The Ice Cave Beasts were a kind of very low-level magical beast, with an extremely strong desire to eat. Most of the time in a day, they were eating, storing up a large amount of energy to resist the cold.
Most of the time, they ate the fish in the glacial rivers and some floating algae, but what they liked the most was the young of magical beasts.
Underwater, the Ice Cave Beasts had almost no natural enemies. If not for the fact that they would be attracted by the young and leap out of the ice surface, only to be eaten by the magical beasts with cubs, they would have long since bred into overwhelming numbers.
These magical beasts, hiding under the ice layer and slippery and fast when running, would become unable to move when encountering delicious young. So with Meili following behind Muli, almost every time they passed near an ice cave, she could see a round and plump beast shooting out of the cave.
Delivery of meat right to the mouth—truly risking their lives for a tasty bite.
It was precisely because of such Ice Cave Beasts that those magical beasts who, burdened with cubs and thus living a difficult life unable to find sufficient food, would all try to hunt them.
But in the end, whether it was the Ice Cave Beast who carried off the young, or the magical beast with cubs who captured it for a feast, that depended on whether the actions of the magical beast with cubs could be faster than those of the Ice Cave Beast.
An Ice Cave Beast leapt out of the cave and revealed its sharp teeth, attempting to drag the “young” back into the cave, yet unexpectedly, this time the “mother with a cub” moved so quickly. A giant bear paw came head-on, slapping it far away across the ice surface.
Because it was covered in fat, it bounced on the ice and couldn’t stop, sliding all the way right to the edge of another ice cave. The Ice Cave Beast, escaping death, flipped over and hid back into the water again.
Muli flew into a rage, and immediately wanted to dive into the water and compete with it, but Meili hugged his waist tightly to stop him, soothing this young and impetuous little bear.
“Alright, alright, we’ve already caught two. We can make cloaks now. Let’s go back and make new cloaks!”
“Ao——!”
“Muli, we’re going back. I’m so cold, I’m going to freeze to death——”
She finally dispelled his idea of diving into the water to chase and kill the Ice Cave Beasts. It was just that on the way back he was still huffing angrily. Meili looked at him and felt that if she weren’t beside him, he might have gotten so angry he would roll on the ground.
He was still a very young little bear. In this world he was familiar with, he was far less steady than he had pretended to be in the human world.
Meili truly couldn’t walk anymore. Muli held an Ice Cave Beast in one hand, so he couldn’t carry her in his arms. He crouched down and let her lie on his shoulder.
Lying on his shoulder, holding his neck, with his thick blanket covering her body, in the wind and snow it was a warm and steady nest.
Meili leaned close to his ear to continue comforting him, “Next time we can catch Ice Cave Beasts again. You bring me, and you can catch as many as you want.” She didn’t mind being bait for a moment either.
But Muli said, “No more catching.”
Meili touched the white fur exposed at his neck and began speaking about other topics, her tone gentle, “This place is really interesting. Everything here is something I’ve never seen before.”
Muli turned his head, wanting to look at her, “Really? You like it here?”
“I like it.” Meili truly meant it. Compared to the human world, this animal world which was equally full of slaughter, she instead liked it more. Because human desires were far more and far more complicated than those of these beasts, and the things they would do were also more frightening.
In the first ten-plus years of her previous life, because of her mother’s identity and her own experiences, she could only stay far away from crowds. She would even feel fear when seeing people, terrified that the next moment she would be captured, beaten to death, burned to death. She hid herself within oversized clothes and hats, accustomed to a life avoiding people.
Coming to this world, the brief beginning also made her feel fear. A bloody and chaotic world, she likewise could not feel secure.
But now, like this, was truly good. No other people, no need to endure day after day of pain. As long as she worked hard, there was hope to live well. This was the life she most longed for. Even if there were still some small imperfections, it only made the times of happiness and satisfaction seem all the more rare and precious.
Thinking this, she touched Muli’s neck again.
In the past, no one treated her well. Now, there was. In the past, she didn’t know who she could care about, who she could treat well. Now, there was too.
Muli didn’t know what the person on his back was silently thinking all the way. Hearing her say she liked it here, he happily carried her back to the lighthouse, helped her deal with the Ice Cave Beasts, and rubbed the two pieces of skin, waiting for her to make him a new cloak.
Meili processed the meat of the Ice Cave Beasts. Its meat was different from that of other magical beasts—beneath the large layer of fat there was only a thin strip of spine. The oil filtered out from this fat carried a faint seaweed scent. She stored the blocks of oil, considering going out tomorrow to search for more things to bring back and fill this home.
She had decided to live well here, but they still lacked many daily necessities. Muli had lived too carelessly before. From now on, she would take good care of him. Even though compared to him she was still weak, there were always things she could do. They would take care of each other.
Life on the polar snowfields was peaceful. The first time Meili went out exploring with Muli and returned, her hands and feet were swollen red. After warming them by the fire, they slowly became itchy and were very uncomfortable. But she endured all the various pains bit by bit and gradually adapted to the wind, snow, and extreme cold here.
Following Muli, she went farther and farther. Aside from Ice Cave Beasts, she also saw many other magical beasts of various kinds, all of which she had never seen before. This novel world far exceeded her imagination.
In the distance the wind and snow swept across, and within the blizzard gigantic magical beasts were migrating, their mountain-like bodies daunting to even look at.
Meili stood beside Muli, watching those giant beasts disappear into the wind and snow on the opposite side. The shock in her heart did not subside for a long time.
As time passed, she discovered that many, many animals lived on the snowfields, and even plants tenaciously survived beneath the snow layer. This place was not monotonous at all—one only needed to uncover the secrets here.
The remains of giant magical beasts were scattered across the ground, half-buried by wind and snow. This magical beast had been dead for a long time, its flesh and blood long since gnawed clean layer by layer, leaving only a pile of white bones.
Muli pulled the frozen skeleton from the snow to take it back for the fire, and Meili followed beside him picking things up. She picked up a piece of rib bone and suddenly noticed that beneath the white bones, there were white plant roots growing—if one didn’t look closely, they would mistake them for snow.
Muli saw them too. He tugged up a white root, chewed on it a bit, then tore off another strand and stuffed it into Meili’s mouth.
Meili instinctively bit down. A faint sweetness spread through her mouth.
“It’s sweet!” She smiled. Her face, red from the cold, seemed to have a layer of frost condensed over it, making her smile look a bit stiff.
Muli set down the skeleton, pulled off his gloves, rubbed his bear paws together, and then used his two furry bear paws to rub her face all over, just like he usually rubbed fur skins.
Meili was rubbed left and right until she was dizzy, unable to hold back a burst of laughter. When she was released, her face was rubbed red, but she felt much more comfortable.
Breathing out a warm breath, she handed the sweet grass root in her hand to Muli. “You eat.” He liked sweet things more.
This kind of “pleasant surprise” made Meili develop a habit of exploring the snowfields. Finding things that could be eaten or used and bringing them back to fill the lighthouse became her joy.
The little bear who used to be very lazy also began to find it interesting. Having lived here for more than ten years, this was the first time he realized that there were still things in these snowfields he had never seen before.
Like the various grass roots under the snow layer—their root systems were well-developed, often stretching far away, dozens of stalks forming a net and connecting into a patch. Many of them were edible because they needed to store up strength during winter while waiting for the warm days to come. Most of them had abundant sap.
Muli, who previously would rather sleep after eating than dig in the snow, had never realized that these grass roots tasted so good in the winter.
“When the temperature rises next year and the snow melts, there are about ten days when flowers will bloom everywhere here.” Muli recalled previous years and casually described the brief polar summer to Meili.
He didn’t think it was anything special, but Meili looked forward to it very much.
They had walked quite far. On the way back to the lighthouse, the sky became completely dark.
The later the polar winter went, the less the sun appeared. In the morning the sun hung slanted on the horizon, not rising into the sky even at noon, and it sank very early.
All day, Meili felt like she was submerged in the sunset. She had never seen such a sight before.
Muli was long familiar with this. He could see even in the darkness. Dragging the bones and miscellaneous things they found with his hand, he held Meili and walked back.
On the way, Meili noticed that in the dark blue sky, light slowly appeared all of a sudden. That glow was like a soft fluttering ribbon or a fairy’s gauze skirt, swaying from afar. Blue-green bands of light crossed and intertwined, slowly spreading across the sky.
Meili widened her eyes, straightened up from Muli’s arms, and stared blankly at this scene.
What a beautiful sight.
“What is that…?” she murmured.
Muli was long accustomed to it. He watched for a moment and then said, “That is the Tide.”
Once the polar Tide arrived, it meant the true winter was beginning, and the magical beasts would become more restless with each passing day.
The beautiful green ribbons soon swayed past the sky. Meili was still reluctant, keeping her head raised until the very last trace of green faded away, before she nestled back into Muli’s arms.
“So beautiful.”
Muli said, “It comes every year. When winter is about to end, there will be purple ones too.”
Meili gained yet another anticipation. She wanted to see the purple Tide that appeared when winter ended, just like waiting for the flowers of that brief summer Muli mentioned.
She thought, if life had many small expectations, gathered together, then life would have meaning.
On the night she saw the Tide, Meili was awakened by waves of trembling earth and the howls of magical beasts.
She sat up nervously and looked toward Muli beside her. “Muli, there are many magical beasts outside.”
Muli turned over and opened one eye. “Because of the Tide. They’re leaving the polar region.”
Seeing that he didn’t care, Meili knew there shouldn’t be any issue. But the howls rising one after another around them made her unable to sleep. She simply wrapped a blanket around herself, stepped onto the narrow stairs, and climbed up to the small platform at the very top, looking outside through the window.
In the sky, those green light-band Tides appeared again. On the ground, countless magical beasts of all sizes appeared overnight. Like a migrating herd of wild horses, they surged in from afar, then rushed past the lighthouse, heading toward the outer edges of the polar lands.
The lighthouse was nearly submerged in the beast tide!
The torrent of magical beasts flooded around the lighthouse, splitting apart just before colliding with it, and merging together again after sweeping past. Pressed against the window, Meili watched breathlessly, her eyes not knowing whether to look at the sky or the ground.
After a long time, the vast group of magical beasts went far away, leaving only scattered ones trailing behind. Eventually, all the magical beasts departed, and the snowfields once again returned to tranquility.
“Ao——” Muli shouted below, calling her to go back to sleep.
Meili rubbed her hands together and, wrapped in the blanket, ran downstairs.
