Wolf Maiden

"Did Ghost Revelry Hall catch a new one?" "A person? Can that thing be called a person?" "It's just a rare creature raised by wolves, fierce indeed. It made a big scene yesterday, took who knows how many skins, but we drugged it and locked it in a dog cage!" "You should've heard it—when this wolf-raised thing hurts, it doesn't cry like a person. Quite novel." But she was crying for help in the wrong place. Tch. These people wouldn't understand a human's cry for help, let alone a beast's. The moment moonlight squeezed through the window, she arched her back, let out a low growl, and stared at that faint strand of moonlight, throwing herself against the dog cage—over and over. Fresh blood and tears stained the dried blood on the cage. The brief memories of once being human had long been blurred by her years with the wolf pack. She only remembered moon after moon. The full moon in the sky was the night she fled the Zheng family and stumbled into the wolf pack. Countless moons spent living with the wolves, huddling together for warmth. This human place terrified her; she wanted to return to her moon. Day after day, a wolf that couldn't be tamed into a dog eventually became human food, torn apart and discarded. The Wolf Maiden, having shattered the cage, looked up at the moon—it looked just like the moon the night she fled the Zheng family. She ran toward the wolf pack as if returning home, letting out a plaintive howl. Moonlight spilled over her scar-covered back. In this world, humans saw her as a dog, but wolves saw her as a wolf.