A Snowflake Caught on the Tip of a Branch (5)
“All right—one! Two!”
The instant Chester gave the signal, Black Wind—who had come over to play—shoved the chicken coop upward with both hands.
The moment they left the ground, Chester used the momentum to haul on the rope he and Monia had already lashed to the coop.
“Kyaa!”
“Pull harder!”
“O-okay!”
Monia’s face twisted as she poured every ounce of strength into the rope. Leather gloves covered her hands so the friction wouldn’t tear her skin.
Chester wore the same gloves, gripping the rope tight to keep it from slipping through his fingers.
Together they hauled until the coop rose steadily from the earth and finally reached the spot they had chosen.
“That’s it! Monia—hold on!”
“Yaaah!”
Monia leaned so far back her body was almost standing against the side of the branch, bracing with everything she had. While she held the weight, Chester scrambled forward, caught the coop, set it carefully into the prepared cradle, and began lashing it down as fast as he could.
“Done!”
The moment he gave the all-clear, Monia let the tension drain from her limbs and collapsed where she stood. Nearby branches caught her, cradling her as she lay sprawled among them, breathing hard.
“Aigoo… I’m wiped.”
While Monia lay there spent, Chester fetched the materials he had prepared earlier and set to work. He built a platform that would spread the coop’s weight across several branches, bound everything with rope, and ran extra lines out to neighboring limbs so no single branch would bear the full load.
The beasts of the Floating Island were small. Plenty of them were smaller than the chickens now sitting in that coop. The cage had iron bars and fine mesh, true—but teeth could chew through mesh, and once something got inside, even a chicken larger than its attacker stood a good chance of being eaten.
These chickens were precious livestock, taken only after the surviving sailors had been killed. Chester had no intention of losing them so cheaply. He had been fretting over how to hang the coop high in the trees when Black Wind’s timely visit solved the problem.
—Is this a bird? Why can’t it fly?
Black Wind kept peppering Chester with questions about the strange creature he had never seen before. Chester answered every one of them patiently.
—They don’t need to fly, so they don’t. We feed them, we protect their chicks—they don’t need the strength to fly or fight.
—Ah. Like our pigs.
—Exactly the same.
—Are they tasty?
—The tasty ones are tasty. The ones that aren’t, aren’t.
Even the People of the Summit knew that how you raised an animal—what you fed it—made all the difference in the flavor. Before they slaughtered their pigs they fattened them on acorns and black mushrooms.
—Unless the breed is truly wretched and half-starved, it won’t taste bad.
—Hmm. What is a breed?
While Chester explained the concept, Monia—who had been sprawled in exhaustion—suddenly sat bolt upright and hurried over to the coop.
Black Wind and Chester, still talking across the cage, both turned to look at her.
“Birds! Birds! Birds! Let’s eat bird for the first time in forever!”
—…So she says. You going to eat one before you leave?
—No.
Black Wind stared at the chickens with naked longing, then shook his head.
—If I eat something on my own, my woman gets angry. She says, “Why won’t you eat the food I made?”
“Woman?”
Monia’s head snapped up at the word. Chester shot Black Wind a look of genuine surprise.
—You have a girlfriend and you never told me? I’m a little hurt.
—Friend, I was always popular.
That was probably true. Black Wind was bigger than most, and he had become a junior warrior young. Biologically and socially he stood high; plenty of women would have been drawn to him.
—Bring her next time you visit. I’ll give you a chicken to take home and cook.
—Mm. I will.
Black Wind accepted one bird and hurried off toward home. Watching him go, Chester turned to Monia.
“That guy’s completely whipped.”
“What? So when he said ‘woman’ earlier…?”
“Yeah. Looks like Black Wind’s got himself a lover. We should congratulate him.”
“Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. What kind of person is she?”
Monia’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“He’s the type who wants to become someone great, so he probably picked a woman who matches that.”
“You invited them to come play together?”
“I did. No idea when they’ll show up, though.”
“Then we have to get ready! I’ll make something delicious with these chickens!”
“Sounds good. Hang on a second…”
Chester counted the hens and chicks.
“We can spare up to five.”
“Perfect—one for us tonight, one for cooking experiments, and the last three for when Wind and his girlfriend visit!”
“Deal.”
“And thanks to those bastards, we’ve got plenty of cookware now!”
Cups, pots, frying pans—the haul really was generous. Chester no longer had to melt ore the hard way; skilled blacksmiths had already forged excellent tools. That left the extra ore the People of the Summit had brought free for other projects. With metal goods suddenly abundant, deciding what to do with the ore was a pleasant new problem.
“Look! There’s even a pot this huge!”
Monia held up a cauldron big enough to fit two small children.
“Honestly, I have no idea what we’d use it for. We never cook in bulk.”
“If we really can’t find a use, we can just gift it to the People of the Summit.”
“Feels a little like dumping something we don’t need.”
“If we don’t need it and they do, that still makes a fine gift.”
With that, Chester set a ladder against the tree near the coop and climbed down.
“Chicken coop’s finished… next are the fish traps. What do you want to do?”
“You mean how the catch has been poor lately?”
“Yeah. Maybe the cold’s slowing them down? We’re getting less than before.”
“That would make sense.”
As they walked, Chester eyed the thick carpet of fallen leaves underfoot.
“Leaves are dropping too.”
“Feels like it’s really coming, doesn’t it?”
“Mm. We should start winter preparations today. We’ve still got that cloth we took from the ship, right? Let’s wrap the house with it first. Better than moss.”
“We worked so hard gathering moss and never even used it.”
“Finding something better means we didn’t need it—that’s a good thing. Did you finish the clothes?”
Monia nodded.
“Clothes are done, and I took that spare sail—the emergency one—and layered leather on it to make cloaks.”
“Nice.”
“Are you sure you don’t need me to make anything for you?”
“Your cloak plus a butler’s uniform should be plenty for winter. Turns out they were all winter-weight butler clothes.”
“Why winter butler clothes?”
“Probably planned to hold out on this island once they got you. They must have known the island’s course heads into cold waters, so they packed winter gear. Not just butler uniforms—dresses, crew clothes, everything.”
They talked as they explored the forest.
They had come quite a distance, yet the bear that usually claimed this territory was nowhere to be seen. They walked on to another area; the ant-wolves that normally bustled about were gone as well. Snakes that had once been everywhere had vanished. Frogs, turtles—every familiar creature had disappeared.
The biggest change was the insects. The bugs that had tormented them so relentlessly they never dared let their guard down had also vanished without a trace.
“…It’s quiet.”
“Yeah.”
“This silence is different from the one the People of the Summit caused when they went on a rampage.”
Little by little, the island was settling into sleep, preparing for the winter that was almost upon them.
Plants and animals alike made ready to endure the cold. The only creature that would not hibernate was Ant, who stayed at their side. Ant had no need to gorge itself and sleep the winter away; it already knew how to stockpile food and simply keep moving. So even as the rest of the forest faded into stillness, Ant trotted cheerfully along beside them, as lively as ever.
“Ah… here too.”
Monia found the flower field she had loved now withered, and a quiet sadness crossed her face. After long, hard walks through the woods, this place—where blossoms once gathered in thick carpets—had been one of her favorites. But while they had been busy fighting invaders and cleaning up afterward, every last flower had faded.
Seeing the sorrow on her face, Chester spoke gently.
“…Shall we head back?”
“…Yes.”
Her voice was subdued for only a moment; then she brightened and declared,
“I’ll make the chicken really delicious!”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
On the way home, Chester glanced up at the sky and something caught his eye.
“Ah.”
The soft sound made Monia turn and look up as well.
From the sky, a single snowflake drifted on the wind, floating gently downward.
It settled quietly on the tip of a nearby branch and stayed there, resting like a tiny white flower.
Gazing at the snowflake caught on the tip of the branch, Chester and Monia both felt it—winter had arrived.