Chapter 5: Baptism of Moonlight
Lin Youyou was awakened by a strange sensation.
Not the cold, nor fear, but a subtle... undulation, as if she were immersed in warm, flowing water, coupled with an undeniable, flickering light against her closed eyelids.
She opened her eyes groggily, momentarily disoriented, unsure of her whereabouts.
Then, memory flooded back—the snowy mountains, the blizzard, the cave, and... the warm, soft sensation beneath her head, the scent of blood, iodine, and that unique, cold fragrance lingering at her nose.
With a start, she realized she had fallen asleep using the massive silver wolf as a pillow!
And she had slept deeply, dreamlessly.
Panic made her scramble back, crawling several steps on her hands and knees until her spine hit the cold cave wall, her heart hammering wildly.
She stared nervously at the wolf, fearing her movement had disturbed it, provoking unforeseeable consequences.
But the sight before her made her forget to breathe, her pupils dilating in shock.
The cave wasn't completely dark. A strand of cold, clear moonlight had, at some point, pierced through a crevice in the rocks at the entrance, like a spotlight, falling precisely upon the silver wolf's massive form.
And even more unbelievably, the wolf's body was glowing!
A hazy, soft, silvery-white luminescence, like a living veil, enveloped its entire body. Over the bandaged wounds, the light was more concentrated, as if the moonlight was actively gathering there, seeping beneath the dressings.
The air hummed with a faint, static-like buzz—the very sound and light that had roused her from sleep.
She saw the wolf seemed to be in an extremely unstable state. Its eyes remained closed, but its huge frame trembled slightly, muscle fibers sometimes tensing like iron, then relaxing.
That magnificent silver fur seemed to possess a life of its own under the moonlight, stirring without wind, its luster flowing. Most unsettling to her was that the wolf's outline seemed to waver and flicker within the light and shadows, sometimes solid as a beast, other times seeming to melt into the moonlight, dissolving into a vague, humanoid silhouette of light, only to swiftly revert to its lupine form the next moment.
This struggle on the edge of two forms was filled with an indescribable sense of power and... pain.
Intermittent, suppressed groans rumbled in its throat. Unlike the whimpers of physical pain from before, these sounded more like snarls from the depths of its soul, a struggle against some invisible force.
Lin Youyou clamped a hand over her mouth, preventing a scream from escaping.
Everything before her completely overturned her understanding. This was no simple beast. This was... myth, legend, something beyond the scope of all the scientific common sense she had acquired in her twenty years of life!
Fear gripped her again, but this time, it was mixed with more curiosity and an inexpressible sense of awe.
She watched the beautiful, powerful creature struggling under the moonlight, saw the strange light seemingly nourishing it, sensed a faint squirming sensation from its wounds (whether real or a trick of the light), making her realize this transformation might not be a bad thing.
She didn't dare approach, didn't dare make a sound. She just held her breath, huddled in the shadows, wide-eyed, witnessing this supernatural scene.
Time seemed to stand still, marked only by the flow of moonlight and the pulsing glow around the wolf.
After an immeasurable time, the violent trembling and shape-shifting gradually subsided.
The silvery light surrounding it receded like a tide, slowly receding until it completely merged into its body and disappeared from sight. Only the strand of moonlight still fell quietly upon it, but no longer triggered any phenomenon.
The humming in the cave faded, leaving only the sound of the wolf's breathing, which seemed steadier and stronger than before.
It remained unconscious, but Lin Youyou keenly felt that the earlier sense of its life force constantly ebbing had weakened. It was replaced by a deep, dormant state, gathering strength.
As dawn's light faintly brightened the cave, the moonlight quietly vanished. The cave fell into gloom again, but not the pitch-black darkness of before.
Lin Youyou had barely slept all night, yet her mind was unusually clear from the intense tension and wonder.
After a long hesitation, she mustered her courage again and, using the gradually increasing light, carefully approached the wolf.
She needed to check its condition, and also... to seek an answer for herself.
She first inspected the bandaged wounds. The dressings were still in place, but when she leaned in for a closer look, her heart gave a violent jump.
The wounds that had been bleeding profusely and deep enough to reveal bone just yesterday had... for the most part, closed!
Though still gruesome, the edges showed clear signs of healing. Pink new flesh was growing, and the bleeding had completely stopped.
The speed of healing was unbelievably fast! This was absolutely not the regenerative ability of any ordinary creature.
She reached out a finger and touched, with the lightest possible pressure, the intact skin near the wound's edge. The sensation was warm, elastic, full of vitality.
The wolf seemed to sense her touch. Its massive body moved almost imperceptibly, and a low grunt, clearer than last night's but still weak and hoarse, rumbled in its throat.
Lin Youyou snatched her hand back like a startled rabbit, watching nervously.
The wolf's eyelashes fluttered a few times, as if trying to open, but ultimately only cracked open the narrowest of slits.
The silver eyes looked clearer than last night, less of the haze of near-death, but still filled with exhaustion and... a deep, unresolved restlessness. It looked at Lin Youyou. The gaze was complex, no longer completely alien and wary, seeming to hold a trace of inquiry, and the scrutiny of a monarch—unable to be erased even in distress—along with... a hint of barely perceptible confusion.
It seemed to want to shift its body, but the moment it tried, the pulling sensation from its wounds made it emit a displeased, pained growl. It abandoned the attempt, could only anxiously scraping the ground weakly with a paw, kicking up a little dust.
Seeing the obvious agitation and impatience in its eyes, watching it try to fight its weakness but be powerless, the fear in Lin Youyou's heart strangely dissipated a little more, replaced by a mix of pity and a sense of responsibility.
"Your wounds... seem much better," she said softly, as if to it, or comforting herself.
"But you mustn't move around yet... You need water, and food, right?"
She remembered the remaining compressed biscuits and half canteen of water in her backpack. She needed them to maintain her own strength, but looking at it, having just undergone that miraculous change, seeing the vital restlessness in its eyes, she couldn't keep them for herself.
Slowly, she took out her canteen and unscrewed the cap.
Then, looking around, she found a slightly concave, clean small hollow in the rock.
She carefully poured some of the precious water into it.
"Have some water..." She pushed the stone hollow to a position where the wolf could just barely reach it, yet she herself wasn't in immediate danger.
"I... I have a little food too, wait a moment..."
The wolf's silver eyes followed her movements, watching her pour the water, watching the clear liquid ripple in the stone hollow.
It initially showed obvious disdain for the crude container and the human's water source, even turning its head slightly away with regal pride.
But the dryness in its throat and its body's instinctual craving for moisture ultimately overcame that reserved.
After a moment's hesitation, it finally extended its dark red, slightly barbed tongue and began to lap slowly, deliberately, at the clear water in the hollow.
Watching it drink, Lin Youyou felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
Simultaneously, more questions bubbled up like springs: What was it? Why did the moonlight heal it? What was the meaning of the shape-shifting? Would it... harm her?
She watched as the wolf, finished drinking, seemed to close its eyes again in exhaustion. But the slight rise and fall of its chest and the occasional twitch of its ears showed it wasn't fully asleep, still maintaining some level of alertness.
The sound of the storm outside seemed somewhat quieter, but far from over.
Lin Youyou sat back in her corner, hugging her knees, her gaze resting on the wolf. Her feelings were more complex than ever before. She knew, from the moment the moonlight fell last night, she was caught up in more than just a simple struggle for survival in the snowy mountains.
And where would this precarious, extraordinary bond between her and this mysterious silver wolf lead?