‘Go be with your own kind.’

These words continued to ring in his mind, playing themselves over and over. He wanted them to go away.

Hiru’s hands were freezing. He thought he’d be used to this by now, having lived on a mountain all his life with his family.

No, they’re not my family. If they were, they wouldn’t tell me to leave.

Hiru summoned every bit of strength he had in his small seven-year-old body to descend the mountain steps. This year’s winter packed several feet of snow; the ground was completely covered and it was hard to feel the bottom.

His adoptive father, Reng, had given him a ripped-out chunk of meat that he had just hunted to take with him. It was still oozing in blood, as their kind didn’t mind the taste. Hiru also didn’t mind anymore, as he had gotten used to it as well. That and a stick to carry it with was all he had. He had to travel light.

As the snow continued to fall, Hiru thrust the long stick into the ground to free his hands for a bit and pretended he was a dragon blowing hot air into them. He had to do this periodically to avoid losing sensation in his fingers. The only clothes he was wearing were what he had always worn—a cloth rag his adoptive parents had found In his size. It covered his chest and legs, but any time there was a draft, cold air blew it up like a skirt and made him wish he lived anywhere else.

The place he was told to reach was far. About half a day’s walk for any normal person… of adult age.

The whole mountain itself would take a few hours to descend, as for some reason, his adoptive parents liked to live near the very top.

He had made it further than any human ever had in these mountains, thanks to a protective status effect placed on him to ward off monsters and heighten his resistance to the cold. The first one would only last through the day, but his cold resistance was forever—a parting gift from his father. Though he was entirely unaware he had either.

Hiru jumped over small ditches, tiptoed down inclines so steep anyone would tumble and roll, and fell over cliffs as tall as twenty feet, knowing the snow would catch him. Soon, flickering, floating lights of various colors came into view.

Here it is. But how can I get past it?

He had arrived at the first real obstacle that made the mountains off-limits for the faint of heart. He couldn’t forget the warning from his father about it.

‘If you find floating lights, take it slow. Feel before you step.’

Rank E monsters unique to these mountains made their nest here. To humans, they were harmless and appeared to be nothing more than fluorescent fireflies. But even other monsters knew better than to wander around these parts.

With two large, unclimbable cliffs on either side, there was no way around it except straight through. He cursed himself for having picked this trail at the initial fork, but that was over an hour ago. Too late to turn back.

Hiru calmed his breathing and slowly put out one foot in front of the other, feeling the stability of the ground. He also put his hands in front of him and above him to make sure he wasn’t walking into anything.

So far so—ahhhhh!!

He nearly stepped into a hole. A bottomless ditch disguised as just another blanket of snow by those flying specks of light. His father called them Lumisprites. Further in, he nearly walked into a cave wall. The entire left side of his vision—appearing to be another snow-covered trail—was actually the entrance to a mountain labyrinth. For as long as he could understand words, he’d been told never to go inside one of those.

On the right side, there were only holes he couldn’t see.

The further he went in, the more there were. Soon, there were no good places to step on.

If he jumped as far as he could now, would he make it to the other side? Or would he just fall in?

Hiru didn’t know what to do. It seemed hopeless.

But an idea struck him.

If I kill the lights, will the illusions go away?

But the mountain might as well have said ‘Good luck with that.’

He retraced his steps and lunged at one of them. The bug danced around him in circles, almost mockingly. But after a while, it let its guard down. Hiru reached for it and crushed it in his hand.

A few of the illusions in the path disappeared. The holes were part of a land fissure! Hiru gulped, realizing how easily he could have fallen to his death.

Out of good options, he had to catch more, however impossible that might be. He figured he’d need to catch lots to fully reveal the map. Was there a way he could lure them in?

The whole time, Hiru never ditched the stick and meat. Reng had told him not to lose this and to eat at the slightest pang of hunger. Life would only last so long without food, and it only stayed fresh for so long, even in the winter.

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Maybe they like meat?

It was worth a try. Hiru ripped a piece of the meat and put it on the snow next to him, and he sat down, as still as a statue in wait for his prey. It took a few minutes, but one eventually made its way over. Enticed by the meat, it didn’t pay Hiru any mind, and he once again crushed one in his hands.

He repeated this several more times, each time revealing more of the map.

With only about five Lumisprites left roaming around, enough of the map had been revealed. The land fissure had a spot that he could just jump over if he ran at it.

He summoned all the strength in his legs and went for it, landing on the other side. The rest of the trail was just more snow now—real snow.

It continued this way for nearly an hour. At some point, Hiru started feeling faint. The cold on his forehead felt worse than usual. He cocked his head for a cave—somewhere to rest for a while. But there was nothing, only dead trees and hills he could barely see over.

Soon, he collapsed. There had been only one hour left to go at his pace—to be out of the mountains.

A bit further away, Reng and his lover Felina watched from a distance. They saw him faint and immediately rushed over.

“I told you making him go alone was a terrible idea!” she snarled.

“I wanted to see his limits. He made it over two-thirds of the way down alone. My boy is tough,” Reng said, hooking onto him with his teeth and pulling with a flip-over motion to get him on his furry back. He bit down on the stick and kept it in his mouth.

Hiru had in fact been very close to a cave. There was one just next to one of the hills he was too short to see past. Reng knew this mountain like the back of his paw. He only wished his boy would have traveled a few more steps to the southeast to find what he was looking for.

They made for the cave. He and Felina found a nice spot and sat with their snouts pressed against the floor, with Hiru in the middle to absorb warmth from their fur.

“I thought he might be getting a fever, but look at that. His body temperature’s normal for a human,” he said, laughing to himself. “A small Cold Resist was all it took.”

Felina growled. “He’s seven years old, and you’re having him descend the mountain alone. Not even Rina could do that!”

Reng grinned like a proud father. “And just look at the results! He made it this far down by himself. I know he’ll have what it takes to live among the humans. He won’t be far from a village now.”

“I don’t understand why he has to leave. He has you, and me, and Rina. We’re all the family he needs.”

Reng shook his head. “We’ve gone over this. One day he will grow up and want to meet other humans. And by then he will have grown so used to our ways, he will never meet another human to take as a wife.”

“Still. Couldn’t you have waited at least another year? Give him more time.”

“No. He’s ready. I know it. Look, he might be waking up soon.”

Reng and Felina got up, carrying the boy, and ran out of the cave, leaping over hills with such ease, one might think there was a magic for gravity.

Felina waited nervously, worry in her eyes. She checked his pulse and temperature. Even in the snow, his readings were normal. She just needed one excuse to bring him back home. Just one thing wrong and she’d put her foot down on Hiru not being ready, and that would be that.

But that moment never came.

They waited until they were sure his little eyes were opening back up and left him lying in the snow, leaping back behind some dead trees where they could watch what he’d do next.

Hiru woke up to a rumble in his stomach. He got up with haste and searched frantically for the stick, but it was right next to him. He ripped out as much of the meat as would fit in his mouth and chewed, until it was all gone.

He thought after sleeping, he’d feel even worse than before. But it turned out, he felt warm and light again.

I guess a nap in the snow was all I needed!

As his march continued, the snow began to fall harder. Pelts of ice came with it. One the size of a bug scraped his cheek.

“Ow!”

He put one hand over his forehead to keep them from hitting his eyes.

Hiru looked back at where he had come, wondering if he should turn back. There was so much snow, his usually good sense of direction was overwhelmed.

No, I’m already this far down.

After half an hour, the mountain behind him looked like a giant spiral cone whose peak touched the clouds. He had made it all the way down.

His breathing was now so heavy, he felt his lungs would burst.

I—I can’t go on anymore…

His knees gave out and his hands landed on the snow. He was losing all hope when he heard a wolf howl. It was the last sound that registered to him before he lost consciousness again.

Father…?

He fell face first into the snow. Reng and Felina rushed to grab him. Reng carried him on his back and ran as fast as he could. But this time, for the first time in decades, they were leaving the Silver Wolf Mountains, named after the legend of talking wolves.

“How is he?” Felina demanded.

“His small body may not have used Cold Resist efficiently. He needs warmth.”

“Can’t you give him more?”

“He already had the most I could give him.”

“If he doesn’t recover, I will never forgive you.”

“I know. Let’s just make sure he does.”

They sped down the dirt path that the humans in the villages nearby had created. This far from the mountain, the snow fell with much less intensity. Winter was just beginning, and the humans had already been preparing for weeks. Reng halted for a moment, listening in to the sound of something close by.

A brown-haired man in his late twenties dressed in a tight-fit tunic with slender musculature was approaching, sword in hand. He had not been allowed to join any hunting groups, as he lacked in strength and coordination to the average huntsman in the Hunting Village he came from. So he was alone, treading slowly, on the lookout for any wild beasts when he heard light footsteps from multi-legged beasts.

Wolves, he thought. If there’s more than one, this might be the end of me.

Thinking to take cover before they could get close, he turned back to look for trees. But his body wouldn’t move. And not from the cold but an aura so powerful it froze his body.

Two giant wolves with cotton-like fur jumped in front of him. One was carrying a small child on its back. These wolves were so much bigger than any he had ever seen. Just one of them was the size of a whole room.

He blinked rapidly so they would go away. He pinched himself as hard as he could. There was no way this was really happening to him. No one had seen the legendary Fenrir for decades, and the last people they had spotted became their food. He would warn his kids not to go near the Silver Wolf Mountains as they might become wolf dinner. And now here they were, huffing loudly and standing before him.

He fell to his knees.

“Please, great ones. Spare me! I cannot die here and leave my young children without a father!”

An exogenous thought pierced his mind.

“Human,” it said. It was the one carrying the child. “You will save this child. He is in need of medicine and warmth. Worry not, we will join you until he recovers.”

The child had short white hair, was dressed in a rag, and could pass for any village boy. Besides the obvious thoughts of what legendary creatures were doing with him, he nodded so hard his jaw could come loose.

“Yes, of course! If that is the wish of the mighty Fenrir!” he said, getting up.

The smaller one got down so he could climb on its back. Once he was seated, a feminine voice came into his thoughts. “Hold tightly and do not let go.”

Before the man could blink again, he and the wolf had leapt nearly twenty feet into the air.