"Go on then. Tell me what exactly you came to my botanical garden for." Leonard looked at the giant wolf leader with clear ill intent.
"I don't know." Lying on the ground with all four limbs bound like livestock waiting for slaughter, the giant wolf leader somehow still sounded proud.
"You don't know, and you're proud of that?" Leonard slapped him again. "Talk. What exactly were you after?"
At the side, Midgard found the sight of Leonard smacking the giant wolf leader oddly entertaining and deliberately took a picture of it.
"I really don't know!" the giant wolf leader cried miserably. "I really was only following a feeling. That's why I came here."
"A feeling made you this bold? Do I look that easy to fool?" Another slap.
"I'm not lying. It really was just a feeling."
"Then tell me what kind of feeling it was," Leonard said.
Seeing that the giant wolf leader looked genuinely on the verge of tears, Leonard pressed further.
"Tell me exactly. If you can't make yourself clear, I'll skin you."
"How am I supposed to explain something like that? It's like feelings. It just comes naturally," the giant wolf leader whimpered.
"Oh? So you're an artsy wolf now. I wonder if an artsy wolf's pelt sells for more." Leonard grinned viciously, picked up a stone from the ground, and Transfigured it into a vicious-looking skinning knife, which he then weighed in his hand.
"I hear fresh-flayed skin works best."
"No, no, no! I'll talk, I'll talk!" The giant wolf leader panicked. "Actually, it's a feeling in the bloodline."
"Bloodline?" Midgard repeated. "Describe it more clearly."
"It feels like my bloodline is burning. There's something here that can trigger that feeling, and that thing is inside this botanical garden." The giant wolf leader kept his eyes fixed on the skinning knife in Leonard's hand and hurriedly answered.
Leonard flipped the knife in his hand and looked at Midgard, who had gone thoughtful.
"What, is something wrong? Just say the word and I'll skin him alive right now."
"Don't, don't. I'm telling the truth. Can you move the knife a little farther away? It's making me nervous," the giant wolf leader said in a small voice.
"Coward. I actually liked the way you were acting all defiant earlier," Leonard said cheerfully.
The giant wolf leader rolled his eyes.
Defiant?
So he could become a defiant wolfskin rug?
He was about to lose his life here. Who still had the mood to be defiant?
"Big sis, I really wasn't lying. For the sake of us both being wolves, say something for me," the giant wolf leader howled toward Midgard.
"Quit howling. Lie there properly. How we deal with you is our business." Leonard slapped him across the face again, nearly knocking him out.
How could this tiny-looking guy have such terrifying arm strength?
The giant wolf leader shook his head, roaring inwardly.
"Well? You look like you've thought of something," Leonard said, turning to Midgard.
Midgard nodded. "That feeling this big guy described sounds a little familiar."
"Familiar? Did you feel something in my botanical garden that made your blood boil too?" Leonard asked.
"Not exactly. The feeling he described is very similar to what I feel during werewolf transformation." Midgard's expression was serious. "So I care about this a little."
"Speaking of werewolf transformation, this big sis is incredible. She can actually transform on her own. She's way stronger than any werewolf I've ever seen," the giant wolf leader muttered.
"You've seen other werewolves?" Leonard asked, looking at him.
"Of course I have. One of the wolf cubs under me is only three years old. Its parents made it in the Forbidden Forest on the night of a full moon," the giant wolf leader said.
"Made it..." Leonard showed deep disgust and contempt at the giant wolf leader's choice of words.
Though to be fair, he could not think of a better way to put it either.
Midgard ignored the giant wolf leader's chatter. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Do you still feel that sensation now?"
"Yes, I do. I always do." The giant wolf leader nodded frantically. "How about this. Give me whatever it is that makes my bloodline boil, and I'll trade you something for it. I know where there's plenty of good stuff in the Forbidden Forest..."
"No need." Leonard clamped a hand over the giant wolf leader's mouth so it could not keep talking. "You talk too much. We ask, you answer. Keep wasting words and I'll break your teeth out."
"Mmff, mmff..." The giant wolf leader stared at Leonard in terror and nodded wildly, afraid Leonard would really break his teeth.
Even for a magical wolf, growing teeth back was a huge pain.
"Midgard, ask him whatever else you want," Leonard said.
"There's nothing much I want to ask. I just have a feeling that the abnormality in him might be useful." Midgard said, "I still remember some of the theories you told me before. These wolves are a very stable species. Unlike werewolves, they don't suffer from the torment of the werewolf curse."
"So?"
"So I want to see what happens if he gets the thing that makes his bloodline boil." Midgard said, "I'm curious. Can you help me test it?"
"What do you mean, help? I'm curious too." Leonard rubbed his chin. "I want to try it too."
"The problem now is figuring out what exactly it is that makes his bloodline boil." Midgard looked around helplessly. "You have too many strange things here. Are we supposed to test them one by one?"
The giant wolf leader, hearing the two bosses in front of him calmly discussing using him for testing, let terror spread across his wolf face.
One by one?
With great effort, he turned his head to look around at the plants nearby.
The Bitterthorn with dragon-scale-like skin and serpent fangs. The huge and savage Venomous Tentacula. The hopping Chomping Cabbages with mouths full of slimy sharp teeth. And the parasitic pods that made every hair on his body stand up just from looking at them.
Try all of those?
That was not testing. That was sending him to his death.
"Don't... don't test things randomly, bosses. A wolf will... will die like this." The giant wolf leader struggled desperately, only to get jabbed in the waist by a needle carrying anesthetic venom. Instantly, he went limp like a noodle.
The dosage was perfectly measured.
It took away his ability to control his body, leaving him feeling like he was nothing but a head, yet it preserved all of his awareness so he could clearly see the sinister smile on Leonard's face.
"That's not up to you. Right now, you're a test subject." Leonard grinned like a villain. "Come on, big wolf. Time to take your medicine."