Recorded Across Generations.
For Those Who Come After.
Shaped like a wildcat with a white-crowned head, it walks the mountain paths. Its cry is like old timber grinding against itself. Travellers who hear it know at once that they are safe. It is one of the few beasts in this wasteland whose coming is a blessing. It never hunts travellers. Instead, it watches over those who pass through its mountain. Whoever enters its territory will find it walking quietly at their side, an unseen barrier surrounding them that no beast can break. All it asks is that you leave something of value behind, and in return, it lets you pass in peace. Yet one traveller, long ago, saw what lay beneath that calm. In the dead of night, the guardian's placid eyes suddenly flared crimson. A beast sprang from the darkness, and in an instant the guardian was upon it, tearing it cleanly in two. What you leave behind, it never tells you whether you paid for safe passage or for your life.
状如狸，一身白首，行于山道之间。它的叫声是一串低哑的「榴榴」，像老木相磨。山中行旅听见这声音，便知道自己安全了。 它是这片荒野里少数遇之为吉的兽。它不猎人，只守路。凡有人走进它所踞的山，它便随行左右，为其立起一道无形的墙，天下万兽皆撞不破。夜里宿在它的圈中，任外头是何等凶物，也近不得身。它索取的，不过是一件值钱的东西，留下便可安然过山。 因它护人，从无人动过杀它的念头。别的兽是没人杀得了，它却是没人舍得杀。 只是曾有人于深夜见过一次：那温驯的守兽，双眼骤然转赤，快得看不清身形，将一头扑来的凶兽当场撕成两半。那道屏障，从不是静的。它只是把獠牙藏到了夜里。 你留下的那一件，它从不说，是买路，还是买命。
棲 陰山 Mount Yin
有獸焉，其狀如狸而白首，其音如榴榴，可以禦凶。