The Child Hunter Little Red Riding Hood (1)
I guess I've turned into an animal.
After running around all day and yelling, this is the conclusion I drew.
I became a dog.
Or a wolf.
Or maybe a hyena, but that's not impossible.
Since dog breeds aren't in textbooks, I don't know which kind of dog I became.
As a Korean, I'd prefer a Jindo dog.
Gray fur, but compared to quadrupedal locomotion, higher vision and a big body.
Truly, a disgustingly huge body.
I don't remember how many times I got tangled in trees and rubbed against them.
Even though I was used to quadrupedal movement, I still couldn't get used to this size and kept bumping into things.
"It doesn't seem like a dog. Is it really a wolf?"
I heard that wolves are surprisingly big.
Well, even if that's true, it doesn't change anything.
"After complaining about dying like a dog, it turned out I became a canine. Damn it. What was I supposed to do?"
Even if I became a wolf, what was I supposed to do.
Do I have to hunt rabbits to eat? Me, who was originally human?
"Ah... Now that I think about it, I recall there was a hell where you reincarnate as an animal."
Hell?
I wasn't sure. I just remembered my friend talking about it.
I've always had a bad head but good memory. Anyway, was I a beast?
I was born with insufficient virtue to be born as a human, so I was born as a beast.
Then what should I do?
'Where the hell am I?'
This kind of forest... No, are there such big wolves in our country?
I heard that wild beasts in our peninsula besides wild boars are extinct.
So this must be a foreign forest. But in a foreign country, can wild wolves just wander around?
Especially this wolf body. It's not normal performance.
Running.
Climbing trees.
Backflips.
Screw jumps.
Circus individual?
I can't do bipedal, but besides that, my athleticism is much better than my original body.
Plus, how strong the power is.
I slammed into a tree at full power and survived, and the tree broke.
Is this what wolves are like? I wouldn't know unless I've been to a zoo.
"With this ability, I could probably hunt easily. Let's see... Huh?"
Sniff sniff.
The canine animal's sense of smell caught a delicious scent amidst the earthy smell.
This is the smell of freshly baked bread. And sweet fruit jam too.
Is there a human in this kind of forest?
"Sniff sniff. Huh? That's..."
The thing I saw moving my feet like that was...
"Hing~ Hinghoong♫"
A small girl wearing a red hood with a little red riding hood was humming a tune while carrying a basket with steam rising and a delicious smell wafting.
A child alone in such a deep forest?
A small child at my eye level wandering alone in the forest.
Carrying a basket that smells so good.
'Little Red Riding Hood...'
There, you see. It's dangerous.
Since I have human memories now, it's dangerous to be wandering around with something that spreads a scent widely in the forest.
If I was just a wolf, I might have attacked that kid.
Moreover, in the original fairy tale, I didn't attack immediately out of concern for the woodcutter. But here, besides that kid, there are no humans.
Fortunately, I'm not a bad wolf that eats humans.
'I should watch her until she gets home just in case.'
I followed for a long time.
The little kid jumping around like she's patrolling the yard in a forest with no paths.
If it was my original body, I wouldn't have been able to follow. Luckily, now I'm a big and sturdy canine animal.
'Where is she going?'
But it's strange.
I don't know how to find a path in the forest since it's not in textbooks. But somehow, I felt like we were going deeper and deeper.
"Lu rala♫"
In such a remote place. A place that far.
A child humming a tune coming in?
Something's weird, so I stopped.
Then.
"Eh? You're not following anymore?"
"!"
The kid who was humming the tune turned around and looked at me hiding in the bush.
In one hand, the basket.
In the other hand, a pie.
Crunch crunch, she chewed and swallowed with just two bites.
"Ahum.... It's not home yet. But if I came this far, I can catch you before you run away?"
The girl who finished the pie threw the empty basket back.
Back. And up.
Up.
Up?
'How far is it flying...!'
Passing over the tall tree tops.
Vertically, the distance where even a horizontal baseball throw would lose power and fall.
She did it by roughly tossing it.
Did my sense of distance become weird when I became a wolf?
"Heeng~ Staring at me. Does a wolf come to bite something thrown like a dog? I should have thrown it at you."
Perhaps....
Is she a sports player aspirant...?
I heard that it's hard to enter the sports world if you're a little older.
Perhaps a two-handed throw player...?
While I was thinking that, the girl took out something more ominous than the basket and pie.
In one hand, a knife with a blade longer than the girl's head.
And in the other hand.
"The wolf that appeared in the forest, I came to hunt it. But unlike what I heard, it's quiet!"
Bang!
This damn thing.
Now I realized where I was.
"Here, America!"
"?"
Damn it. I thought it was Europe, but America!
Yeah. Now it makes sense.
A little girl throwing a basket high into the sky. Little Red Riding Hood cosplay with machete and shotgun hunting wolves.
If it's America, that would be possible. Or impossible outside of America. I haven't been there, but.
And with a human holding a shotgun in front, the only choice for a smart wild animal is to run.
"Let's run!"
"Ah! Trying to escape?"
"Of course! You're holding a gun!"
People say bears rip people apart.
But if a person holds a gun, even a little girl can blow off a bear's head.
Even if the bear is done, what can a canine animal with a much smaller build do?
"Dirty gun-allowing country bastards! As a Korean, I don't want to die from being shot!"
Tsk! I was trying to do good deeds and build up virtue, but this is what happened!
Still, I'm a four-legged canine animal.
No matter how much of a two-handed throw prodigy that kid is, it's hard to beat a running quadrupedal animal.
If I run into the trees and bushes...
Bang!
Huh?
"You thought you could escape? This is our family's hunting ground!"
The girl chasing from behind.
And the tree next to me collapsing while spewing smoke.
Strange? The distance is quite far?
"Shotgun isn't a close-range weapon!"
The shotgun I know is a gun with high destructive power but spreads quickly, so short range!
Of course, I've never shot a gun. In the game my friend played.
"Hide! You have to hide somewhere!"
"G~u~e~ss~"
Clang!
A chilling loading sound sweeps my spine.
That girl's place is far away. And there are several thick trees between us.
Breathe a little. If I shoot that gun once and run to the opposite side...
Bang!
The sound of a bullet that makes ears fall off.
And faster than the sound, a red flash piercing through the top of my head.
"Why is the shotgun's penetration power like this!"
"Huh? Missed? Hee..."
Is a shotgun really like that?
The bullet flew straight, punching holes through the four trees between us.
It was definitely buckshot. Small holes in the hit trees-
Clang!
Not the time to think!
She knew my hiding spot almost exactly. If I don't move now, I'll die! And I'll be stuffed as a wolf caught by a kid on the internet.
"Aaaah!"
"Wolf! Can't run!"
Bang! Bang!
Bang!
Desperate sprint for survival.
Using my body that got used to for a day to the max, climbing trees, swimming along the riverbank, pushing through bushes.
Huh? This isn't it?
I was swimming through trees, swimming along the riverbank, climbing through bushes and running away.
Only when I didn't know where I was going anymore did I realize the girl's voice had disappeared.
Well, whatever.
I ran without stopping at a speed that cut through the wind. It was strange that such a small girl was chasing.
It seemed like I heard it until I passed a flowing river in the middle.
"But what was that river."
This forest. It's probably not normal.
The trees are weird, the river is weird, the bushes are weird.
"Actually, the one who isn't normal at all is that girl."
A little girl wearing a Little Red Riding Hood with a cheerful smile, slapping the shotgun.
And where is that shotgun bullet coming from repeatedly.
She shot dozens of times, but it's lucky she didn't hit even once.
"If I didn't mishear, she said it's a family hunting ground?"
So this is private property.
No matter how much America, this vast forest being private property means the owner must be incredibly rich.
A rich person with a gun. This means I have no choice but to run.
"So if I just go out of the forest carelessly, I'll just be a harmful animal..."
I'm a wolf now.
If I wander out of the forest carelessly, I'll just turn into a bearded old man with a gun from the Little Red Riding Hood.
Even if I run, I have to run into the forest. The whole world isn't private property, right?
'If I go deeper inside...'
Boom!
'......Huh?'
There's something.
From deeper in the forest. Something dangerous is walking towards here.
The canine animal's sense of smell captures it.
The beast's instinct warns of the strong's presence.
"Why is our Little Red Riding Hood so late? Tsk, I'll get scolded by my grandma, but I can't stand worrying about my granddaughter."
A... grandma? walking out of the forest while shaking the ground.
No. That's impossible.
There's no such grandma in the world.
A huge body that even if I stand on two legs now wouldn't reach the chest.
But it doesn't feel like a long body, a sturdy physique.
It was too big to be a grandma.
"Where. Shall I secretly go watch if our little one's errand is going well, old lady!"
And too sturdy.