Outing to Seolju (3)
The carriage was a lost cause anyway — I figured I'd go charm the wolf friends instead. Just how hard must life be out there for them to come wandering into human territory?
"Miss. Are you really going?"
"Yes. Don't worry, I climb trees just fine."
What a pointed question. Is she actually worried about me? Or does she just want one more person hanging around the inn in case something happens?
Ugh. I don't want to stay here anyway. Off I go.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Today I was walking a little off the road. That way I'd run into them, right?
"Grrrr."
"Oh? My first customers!"
Pitter-patter.
Here, this is called a potato. Follow humans around and this is all you get. Go raid a carriage instead, and next thing you know, you're the ones getting hunted.
"Grrrr."
What now? You ate it all, so why the attitude?
"Hmm? You want more?"
Thud.
I plopped down on the ground. One of them wasn't budging, so it seemed like negotiation time.
"Sit down too, you."
"Grrrr."
"What's growling gonna get you?"
Should I assert dominance? Stare a dog down long enough and it takes it as a challenge — are wolves different?
"Rrrrrrumble."
"Tsk. Keep that up and you'll get smacked and it'll hurt! Now come here nicely and eat this."
This time I pulled a chunk of dried venison out of my hand. The smell of meat wafting over — you want it, don't you, buddy?
"Sniff. Sniff."
So they do love meat. A little nip came my way.
"It's delicious, I'm telling you. You don't like meat?"
"Krrrumble."
Chomp.
No. You little—? It bit the meat and my hand together?
Drag. Drag.
Oof, it's strong. I'm being dragged away. Huh? The thing weighs more than I do? It's absolutely enormous — its head alone is the size of my whole body. Fur somewhere between black and yellow, mottled — so these must be those gray wolves or whatever they're called.
"Hey. How far are you planning to drag me? Let go or you'll be sorry."
"Krring?"
Is it because I'm so calm? This is your first time experiencing something like this too, isn't it?
"It hurts, but I'm putting up with it, so stay still. Let. Go."
Oh, it let go? Hmm? Does it actually understand me?
"Arf!"
"Huh?"
WHAM!
This little punk — it backed off, then leapt for the back of my neck, so I just smacked it.
"Kergh. Arf. Arf. Whiiine."
"Ugh, seriously! Look, you tore my whole glove up!"
Smack!
I hit it once more out of sheer irritation, and it went tumbling across the snow. Honestly, it needed a good disciplinary lesson.
Scramble-scramble.
What? It's running away? A dine-and-dasher? Unforgivable.
"Come back here?"
Drag-drag-drag.
"Whine? Whine-whine?"
Why keep telekinesis around if not for moments like this? I snagged the escapee by the scruff and hauled it back over. It seemed utterly baffled by what was happening to it.
"Hey. I gave you food and this is how you act? Not acceptable, right?"
"Krrrumble."
"I'm not asking for anything big. There's food deeper in the forest — hanging around here will just get you killed."
"..."
Huh? Why so quiet? It won't even meet my eyes? Did I win?
"You stay in the forest, we stay on the road. I won't say anything about people going into the forest, but stay away from the roads! You'll get hurt. Humans are a massive group, and they've got plenty of weapons."
"Whiiiine..."
Whew. What am I supposed to do if people get angry and start hunting every last one of them? Siberia is a big place, you know, kids. Even in the far distant future, humans will have traveled through less than one percent of it...
"Behaving now?"
Finally, it's sitting still. See, force really is the easiest solution. Whether it's people or animals, nobody listens until they've been properly scolded.
Munch. Munch. Smack. Smack.
"Hey? You've got family too, don't you? Are you really going to eat all of this alone?"
"Sniff?"
Now it's sitting beside me, nibbling away. That said, this one's definitely different from the cat family — the smell comes wafting up, slow and earthy.
Just how much is it planning to eat? Well, I've got plenty of odds and ends in my Subspace, and potatoes are infinite. Suit yourself.
Crash-rumble.
I just heaped it up into a mountain and told it to eat its fill.
"Arf? Arf-arf! Oooowl~ Ooo~"
"Oh? Is that a howl?"
Excited by all the food? It started circling the pile, barking away. And here I thought wolf howls were supposed to be majestic — turns out they're kind of pathetic up close?
It's mostly just a drawn-out ooo. Sort of cute, actually.
"Should I get you some water too?"
Plenty of bowls, plenty of water — no problem there.
Slurp-slap-slap.
"Eating well. Good boy. Being good for one day's fine. Somebody stays safe that way."
They're big, sure, but once you get friendly with them, they're no different from dogs. They do have some pride, though — they won't actually wag their tails for you.
But hold on — you're not even carrying food off anywhere, so why are you just standing there staring at me?
"What? Done eating? Then go home."
What now? What's gotten into you?
Rustle. Rustle.
"EEK!"
Ghosts!
"Grrrrowl."
"Arf! Arf-arf!"
New wolves. They were growling at me until they got steamrolled by the freeloader who'd already eaten.
"New guests, huh? Then you'll be needing dinner too."
Pitter-patter-patter.
I hauled out heaps of fresh potatoes and jerky. Six in total, all told — apparently that's the whole pack.
"Is life that hard for you folks too?"
"Sniff."
"Want to come along? No idea if you'd be allowed to stay in a human village, but still."
I guess I'd just sleep out here for tonight. Would anyone normally sleep out on the road like this?
I stretched out to rest, and they curled up in a ring around me. It's warm and all, you guys, but the smell. I scrubbed my primitive friends down and turned them into proper people, and now it's the animals giving off odors.
Am I the Pied Piper or something?
We kept moving, off to the side of the road, and the wolves kept multiplying. Over twenty now. Since I don't know anything about their habits...
Thank goodness there's plenty of meat in the Subspace...
"It's a mountain valley, so I'm keeping to the road — should be fine, right?"
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Ah. Speak of the devil and a carriage shows up, of all things.
"Oh! Miss, walking the road all on your own? That's remarkable, truly!"
But this old man hasn't noticed a thing. His horse is trembling, its legs buckling underneath it.
"Ahaha, it just sort of happened. Oh — you might want to brace yourself?"
"Brace for wh—KYAAAAAK!"
Called it. The wolves were trailing a little ways behind... and there goes Tulbo's uncle-of-a-man screaming like a little girl. Refreshing, honestly.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Our kids are a bit on the big side, aren't they?"
That's why the footsteps are so loud too. They won't bite or hurt anyone, so just stay calm, please.
"Grrrr."
"Hey! We do NOT eat things on the road!"
"Yip!"
Yes, they do disobey now and then. But it's fine! No biting, no harm done. Probably?
As we traveled, a few of them would peel off now and then to drag back deer and the like. We were slowly becoming a pack of something.
I'm getting a little worried here? How exactly is this going to end?
It's been about three months since we left Hanju, hasn't it?
Living alongside the kids as we pushed through the forest, I'd turned into quite the ragamuffin myself.
"We must be almost there. What will people say when they see us?"
"Whiiiine?"
This one's something like the leader of the pack. Watching them, I noticed they send out hunters separately, and there are a few particularly strong ones. So they don't pick their leader by fighting, apparently.
Fascinating creatures, these wolves.
Squelch.
"Huh? What is this?"
My foot sank into mud. Oh, wow.
"A swamp? It turned into this, just like that?"
Heheh. You have to laugh. No way — is this Seolju? The freezing wind hasn't let up at all, and yet the ground alone has thawed into this? What is going on? So this is what those tree branches have been doing.
"Whew. What a mess."
The wolves were sinking up to their paws and floundering in the muck — total chaos. Farming this land couldn't have been easy, either.
Looking around, half the trees lay toppled. The ones still standing upright looked fairly fresh — the new growth, it seemed.
"So the ground thawing isn't exactly a good thing after all?"
If anything, I was relieved that only part of it had thawed like this. Though come to think of it, leveling ground or building anything here would be an absolute nightmare.
Squelch. Squelch.
"Ugh, dammit."
Every ten steps or so, down I'd go.
"Huh? Aw, come on."
I lost a shoe. Ahaha. I'm getting seriously annoyed here.
Squelch-squelch-squelch.
The swampland was truly no place for a person to walk.
"Hah. Hah. Hah."
The wolves were so exhausted they were staggering along behind me. The mothers carrying their pups looked like they had it hardest of all.
We'd been trudging like this for a good day or two already, hadn't we? Come on, city, show yourself.
"Grrrrrrowl."
"Hm? What is it?"
Something had appeared. The wolves' senses are sharper than mine — they always notice things first.
On the way here, we even ran into a bear once. It took one look at me as a boxed lunch and came charging, only to spot the wolf pack and pivot right back the way it came.
Skreeeeet — Poooooo.
"Huh? A flute and a horn?"
Something's gone down over there. I think I can make out some kind of tower in the distance too?
"Grrrrrrowl."
Great. Now the kids are worked up too! They look ready to bolt at any second!
"Stay put! You can't win a fight with them! Hey! Big guy! Leader!"
"Arf!"
"You understand me a little, don't you? Stay right here. I'll go take a look."
"Arf-arf."
Please, please let that have gotten through.
Da-da-dash.
I was crashing through the forest, running as fast as I possibly could. I was in a hurry, so I put the force of telekinesis into my legs.
"I'm a person here! Please wait!"
All I could do was keep shouting and running. What else was I supposed to do?
After a good long stretch, I could finally see them in the distance — a whole crowd of people, weapons in hand.
Skreeeeet—
The flute kept wailing.
"I'm a person here!"
I am absolutely learning how to play a single-note flute or horn after this. You mark my words.
Whoosh — THUNK.
Oh, seriously? An arrow just flew at me.
"I'm a HUMAN, you little—!"
I couldn't exactly storm over and smack them, so shouting was all I had. Fine.
"A... per... son?"
"What do you mean, 'what'?!"
So they're still just barely within earshot. Keep running. At least the arrows have stopped, haven't they?
It took a long while more of sprinting before I finally reached these humans.
"Oh? It really is a person?"
What is wrong with you people? What do you take the era's greatest beauty for, huh?
"You've got eyes, don't you? I'm a person!"
"...In that state?"
What's that supposed to mean? So what about how I look? Fine, I'd lost both shoes, and yeah, I'd face-planted in the swamp earlier and eaten a face full of mud — but are we fighting or what?
"Anyway. You came because of the wolves, yes?"
"Yes, that's right! A large wolf pack is approaching. Were you driven out by them?"
Hmm... I suppose you could see it that way? I did come huffing and puffing across the valley?
"They're my friends."
"...?"
"The ones I brought with me."
"...Why on earth would you bring them?"
"I only brought the ones who could get along peacefully with people. Why don't you come meet them?"
"I'd rather not?"
This punk keeps talking back to me!
If the wolves that get along with humans band together and settle here, they'll keep out all the animals that actually attack people, you blockheaded fool!
Agh... The curses are bubbling up. If this were Sinsi, you'd have gotten one thorough scolding, I swear.
"At the very least, let me go to your village and speak with your chief."
"And what exactly should we trust you for?"
WHAM!
Thud.
Ugh. I hit him again. Why does nobody listen these days?
"Ugh... my head. Huh? Why am I on the ground?"
"Are you all right? You just collapsed all of a sudden."
He eyed me with deep suspicion, but what are you staring at, huh? Where's your evidence?
"Let's send the people back over there first, and then you and I can just talk for a few minutes."
"That's what I'm saying — what should we trust you for?"
WHAM!
Thud.
Sigh. So exhausting. Really... why does it have to be a blockhead like this standing in my way. Did I ask for something so huge? I just wanted to talk! That's all!
In the end, only after this fool had grown four bumps on his head did the village chief, finding the whole thing strange — the messenger he'd sent kept keeling over left and right, after all — come out to meet me himself.
"Hmm... So you are saying you represent the wolf pack?"
"Consider me their proxy for now."
Wolves have sense, but they can't talk. So somebody has to speak for them, right?
"Hmm. So the gist is... we take care of the wolf pack?"
"Think of it as a kind of symbiosis. They'll hunt their main prey themselves — you'd just share a little of your crops or game so they don't starve outright."
Handled well, it could benefit everyone.
"That would cost quite a lot of money, though?"
"I'll pay for it. I have plenty of money."
"Hmm? Plenty, you say?"
Hmm. Enough to keep this country running? Well, first things first — I'd better get to that temple of theirs.