Harley Snow remained silent, quietly looking down at the little girl who looked so unrealistically beautiful.
The crust of mud on her face used as a disguise had dried and fallen off. She was still young, yet she already knew how to use crude methods to disguise her appearance. Even so, the exposed features revealed just how stunning she would be when she grew up.
Her platinum blonde hair hung down softly, and her alabaster skin emitted a glowing radiance. She had a small, high-bridged nose, and beneath her crescent brows, her deep eye sockets and long eyelashes made her eyes look like century-old emeralds treasured by a noblewoman.
With cherry-pink lips and a petite, adorable face that could be cupped in one hand, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly as if she were smiling naturally... She was like a winter rose just beginning to bloom in The North; though her petals had yet to unfold, she possessed the beauty of a bud about to open.
Even Harley, a bastard who considered his heart as hard as iron, felt his heart soften involuntarily upon seeing her.
"How... old are you?" Harley suddenly asked a strange question, and he was somewhat surprised himself as the words left his mouth.
The little girl froze. "What? What kind of game are you playing?"
Harley leaped down from the large tree, brushed the snow off his body, and then began to probe cautiously:
"I don't want to make things difficult for you either. Tell me which kind of skinchanger you are, and I'll let you all go."
Ghost grew alert. Why was he asking this? Could he know something? But she wasn't the kind of skinchanger like Bran, whose mind could enter and control animals. Perhaps she was naturally an animal... for some reason?
"I don't know what you're talking about. Where on earth are my uncle and aunt?"
"Tch, let me ask another way then. What kind of animal can you turn into?"
Ghost glanced around from the corner of her eye, gave a dry, hollow laugh, and said, "I think you must have the wrong person. I can give you money, or go with you—just let Bill and Mesa go first."
Harley shook his head, drew the longbow and arrow from his back, and slowly pulled the bowstring. "I generally don't use force against girls..." Then he shouted angrily: "What kind of animal are you, after all?!"
"I'm not—"
Accompanied by the crisp snap of the taut bowstring, Ghost's whole body shook, and under the impact of the immense force, she staggered back several steps. Then a tearing pain spread from her shoulder throughout her entire body.
She screamed and fell to her knees, trembling as she reached out to touch the arrow at the wound. Bright red blood gushed from the injury, blooming like gorgeous flowers upon the snow.
Harley's longbow was made of fine yew wood, and the arrow shot at this range nearly pinned through Ghost's fragile shoulder socket.
Tears streamed down Ghost's face; her left shoulder could no longer move. Instead, the excruciating pain provoked her rebellious spirit, and the anger and hatred in her eyes were as thick as reality.
Harley was somewhat surprised, thinking to himself that she truly was a beast; if she were human, she would have long since wept and fainted from the agony.
He drew another feathered arrow and nocked it to his fingertips, aiming this time at Ghost's right shoulder...
Suddenly, his vision blurred, and feeling a gust of wind sweep past, the fragile girl had vanished without a trace...
Harley showed not a shred of panic. Cautiously holding his longbow ready, he looked around, walked slowly to a certain spot, and called out loudly:
"Old Bill is truly a bleeding heart, already so poor he has to scrape the dirt just to survive, yet he picks up a harmful thing like you..."
"If he loses his little life, he has only himself to blame. In this world, good people simply cannot survive!"
Before his voice had even faded, a huge white shadow flashed abruptly into existence from a point in midair, instantly appearing before Harley and knocking him down. It was as if she were not a mere beast, but some sort of ghostly creature possessing strange magic.
This was a dangerous, beautiful silver giant wolf. Harley felt he could not describe the creature before him.
A direwolf, a creature rumored to be nearly extinct.
Most beautiful were those emerald-green round eyes encircled by a ring of gold. Her fur was pure, snowy white, without a trace of any other color, faintly shimmering with silver.
Under the sunlight, it was almost enough to blind Harley's eyes.
If those sharp fangs had not stopped right at his throat, Harley would have almost wanted to stroke her.
Despite the arrowhead still stuck in her forelimb, dripping with blood, the white wolf effortlessly pinned Harley to the ground, a low growl rumbling in her throat. The white wolf's nostrils twitched fiercely, and Harley had no doubt she could easily snap his neck.
The next moment, the white wolf actually spoke with a human voice, emitting a childish, melodious sound. "If you don't want to die... tell me, where are Mesa and Bill? What is your real purpose?"
The change happened so suddenly that not only was Harley shocked, but Roose Bolton, hiding behind a snowdrift in the distant woods, felt as though his heart were about to leap wildly out of his chest.
He clamped a hand over his mouth and buried his head deep into the snowdrift, hoping by this means to calm his boiling brain...
Staying in the freezing, biting snow until he was almost suffocating, he finally raised his head and calmed down slightly.
In all his dozen or so years of life, he had never seen anything so magical!
A girl who turned into a wolf... A little girl who looked too unrealistically beautiful? Who could have imagined she could turn into a wolf?!
So those stupid stories Old Nan used to tell might actually be true...
Good thing he had cleverly chosen to have his men guard the entrance while he came over alone to spy on the situation.
He had to have her. He must!
When Ghost was in her wolf form, her senses, hearing, and agility skyrocketed, while her sensation of pain became much duller.
The burning pain in her shoulder wound, which pulsed with her heartbeat, gradually subsided, replaced by a slightly numb and cool sensation—which wasn't quite normal.
Was there poison on the arrow?
The redness before her eyes gradually spread, and the grievance and fear in her heart... all transformed into a demon named anger.
Illusory whispers seemed to echo in her ears:
Kill him...
He will threaten you, expose you...
Kill him, or you will never be able to change back into a human...
Everyone will know you are a monster...
Kill him!!!!
Ghost raised her head and let out a mournful howl, resembling the crying of a human. Then her huge jaws clamped down fiercely, and the sharp, bone-white wolf teeth sank deep into Harley's shoulder and neck.
Harley let out a miserable cry, his arm dropping limply. He raised his other forearm to fend off the wolf's jaws, his hand groping beneath the rotting leaves and soil...
The human's miserable scream slightly recalled Ghost's sanity, and her interlocking teeth loosened ever so slightly...
Feeling Ghost relax her grip, Harley's expression grew complex. He hadn't expected this wolf cub, who looked like a forest sprite, to actually bite him.
Yet she... had avoided his arteries and major blood vessels, biting into the muscle tissue instead.
A wolf cub... being this soft-hearted simply wouldn't do.
Just as Harley was about to speak, the sharp sound of an arrow piercing the air rang out abruptly from the forest. A black feathered arrow suddenly flew out and struck fiercely into Ghost's back...
"Awooo!!"
Immediately following, more arrows shrieked through the air. Ghost had no time to spare and bolted, turning tail to flee deep into the forest.
Yet she did not see that several of the arrows behind her were not aimed at her, but instead struck true and steady into Harley's chest and abdomen...
Harley let out a muffled groan, more blood welling from the corners of his mouth, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
Roose, accompanied by men and hounds, walked slowly out from the depths of the woods and leisurely surrounded Harley.
"Look who it is—Harley, the Dreadfort's premier hunter?"