark, unclear boundaries, hiding unknown secrets in the shadows.
Meili thought he was still sulking at the wall. When she unintentionally turned her head, she saw him sitting there with arms folded, staring wide-eyed at her.
Meili: “….” The lighthouse was really too small, nowhere to hide.
She let down her hair to cover her back, quickly wiped herself clean, hurried to wrap herself in furs, and shivered as she rolled into the thick fur bedding.
It was too cold. If not for the discomfort of sweat, she really did not want to wipe her body in such cold.
After warming up for a while, she poked her head out of the fur blanket, and was startled by Muli who had leaned in close. He sat beside her, his round black eyes filled with curiosity.
He lifted the blanket to look inside, and with a soft, youthful voice said, “You don’t have fur on your body either.”
Meili: “….” She pulled the blanket down from where he had lifted it, covering herself properly, a bit embarrassed and helpless.
This silly little bear, he understood nothing.
Muli even wanted to seriously discuss the matter of whether humans had fur: “The men in the mercenary corps all have fur on their bodies.”
Yes, Meili knew — those men had long beards covering their faces, and thick hair growing all over their arms and legs. They all believed that the more hair they had, the more masculine they were, always comparing with each other.
No wonder back then Muli would always sit off to the side and snort disdainfully. Who could possibly compare with him? He had fur all over his body because he was a little bear.
Muli lifted the blanket again to take another look. “Why is there no fur at all? Did it fall off because it’s too cold?”
Meili pushed his hand away. “You’re not allowed to pull it open again!”
Muli didn’t know why he suddenly felt curious about her body, but since she said that, he wouldn’t look. He only remained confused. “You can look at mine, why can’t I look at yours?”
Meili: “…Because I don’t have fur on my body.”
Muli suddenly understood. He tightened the blanket around her a bit and said, “You’re cold, so I can’t look.”
Although his understanding seemed completely off, Meili didn’t want to continue this topic. Her cheeks were faintly red under the firelight, her eyelashes lowered to cover her green eyes, leaving only a fresh and vivid shade of emerald showing.
As Muli stared and stared, he suddenly reached out and slapped his paw over her face.
With a bear paw plastered over her face, Meili was stunned. She pulled his hand away, only to hear him state seriously, “Your head is so small.”
His tone was so curious, as if he had only just noticed something so obvious.
Muli continued, “With such a small head, I could crush it with one push.”
He even curled his mouth happily as he said it, feeling proud.
Meili pictured the scene because of his words, and immediately felt a headache. She turned sideways and buried her face into the thick fur blanket, ignoring him.
Muli tilted his head, thinking she was sleepy. “Aren’t you sleeping on me today?”
“No, I’m sleeping here today,” Meili mumbled from inside the blanket.
After a while, when she heard no movement from Muli, she felt her hair being gently tugged. She poked her head out and saw Muli already lying beside her, eyes half-closed, pawing at her hair absentmindedly as he drifted toward sleep.
Playing and playing, he yawned… and just fell asleep like that.
Meili, however, couldn’t sleep. She stretched out a hand and poked his black, wet nose.
Muli sneezed from the poke. Meili quickly drew her hand back and pretended to be asleep, secretly laughing inside the blanket.
Because of the big-nosed beast incident, Muli didn’t go out for two days. On the third day, he was going out and taking Meili with him.
“If you stay here alone, what if a beast or magical beast carries you away?” Muli even tried to frighten her. “You have so little meat, you’d be eaten in one bite.”
He had never thought of this before, always letting Meili stay alone in the lighthouse. But the last incident had suddenly jolted him awake. The colder it got in the extreme north, the fiercer the beasts became. When they were starving, they would ignore all territorial warnings and risk breaking into the domain of another fierce creature.
If Meili continued staying here alone, she might be eaten. Just thinking about it made Muli so angry he wanted to run out and fight magical beasts and punch the snow.
Meili felt that Muli had been quite unpleasant with his words lately. He was no longer the cold, aloof boy he used to be.
But she also realized Muli was worried about her.
She had already adapted for some time, and the thick fur clothes were finished. Maybe it was indeed time to go out and have a look around, she couldn’t stay in the lighthouse forever.
She finished preparing to go outside: she put on thick fur clothes and pants. Her shoes were modified from her old boots, with thick fur pads stuffed inside and outside, fitting perfectly.
She tightly bound her shoes and pants together, then wrapped another thick fur blanket around herself. Following Muli, she stepped outside — leaving behind the fortress that had sheltered her for so long.
The world outside was cold and pale, yet also pure and clean.
Meili listened to the whistling wind, following behind Muli as they walked forward. After walking some distance, she looked back. The lighthouse stood alone in the snow, solitary and striking, growing farther and farther away.
If one looked down from the sky, they would see two living beings wrapped in white fur blankets moving across the snow — one big and one small — looking like some large wild beast taking its cub along.
Muli was also wrapped in a thick white fur blanket this time. But he wasn’t cold, the blanket was prepared for Meili. If she became too cold halfway, he could wrap her in it and carry her back.
“We’re going to see the ice cave where the ice-cave magical beasts appear.” Muli brought her to the nearest ice cave.
Meili discovered that the ice cave was round, and the ice layer was extremely thick. When she got close, she could hear the sound of water flowing underneath.
Muli watched her crouching there to look at the ice cave. Even wrapped in thick layers, she still looked so small. He thought to himself, she’s really small. His hand hanging at his side subconsciously stretched slightly.
Just as Meili was about to stand up, something suddenly shot out from the ice cave. Two snow-white fangs lunged straight at her face. She was too frozen to react in time — she only managed to tilt her head back to narrowly avoid the teeth, but the thick fur blanket wrapped around her head tightened as it was bitten by that thing.
At the same time, a huge force came from behind, pulling her backward. The timing was almost the same as that thing lunging up — so when she was dragged back, that thing was also yanked up along with her.
Meili fell into the snow. In the blink of an eye, she saw something round and chubby, taller than a person, wriggling right beside her and Muli had already pounced onto it, grabbing its protruding fangs and swinging it up, then slamming it onto the ice, bouncing it up again.
After slamming a few times, the creature let out howling cries and gradually stopped moving.
This battle of hunting and counter-hunting happened too fast. Meili, dazed, climbed up from the ground before she realized what had happened.
“This is the ice-cave magical beast? The one that can be made into a cloak?” She pointed at that round, plump creature and asked.
Muli didn’t answer her question. Still furious, he howled and pounded the snow twice before finally giving a grunt of acknowledgment.
When he guarded the ice cave alone, these magical beasts never dared appear. He never expected that taking Meili outside, she would almost be dragged away by one hiding beneath the ice. It made him furious.
——This ice-cave magical beast had mistaken Meili for his cub, so it had risked danger to come out and hunt.
