Chapter 81: The Golden Grasslands

Selka waited patiently, keeping her tail lowered as the honey badger aggressively evaluated her battered, mud-caked body.

"Nooo!!! That’s not the problem! Why are you even here?!" he snapped, his voice hitting a screeching pitch. "Why are you walking on my dirt?! It’s my food range!"

Tsk... seriously, these little fuckers, Selka thought, a flash of pure irritation crossing her mind. If it weren’t for that loose, thick skin of theirs, I would have chewed him up and swallowed him while walking! Externally, however, she maintained her submissive posture.

"Oh, fearless one," Selka said, keeping her telepathic voice smooth. "My deepest apologies for stepping on your dirt. I am thoroughly ashamed that my paws have touched this sacred territory of yours."

"No! How dare you!!!" he yelled, throwing his front paws up again.

Ughh!!! Selka’s internal filter finally snapped. She was so done with this ridiculous time-waster. Nuan was burning with a fever back in the den, and she was stuck playing mind games with a pint-sized psycho.

"Let me go," Selka said, her voice dropping into a dangerously low, chilling tone. Her silver eyes locked onto him with absolute predatory coldness.

"How dare you talk back to me!!! How dare you look at me with anger!!!!" the badger growled, instantly charging forward to bite her front leg.

Selka calculated his speed, nimbly stepped back before darting sideways, forcing the little beast to bite empty air. She kept moving, dodging his reckless lunges with effortless grace.

"Oi! Stop, stop, stop!!" the badger shrieked, thoroughly annoyed that he couldn’t land a hit. "You are not biting me! You are not fighting me! Fight me! Fight me, let me show you my power! Bite me, you coward!!!!"

Ugh! He knows exactly what he’s doing, Selka thought, dodging another clumsy snap. He knows a wolf can’t easily tear through his thick hide, so he just wants to toy with me and exhaust me.

"Stop wasting my time," Selka said firmly, attempting to pivot and sprint past him.

But the badger was remarkably quick for his size, throwing his stocky body right into her trajectory to block her path.

Tsk... I can easily outrun him in a straight sprint, Selka realized, her jaw tightening. But the real problem is my return journey. When I come back with the Red Root, I’ll have to cut through these exact same woods. I bet this petty idiot will be waiting right here to mess with me. If he ambushes me while I’m carrying the medicine, the roots might fall into the dirt, and this shit will bite them with his filthy teeth!

"I won’t fight you! Stop getting in my way and let me pass!!!" Selka commanded, her hackles raising.

"No, no, no! Fight, fight!! Let’s fight, come on!" he cheered, aggressively bouncing in place, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

"No!" Selka barked, thoroughly annoyed.

The honey badger suddenly rolled his body into a ball, spinning rapidly like a tiny, furry cyclone. As a thick cloud of dust erupted around him, he shifted into his human form.

When the dust cleared, a remarkably short man stood before her. He looked like the shortest dwarf imaginable, and his skin was bizarrely loose, hanging in thick, heavy folds around his neck and shoulders.

"Fight me in this form! Now do you think you can win?! Fight, fight!" he demanded, squaring his tiny shoulders.

Selka let out a massive, exhausted sigh and shifted into her human form as well. "I won’t. Don’t you get it at all? You are incredibly lucky it’s me standing here and not the furless Witch. If she were awake, she would have insulted the absolute shit out of until you cried."

But the honey badger completely ignored her words. The moment Selka transformed, his angry expression faltered.

His narrow eyes went wide as he stared at her, tracing her form from head to toe, over and over again.

Selka crossed her arms, her brow furrowing. "What’s wrong? Got something on my face? All I have are scars, I believe."

The badger swallowed hard, his loose neck-skin wiggling. "You... I’ll let you pass my food range. Be my mate! You are pretty!"

"Huh???" Selka’s eyes widened in absolute horror. "Bluughhh!" She instantly clamped a hand over her mouth, visibly dry-heaving at the sheer absurdity of the offer.

The honey badger’s face flushed a deep, furious red. "You insulted me?? I honored you by offering to make you my mate!!!?? You ungrateful dog!!!" he yelled, stamping his short foot.

"Stop your absolute nonsense and let me pass," she groaned, clutching her stomach in genuine disgust.

"At least spend the night with me—" he started, taking a step toward her.

Before the sentence could even leave his filthy mouth, Selka moved with lightning-fast, Alpha speed. In a fraction of a millisecond, she shifted only her head back into its massive, terrifying wolf form.

Her powerful jaws snapped shut around his loose upper arm, and with a violent, effortless whip of her neck, she threw him flying through the air.

CRASH!

The tiny badger man sailed through the sky, crashing deeply into a thick, thorny patch of briars meters away.

Shifting her entire body back into her majestic silver-grey wolf form, Selka shook her coat out and aggressively spat into the dirt to get his foul scent out of her mouth.

What an absolute mood sourer, she thought in deep disgust.

Turning her back on the cursing, thrashing briar patch, she bounded forward at a full sprint, finally breaking through the tree line and bursting into the endless, shimmering horizon of the Golden Grasslands.

Her jaw slightly slack as she took in the staggering expanse stretching out before her. It was a completely different world from the dense, claustrophobic jungle she had spent her entire life navigating.

Ahead of her lay a totally open plain, undulating beneath the heavy summer heat, filled with nothing but endless waves of tall, shimmering golden grass.

"The land of the lion prides, the hyenas... and more importantly, the elephants," she murmured to herself, her voice swallowed by the vast, open afternoon sky.

The burning hot summer sun beat down mercilessly on the plains, making her thick, silver-grey wolf fur shine like polished metal.

She could feel the heat immediately soaking through her coat, threatening to sap her remaining energy.

It’s far too hot for a wolf here... she thought, her tongue lolling out slightly as she panted.

With a swift, controlled poof of grey smoke, Selka transformed back into her human form, letting the warm plains breeze hit her sun-bronzed skin.

She adjusted her posture, narrowing her silver eyes as she scanned the golden horizon for any signs of massive moving shapes or low-lying dust clouds.

"Let’s just get what we came for and get out," she whispered, her determination locking back into place as she looked toward the distant watering holes. "And let’s hope I don’t get into any trouble with those bearded beasts."

Stepping out of the jungle’s shadow, Selka took her first brave steps into the blinding heat of the Golden Grasslands, ready to hunt down the rulers of the plains.