Chapter 122 - Reunion! (1/2)

As Ark just sat by himself, time quickly passed, and noon soon passed. As Ark was about to give up his endeavour, that same familiar smell was slowly approaching from a distance. With a smile on his face, Ark just sat and patiently waited for about 5 minutes before he could hear the underbrush rustling. The cub ran out of the underbrush with fervour and jumped on Ark the moment it saw him. Behind the cub followed the mother, some concern evident on her face.

[Papa!]

The cub didn't give Ark a chance to react, and jumped on top of him excitedly, and licked him in the face. Seeing this, Ark could only laugh bitterly, this cub was beginning to act like a dog! The nickname still felt a little awkward, but Ark didn't have the heart to tell the little cub that he wanted to be called by his name. Now that he thought about it, he didn't even tell the little cub his name after all of these days.

That was pretty normal though, not all magical beasts had names, for a magical beast to have a name, either their parents had to have enough intelligence to give them one, or they would have to get one in other ways. Ark wasn't named by his parents in this world, but he had retained his name from his old world, which wasn't something all magical beasts could do, or any for that matter. Ark let the cub do what it wanted for a minute or two before he stood up and dusted himself off a little with some wind magic.

Both the other wolves were a little surprised by his casual use of magic, but neither of them really cared. It wasn't that special or hard either, they would be more shocked if he used an actual full-out attack. Ark was smiling from ear to ear as he watched the cute little cub. The mother of the cub just watched him with intrigue, but other than that, she did nothing special. Ark decided to take the initiative. [Are the both of you feeling okay?]

The little cub rubbed a little against Ark to show its affection. [mhmm]

The mother was more curious about how Ark was feeling, he had been up against such a horrid monster after all. [We're fine. How about you? Are you ok?]

Ark was a little taken aback by her advanced language, even though he should've expected it, it still felt weird for some reason, probably because he had never seen wolves as an intelligent species. [I'm fine, I just toyed with it for a little bit before running away.] The mother was relieved upon hearing this, who would want someone to be injured because of oneself? Though her concern was genuine, her expression was nothing but deadpan, and she looked apathetic.

Ark didn't really care too much, he wasn't expecting much from the beginning, a little more concern would've been nice, but Ark didn't do it for acknowledgement. As long as the cub was safe and happy, then Ark would be happy too. He also felt a natural urge to protect its mother, but that was more of an instinct, while the cub was a bit of instinct as well as an acquired taste so to speak. He had resolved himself to protect it in the beginning due to his instincts, but he had later on just started taking care of it because he liked doing it.

The mother's deadpan expression changed a little, and her expression turned a little more sincere. [I almost forgot, thank you for saving us twice now! As well as taking care of my son during the time I was injured.] Seeing her sincere expression, Ark felt a little fl.u.s.tered, but at the same time, he also felt a little proud. [No worries, I just did it because I wanted to!]

From there, awkward silence took over completely, and Ark didn't really know how to proceed, sometimes he wished he had interacted a little more with people in his past life. The awkward silence was only painful for Ark though, as neither the mother nor the cub felt any special way about it. Since just standing here and doing nothing was going to result in, you guessed it, nothing, Ark got an idea. [Have you guys eaten anything yet?]

The cub and the mother both shook their heads gently. After a second or so, the cub's eyes widened a little, and it started sprinting around in a circle around Ark. [Papa, food!] Ark chuckled a little on the inside before he continued. [Since that's the case, why don't we hunt for some food together?] The mother tilted her head a little before, nodding in approval. The cub was still just as excited as before and kept running around excitedly all over the place. [Let's get going then, I haven't eaten yet either.]

As they started walking around the forest, Ark took the lead, with the mother close behind him. The cub didn't run around anymore, as it knew that it was bad to run around when hunting, he had learnt from his mother that he needed to be quiet and sneaky! Ark hadn't had much of a chance to explore the forest just yet, and seeing all of the different sights, he almost forgot about the hunting for a while. In some places, the trees were small, yet densely packed together, with their tree crowns only leaving some slight sunlight shining through.