Capítulo 4: Chapter 4：Symbiosis with the Wolf: Seraphina's Strange Experience

"Ah!" Seraphina was suddenly pounced on and knocked to the ground. Then the bloody maw of the giant wolf loomed over her. She froze all over. She felt the giant wolf lick her and then something blocked her mouth.

A mass of chewed-up meat mixed with blood was spat out by it.

Perhaps seeing that she wasn't swallowing, the giant wolf kept licking her with its tongue. Seraphina couldn't bear it anymore and pushed it away with her hands and feet. But the huge difference in strength made it impossible for her to move the wolf's paws off her.

When the raw meat entered her mouth, she felt her heart collapsing inside: My first kiss was actually given to a wild beast.

"Cough, cough..." Seraphina desperately clutched at her throat and coughed her heart out. The stinking smell of blood and flesh overwhelmed all her nerves. Deep down, she was resisting, but because she had been thirsty for too long, her body actually accepted it.

Fresh meat and blood and such things could keep her alive.

The giant wolf tilted its head to look at her actions. Probably finding it strange, when Seraphina stopped coughing, it came over and licked her again, cleaning up the dried blood marks on her face. Seraphina couldn't resist and could only comply with its actions.

When it thought there was no more smell on her face, it went back to finish off the other half of the deer meat. Seraphina sat on the ground, watching the giant wolf roughly tearing and swallowing. Thinking about its previous actions, could it be that it was comforting her? Just like an adult comforting a young child.

Feeding her and snuggling up to keep her warm as well. Maybe this guy didn't regard her as prey but as a cub instead.

The leftover remains of the eaten prey were pushed by it into the corner of the cave. For the rest of the time, it lay on the hay, cleaning its paws and fur with its tongue. Seraphina guessed that the fur caked with blood and dirt probably made it very uncomfortable.

Seraphina had been staying in the corner far away from it. She couldn't hold it in any longer until the giant wolf finished cleaning its fur.

Enough is enough. One can't hold it when nature calls.

She hadn't seen the giant wolf relieve itself in this cave. Maybe, like most canids, it liked to mark its territory. Seraphina didn't like to relieve herself either in the small, confined space where it was just her and the wolf.

After thinking it over, she decided to climb down from the cave.

The rain outside had already stopped. At this moment, after the sun came out, the land that had been scorched by the fire looked a bit desolate. The ground that had been wet was quickly evaporating moisture. Seraphina waited for a while and didn't see any other animals passing by the open space beneath the cave. So it should be relatively safe.

She slowly moved towards the entrance of the cave. The giant wolf, full after eating, looked quite comfortable. Its long and fluffy tail was swaying beside it. She didn't dare to run straight past it and down, so she could only move slowly towards the outside, seemingly casually.

As expected, there was a slope suitable for climbing at the entrance of the cave, which put the cave in a very advantageous position. Jagged rocks were exposed on the surface of the mountain wall. Besides those climbing plants, Seraphina also saw patches of small red fruits in the crevices of the stones.

Because the taste of blood still lingered in her mouth, those colors that signified ripeness actually looked so lovely to her. Saliva secreted as she imagined the sour taste. But no matter how much she wanted to eat them, without knowing if they were poisonous, she didn't dare to try them rashly.

Until Seraphina clumsily climbed down the hillside, the giant wolf didn't move at all. It only looked at her from time to time to make sure she was within its controllable distance, just like an adult indulging a child playing in the yard.

She fidgeted around looking for a place for quite a while. Finally, she selected a large protruding rock at the bottom of the hillside. After squatting behind the rock to relieve herself, Seraphina stood up and let out a sigh of relief.

Huh? Wait. She was the only one here. Why should she be shy?

While she was lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice when the giant wolf jumped down and suddenly appeared beside her. It nudged her with its head and easily pinned her under its neck with its size advantage. Seraphina was forced to bury her face in the thick fur of the giant wolf and got a mouthful of fur.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Before she could react, the giant wolf suddenly pushed her aside and moved towards the big rock where she had just peed, sniffing around with its nose.

Seraphina didn't know why she was suddenly dumbfounded. Fear and wariness were thrown to the back of her mind. In a moment of panic, she actually reached out and pulled on the long fur on the wolf's back. "Don't!"

The giant wolf looked back at her. Only then did Seraphina suddenly realize what she had done and immediately let go.

She must be crazy. She was asking for trouble...

Fortunately, the giant wolf didn't get furious. It turned its head to sniff at the damp crevices of the stones and then turned around and used its hind legs to scratch at the gravel and soil on the ground. Soon, it covered up that temporary "outhouse".

After finishing, it went over to sniff again and, still not satisfied, piled on another layer of grass leaves.

Seraphina was dumbstruck. She was even more confused about the behavior of this giant wolf. If spreading its own scent was for marking territory, then what was the purpose of covering up her scent? Could it be that the smell of humans would attract something strange, or was it instinctively repulsive to the giant wolf?

But there was no one to answer her questions.

After the giant wolf finished all this, it shook its fur on the spot. "Hu hu" It let out a soft breath sound towards Seraphina and then walked a few steps towards the outside. She cleverly guessed that it was going to patrol its territory or track prey. Because wolves have a big appetite. Such a giant wolf, whose weight was comparable to that of a bear, surely couldn't be satisfied with just one and a half small deer.

Probably worried about Seraphina, the giant wolf would look back at her every few steps as it ran, which made her feel a bit on edge. Just when she thought it would leave like that, it suddenly turned around and ran back.

"Hu hu" It came over and rubbed its soft chin fur against her head and face, and then crouched down on the ground, lying flat.

Seraphina was stunned again. She had seen the sleeping postures of wolves. They liked to lie on their side or rest their head on their front legs. The posture of arching its hind legs and lying flat on the ground like this was definitely not for sleeping here. So there was only one possibility. It wanted her to climb onto its back.

Perhaps seeing that she hadn't moved for a long time, the giant wolf impatiently growled softly at her. Seraphina gritted her teeth and climbed onto the wolf's back with her hands and feet. The fur on its back was long and thick. Although it wasn't that soft, it definitely had an excellent warming effect.

When the giant wolf saw that she was seated properly, it suddenly stood up and dashed into the forest. Seraphina's body suddenly leaned back, and then she reflexively grabbed onto the long fur on its back.

The giant wolf was panting with its mouth open. Seraphina thought that if it could talk, it would probably be reminding her to be careful. Thinking like this, she quickly lowered her body and pressed it against the wolf's back to make herself fit better with its movement.

In the past twenty-plus years, Seraphina had never ridden a horse. But the first experience of riding a wolf was really not that good. Its movements were quite large. Every movement of its bones and muscles under the fur made Seraphina nervous. She felt the astonishing speed and strength of this wolf, just like driving a racing car in a densely forested area: heart-pounding.

"Hu hu" The giant wolf stopped at some point. Seraphina lifted her head from the wolf's fur. The first thing she saw was a huge valley filled with various shades of green.

Just a little ahead of where she was standing was a cliff. Below it was a valley hundreds of meters deep. The forest as dense as the sea spilled out from the fan-shaped shell at the bottom of the valley and then spread into the distance. Several silver rivers were embedded in the green expanse like ribbons. It was a beautiful world.

But it was so cruel that it made Seraphana despair.

Because she knew that with such a landscape, this place could never be in the same dimension as hers.

"Hu hu" The giant wolf rubbed against her head and then licked the water droplets on her face with its tongue. Seeming to sense the taste, it licked her face even more vigorously. Seraphina, on the verge of crying, pushed its big head away with her hands. The initial sense of desolate despair was suddenly diluted.

"Perhaps it's fate." She hugged the furry neck of the giant wolf and, for the first time, pressed her face against its ear. "If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be able to survive." However, whether it was fate or something else, the result was already there. As the lowest link in the food chain, Seraphina also had to fight for her life with all her might.

"Let me give you a name." She stroked the giant wolf beside her. "I'll call you Auris, okay?" However, the giant wolf didn't give her the reaction she was hoping for. Seraphina was a bit disappointed. No matter how intelligent it seemed, a wolf was still a wolf.

It wouldn't become her chatting partner. Unless she could find other humans in the future, language would be the most luxurious thing for her in the future.

On the way back, Auris deliberately slowed down its pace, as if taking Seraphina on a tour of its territory. One person and one wolf walked leisurely in the forest. It was at the top of the food chain. All animals were its prey. The place that was full of dangers for her was the home of the giant wolf.

At first, she was too nervous and restless, only thinking about finding a way back. But now, Seraphina finally noticed the special features of this forest.

Compared with the orchard she had crossed over from, the plant species in this primeval forest were much stranger. For example, the plant that Seraphina had mistaken for a banana tree on a rainy day actually had fruits like coconuts and was much shorter than a banana tree as a whole.

Seraphina tried to pick one. She found that its shell was very hard and couldn't be broken open just by hand. Just as she was about to discard it, the giant wolf suddenly came over. Its fangs easily bit the coconut into two halves.

Seraphina was quite surprised. But Auris seemed to dislike the taste of this fruit very much. After biting it open, it spat all of it onto the ground.

She picked up the relatively intact half and observed it. Inside was something like flocculent pulp. There was no juice. She dipped her finger in it and tasted it. It was a very astringent and bitter taste. Judging from Auris's reaction, it should be non-toxic. But there was also no edible part. Presumably, the only useful part of this plant should be its broad leaves.

Seraphina felt that she could obtain too little information about this world. For such a plant, starting from its roots, stems, and leaves, the functions she could know were pitifully few. The only way she could classify them was by their smell and taste, whether they were spicy, bitter, sour, or sweet. This might be a long and maddening process.

"If there's no one else here, am I the first person to discover this forest?" She was riding on Auris's back, holding a few coconuts in her hand. And the privilege of the first human was to name things.

"I'll call it the Broad-leaf Coconut. I can't think of a more appropriate name." Seraphina sighed. Anyway, it was only she who would call it that. Even if she called it the Four Great Beauties Tree, no one would care.