Wolf

Hao Ren froze. As Lily walked past him, he rubbed his eyes trying to clear his vision. He took a second look at her, but she was completely normal.

He was certain of what he just saw—a pair of triangular ears which were covered in beautiful silver hair! He was very certain of his eyesight and short-term memory, but he definitely couldn’t explain what he had just seen,

He slapped himself and muttered, "Maybe I was hallucinating. I am just too tired today."

"Landlord, what did you just say?" Lily turned her head around, her big beautiful eyes were glowing in the dark. "Hallucinating about what?"

She heard his murmur. Hao Ren was awed by her sharp hearing ability. With a flick of his hand, he dismissed it while saying, "It’s nothing! I am alright. Let’s hurry up so that we can settle in for the night."

"Okay!" Lily carried the massive suitcase on her shoulder and kept rambling, "Landlord, I’m starving! Is there any place close to your house where I can grab a bite? Or can I eat at your house? I will pay for it. Hey, why are you walking behind me? Please lead the way, I am not familiar with the place..."

Hao Ren sped up and took the lead. Though Lily was loquacious and naive, Hao Ren was impressed by her forthrightness. "No problem, I’ll be the host tonight. I am alone anyway."

Just as he finished talking, the ‘floop’ sound occurred again!

Hao Ren’s reflexes were faster this time. He looked up immediately and caught sight of the silhouette of a bat the size of an eagle swooping across the night sky!

Naturally, it did not actually occur to him that it was a bat, but rather, a large bird foraging at night. Outside the town was a vast piece of wasteland. For there to be wild birds in the skies of the town was not something uncommon. Instead, he was more worried about Lily as he did not want her to get a bad first impression of his place, so he made up a story. "Don’t worry! That might just be a wild bird from the nearby wasteland."

Suddenly, Lily approached him, puffing. "Mr. Landlord, I have something I need to do here. I suggest you keep going, I... I’ll catch up later"

Hao Ren was perplexed. "No, I’m not going to leave you here. It is like a maze in this alley, even locals would get lost at times... Why are you standing so close?"

As Hao Ren turned around, their eyes met — Lily was just inches from him—she stared straight at him. Hao Ren was taken aback and stepped back half a meter from her, "Look! I am a gentleman!"

He would turn abrasive when he was nervous.

Hao Ren was not sure if it was an illusion—he noticed there was a sense of hurriedness in her. Lily looked up the night sky and sniffed. "Landlord, please go. I can catch up later as I can remember your smell... So stop being shilly-shallied. I really have something on!" pleaded Lily.

"No!" Hao Ren was agitated. He did not seem to be bothered by her ‘remember your smell’ remark and replied with a straight face, "What if something happens to you? I just can’t bear to leave you here alone. What is it with you being so secretive?"

As mentioned before, Hao Ren was a good man; despite the fact that she was strong, he felt that he had a duty to ensure her safety.

Besides, he could not also think of any reason why a girl from another city had any business here at this time of night.

Lily became even more nervous; she dropped her suitcase and continuously scanned her surroundings. On both sides of the alley were dilapidated three-storey houses which were once a symbol of wealth for the local residents during the town’s glorious days. As good times waned, they were left in disrepair with the walls of unequal height at both sides of the alley covered in thick moss. The sky was the only thing visible between the walls.

Lily’s eyes were busy monitoring the gaps between the walls while she sniffed as if searching for traces of smell in the air. Upon seeing this, Hao Ren realised something was amiss. Since moment ago, Lily had been reacting strangely to the creepy flapping sounds above. She might have discovered something, so he asked, "What’s going on, Lily Liew?"

"Call me Lily," she quipped and turned to Hao Ren. "Why are you still here?"

"Didn’t you hear what I said?" replied Hao Ren as he stuck close to Lily. His voice was calm but he was clenched his fists tightly. There was nothing unsual in the surroundings, but the atmosphere was creepy as he smelled a hint of blood in the air carried by the chilly wind. This smell was not supposed to be prevalent during this time of the year, when the wind blew in every direction. His legs started trembling.

Hao Ren was brave—that was what he thought of himself—but he was visibly terrified by the events unfolding around him.

He was clueless about what was happening. He had heard many creepy urban legends and ghost stories, including tales of innocent souls of the dead in the alley and haunting road junctions, but he had brushed them off as mere gossip.

He dismissed his initial spontaeneous reactions as being overly nervous and influenced by Lily’s strange behaviors. But the air reeked of blood and it was only growing stronger and stronger, to the point where he could almost taste it in his mouth. He could not explain this phenomena logic. He suddenly recalled when Lily was hurriedly asking him to leave a moment ago; she was aware of her surroundings when things were still normal and was not as dumb as he thought her to be. She knew what was coming!

"Damn it! How on earth did I get dragged into this?" Hao Ren carefully scanned his surroudings. His thoughts were bogged down because of the foul blood odor, and the creepy, frosty wind.

"Mr. Landlord, I’m sorry for dragging you into this. The ‘thing’ is likely to be after me," Lily said with a coarse voice, "You are a good man, better than everyone else I’ve ever met. I’ll promise you this, I’ll get you out of this alive!"

"C’mon, stop playing nice..." Hao Ren scoffed at her while his teeth were chattering. When he turned around to face Lily, his jaw dropped.

Hao Ren could not recognize the girl close by at all. She was extremely beautiful with her silver waist-length hair. Her eyes were out of this world—the retinas were gold in color and glowed in the dark. She had a pair of wolf-like ears protruding, flapping under the wind, and tilting in different directions listening to the surroundings.

A silver tail could be seen emerging from behind, wagging under her clothes.

She was a werewolf... or a kemonomimi1 in today’s popular culture!

Hao Ren could not fathom why he found this amusing but he knew that his life would never be the same again... if he could keep his life today.

Translator Notes:

1 kemonomimi (獣耳) is the combination of two words of Japanese origin, kemono and mimi. Kemono refers to human-like beasts (also known as furries), which are animal characters in human-like settings. They dress, feast, and move around like humans do. On the other hand, kemonomimi refers to characters that are predominantly human, but with an animal’s ears and/or tail. Mimi means ear in Japanese.