Substitute Marriage - Bride of the Wolf God

Zona was lost in a deep darkness, and the surroundings were dark and uncertain, with the shadows drifted in and out of sight.

　　Then, in the distance, a wolf growled, with the sound was getting closer and closer to her, seemed to be a call, but also like a guide.

　　Vaguely, a huge white wolf with a red flame on its forehead carried the light, against the dark current, stepped in front of her. After surveying her for a long time, it opened its mouth and let out a loud yelp.

　　Zona, at this startling roar, snapped out of it!

　　After shutting her breath for too long, she straightened up and pumped a hard breath into her lungs! Cold air rushed into her cavity, provoking her to cough heartily.

　　"Eh, wake up wake up!" The speaker set the emptied bucket aside, his narrow eyes revealing an evil light.

　　"Finally woke up after pouring a bucket of water, time is almost up, hurry up and go call the sorcerer-sama."

　　"This, in case her father's former countrymen come looking for her, what can we do ..."

　　"What do you know! It was her uncle who sold her, if you want to find it, you should also find her heartless uncle Jack! It has nothing to do with us!"

"A girl with a dead mom and dad and no one wants her, if she's not going to serve as a sacrifice, then let your daughter serve as a sacrifice?"

　　"I-I didn't say that either! You old woman don't scourge my daughter!

　　"..."

　　As soon as she opened her eyes, the first thing Zona saw was the roof of a broken thatched hut, surrounded by many men and women wearing cotton clothes and pants, whispering to each other in chattering voices.

　　"Where am I? Where's the white wolf from earlier?" Ice-cold water droplets fell from her body, and feeling the extreme cold and hunger in her body, Zona couldn't help but shrink towards the inner side of the bed.

A kind-faced old woman approached her and thoughtfully took a plush blanket from the cupboard and wiped the water off of her as if she hadn't been the one who had just splashed Zona with water, "You've been chosen to be the bride of the 'Wolf God', something the young women of the village can only dream of. "

"'Wolf God', 'bride'?" Zona was baffled as she pondered over the relevant memories in her head, and she suddenly recalled that not long ago the village headman's son had taken his friends to Eastern Hill to organize a trapping game, and that the cruel, inhumane young men, who had set traps all over the place and killed a grey wolf, had offended the wolves on the hill. The village chief's son was split up on the spot by the pack, and the rest of the group were all scared away. On the night of the following day, the wolves came down from the mountain, and all the livestock in the village were bitten to death overnight.

　　Now, not only the mayor's family, the whole village panicked! They had no choice but to go to a town more than forty miles away and find a sorcerer who said that the only way to extinguish the wolf god's anger was to use a virgin as a live sacrifice and give it to the wolf god as a bride!

There are many girls of the right age in the village, Zona among them of course, and to give a bride to the terrifying, mysterious, and powerful Wolf God is a job so unpredictable that most of the parents in the village are reluctant to send their daughters to do it.

She had been boarding at her distant cousin's uncle's house ever since her parents were killed by a wild bear, and in order to lighten the burden of her uncle's family and to please them, Zona thought she had done enough, and before she went to sleep last night, she had helped the family with chores all day long, sewed school bags for her cousin who had gone to school in the town, and then chopped wood until late in the night before drifting off to sleep. The only thing that was different from usual was that her cousin's uncle had allowed her to eat a few pieces of meat that day, whereas normally she was only allowed to eat coarse grains, and vegetables and fruits were picked and eaten by herself as she sneaked out into the forest.

Her heart ached violently as she suddenly remembered the meaningful smiles her uncle's family had given her at dinner yesterday, but she still didn't want to believe that she had been betrayed.

Zona pushed away the hand of the stranger next to her to help her and tried to get down to the ground to find her worn out straw shoes, "Excuse me, I don't want to, I'm leaving."

However she was stopped by several shotguns and pitchforks, then a fat figure appeared at the door, Zona recognized the ugly face, it was the village chief.

"You have no choice, we have already paid your uncle five gold coins."

During the time she was adopted by her cousin uncle, Zona had been suffering from the harsh treatment of her uncle's family, her face was yellow and thin,so she couldn't fight against these villagers.

"There are wolves in Eastern Hill, and no one is allowed to enter", Zona spoke cautiously, she intended to convince the village chief, or fight for some chance of survival for herself, "This is the ancestral motto of Faraway Village, you should be more familiar with it than I am, an outsider of the village. "

"What?" The Mayor curled his lips, his goatee twitching with his movements, "Of course I know it."

"No one has bothered the Wolf God in years, and I'm afraid it's too eager to give him an inexplicable bride out of the blue," Zona's aquamarine eyes flooded with a determined light, "Aren't you worried that it might backfire, I'm afraid that the Wolf God's power was witnessed by everyone a few days ago. "

The mayor fell silent, he seemed on the verge of being convinced, he looked down and pondered. So Zona felt hopeful and she intended to continue, but just as she opened her mouth, she was interrupted by a shrill voice.

"Lord Mayor! Please believe in the guidance of the Wolf God!!!" An unrecognizable person in a wizard's robe suddenly entered the house, making mysterious gestures while loudly announcing, "I already spoke to him the day before yesterday, we have no other choice!"

"There is no other choice..." The Mayor seemed to make up his mind, his eyes locked onto Zona's face for a moment, and his next words caused her heart to sink to the bottom of the cold lake, "I see that the 'bride' has come to her senses, may the ceremony begin? Lord Wizard?"

"Now is as good a time as any." The wizard replied.

Zona felt that the form was not good, she just wanted to struggle, but she was grabbed by a nearby black thick man with lewd eyes by the neck, the other hand drew out the twine and tightly tied her hands together, during the time, he also didn't forget to pinch a handful of Zona's buttocks with force, and then under Zona's continuous struggle, he picked her up with one hand, and flung her out towards the door!

Zona was directly thrown dizzy, head directly into the snow, gnawed a mouth full of snow.

　　Struggling to stand up, suddenly felt someone pressing herself, then she saw several gold and white ribbons were wrapped around her body, the sharp-voiced sorcerer seemed to be a big rat with wind, jumping around her, and then finally raised his hand to take out some water from the beautifully engraved cups and glasses held over by the people next to him, and then sprinkled the water on her, and the water fell on Zona and directly iced, freezing her! Zona couldn't stop shivering.

　　At the end of the spell, Zona was blindfolded and thrown onto an age-old wagon.

　　Thus, Zona, who had hit the wall of the wagon and was dizzy, was escorted by a few strong men to Eastern Hill, where the wolf god was said to live.

　　These people trembling to the hill, it is already the red sun hanging in the west, look at the imminent sunset, that is the most active time of the wolves.

　　The bearers of the sedan chair, looking at each other, looked at me, I looked at you, threw down the carriage, dispersed, and ran down the hill as fast as they could.

　　Zona was left alone in the snowy mountains, freezing and turning purple.

　　Looking at the red sunset at the end of the mountain forest, and the empty snowy land, she suddenly reacted, "Isn't this a good opportunity to escape?"

　　After thinking about it, she struggled with all her might, wearing only a thin white dress tied with a silk ribbon, and climbed out of the carriage into the soft snow, and then she rolled and stood up.

　　She inhaled deeply, as if smelling the lingering cedars of the forest, the fresh buds of the snow-covered ground, "And then how to go..." She hugged her frozen body tighter and took a pair of long, thin legs, exploring cautiously and carefully over the ridge colored red by the setting sun.