Remnants of a Free Wolf
Freedom—even now, when I close the eyes of that small, pathetic wolf, it still rises before me. My homeland prairie...
As a pup, I wandered the fields with my siblings from the pack. Cool winds brushed past me, and our laughter echoed across the plains. When hunger struck, we'd catch small game. When thirst came, we'd drink from the streams flowing through the grass. At sunset, we'd return to the pack. There waited my mother. My mother. Her glossy long gray fur gleamed brightly in the sunlight. Her massive body was our bed, and her sharp claws brought meat for us siblings.
So at night, we tore into the huge beasts she hunted, then fell asleep in her embrace. Every day was joyful. Every day was happy. Back then, I was free.
Do you really think so?
Time passed. My siblings grew tall and strong, joining the pack's adults on hunts. Sharp fangs filled their wide maws. Their leg claws grew thicker, sharper. But I alone remained small and weak. I don't know why. I was simply born that way.
...But it didn't matter. Even if my siblings no longer ran the fields with me. Even if the pack adults no longer shared meat with me. My mother was always by my side. So I was still happy.
No. You hated them, deep down.
More time flowed. Wolf packs don't tolerate the weak. It's a judgment for the good of all. Why protect a runt who can't even fend for itself? It brings nothing to the pack. They only coddle you when you're young. I was driven from the pack.
...Along with my mother, who shielded me to the end.
Then your mother became unhappy because of you.
Mother and I left the prairie for the nearby forest. A dense thicket where even light barely penetrated. A small cave in that forest—our new domain. The woods were nothing like the safe prairie. Insects with poison and wings we'd never seen on the plains. Small but vicious beasts that ambushed without warning. For safety, I could only hide in the cave, trembling.
While I shook in fear, Mother hunted alone. Her huge body must have hindered her in the forest. The thick trees restricted her movements. So the meat she brought grew smaller and smaller...
...She alone ate less and less. Mother grew weary day by day. The meat dwindled. Mother wasted away day by day. Even at night, she stood guard around me.
So one morning, when I opened my eyes... Mother never opened hers again.
You killed her.
Mother was dead. Right before me, her eyes stayed shut forever. No more hunting for me. So I starved. But the outside terrified me. A small, weak thing like me couldn't survive the forest alone. I huddled in the cave, quaking in fear.
[......]
I don't know how long I stayed like that. Just that my hunger was so deep, even cries wouldn't come.
Then meat appeared before my eyes. Mother's final gift to me. Rotting, stinking... no longer looking like Mother at all.
......
The first meat in so long tasted so good. Tears came.
Hahahahaha! Disgusting thing.
I stepped out of the cave. No more hunger. No more fear of the outside. I bit a snake hiding in the grass, ambushing me. I tore apart a flying squirrel diving from the trees. A charging boar. A crocodile lunging from the river. I killed them all. All so delicious. I ate my fill of meat. The forest held nothing but meat.
My body grew. As big as my siblings'. No, bigger! After devouring the forest's meat, I returned to the prairie.
My longed-for prairie still held the pack that abandoned me and Mother. The siblings who'd shunned me seemed so frail now. The adults who'd driven me out seemed so small.
...No one mocked me anymore. I became the pack's king.
Eating your own mother just to gain acceptance from those who discarded you? How impressive.
The prairie wasn't home to wolves alone. As king, I fought every day. Hunted massive beasts and brought back meat. Raided other animal packs to expand our territory.
...Sometimes I lost too. Weak siblings died. Young adults died. But I always survived. I was big and strong now.
Not survived—they spared you.
Around then, humans summoned me for the first time. The fool said, "Follow me." Arrogant pest. I devoured the one who dared summon me without permission. That was my first glimpse of the human world. The sights weren't half bad.
More time passed. Hunt, eat, fight, win, get summoned, eat again. Endless struggle. The end came with betrayal from those siblings I'd run the fields with as a pup. That pain rivaled even eating my mother.
...But I devoured that pain too, and on the day I personally ate my traitorous siblings... I truly became the prairie king. No one could stop my run. No one could deny my meals. I was free again.
Fool. You never realized.
One day, roaming the prairie freely, humans summoned me as usual. Massive human structures. Dozens of humans surrounding me. I planned to eat them and fill my belly, like always.
...But that time was different.
"Catch it!! It's a big one!!"
"[Filthy vermin!!]"
"No!! It's overpowering us!"
"Just buy time! His Excellency will arrive soon!"
It started the same. Humans foolishly summoning and trying to bind me. I lunged to tear them apart and devour them all.
"Oh my, this is what you called me to help with? So cute~"
Suddenly, a human woman appeared with two enormous horns on her head. Instinct told me: she was stronger than me.
...But I wasn't afraid. Since leaving that forest cave, fear had never gripped me.
So I charged first.
"Auuuuuuu-!!! "
"...Cute, but clearly in need of some training."
Thud—!!!!
In one blow. She caught my charging form with one hand and slammed me down.
...That was it. The first time since becoming prairie king that raw power overwhelmed me. The first time I'd lost by such an overwhelming margin.
In my fading mind, I heard the human woman speak to her underlings.
"Handle the rest yourselves, dears~"
"Yes, Ma'am Demon Lord!"
......
I don't remember what happened after. I woke in this cave. Time doesn't pass here. No changes. So no hunger. But I can't move either.
...Just like back then. Nothing left to do. Back to being that small, weak me. That truth drove me mad. I became a mindless beast.
...I want to go home.
......
Days of doing nothing, just surviving. Then change came at last.
A sudden golden-haired human woman and a tiny human. Or rather, a hunter and a little lamb. Stagnant time began to flow. Hunger returned. Meat stood before me. No reason not to eat.
So, as always, I lunged at the hunter.
......
"It's looking this way—!!!"
The little lamb in the back, which I'd ignored since I could kill it anytime. For some reason, I couldn't ignore it then. That tiny thing, barely a mouthful, dared—!
I turned and charged the lamb to kill it first. The little thing was quick, dodging once. And then.
——!!!
There was light.
......
There was light. In that light, I realized. That I was still alive. That I wasn't a mere beast. That I was the prairie king.
A second head sprouted. Sanity returned. My mind cleared, hunger vanished. Yes. I wasn't a beast—I was the prairie king.
The hunter before me raised her weapon. Not this time. Before she could shoot, I blasted her away with that strange weapon of hers.
Looking at the little lamb beside her now... it felt different. A small thing with a pitiful fate. Instinct urged me to help it... but how could a wolf care for a lamb?
...Still, its fate was so tragic, I spared it. The threatening hunter was already dying. The lamb couldn't harm me. So perhaps I could spend its final moments with it.
Once time started flowing, it wouldn't stop. That strange certainty filled me. If I recovered my strength, I could escape this cave on my own power.
Thinking that, I rested again.
...I shouldn't have.
...I like it.
Blazing heat forced my eyes open. So hot, so terrifying... black flames. They erupted from the little lamb—no, from that horrific thing disguised as a lamb.
It burned its own body with those flames. Curled horns untwisted, turning pure white. White lamb fur incinerated to ash-gray in the blaze. The human "clothes" it wore blackened.
Its transformed form... so pure. Pure evil, burning away every impurity without trace...
What am I seeing? Why did I ever mistake that for a lamb? Why must something like that exist in this world?
Ah, aah—no. Things like that shouldn't exist. It can't be allowed to live. It must die. For me. For my kin on the prairie. For my dead mother.
...For this world.
I have to kill that monstrosity right now!!!
Fortunately, its visible size hadn't changed. So strike now, while it still had that small frame. While it was still looking at the fallen hunter, not me.
I lowered my stance. Wanted to cower. Gathered strength in my legs. They trembled. Opened my jaws wide. Wanted to beg for mercy.
...No. Fear only weakens me. I kicked off the ground and charged the horror.
I am no longer the small, weak wolf of the cave. No longer the mindless beast of the cave. I am! The prairie king!! The freest being on that prairie!!
So—I—!!!
:: You are ::
Θ
Aa— Our eyes met. My charging legs halted. My gaping maw wouldn't close.
......
Drool drips from my jaws. My hind legs burn hot. From my own piss flowing down.
Ah... I see. I am—
:: nothing but a mongrel pup ::