Uninvited Guest
“All done~!”
Seunghee, who had been squatting while working the field, stood up with a huge stretch. In the end, the three of us—including Mom—planted the seeds together. Maybe because it had been a while since they’d done any outdoor labor, both Mom and Seunghee threw themselves into it with real enthusiasm. Repairing the garden plot that had been wrecked once before didn’t take nearly as long as I expected.
“Oppa. Can we give the rest of the seeds to Ppiyak?”
“Absolutely not.”
More than half the seeds were still left in the bag. We had separate feed anyway; there was no reason to waste expensive seeds on it. Above all, Ppiyak had already eaten far more seeds than we’d planted in the ground.
“Aww~ Oppa~.”
Seunghee clumsily tried to act cute and clung to me.
“Are you feeling sick?”
I peeled her off my arm. Mom smiled from the side and spoke up.
“Changjae, come on. Let’s just give it these.”
“Hmm……”
Even Mom was siding with Seunghee. Was feeding Ppiyak really that fun?
“I’ll work harder to earn more coins, okay? Please?”
“Me too!”
When Mom put it that way, I couldn’t refuse.
“…All right. Just these, then.”
“Yes!”
Seunghee snatched the seed bag from my hand like she was stealing it. We weren’t starving the thing, so why was she so desperate to feed it more? Its belly was already bulging like a balloon right now… Wait.
“…Does it look bigger than it did this morning?”
“Hm? Does it?”
It definitely looked different. It had grown. Or, to be exact, it had gotten fatter. Even if we had fed it a lot, could the change show up this fast? It wasn’t just the belly—its whole body seemed to have increased in volume. Its feathers looked fluffier, too. Hmm?
“Ppiyak, eat plenty and grow up big and strong, okay?”
It already looked like it had grown plenty.
-Ppiyak! Ppiyak!
Seunghee placed seeds on her palm and held it out. Ppiyak pecked wildly at her hand, devouring every last one in seconds.
-Ppiyak ppiyak~!
Still not satisfied, it flapped its stubby wings. This time Mom offered her own palm full of seeds.
“Our Ppiyak eats so well~.”
“…It eats too well, honestly.”
Ppiyak started vacuuming up the seeds again. At this point it had probably consumed its own body weight in them.
“The laws of physics are collapsing.”
An animal’s stomach has limits. No matter how you looked at it, eating more than its own size was clearly abnormal. Was its belly not full yet?
“Mom. Feeding it this much can’t be good.”
“You think so?”
“It might get a stomachache.”
“But it’s eating so eagerly…”
“Let’s feed it in moderation. Moderation.”
I persuaded Mom first. Right now it was just seeds, but she might start suggesting steak next. I had to get through to her at least. Seunghee alone I could manage.
“Huh? Ppiyak, what’s wrong?”
Seunghee, who had been staring at it in fascination, tilted her head. Ppiyak, which had been completely focused on the seeds, finally showed a different behavior.
-Ppiyak~!
It spread its short wings and began chirping at us as if trying to tell us something.
-Ppiyak! Ppiyak~!
“Hmm?”
Mom and Seunghee looked puzzled by the strange display. If this were a game, it felt like a message would pop up saying ‘Oh! Ppiyak’s status…?’
Hmm? Was it actually trying to evolve into a real dinosaur?
I watched Ppiyak’s condition carefully along with them.
-Ppiyak!
It suddenly stomped the ground and started digging.
“What’s Ppiyak trying to do?”
“Maybe there’s treasure buried there?”
The curiosity of everyone watching only grew.
And then.
Ppiyak dropped a small black pellet onto the dirt it had dug up.
“…Poop?”
“It’s poop.”
“It was just poop……”
It was poop.
“……”
“Sigh……”
“Of course it was.”
The three of us, who had been watching so intently, slumped our shoulders in perfect unison. All that fuss just to show us it taking a shit. Obviously what goes in must come out. Still, we had hoped something special might happen. On this island, something “special” wouldn’t have been strange at all.
But it was a vain hope. The disappointment was as big as the expectation.
“…Should we stop feeding it now?”
“…Yeah, that’s probably best.”
It looked like Mom and Seunghee had come back to reality too. Good. Stopping the waste of valuable seeds was the right call.
-……Ppiyak!
“Hm?”
Just as we were about to clean up, Ppiyak started acting strange again. It hopped around on its short legs, flapping its wings, then spun in circles on the spot. Was it about to poop again?
“Ppiyak, what’s wrong? Are you upset because I said no more seeds? Want some more?”
Seunghee put seeds on her palm again and offered them. But Ppiyak showed zero interest this time. How could it suddenly lose interest after eating so frantically before?
-Ppiyaaak!
“Whoa?”
Ppiyak worked its stubby legs hard and waddled straight into the shelter. Its butt swayed heavily now that it had gotten so fat.
“Why is Ppiyak acting like that all of a sudden?”
Seunghee put the seeds back in the bag.
“Ppiyak, come out. Let’s play with Mom.”
Even when Mom called, it didn’t come out. It had always listened so well before. Hmm….
……A strange premonition came over me.
I pulled out my phone and opened the map. And at that moment—
- ——
I felt something. A faint vibration so subtle you’d miss it unless you were concentrating.
“Ah.”
- ——
After a short pause, the ground trembled once more.
……I knew this feeling.
“──Mom, Seunghee, get inside the shelter. Now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Hurry.”
I ushered them both into the shelter first.
“The hoes──”
“Leave everything and get inside… now!”
My urgent tone must have gotten through even to slow-witted Seunghee, because she quickly ducked inside.
-Creak. Clang.
I followed them in and locked the iron door tight. Mom and Seunghee, already inside, stared at me with worried faces.
“Changjae, what’s going on? What is it?”
Mom asked anxiously.
“Remember what I told you before? There are dinosaurs on this island too.”
“Dinosaurs? Weren’t you just joking about that?”
“Joking? Why would I joke about something like that.”
Honestly, even I wouldn’t have believed it if someone else had told me they’d seen a living dinosaur. I could only say it because I had seen one with my own eyes.
“The dinosaur… it was a Tyrannosaurus, right?”
“Yes. What I saw was a T-rex.”
“So a T-rex is coming right now?”
“Yeah. Can’t you feel the vibrations?”
At my words, both Seunghee and Mom closed their eyes and focused. Even while we were talking, the intermittent tremors rolled in from far away.
- ——
“…I don’t feel anything.”
“You really are slow.”
I hadn’t expected much from Seunghee. When I looked at Mom, she shook her head with a helpless expression.
“Normal people might not notice it. I’ve always been a bit sensitive.”
“What? You called me slow but you can’t feel it either?”
“You are slow, that’s why.”
- ——
The tremors continued even as we bickered.
“Let’s hide in the corner for now.”
We crouched down behind the bed together.
- ——
“Ah, now I feel it.”
“Me too.”
Finally Mom and Seunghee could sense the vibrations. That meant it had gotten much closer.
I took out my phone again and opened the map.
“Ah.”
Three red dots had clustered together on the screen. The distance from the shelter was roughly three hundred meters. Not exact, but close enough.
While I stared at the map, Mom and Seunghee pressed in close on either side.
“Three of them? Ah, one just disappeared.”
“We can’t tell what kind of animals they are from this alone. Probably one is the dinosaur and the other two are different creatures. Looks like one of them just got eaten.”
“I see… I hope it ate enough and doesn’t come this way.”
Was I the only one who thought Mom’s wish carried the heavy weight of foreshadowing?
“Ah. It went that way.”
One of the two remaining dots quickly moved toward the opposite side of the shelter.
“Is that the Tyrannosaurus?”
“Probably… not.”
Even though it was moving fast, there was no ground tremor. That meant another animal was fleeing from the T-rex.
“Please, chase it that direction!”
Seunghee’s desperate wish was in vain.
“Ah!”
The dot that had to be the T-rex was now striding straight toward the shelter.
- ——
The vibration hit at the same time.
“Eek!”
Seunghee shrieked in terror and clung to me. Mom pressed tightly against my other side. The rich scent of women who had been sweating from field work filled the air.
“Seunghee, Changjae. Don’t worry. Mom will protect both of you.”
Mom’s voice trembled as she spoke. The grip on my arm was pathetically weak. She probably couldn’t win against a house cat, let alone a dinosaur.
“Pfft.”
Yet somehow her words still reassured me. It was strange. Thanks to that, I was able to stay a little calmer.
-Gwoong──
The tremors grew closer. Now I could hear the heavy footsteps and the sharp crack of trees snapping.
I wrapped both arms around them.
“It’s okay. It’ll just pass by.”
Even as I comforted them, I was already thinking about what I would do if the T-rex attacked. The shelter entrance was narrow. Even if it smashed the iron door, the dinosaur’s body was too big to get inside. And no matter how savage a beast it was, it wouldn’t attack without reason. Even if it somehow knew people were hiding inside, destroying a natural stone cave would be far more trouble than it was worth. As long as that huge head wasn’t purely decorative, it shouldn’t attack.
But what if.
What if it did attack in earnest?
“Hoo──”
I closed the map on the Metapia Terminal and opened the shop instead. A bundle of six butane gas canisters. One liter of gasoline. And finally, a Zippo lighter. They were the ingredients for homemade grenades to drive away the uninvited guest.