Meili pulled open the thick blanket, revealing her eyes. Seeing the light of shattered ice within the cave, she felt as if she were inside a crystal grotto, or wandering within a magnificent sea of stars.
“These lights, where did they come from?” She moved her head and rubbed it against Muli’s chest.
Muli raised his hand and broke off a piece of crushed ice to show her. Meili studied it for a long time before discovering that there were tiny sparkling particles inside that piece of ice.
“It’s something that precipitates from the bones of a magical beast long after it dies. It glows. Many magical beasts that died a long time ago are frozen inside these ice mountains.”
Therefore, the interior of the ice mountains was not dark. Instead, because of the diffusion of these substances, it was splendid and bright. This was something he had discovered by accident before, and he wanted to bring her to see it.
Meili indeed liked it. She reached out to take that piece of ice. Her hands were red all over, small and soft compared to his bear paw. After holding the ice for a moment and feeling cold, she put the ice back into his palm and let out a satisfied sigh.
A strong wind rose outside. At the ventilation slit at the entrance of the ice mountain cave, there came a sound like a person sobbing and wailing.
The sound was not frightening. When it entered this tiny cave, it even sounded somewhat ethereal. Listening to it, Meili gradually felt a wave of drowsiness rising.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt Muli beneath her move. As if startled by something, he suddenly sat up.
Meili immediately opened her eyes and saw him seriously watching that thin crack, his ear slightly tilted as if listening to something. His round ears twitched.
She followed him and listened to the wind outside, but she heard nothing.
When Muli finally moved, she scratched at the fur on his neck, “What are you listening to?”
Muli said, “There is a strange call, calling out to me.”
Being called in a place like this was truly a terrifying thing.
Meili clutched the blanket tightly and asked, “What kind of sound is it? Is it calling your name?”
Muli: “No, it’s a kind of roar, many different voices. It’s not calling my name, but the meaning is calling for me.”
In previous winters, he would occasionally hear such a sound, but it had always been vague and unclear. This year, the sound was much clearer. He had once chased after that sound for a very long time, running all the way to the farthest glacier, but found nothing, and eventually returned empty-handed.
They spent one night by the ice river and set out to return.
On the way back, Muli, who had been fine, suddenly stopped walking again. He turned and looked toward the empty, distant horizon, once again showing the posture of listening to something.
“I heard that sound again.” Muli showed a hint of distress.
It was even clearer than the night before. This sound was attracting him, urging him.
Meili carefully distinguished other sounds within the wind, yet still heard nothing. But seeing Muli concerned, she could not help but ask, “Where is the sound coming from? Otherwise, should we go check it out?”
Muli directly rejected her suggestion, “No.”
He inexplicably felt that this calling sound was from a very distant place. It came from the deepest part of the polar land. He had never been to the depths of the polar region, but his instincts told him it was a very dangerous place.
If it were the same as past winters, when he feared nothing while alone, he would go take a look again. But now… he looked at the red-haired Meili in his arms.
She was a fragile human. A little more cold could freeze her to death. If he went to the depths of the polar region, she certainly could not follow him. Leaving her here unattended, she might also be carried away and eaten by other magical beasts.
She struggled so hard to survive here. He could not leave her behind, and he was unwilling to.
Muli decided to throw that annoying voice to the back of his mind and ignore it, continuing to live in the lighthouse with Meili as usual.
Day by day, that sound grew clearer. From the beginning when it was intermittent, to now ringing without pause, leaving him unable to rest.
He did not know whether it was because of that sound, but Muli felt an uncontrollable agitation.
When he went hunting, he encountered a fierce mid-level magical beast. The remaining mid-level magical beasts that still stayed in the polar land were also affected by the tide, becoming even more violent than usual. Once they began to fight, they could not stop.
Muli was entangled by it and could not easily escape, so he had no choice but to fight it. Seeing the bright red blood oozing from the beast’s body, he felt increasingly excited and increasingly unable to control himself.
By the time that magical beast finally fell, its body had already been torn into tatters by him.
When Muli came back to his senses, he found that he was biting down on that beast’s neck, a fishy taste in his mouth.
He wiped his mouth and felt strange. He was a half-breed of human and magical beast. His grandfather had long told him that although his appearance was different from humans, most of the time he lived in a human manner and did not like habits inclined toward beasts.
Only when he was very young, during the untrained, wild juvenile stage, would he tear and bite his prey like a magical beast.
He went out hunting every day, and such things were happening more frequently. Each time, he could more clearly sense what was changing inside his body. The restless, beast-like bloodline inside him was boiling, making him enjoy the process of hunting and killing.
That day, he did not bring the prey he had killed back, because the beast’s corpse had already been beaten into a mush.
He did not want Meili to see such a scene.
His clothes were covered in blood. Even after rolling several times in the snow, he could not remove the smell of blood. With a troubled look on his face, he walked back.
The call from afar came again with the wind. He twitched his ears, but his steps did not pause, nor did he look back. He sped up toward the lighthouse.
Meili was practicing archery. She had made a target using an old piece of beast hide and some bones. Not only did she practice inside the lighthouse, she also placed the target outside on the snow and practiced there.
After they returned from the ice river not long ago, Muli—who originally would not feel at ease unless he took her along whenever he went out—suddenly allowed her to stay alone in the lighthouse. He said that because of the tide’s influence, there were not many magical beasts left here, and the lighthouse was relatively safe. But the magical beasts he hunted were becoming more violent and fierce, so he would no longer bring her along.
Meili had no objections. She stayed in the lighthouse and practiced archery diligently. She had great talent. Drawing the bow and shooting arrows was already looking quite decent. With every shot, her arms grew stronger, and her eyes could see more clearly and farther.
Such progress exceeded normal limits. Her body was changing in some good direction. She thought, perhaps this body still hid some secrets.
In contrast with her was Muli.
Muli was truly a simple person. The simple world of the polar land had shaped his personality. Any little secret he wanted to hide, Meili could discover through observation.
Like the abnormality in his emotions recently, and the discomfort in his body.
“You’re back… So much blood on your body, and your clothes are torn. Go change into a clean set.”
“…Mm.”
Meili opened the large chest and searched inside for clothes for Muli. He had only entered human cities for the first time not long ago, but in previous years he had lingered on the outskirts of areas where humans lived. He had met some merchants and traded beast hides for clothes.
Those clothes, once torn, he would just toss aside and never care about again.
A few days ago, Meili organized the miscellaneous items in the lighthouse and found a pile of clothes. She had thought they were just scraps, but after cleaning them, she discovered they were all perfectly fine, and the torn parts only needed a few stitches.
Several smaller sets became her own spare clothes. Looking at those small sets, she imagined how Muli must have looked wearing them in the past. He had been that small before—truly a little bear.
Muli sat by the fire, waiting for her to find clothes for him, scratching uncomfortably at his back and arms.
Meili returned holding the clothes. “Is your body itchy?”
Muli let out a muffled sound of agreement. It wasn’t actually itchiness, but pain.
Ever since he first heard that calling, his body had begun changing—growing more and more obvious.
In the quietest nights, he could hear the sound of blood flowing inside his body, like a hidden river beneath the ice layer, surging yet silent. His bones squeezed against each other like shattered, melting ice colliding, making a noise that set one’s teeth on edge.
All the changes of the entire polar land were quietly happening within his body.
He didn’t know what was happening. Nothing like this had ever occurred before.
“If it’s itchy, I’ll help you scratch it.” Meili’s soft voice sounded beside his ear. She hugged his arm and scratched where he felt the most unbearable pain.
Unlike his own strength that seemed able to tear skin apart, her movements were neither too light nor too heavy, and very meticulous.
Muli had been feeling extremely uncomfortable, but at this moment, he felt much better. His pain was soothed, and the torment calmed for the time being. He lay on Meili’s lap, without realizing it, closing his eyes and placing his chin on her legs.
Meili’s fingers lightly wiped away a bit of blood that had not been cleaned from the corner of his mouth, and she continued to smooth the fur on his back. After a short while, her hands were covered with a large amount of white fur.
She quietly removed the fur and set it aside out of sight, making her movements even gentler. But no matter how lightly she moved, she still pulled away handful after handful of white fur from him.
This was the coldest winter. Would he shed his fur at a time like this? Meili felt it was impossible.
Moreover, beneath that fur, she saw dots of oozing blood.
Was Muli sick?
Holding this Muli who could single-handedly defeat hundreds of bandits and ferociously bite a magical beast weighing two tons to death, Meili felt that the way he obediently buried his head in her arms was truly pitiful.
She thought the situation would slowly get better. Yet Muli’s condition grew more serious by the day. He could no longer hide the changes in his body.
Not only did he shed a large amount of fur, his skin was cracking and bleeding. His claws and teeth were rapidly growing, making him appear even more frightening.
When he returned after going out, Meili couldn’t even distinguish whether the blood on him came from other magical beasts or from his own body.
The strong stench of blood was overwhelming. The sharp fangs he usually hid were now exposed, stained with blood and bits of flesh. When Meili saw him turn his head to stare at her, she felt goosebumps rise instantly, and an instinctive fear flared up within her.
His gaze was a predator’s gaze—cold and indifferent, filled only with strong hunger and a desire to kill.
“Muli.” She called his name.
Blinking once, the stiff tension in Muli’s back slowly loosened. He noticed the blood at the corner of his mouth, raised his paw to wipe it away, then lowered his head without speaking or looking at Meili.
Meili took out a damp cloth and reached her hand toward him. “Let me wipe it for you.”
Only then did Muli lean forward, allowing her to clean the blood at the corner of his mouth.
Holding his warm, blood-scented chin, Meili’s hand trembled a little. Muli closed his eyes, entrusting his head to her, motionless, as if he hadn’t noticed her trembling.
After a while, Meili hugged his head, pressing her forehead against his nose. “Muli, are you sick?”
