Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 4.23

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“Twenty-five years have passed since then. Are varb wolves that long-lived?” Dan Rutim asked as he looked at the gallant white figure before him. “You look a bit smaller than the last time we met. Maybe it would make sense to assume that you’re not that white wolf, but rather its child...or maybe you just look smaller because I’ve gotten so much bigger. It really is difficult to judge.”

The beast made no sound.

“Still, there is one thing I understand. You have the same light in your eyes as the one I saw twenty-five years ago. So you must be either that same white wolf I met then or its child. I’m certain you’re not entirely unrelated.”

Still no response.

“With that in mind, there’s just one thing I wish to say,” Dan Rutim continued, and then he deeply bowed his head. “Thanks to the compassion of that white wolf back then, I am alive here and now. I wouldn’t have survived without that beast’s assistance. I am truly, deeply grateful for that fact.”

The white wolf stared at him evenly.

“When I awoke the following morning, you...or perhaps your parent, had vanished like some sort of illusion. In the end, I was unable to offer my thanks. It makes me truly glad to be able to clear away my regret from that day,” Dan Rutim told it with a grin.

The wolf’s yellow eyes quietly shone in response.

“After that, I somehow managed to make it back to the settlement, dragging along my injured leg as I went. It made for quite a commotion, with my wife and little sister sobbing like babies! No one really believed me when I told them of you, but I owe you my life. Please, allow me to offer you my continued thanks.”

There was no change in the wolf’s expression.

“Thanks to you, I was able to live a truly fulfilling life. Sadly I lost my wife when she was still young, but we were still able to have five whole children! It really, truly was a happy life.”

The white wolf tilted its head questioningly.

And it was then that Deem Rutim spoke out weakly from next to him. “Clan head...Dan Rutim...who exactly are you talking to...?”

Dan Rutim looked back and forth between the boy’s pale face and the white wolf. And then, he gave a slow nod.

“Right. Just now I was talking as if I had given up on living. But even if I’ve lived a fulfilling life, it’s not as if I’m fully satisfied just yet. I want to fill myself up with more and more satisfaction, to the point that it causes me to burst! I must overcome this hardship as well, no matter what it takes.”

The wolf quietly looked at the hunter.

“There’s no need to bother preparing a fire. Thanks to you, I remembered the proper path forward. At times like this, you should climb high into a tree and spend the night there,” Dan Rutim stated as he reached into his hunter’s cloak.

Then, he pulled out a bundle of jerky wrapped in a suurub leaf.

“Ever since that day, I always walk around with extra jerky! So if we can just secure a safe place to sleep, we should be able to survive! And this time around I just seem to have dislocated my ankle, so it’s not like I won’t be able to sleep. We just need to get back to the settlement at dawn, when the giba are sleeping.”

The wolf naturally remained silent.

“I’ll protect this injured comrade of mine through the night. Just like you did for me back then...” Dan Rutim then undid the binding on the suurub and tossed the contents to the white wolf. “Go ahead and eat that. I’ve still got jerky to spare, so there’s no need to hold back. It may have a little too much salt, so I don’t know if it’ll be to your taste, but I want to do whatever little I can to thank you for that night.”

After staring at Dan Rutim’s face for a bit, the white wolf bit down on the jerky at its feet.

Satisfied with that, the hunter then looked down at Deem Rutim’s face.

“Deem Rutim, it would be difficult to make it back to the settlement before the sun sets with the state we’re in, so I was thinking we’d spend the night out in the forest. Could I ask you to entrust me with your life?”

“Yes... I trust you, Dan Rutim...”

“All right,” the older hunter said as he picked up the boy as slowly and carefully as he could manage.

Deem Rutim then clung to Dan Rutim’s neck, holding back his pained groans as best he could.

“Hold on tight. First off, I’ve got to climb up the cliff.”

“Right...”

Dan Rutim then slowly rose, cradling the boy’s body with one arm. Instantly, there was a painful heat in his right ankle.

Still, this was nothing compared to what he remembered of twenty-five years ago.

“Well then, I wish you good health. And I look forward to the day we meet again, white wolf.”

Sure enough, there was an intelligent light shining in the white wolf’s eyes.

After shooting the beast a smile, Dan Rutim looked upward.

There was a large cliff in front of him and his surroundings were starting to descend into darkness, but he wasn’t worried at all.

He would live on and return to his comrades.

Everything came down to the forest’s guidance.

And so, as the white wolf watched, Dan Rutim took his first step back toward a truly satisfying life.