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"Pfft — hahahaha!"
Luo Wei burst out laughing, sharp and merciless.
She didn't usually laugh. But this time, she genuinely couldn't help it.
"Gladys, how are you this adorable?" She laughed until her eyes watered.
When she finally stopped, she wiped the corner of her eye and made herself look serious. "I'm sorry, Gladys. I apologize on behalf of my Griffin. Can you forgive me?"
The tip of Gladys's fuzzy ear flicked. She turned her back to Luo Wei, lifted her chin to the sky, and held the pose , pointed wolf snout aimed straight up, chin and chest and front legs forming one proud, unbroken line.
"Hmph!"
"And you laughed at me. One apology. Not enough!"
"Pfft." Luo Wei clapped a hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking. "Then I'll apologize twice?"
"Sorry, Gladys. I shouldn't have laughed at you. Can you forgive me?"
The little wolf's tail gave a small wag. She held her skyward pose, and a puff of warm steam rose from her small, wet black nose.
"Fine."
"Two apologies. Barely acceptable. Forgiven."
"Then..." Luo Wei crouched down and extended her very guilty hands toward the little wolf. Politely. "Adorable Gladys, may I please touch your ears?"
Gladys whipped her head around. Her ice-blue eyes stared at Luo Wei like she'd said something incomprehensible.
"You. Just finished apologizing. No guilt?"
Her sentences were choppy, but Luo Wei got the message perfectly.
Gladys was filing a complaint. She had wounded her fragile little heart, had just finished apologizing, and now, not one shred of guilt remaining, she had the audacity to ask about the ears.
"Well," Luo Wei heaved a sigh, "who told Gladys to be so adorable?"
She withdrew her hands, her face a portrait of disappointment. "Since Gladys is unwilling, I won't, then. Even though you did promise before that I could..."
The little wolf's ears went flat , the classic airplane position. She hesitated. Then she lifted one snow-white paw, turned around, and pushed her fluffy head under Luo Wei's hand.
"Here. Touch."
"I, Gladys, always keep my promises!"
Luo Wei's fake tears dissolved into a grin. Both evil hands came down, and she gave the little wolf's soft head a thorough, enthusiastic rubbing.
She knew animal ears were sensitive, so she kept clear of them , just worked over the rest of that fuzzy head with both hands. Gladys hadn't shed her puppy coat yet, and every bit of her was impossibly soft. Not a single coarse hair. It felt like burying your hands in warm, clean cloud.
When she finished with the head, she reached up and gently scratched the little ears twice with her fingertips.
"Alright. Done. Thank you, Gladys."
Gladys's ears gave a small shudder. Her voice came out thinner than before. "Y-you're welcome."
Luo Wei blinked.
The little wolf was blushing.
Even through a layer of snow-white fur, she could see the color. A definite, unmistakable pink.
She'd never have guessed. In human form, Gladys ran ice-cold. Apparently that was all an act.
Gladys caught her staring and shuffled backward, changing the subject. "Luo Wei. How you, come to ice plain?"
"Sightseeing," Luo Wei said. "I came out of the Monster Beast Mountain Range and just... ended up here."
Gladys tilted her head. "Mountain Range so far. That counts as 'just ended up'?"
"It's not far on a Griffin. Half a day."
"Oh."
"What about you? How did you run into the Griffin?"
"All brother's fault. And the Dean." Gladys puffed up with indignation. "Dean wrote letter to tattle. Brother wanted to take me to school. I said no!"
"So you snuck out yourself?"
"Mm!" Gladys nodded, her head-fur bouncing. "I got small. Rode Frost and ran."
"Frost — that's the white bear?"
"Yes."
Luo Wei put her face in her hands. A massive polar bear. Named Frost. The combination was deeply, genuinely weird.
"So you just rode off on it," she said, "without any clothes?"
Gladys looked down. Her paws shifted back and forth against the ground. "I packed a bag. Clothes inside. Brother chased me. He took it."
The image assembled itself in Luo Wei's mind: a tiny silver wolf, backpack strapped on, sprawled across a galloping white bear, fleeing at full speed.
The smile that spread across her face was entirely involuntary. Soft and helpless and completely dopey.
Adorable.
She wanted to squeeze her until something broke.
Luo Wei reined in that unsettling impulse. "I have a few sets of unworn clothes. Do you want one?"
"Yes!" Gladys's tail started wagging immediately. "Thank you, Luo Wei. You are a good person."
One set of clothes. Good person. Just like that.
The little wolf was genuinely, hopelessly pure.
Luo Wei found a loose set of casual clothes from her trunk and passed them over. Gladys was taller than her in human form, so the loosest thing Luo Wei owned would probably fit her just right.
Gladys placed a paw on the folded clothes and thanked her again.
"Want to put them on now?" Luo Wei turned around. "I won't look. Go ahead and change."
"You looking is fine. You are a girl," Gladys said, slow and deliberate. "But I not wear now. They will be scared."
"Then I'll find you something to carry it in."
Luo Wei dug through her trunk, pulled out a small cloth bag, tore a strip of fabric, and retied it into a makeshift two-strap backpack.
"Want me to help you put it on?"
"Okay." Gladys nodded, the soft fur on her head swaying with the motion.
"Alright — right paw first, then left." Luo Wei threaded the straps around her front legs and shifted the bag until it sat square in the middle of her back. "Too tight?"
"Not tight." Gladys shook her ears.
"Good. I'll have the Griffin let your bear go. Be careful on the way." Luo Wei turned to leave, then paused.
Gladys looked up. "Luo Wei. You not returning to Heria?"
"Of course I'm returning."
"Only five days left. We can go together."
Luo Wei considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Works for me."
It made sense, actually. Going all the way to Exile City now would be pointless, and returning too late meant missing the start of school.
She'd come north to pick up some free labor. She'd already found a decent number along the way , any more and her coin purse would start crying. It was a shame she hadn't found many able-bodied workers. Most of what she'd gathered were the old, the frail, the sick, the lame.
Still. Better than nothing.
"Wait in the carriage. I'll be back shortly."
She climbed down and walked toward Troy.
She couldn't bring this many children back to Heria , Starfall didn't have the space. She arranged for Troy to take Yager and the others to Sisdar first, then come back for her and Gladys.
"Understood."
Troy had the Griffin lower itself and began lifting the children up one by one.
When he reached Yager, the boy wouldn't move.
"I want to go with you." He looked straight at Luo Wei, jaw set. "You said you'd take us away. You didn't say you'd hand us off to someone else."
Luo Wei smiled. "Little one, I said I'd save you. I never said I'd keep you at my side."
She leaned forward, hands braced on her knees, and met his eyes.
"Tell me something. Didn't you think I was a hypocrite? Didn't you want nothing to do with the God of Death and Time?" Her voice was easy, curious, unhurried. "So why do you want to follow me now?"
➤ Next: Gladys's Brother
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