The stairs I first walked on felt almost alive. When I stepped onto the empty hill, something resembling a rabbit's foot met me on either side, creating a staircase. Then, as I stepped onto the next step, feet appeared on either side, matching my pace, meeting my footsteps, creating the next step. When I lifted my foot, they split again and disappeared.
According to Gyeol, the stairs were ancient, built for humans who interacted with their species. They were designed to detect human scents, which we normally can't, to prevent malfunctions. Strangely enough, they worked for me. Gyeol speculated that my vanished father must have been a human who interacted with Gyeol's species. He was a traveling merchant before I was born, so he might have traded with the beastmen. Gyeol also said that human scent is linked to hormones and can be inherited, and that my father's blood flowing through me must have created a scent similar to his.
My father's younger years were a time when humans interacted with the beastmen quite a bit, so the idea that his scent must have been registered seemed plausible. Especially around the time I was born, relations between the beastmen and humans had soured, and human contact had been cut off. I suspected that perhaps that was why my father became so poor that he couldn't even afford to treat his ailing mother. However, since he never visited me again, I couldn't confirm this.
As time passed, it seemed the stairs were indeed working by body odor, as the resolution had said. They continued to function until I entered puberty, but later, when I began to develop signs of female sexuality, they stopped working. Perhaps my body odor had changed due to the hormones that triggered secondary sexual characteristics.
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After receiving the oath of Kyeol, I often met Kyeol through the stairs during my childhood, and until my divine power caught the eye of the highest priestess and I began my life as a priestess, I met him for a short time almost every day and developed a friendship with him.
As a child, Gyeol meant more to me than just a friend. As I shared my experiences, he displayed a remarkable insight into human nature. He often offered advice on how I should behave in the temple, where I had to serve the many elders, to avoid losing face and navigate difficult situations. When I told him the next day that the situation had been handled just as he had suggested, Gyeol was both proud and amused. Among wolves, there was a hierarchy established from the beginning, so they never had to agonize over two elders or agonize over how to conduct themselves. If they made a mistake, they simply bowed low to the elders, quickly confessed their wrongdoing, and apologized to those below them.
While Gyeol always felt sorry for my treatment, she would reassure me that I could come to her whenever something dangerous happened. Since I had never received such affectionate attention from anyone, my feelings for Gyeol were growing beyond admiration and into something bigger. My daily routine of seeing Gyeol began to change as I turned ten. As the attendant began to leave errands for the high-ranking priestesses to me, I no longer had the leisure to sneak through the fields to climb the mountain.
“Seol-ah, then I’ll wait in the field..”
Gyeol, who had grown up, was now able to venture outside the wolf village. So we met in the fields. Gyeol had excellent eyesight, so whenever he saw me walking across the fields from afar, he'd run out like a squirrel.
On days when I was supposed to meet Kyeol, I would always go to the fields, even if it was late. Sometimes, it was late, and we'd meet on moonlit nights. Late at night, Kyeol would reveal his true colors and appear in wolf form. Apparently, wolf form is much easier to navigate late at night...
Sitting side by side in the field, leaning against Gyeol's fluffy back, it was so warm and cozy that I forgot all the troubles of the day. On some days, when I was tired of the war of nerves between the shamans, we would meet and not say a word, just sit there. On those days, my heart would pound, and I'd worry Gyeol would catch me.
“Seol-ah, I think your body odor is changing little by little..”
“Really..? Is it because puberty is approaching..?”
“Hmm… At this point, the stairs won’t work anymore..?”
The next day, Kyeol gave me a necklace with a small target on it.
“I don’t know if this will help, but it’s a target with my scent...”
Because I had a target, I could still enter and exit the stairs leading to the wolf village. The target Gyeol gave me felt like a token of his presence, so I always carried it with me and treasured it.
. . .
Then, I caught the eye of the highest priestess.
“I sense divine power from you.. I wish I could try it sometime...”
On the day before the Divine Power Test, I went to see Kyeol for the last time. For some reason, his expression was stiff that day.
“Seol-ah… I think I’ll be taking on a new companion. Our relationship will continue as a friendship, but I also have to take classes related to the succession to the clan… I won’t be able to see you often anymore.”
"Actually, I've also been given a test related to divine powers. Now that I'm officially a priestess, I won't be able to come out here."
We blessed each other's work that day and promised to do our best in our respective jobs.
"But Seol-ah, the promise I made to you when we were young is eternal. If you, a family-less person, suddenly find yourself lost and needing a place to stay, or if you ever need to escape danger, come to me anytime. I'll protect you."
Having passed the test and discovered that I possessed considerable divine powers, I had to follow a set schedule from the crack of dawn until bedtime to hone my powers. As expected, we had to be apart for a while. Much later, when I finally managed to visit Gyeol-i to see if he was doing well—perhaps after two or three years—the gatekeeper informed me that he had found a companion and guided me to Gyeol-i. Wolves never betrayed their companions once they had one, so meeting friends was natural and common. Even if you had a companion, meeting a friend of the opposite sex was nothing more than friendship. However, in human history, it was absolutely forbidden for a married person to meet someone of the opposite sex outside of marriage, so as a human, I felt very uncomfortable meeting Gyeol-i who had a companion.
Having welcomed her companion, Gyeol-i seemed to still be staying in the large tile-roofed house deep within the village. The gatekeeper led me to the room where I had first met Gyeol-i. The moon jars that had been scattered throughout the room were still there, but each one had a plum blossom branch placed in it, as if symbolizing his companion. The pink plum blossoms in the moon jars complemented the white ones so well that I could tell that she and Gyeol-i were in perfect balance. Gyeol-i and his companion, who had come to greet me, were wearing crimson jackets, their appearance resembling the pink plum blossoms, so gentle and kind they seemed. When I saw that they each wore jade rings on the same finger, I felt a sense of shabbiness in my empty left hand, and had to cover it with my right.
It's unfair... Priestesses can never marry... I have to live alone for the rest of my life... I never wanted to enter the temple, nor did I want to become a priestess...
Jealousy blossomed in my heart. In contrast, Gyeol-i seemed far too stable. Deciding not to get close to Gyeol-i any longer, I stopped looking for her that day.
On the one hand, it was only natural that I should be cautious about meeting him now, because my divine power could harm his. Even though I longed to see him, I couldn't help it. I prayed he would want to see me too... My heart ached, but I couldn't help it.
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