Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Loving Each Other.
Wolf Dad patrolled the cave.
On one hand, he marked his scent, declaring territory.
On the other, he was checking for any intruders.
Especially under the extreme night, hungry hunters could do anything out of desperation.
After Wolf Dad left the cave,
Xiao Hui, squatting to one side, no longer felt restrained.
Now, it was starting to get mischievous again.
Having been with the Wolf Pack for a long time,
Xiao Hui was familiar with all members of the Wolf Clan.
While its leaders and Wolf Mother chatted,
it bounced over to a few Hai Wolves.
Currently, Xiao Hui’s size was second only to Wolf Dad’s in the pack,
comparable to the two Beta Wolves.
Its imposing size made the Hai Wolves visibly tense up as it approached.
Upon arriving,
Xiao Hui first went to check on two wolves that had been injured and hadn’t managed to snatch any food.
Xiao Hui knew these two wolves well.
One was the mother of Grey White Little Wolf, and the other was his cousin’s mother.
They were originally the weakest in the pack,
and now, being injured, their situation was even more pitiful.
Xiao Hui didn’t want to see them unable to even get scraps of leftover food.
So it snatched the half-eaten fish meat from another two Hai Wolves.
Of course,
it took some effort to do so.
But now Xiao Hui’s strength was comparable to a level 5 Arctic Wolf, and its combat prowess was even stronger.
A few swipes of its paws were almost as powerful as Wolf Dad’s.
It quickly taught the two Hai Wolves the importance of compassion and caring.
All members of the Wolf Clan needed to survive,
and if they weren’t given any food, the mothers of Grey White Little Wolf and the cousin might not make it through the extreme night.
Xiao Hui’s intelligence was now far superior to the average member of the Wolf Clan.
It was beginning to understand emotions like compassion in its little head.
The mothers of Grey White Little Wolf and the cousin were now gobbling down the few morsels of fish scraps,
whining softly to express their gratitude to Xiao Hui.
But soon,
the mother of Grey White Little Wolf accidentally choked on a fishbone,
eating so greedily that she failed to notice it lodge in her throat.
In pain, she rolled around on the ground.
It was a pitiful sight.
This prompted Xiao Hui to teach her how to clear the fishbone by coughing.
After coughing for a while, the mother of Grey White Little Wolf expelled a bloodied fishbone.
“Ao!”
Despite her unfortunate fate,
she still bore the discomfort in her throat and let out a low howl to thank Xiao Hui.
Xiao Hui, with its endearing clumsiness, shook its head, indicating to eat the fish slowly.
At that moment, Su Lin moved and walked over.
Approaching the two wolfesses, she signaled Xiao Hui to stand guard at the mouth of the cave.
“Ao! Ao!”
Xiao Hui obediently let out a couple of low howls and ran to the cave entrance.
As for the injured mothers of Grey White Little Wolf and the cousin,
Su Lin also glanced at their wounds.
She found the injuries deep and serious,
and despite many days having passed, there was no sign of the wounds even beginning to scab over.
“Ao!”
Su Lin let out a low howl, asking them how the injuries had occurred.
The two wolfesses were of average intelligence,
and their ability to convey their thoughts was even poorer than that of Wolf Mother.
After many howls,
Su Lin approximately understood.
The howls repeatedly mentioned Grizzly Bears.
Indeed,
such wounds were likely caused only by large predators like Grizzly Bears.
During the food-scarce extreme night,
the Wolf Clan might desperately try to hunt Grizzly Bears,
and Grizzly Bears would similarly be driven by hunger to kill a few Arctic Wolves to appease their own.
The mutual predation among hunters
had become a common occurrence.
Of course,
it was all just to survive.
The law of the jungle, survival of the fittest—natural selection.
Nature has always been cruel.
At that moment, Su Lin,
after understanding, turned back to the side of Wolf Mother,
and tore off several pounds of fish flesh from the remaining half of the dogfish, offering it to the mothers of Grey White Little Wolf and Cousin.
This made both she-wolves quite surprised as they howled softly.
In their howls, they were full of gratitude towards Su Lin.
Because they also knew that all the food consumed that day was brought by Su Lin.
Besides,
those who had been worried about their pups all this while could finally relax.
After all, if he could bring food to help them out,
that meant that in the Wolf Pack led by Su Lin, there was definitely no need to worry about food.
At that moment, Su Lin just silently lay down next to Wolf Mother.
However, his mind was contemplating which of the several grizzly bears in this area had come into conflict with the Wolf Pack?
Bears hold grudges and have even more sensitive noses than the Wolf Clan.
Who knows when they will follow the scent to the cave.
Killing one or two, it’s all the same!
After all, bear meat tastes good and it’s great to have as reserved food.
Wolf Mother, by his side, had no idea about Su Lin’s reckless thoughts.
If she knew, she would definitely try her best to dissuade him.
Because hunting grizzly bears
is an extremely dangerous venture with a very low success rate for the Wolf Pack.
Of course,
Wolf Mother also didn’t know that
her own pup, who was only a little more than six months old, had already hunted a grizzly bear alone!
“Awooo!”
Wolf Mother let out a low howl, signaling to Su Lin to stay a few more days with the Wolf Pack.
Su Lin thought about the litter of pups back in his cave and declined.
However, he had already decided to come and check on Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom from time to time in the future,
and to bring them some food and supplies as well.
Hearing Su Lin’s response, Wolf Mother felt reluctant.
But she didn’t insist, only affectionately licked Su Lin’s fur once more.
The following,
Su Lin stayed a while longer with Wolf Mother.
When Wolf Father returned,
Su Lin said his farewells to the Wolf Pack, taking Xiao Hui with him.
“Awooo!”
“Awooo!”
“Awooo!”
….
At the mouth of the cave,
the long howls of Wolf Father and Wolf Mother carried a mixture of reluctance and comfort that their pup had grown up.
Su Lin, who had walked a distance away,
turned back to look at Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom by the cave entrance and howled in return.
Xiao Hui, by his side, also responded with a howl.
Because Xiao Hui was picked up by Wolf Mother from the icy wilderness, he could be considered half their pup.
“Awooo!”
“Awooo!”
The two resonant howls echoed through the pitch-black night.
Immediately after,
Su Lin and Xiao Hui quickly made their way through the darkness,
and soon disappeared from the sight of Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom.
On the way back,
it was still utterly silent,
except for the faint sounds of Wolf Claws stepping on the ice and snow.
By now, Su Lin had been hunting in this area for half a year,
and with careful observation,
he had already learned quite a bit about the other Hunters in this area.
Apart from the ice sheet,
in this hundred-mile radius, there weren’t too many Hunters of note.
Currently, he had observed nine Wolf Packs and five grizzly bears.
As for lynx, snowy owls, Arctic foxes and the like, they posed little threat,
so Su Lin did not pay them special attention.
Among the nine Wolf Packs, only one large Wolf Pack was stronger than the one led by Wolf Dad and Wolf Mom.
The rest of the packs were insignificant, nothing to worry about.
However, that large Wolf Pack was on the edge of the territory,
and generally, both sides did not interact.
As for the grizzly bears,
they frequented this area quite commonly.