Chapter 20 – The Wolf’s Embrace.

After that, he and the girl were being guided to a cave that seemed to be their nest by a wolf ordered by the old wolf. The place where they followed the wolf was covered with animal skins, and the gray wolf lay down on its stomach in the corner.

“This, will it grow here?”

Usher, who seemed to know what the gesture meant, but was not sure, looked at Belka and, finally reassured by her nod, he laid down on the hide that the wolves had laid down. The hides of the unknown beasts smelled a little bit like they hadn’t been processed. It was thinner than the cotton blanket he usually slept on and couldn’t even cover his body, but it was warm and soft.

The leather alone couldn’t cover all the hardness of the cave floor, but it was already long after he should have fallen asleep, so it seemed like his eyelids would close at any moment. However, the long sleepiness faded for a moment as he approached and lay down next to her. Gold glitters in the moonlight that faintly shines into the cave.

“Belka.”
“Huh.”

When I called the girl’s name, I heard an immediate answer. Her usual plain voice resounded in the cave, and it sounded like a gentle song. Even so, it wasn’t all just an overnight dream. I was sleepy and my eyelids were so heavy, but I looked at the golden light.

“Is Belka really okay?”

I didn’t hear an answer for a while, but her golden light was clearly looking at him, so when I looked at him tenaciously, the girl hugged him in her arms with a warm embrace.

“What answer does Usher want?”

Usher’s face heated up at the soft feel of her face and the sweet smell of camellias tickling his nostrils. Maybe Belka would find out about her blushing face. As if dazed at the thought of her doing, she dug deeper into her arms. Even though the inside of the cave was not so bright even when the moonlight leaked in, there was no way they would be able to see each other’s faces.

“It’s petty. Where’s the answer like that?”

But Usher knew. If Belka had poured out words of resentment toward Mack, he would have tried to go back to kill Mack right now. But instead of pouring out words of resentment toward him, she intertwines her thin and fine fingers between his hands and whispers affectionate words.

“I hate it when it’s not Usher. But I hate it more when Usher is having a hard time.”

At the same time, Usher, who could not drive away the sleep energy that finally came to the girl’s hand patting him on the back, closed her eyes. His consciousness soon permeated into the warmth.

“Are you so precious to that Erath? Master of the forest.”

As Usher had just fallen asleep, a woman’s voice echoed through the cave as if she had been waiting for it to happen. She was there, as if she had been watching them through to the end, and her voice was disturbing.

“I am no longer the master of this forest.”

It was the girl’s voice that answered her words.

“Chief Haona ordered us to treat you accordingly.”
“I won’t stay long. It’s too much.”

She exchanged conversation naturally, as if she knew someone’s voice from the beginning.

“So you’re thinking of leaving this forest with that Erath.”
“Huh.”

In her darkness, she might be interested in who she was and who she was talking to, but the girl didn’t look at anyone, but only her Usher, who was sleeping in her arms.

“Eras and you are different.”
“I know.”
“I’m sure you’ll get hurt.”
“I guess so.”

As if she was persuading her, she continued to ask, and the voice she asked was silenced as if she had lost her words as the girl repeated to answer without hesitation. She then opened her mouth again, as if she was worried.

“Why would you, who should know everything, make such a choice?”

Then Belka’s gaze, which had been looking at him all along, finally turned to someone beyond the darkness. Even in this darkness, her golden light was pinpointing that someone.

“Well. Maybe it’s because that’s our destiny.”
“…Is it fate?”
“It’s okay if you don’t have to try to understand. You’re also different from us.”

The girl hid the golden light that seemed to shine even in the dark, as if she had no heart to speak. The voice was never heard again, as if someone had also recognized its meaning. The cave, where only a little moonlight leaked in, soon filled the place with only the sound of whispering breathing. It was not long after they fell asleep that light fell on the dark sky. It was early in the morning when the sun was late, but the diligent birds chirped with their own voices in the light that came even slightly. Did the sound reach the depths of the cave where the girl and boy slept?

The gray wolf’s ears, which had been lying on his stomach as if asleep near them, pricked up, and soon opened his eyes. Then, the green eyes that were revealed secretly looked at the girl and the boy and confirmed that they had no sign of waking up, so the wolf slowly got up. The gray wolf, carefully escaping from the cave not to disturb their sound sleep, stretched out its front paws and supported it with its hind paws, then pulled its front paws to support itself and stretched its hind legs as far back as possible.

To the wolf, it was just an act of stretching, but the figure of the wolf drawing a flexible curve with its large size was cool in itself. The wolf looked at the sky for a moment, where the sun was about to rise, then crouched down and disappeared on the spot. Only the sight of the morning dew on the overgrown grasses springing up like a flock of frightened birds and then falling to the ground belatedly made us guess that the wolves had not disappeared but had run away.

The place where the missing wolf appeared was the place where the girls and the wolf faced each other last night. Now, I couldn’t see where the many wolves had gone, and only one wolf was sitting on the highest seat and quietly closing its eyes. It was an old wolf.

“How did it go? Hillis.”

When he asked, he slightly turned one of his imperfect ears with traces of being ripped off somewhere. The gray wolf opened its mouth. Then, what comes out of the wolf’s mouth is the voice of a woman who had a conversation with the girl in the cave last night.

“I tried talking, but it failed before I could convince him properly.”
“Is it.”

She seemed worried that she would hear some scolding, but he let her salivate as he answered as if he had just heard what he knew. As if he had asked just in case.

“You knew I couldn’t convince you.”

Seeing the old wolf like that, the gray wolf wondered if he was so unreliable and felt sad at the same time. Even when he is lost in her thoughts, he is quick to notice her mood and soothes her with her caring tone.

“It’s not like you’re trustworthy or anything like that.”

It might sound like a pretense, but she never doubted that he was sincere.

“What if?”
“She’s just that kind of existence.”

It was an ambiguous answer to come back to her question. But the wisest do not lie. No matter how ridiculous the words are, I believe and follow them. It was the trust of the wolves based on their respect for their experienced chief, and the rule for their survival. Moreover, she knew him well, having assisted him when he was ill. He has been the wolf who has lived the most years in this forest and has the most experience and wisdom. Although he is old, he is a patriarch because he is by no means infirm.

“Is that kind of being…Original?”
“It is.”

She thought of a girl named Belka. The girl looked like Erath to anyone, but she was not Erath. It was like an instinct that you can notice the moment you see it. Now that she had Erath right next to her, the comparison felt more certain. Even though both were in the form of young Erath.

“You said it was Agafia.”

Towards the girl, he called Agafia, not Eras. The gray wolf recalled the golden light of the girl he met in the cave. What is pure golden light that makes one unable to feel even the wariness of unfamiliar things? That alone seemed to transcend reason.

“What makes Erath so special that it is loved by such a person?”

Because of that, I couldn’t understand it at all. In response to her question, there is just silence. He just gazed at the distant sky with cloudy eyes.

“The air is damp. Go back and stay by my side before it’s too late.”

Even at the end, the wisest man did not answer the question at all.

Usher felt a faint rising spirit, and belatedly realized that he had fallen asleep, he thought that he would like to lie still like this, immersed in a warm and cozy sensation. It seemed to her that if she closed her eyes just a little longer and leaned on this sensation, she would fall asleep again. Unless a small hand stroked and caressed his hair. It’s so soft and warm that it makes you want to inadvertently flirt. I don’t want to wake him up, but I have to wake him up. He opened his eyes little by little at the cautious call. And the gold that meets.

“Usher.”

Even though she had woken him so kindly, Usher laughed at the sight of the girl calling him with those eyes filled with a little guilt as if she had been forced to wake him up. Just by looking at her, her lovely feelings rushed through her like a tidal wave, and he ended up hugging her as it was. Then, a soft touch touched his body.

“Did you sleep well?”
“Huh.”

Still drunk, he answered Belka’s words while going up and down the surface of unconsciousness and consciousness. She wants to dig into her arms for some time.

“Yesterday. It wasn’t a dream.”
“…Huh.”

Usher was happy that the fact that he and Belka were together was like a dream, but he couldn’t be happier when he remembered everything from yesterday. The friendly village man, Mack’s ruthless violation of Belka, who couldn’t resist, and the reality of the seemingly peaceful village. I wish it was all a one night nightmare, but the girl who couldn’t even lie that it was all a lie or a dream, bitterly avoids his gaze and slowly gets up.

“Okay, now you have to get up.”

Raising her body after her without a word, Usher could soon hear a wolf howl coming from behind her.

-Kong!

Looking back in amazement, the gray wolf that had fallen asleep near them yesterday was looking at him. He thought he was a big wolf yesterday too, but looking at him like this, he looks even bigger.

“Why do you do that?”

My ears ringing because I screamed in the cave, and when I look at it dissatisfiedly, the wolf sniffs! Blew his nose Was it just barking for no reason? And then he just walked out of the cave, looking pretty nasty.

“You don’t have to worry. I just told you to wait.”

Remembering the wolves growling and threatening him yesterday, even though it was only for a moment, he wondered if he might be hated, the girl said. And as if to prove that the words were not wrong, the gray wolf appeared, biting something piled up in a large blade of grass. The wolf set it down between them who sat up and touched it with his nose, and the blade of grass naturally untied. Then, a sweet smell wafted through the scent of fresh grass. A strong scent different from the delicate floral scent of Belka.

“Fruit?”

What came out of those blades of grass were colorful fruits that wolves would never eat. The fruits the wolf brought, wrapped in large blades of grass, were brought for them as expected. Even though the skin has not been peeled, the sweet scent that tickles the nostrils seems to say that these fruits must be delicious. However, he was hesitant to eat it because of the unfamiliar appearance of the fruits, which seemed to be small grains gathered together.

The size of each grain is also very small, so if you peel it, is there anything to eat? It was when Usher was fighting with the fruits for a long time. A small hand entered his field of vision and picked up one of the berries.

“Ah.”
“?”

Surprised by this, he followed his hand and saw the girl tilting her head at him. He is covering his mouth with his hand as if he had already put the fruit in his mouth and is puking his cheek. In a way, he seemed innocent as if he didn’t know what the problem was, as if he was seriously worried about the appearance of the poisonous fruit and worried about eating it. Although if you see Belka eating like that, he’ll be pretty sure he can eat it.

“Is that delicious?”
“Maybe.”

In response to the girl’s inability to conclude his words, Usher decided to change the question.

“Sweet?”
“Yeah. But it tastes a little sour.”
“Isn’t it hard?”
“If you take out the seeds.”

Belka said she knew a lot and she taught him just as much as she did. Thanks to this, Usher was able to boast that he knew more than most people. However, there were quite a few cases where her girl didn’t know about her, which was quite natural to him, so asking questions like this was her way of questioning that he had learned in her own way while living with her.

“Looking at it, it looks like it might be poisonous.”

The appearance of the fruit, which gave physiological repulsion, was not something that could be easily overcome even if it was told that it was okay to eat. It was all the more so because all the small grains that make up the fruit have small thorns. It also seemed a little goofy.

“There is no particular relationship between appearance and poison. Each person lives in a different way.”

Belka didn’t seem to understand either. As he was looking at the fruit, he heard the rumbling sound of the boat horn, so he closed his eyes tightly and put the fruit in his mouth. I was hesitant to chew, so when I carefully chewed a single grain, a bursting texture and a very sweet scent filled my mouth.

“Is it worth eating more than you think?”

He had already expected the fruit to be sweet, but it tasted unimaginably sweet from its unpleasant appearance. He had already forgotten the past of being wary of unfamiliar fruits. It was because the fruit the wolf had brought was sweeter than any fruit Usher had ever eaten. He regretted the fact that he hesitated to eat even for a moment. In the end, the fruit the wolf brought with him disappeared on the leaves after a while. He licked his lips with regret and looked at the leaf on which the fruit had been placed.

“Isn’t it enough?”
“Uh, not enough to fill my stomach.”

He nodded at the words of the girl who had been watching him for a while. The fruit was certainly delicious, but the fruit was small and not too large to fill the stomach. In particular, he never had the feeling of fullness he had when he ate something like bread or potatoes.

“Shall we take out some bread?”
“Oh right.”

In the bag I had brought yesterday, there were various items needed for the trip, including bread for food. When I took out the bread from the bag that was leaning against the wall of the cave, I could feel the gaze from somewhere.

“Do you want to eat this?”
– Great.

The owner of that gaze was the gray wolf, who had brought them fruit and then went to a corner and lay down, disinterestedly. Just in case, I stretched out my hand holding the bread in the direction of the wolf, and the wolf got up and walked slowly. The size of the wolf was not normal, so just walking towards him seemed overwhelming, but the way he focused his eyes on the bread in his hand oddly overlapped with the dog he raised in the village, so it wasn’t really scary.

The gray wolf came right up to him and sniffed the bread he was carrying. The behavior seemed to satisfy curiosity about new things rather than sniffing the prey. So Usher couldn’t foresee what the wolf would do next.

“Wait for a sec!”
– Crack!

The wolf opened his mouth and bit off the bread intact. But the wolf’s sharp teeth couldn’t bite the bread. Yes, even a little bit of old bread is very hard, so it won’t be edible as it is. In particular, this bread is made to be hard and dry on purpose to make it last for a long time. Of course, it was just not edible, but there was no way the wolf would know such common sense. Even so, he had a tired expression on the surface of the bread, where the marks of the wolf’s teeth were clearly visible. Seeing them carve marks like that on bread that would only break if you hit it hard with a stone, it seemed like you wouldn’t even be able to break a bone if you were bitten by the wrong wolves.

“You have to soak it in water or milk to make it softer and you can eat it.”

After explaining to the wolf, who grunted in pain, it was time to think about how to eat this bread in a place where there was no water, let alone milk.

“Because it’s raining outside. Wouldn’t it be nice to get wet in the rain?”

Belka didn’t know that the bread was hard, but he couldn’t chew the other bread he handed over and just bitten it. When we all arrived at the entrance of the cave, it was really raining. It smelled like water, but I assumed it was simply because the cave was damp. He placed the bread on the leaves at the entrance dividing the cave so that it would rain. The entrance of the cave was wet with rain, but there were rocks large and small to sit on, so they decided to watch the rain fall until the bread was wet and soft.