A Hunting Dog's Proof (2)
The day after I accepted the hunting commission, the Environmental Division at City Hall called.
I picked up expecting the familiar voice of the county officer I usually dealt with. Instead, a younger man came on the line, clipped and professional.
The call ended, and I let out another sigh.
This is Nureongi's first real hunt. Is it really all right to start this soon?
But when I thought of the residents already taking losses, getting it done even a day sooner was the right call. As soon as I hung up, I decided to take Nureongi straight up the hill behind the village for a bit of simple practice.
And since we were heading out anyway, I figured we might as well make an outing of it and bring Poppy and Eunseo along. Eunseo looked a little ridiculous tucked in my arms the whole way, but she was having the time of her life, happily flapping her fins.
The moment we reached the mineral spring on the village hill, I settled Eunseo into a big basin filled with cold, clear spring water. She splashed around, soaking her fins, while Nureongi and Poppy—wound up just from being out on a walk—went circling the area with bright, restless eyes.
"Nureongi. This is an outing, but it's practice too, so don't go completely wild."
"Okay~!"
Watching all of them answer so cheerfully, I couldn't tell whether this was a picnic or a training session.
The point of the exercise was simple enough. Eunseo, being aquatic, would hide near the stream, and Poppy would play the fleeing rabbit. Nureongi's job was to find the two of them with me by scent alone.
Since it was only practice, I had Poppy slather on a generous amount of the perfume and cosmetics she used every day. That ought to make her easy enough to find. For Eunseo, I dabbed a little mermaid shampoo onto my fingers and smoothed it on lightly.
"We'll hide really well, then~"
"This stream water is clean, right?"
"Don't worry. The old folks say even crayfish live in it."
"Eek... a Variant?"
"No. Just ordinary creek crayfish, about the size of your thumb."
Only then did Eunseo let out a breath of relief. Poppy hoisted her up and the two of them vanished into the woods.
About ten minutes had gone by when a message arrived from Poppy.
Time to start the hide-and-seek—and the search drill—with Nureongi.
She picked up a stick, swung it loosely in one hand, and started walking at a leisurely pace. I couldn't tell whether she was asking me to play or actually searching. But her tail was swaying slowly from side to side, and she kept sniffing the air and turning her head, so it seemed she was tracking properly after all.
"You nervous?"
"Nope~"
"Then what?"
"The perfume's so strong I think it's going to be harder to pick out Eunseo's scent."
A hunting dog's instincts were starting to show. Her expression was still perfectly innocent, but her eyes had taken on a sharp, bright gleam.
We left the hiking trail in what felt like a casual stroll and stepped onto a forest path, and the sound of a trickling stream drifted toward us. Water-scent is usually enough to throw a hunting dog off a trail, but Nureongi found Eunseo in barely five minutes.
Eunseo hadn't even been trying to hide. She was sitting by the stream, stacking pebble towers and entertaining herself.
"Huh? You found me already?"
"Yep! I followed Eunseo's smell!"
Nureongi said it with a sunny grin, and Eunseo's face went scarlet as her fins started flapping.
"I—I don't smell fishy!"
"That's not it. It's the shampoo!"
Only then did Eunseo relax, and the flapping fins settled down.
"Want to keep playing, or head down first?"
"Can't I come with you, Unnie?"
"Well... I suppose. If this takes a while, you'll get tired though."
"It's okay, Unnie. Hayeon's secretly watching us nearby."
"How do you know?"
"Her scent is really close."
I hoisted Eunseo onto my back. The cold scales against my skin were a shock, but they warmed quickly with my body heat.
I followed the direction Nureongi pointed, then stopped. At a glance it was just ordinary brush, but looking closer, the way the grass was bent was subtly off. Just as Nureongi had said, Poppy had been watching us from here.
"So Hayeon was hiding here."
"She really was. Hayeon's footprints are here too."
Nureongi was already pointing at the ground, having found the tracks as well. True to a rabbit, the prints were widely spaced where she'd bounded up a fairly steep slope.
"Good. Let's keep looking, then."
I sent Poppy a text first, then settled Eunseo on my back again and set out in earnest to find our rabbit.
Poppy had really been all over the place. There were hollows in the grass where she'd crouched, wide-stamped footprints in the dirt—every sign of a rabbit who'd been having an absolute blast.
We'd walked another few minutes when Nureongi suddenly dropped low and started sniffing. I crouched with her on instinct, and she grinned as she whispered.
"She's around here."
"In that case... I suppose I should draw my gun?"
I set Eunseo down gently and pulled out my smartphone instead of a rifle, switching on the camera. Nureongi's nose was remarkable, but she still lacked the experience to catch the finest differences. I made a show of searching the brush, then aimed the lens straight up at the branch overhead and hit the shutter.
The photo that came with the click caught Poppy peeking through the leaves, hands over her face, giggling.
"Hunt's over, Hayeon. Come on down."
"Huh? Unnie, how did you know?"
She hopped down from the tree, looking startled, and I tapped the trunk beside us.
"Right here. The footprints where you climbed up are still clear."
"I knew too!"
Eunseo's hand shot straight up as she called out.
"You too, Eunseo?"
"Yes! From right here, I heard Hayeon Unnie laughing!"
"What? I didn't laugh out loud..."
Poppy looked thoroughly wronged. It had to be a mermaid's Telepathic Resonance—the ability to feel another person's emotions as if they were sound. Eunseo had probably caught the delight Poppy felt looking down at us.
"So we all got found out, huh?"
"No! Hana Unnie never found me to the end!"
"...Hana and I were a two-person team to begin with."
"What? That's cheating!"
Poppy's ears drooped in a sulk, then perked right back up. Anyway, the hide-and-seek had ended with nobody hurt and everyone having fun. That was more than enough.
We wrapped up our light exercise and came home, and the three of them, still sweaty, went straight to the bath. I sat on the edge of the veranda and turned the day over in my mind. The sun-warmed wood pressed gently against my thighs.
Nureongi's search work had been close to a perfect score. Whatever she still lacked was only youth and inexperience. Once the knowledge caught up, she would more than hold her own.
Poppy had been a wild rabbit in a girl's body, no further comment required. And Eunseo, our adolescent mermaid, was already learning to keep her sensitive Resonance in check, only opening herself to it when she needed to.
I had always treated them like children. Watching them grow like this, step by careful step, put a lump in my throat and filled me with pride at the same time.
I was still lost in those thoughts when Nureongi, fresh from her shower, came and sat quietly beside me. In a cool pair of shorts she still looked like a kid—but the eyes she had shown me during training had belonged, without a doubt, to a hunting dog.
"How was I today, Unnie?"
"You were amazing. You found even Poppy in under an hour."
"You were right there helping me, though!"
Nureongi's tail swayed as she beamed. I smoothed her wet hair back, and the soft, damp fur slipped between my fingers.
"If you go around saying nothing but nice things like that, you'll only get taken advantage of once you're out in the world."
"I only do that with you and Hayeon and Eunseo!"
Hm. She had a point. The village elders doted on the two of them like their own granddaughters, so they were an exception—and while she didn't exactly growl at strangers, she did tend to run pretty cold.
"Still. Don't get cocky when it's the real thing. Even an Awakened is going to feel it if a variant boar hits them clean."
"Yes! I'll be careful! I'll stick right by your side, Unnie!"
A real hunting dog could never have made a promise like that. It was precisely because she had become human that the words carried a deeper kind of trust. No need for training, able to talk, and loyal to the bone. I was starting to understand why they called a dog man's best friend.
"All right. Let's dry your hair first. Your tail's still dripping."
"You do it, Unnie!"
"Yeah. I will."
Nureongi scampered into the house. I sat for a moment looking at the trail of droplets she'd left on the veranda. Without meaning to, I was already reading the path she would take.
...As if Nureongi's instincts were waking up, were my own instincts as a hunter growing sharper too?
"Pfft... coming down with a delayed case of eighth-grader syndrome, honestly..."
I shook my head at the pointless thought and headed inside, toward the sound of the children's laughter.