Adopting a Little Dog - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Lu Qie’s injuries had mostly healed, I had him start rehabilitation training.

He hadn’t been out of bed and running for more than half a month.

For a wolf, that was very bad.

I bought a bone from a hunter, scraped all the meat clean off it, and threw it far away right in front of Lu Qie.

“Wangcai, fetch!”

Lu Qie was sitting in a wicker chair, reading my book of magic.

Sunlight filtered through the trees, spilling over his delicate brows and eyes.

He was too beautiful to look like any ordinary dog.

He glanced at me, unmoved.

In my gentlest voice, I coaxed him, “Be good and listen to me, and tonight I’ll make your favorite bone soup.”

Lu Qie pressed his lips together and said nothing.

But he set the book lightly aside, and in the next instant, he was already flying toward it.

As expected of a wolf.

His movements were swift and graceful, the arc of his leap like a shooting star streaking across the sky.

In the blink of an eye, he had brought the bone back and placed it in my hand.

He lowered his head to look at me, his gaze clear and bright.

“Here.”

I took it, then promptly threw it even farther away.

Lu Qie: “?”

I stood on tiptoe and patted his head as praise. Then I ordered, “Fetch.”

Lu Qie sighed softly.

And ran off again.

Once Lu Qie was nearly fully recovered, he began going out to hunt.

At dawn, he would sling the crude bow and quiver I had made over his back, lean against the doorframe, and listen as I recited the medicinal ingredients I needed.

“One frog, one fish eye, two sprigs of myrtle…”

I finished reading out the list.

He still didn’t leave. He just lowered his eyes and looked at me, his gaze shining.

“Is there anything you want?”

I tilted my head up at him and smiled. “I want toast.”

I used to love taking the gold coins I’d saved to town to buy toasted bread.

Ever since I’d started saving money to buy medicine for Lu Qie, I hadn’t eaten it again.

Lu Qie nodded.

After that, every day when he came back, he brought me the little loaves I liked.

After night fell, he would skillfully light the candles in the wooden cabin and help me sort the herbs in the medicine cabinet.

Then he would stand quietly to the side, watching me as I stood on a stool, humming “Little Wolf, Be Good” while brewing his medicine.

He would bend down and let me stroke his fluffy ears.

He would listen as I mixed Chinese and English together, randomly calling him “puppy” or “Wangcai.”

Then, late at night, he would pick up his pillow and return to the room I had specially built for him.

He really was like a little dog who healed me.

But my beautiful dream did not last long.

One day, Lu Qie went out early and did not return.

He should have come back at dusk.

I rode my broom out to look for him, gripping my wand tightly in my hand.

I knew Lu Qie might have enemies.

But I had once been a very powerful witch.

I was confident I could rescue him from anyone.

But I did not see anyone seeking revenge.

I saw Lu Qie at the edge of the Forest.

Werewolves with gray ears and tails bowed to him with the utmost respect and called him “Your Majesty.”

Lu Qie was still holding the toast he had bought for me, his expression unreadable beneath the silvery moonlight.

His voice flowed slowly, so cold it made one tremble.

“I will return as soon as possible.”

“Tell the people of the tribe they can rest assured. I will not fall in love with a notorious witch.”

None of them noticed me.

I was sitting high up in a tall tree, with Owl hiding me.

Its round eyes gave off a secret glow in the night, and strange cries came from its beak-sounds only I could understand.

“Leora, even the Wolf King far away in the Snow Domain knows your terrible reputation.”

I lowered my head and said nothing.

Of course I knew. I was the “notorious witch” he spoke of.

I had fought my way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

In that grand witch hunt, I was the only survivor.

Those prejudiced against witches equated my name with evil.