12

Attibute Panel: Evolution from an Artic Wolf

12 - In the world that doesn't seem to be the same

Between the endless waves of cold, snow covered all the surrounding terrain. 

The night was cold, the storm had ceased and it seemed to be time for the beasts hidden in their respective caves to come out and hunt. But because it was night, many did not go out because the surroundings would be much more dangerous than usual.

Amidst the unique cries, various figures were having battles that would define how long they would live. Time is short for all living things that only have the day's food, hunting and hunting is the difficult job of carnivores. Unlike herbivores, which can survive on more tranquil means. 

Unlike humans who have food in the closest places and with the least amount of work possible, everyone can somehow eat. The governments of the countries provide aid for those who do not have health or money, no one can say that it is easy but if you compare it with the life that the animals live it would be to compare a puddle of water with the immense black sea. 

There is food for everyone, that was something Luke kept in mind even in his life as a human. Those things in the news about places where food is scarce are real, but it's also a reality that more food is thrown away than is consumed. 

Luke could remember what it's like to work for a food chain, he knows that at the end of the day the food that wasn't bought is thrown away. Sometimes a few dozen plates, and on the bad days giant bags of food. 

The most significant changes Luke had had so far was appreciating his day to day life, thanking life that he can breathe and live another day. Getting food has never been easy, but now getting food in the Arctic is a task that only very few can complete every day. 

If not for the unfavorable weather, you might consider some other factors such as injuries, food shortages, tiredness or even the most frustrating thing which is when a prey escapes. 

There were strong predators that Luke feared, but the ones he still couldn't think of facing would be humans. If he somehow got lucky in attacking a human and ending its life, a wave of hunters would emerge to take down the dangerous beast. 

But that sort of thing only happened in places outside of this white hell, the arctic is a lawless place. Something like humans approaching animals is unimaginable, although it was not impossible.

And right now somewhere in some part of the gigantic arctic continent, there was a small white figure moving at high speed across high ground. 

"Roar!" 

As if that white-furred figure was the prey of other predators, an outrageous stiff roar was heard and a black-furred wolf leapt forward from its prey. But what made that wolf stop was the sight of its prey standing motionless in front of it. 

If Luke were here, he could clearly tell that it was an arctic fox, its fur was extremely white and its eyes were black as night. If you take into account the size of that fox, he could tell that it was a female. 

But the strangest thing of all is that white fox looked at the wolf with a rabid expression, in her eyes there was no fear and she was ready to face that wolf that was trying to kill her. 

As if her speed was impossible for a fox, a blurred figure moved forward and her footsteps were so strong that they shook the snow, the wolf that until now seemed dominant was frightened. 

But seeing that his companions had arrived, he took the courage he needed and attacked. 

But before the wolf had taken two steps, a gust of wind struck it and the little fox flung the wolf to the ground, the snow-white fox's fangs piercing its enemy's throat and its two front paws cooperating with its little one little body to tear the neck of the black wolf.

Its death was instantaneous, the other two wolves were perplexed not knowing how a fox could have so easily killed an adult wolf that was the leader of its pack. 

All the fox's movement was done neatly and in one move without pause, as if it had been rehearsed a thousand times it attacked the other two wolves in front of it. 

"Roar!" 

The shrill cries revealed great fear, and the wolves did their best to fight back, but nothing worked. 

An owl flying high above the arctic was attracted by the wolves' fear-filled, pain-filled cries, and when it saw a fox kill them, it opened its big eyes to check if it wasn't a Polar bear. But the sizes were different, so his idea of it being a fox was not wrong.

The small rabbits hiding in their burrows felt a shiver and the piercing cries of the wolves left a deathly silence in the arctic cold.

The fox retreated silently under her cold eyes, she ignored any other creatures in the vicinity and concentrated on dealing with the remaining wolf.

After a while, the cry of the remaining wolf of the trio grew fainter, and its resistance struggle suddenly grew weaker until it stopped moving.
　　
The white-furred fox waited a moment, bit once more, and then slowly stopped biting that wolf's neck and raised its head.

The blood-stained mouth exhaled a curtain of steam, looking extremely ferocious, and with that small body, it was even more terrifying to think that a fox could kill three adult wolves. 

If Luke were here, he would run because of the abnormality of that white-furred fox. Not normal at all, no, it is impossible for a fox to defeat three adult wolves in this part of the Arctic. 

The body length of a female fox is between 41 to 55 centimeters not counting the tail, the fox's small body looked delicate and its actual appearance would make any living being frightened. 

Black intelligent eyes, beautiful fur white as snow and her paws stained in blood reflected how dangerous she could be. 

There were some lines shining on her forehead that were unusually striking, and her eyes constantly scanned the surroundings, showing an overbearing arrogance that overflowed from every part of her body. 　 

She habitually scanned the surroundings, but now there was no longer any existence in search of her life that came to disturb her from eating. 

Without moving from her place, the female fox lowered her head and began to eat. 

First opening her mouth and revealing those menacing fangs, she opened the wolf's stomach and began to eat first the heart followed by the liver but still her expression was one of utter distaste, as if this food was worse than garbage. 　 

As it ate, those fox eyes revealed an inconceivable sense of humanized thought. 

Wolf meat was not good, she was not satisfied with this quality so she stopped eating, completely ignoring this food that any other carnivorous animal would accept quite happily. 

As the white-furred fox was about to leave, she looked into a burrow in the thick snow and her eyes managed to scan some rabbits hiding from fear.
　　
She was still apparently looking for something, but whatever she was looking for was unknown to everyone. Before long, her body disappeared into the darkness while her sleepy expression could only be described as arrogant and evidently powerful.
　　
...

Meanwhile, in the cave where Luke rested, he was asleep on his back with his tongue out. From time to time some snoring could be heard coming from his mouth.

Right now he is having a nice dream, where he had become the king of the beasts and spent his free time trying to make a bed to sleep more comfortably but it was impossible due to his wolf physique.

In his dream, Luke tried many of the things he desired from the human world such as trying to cook meat before eating it, trying to make fire and then inevitably thought about what his mate would be like if he had one.

Would he die of old age or be eaten by a crocodile? Suddenly, Luke recalled that there were no crocodiles in the arctic and these animals were soon erased from his sudden sleep.

Then his nightmares varied between being shot by a human hunter and being eaten by a bear, bears in addition to their strong endurance are also extremely fast.

They have virtually no difficulty stopping when they lock onto prey, they hunt on water, land and mountains without stopping. Bears have no predator to endanger them, most creatures even avoid confronting a grizzly bear.

"What does the fish taste like or the sweet stuff?" Muttered Luke from his wolf mouth but only a few loud snores and smaller ones came out.

"I want to watch TV, no, I want to use the internet? I won't be able to do anything like that anymore, what a big deal..."

Luke was the only wolf in the cave that slept strangely, everyone had seen it and thought it was a comfortable position, but when some imitated that position, they discovered that it was very vulnerable.

After a few attempts, Luke also realized this problem. However, even if he sleeps in the best possible way, he wakes up in a completely different position.

But he knew that once he was strong enough, it wouldn't matter what his sleeping position was, as at that time no creature would ever dare to challenge him.

"Just wait, animal world, I'll be the king of the arctic wolves..."

This world apparently was very different, at least the animal kingdom as Luke since arriving had noticed some anomalies unrelated to his human bubble, and he just hoped it was nothing really big.