Crossing Paths
By the time they had walked far enough along the mountain path that human voices faded entirely, Hoeyeon spoke.
"It's quiet."
"There's not a soul around."
A well-traveled road empty of people always felt strange. But something more than that seemed off.
"?"
Hoeyeon stopped and pressed a finger to her lips. Gayul tilted her head but followed her lead. A few seconds later, Gayul's brows drew together. She had noticed it too.
Too quiet.
Hoeyeon thought. Even without people, there should have been animal sounds — squirrels and field mice, the scurry of rabbits, birdsong and the beat of wings. Yet aside from water and wind, there was nothing. As if every creature had gone still with fear.
"Smoke Echo."
Gayul lowered her voice and cast the spell. She closed her eyes and focused her senses through her ears — some kind of detection or search magic, by the look of it.
Ah. They're moving.
Gayul's ears twitched, just slightly. If those ears had still been long and pointed the way they were meant to be, how would they have moved?
Hoeyeon pushed the idle thought aside and focused again. Gayul opened her eyes and pointed silently ahead.
Something's up there.
Hoeyeon raised her brows and drew a hand across her throat.
Dangerous?
Gayul tilted her head, very slowly.
I don't know.
Hoeyeon pointed forward, then touched that same finger to her ear.
Does it know we're here?
Gayul nodded.
It knows.
Hoeyeon quietly set her hand on her sword. Then, carefully, she advanced one step at a time. They did not have to hold that tension long. A little farther on, it came into view.
In the middle of the road, a fox lay curled into a ball. Its fur was white as snow, and standing on all fours it would have been as tall as a person on two legs.
"How curious. It has been some time since this humble one has seen a pointed one."
And the fox spoke in human tongue.
"Hoeyeon, I understand your surprise, but stay calm."
"And a pointed one traveling with a human — that, this humble one has never seen at all."
The giant fox spoke again.
Do I not need to cut it down?
Hoeyeon kept herself ready to draw at any moment as she thought.
Is it not a Masu?
The fox looked exhausted. Dirt and dust clung to its fur, and fatigue showed in its golden eyes.
"And what brings you, Fox Lord, so near where people dwell?"
"That is this humble one's own affair. And what business has a pointed one upon a human road?"
"…If the Fox Lord is here by her own will, then my being here is likewise by mine, is it not?"
Huh?
Hoeyeon saw Gayul's brow twitch — just barely, the slightest tremor.
She's mad, isn't she?
"Hah. Is that so."
"…Enough. We shall pass. Let us go, Hoeyeon."
"Uh, yeah."
Hoeyeon was still unsure whether she needed to draw her blade, but Gayul was clearly swallowing her temper to put the road first. Then a massive forepaw planted itself squarely in front of them.
"Hah. And what is the meaning of this?"
Gayul asked.
"This humble one's will."
"……Hah. Ha. Hahaha…"
Gayul laughed. Hoeyeon took one step back.
"Is that so… Our Fox Lord's will…"
Each of the fox's toes was as thick as a human forearm. Gayul laid her hand atop that forepaw.
"Then I, too, shall return the favor!"
"You little— what are you—"
"Doing! Shall I not!!!!!!!"
Gayul roared.
The fox flew into the sky. Not that it was flying. The way certain martial techniques fling a person, Gayul had simply seized the entire fox and hurled it over. It only looked like flight because the creature was so enormous.
"Kiiiiiiiiing!?!"
The sound the fox made as it was lifted.
"Kyaaang!!!!!!!!!!!!"
And the sound it made when it slammed into the ground.
"Hehwaaa…"
A pathetic noise slipped out, and like smoke scattering on a breeze, the fox's form dissolved.
"Wh-what?"
"Haaah…"
Hoeyeon and Gayul peered down. At the center of where the fox had been, a tiny girl lay unconscious — white fox ears and a tail sprouting from her small frame.
A twitch. Another twitch.
"Oh? Is she waking up?"
Hoeyeon said, watching the fox girl stir.
"Who can say. She'll get up on her own, won't she?"
"Then I should leave this for her."
"Will you be all right? You, I mean."
"Look, eating a lot in one sitting and needing a lot at every meal are two different things."
"I was wrong…"
Blink. Blink.
The fox girl opened her eyes, heaved herself upright with a little grunt, looked around — and spotted Hoeyeon and Gayul.
"Who are you big sisters?"
She asked with big, bright, round eyes. She looked five or six — a tiny little girl. Her hair was the same white as the fox's fur, her eyes the same gold. An ordinary, sunny, adorable child… except for the pointed fox ears standing up on her head and the fluffy fox tail.
"Ah!"
The fox girl suddenly cried out and hugged herself.
"Mommy and Daddy said not to go with strangers!"
"You… no, child… no… What is your name?"
"I'm not s'posed to tell scary big sisters!"
"Scar…"
Hoeyeon gave the stunned Gayul a few consoling pats and held out a rice ball to the fox girl.
"Want some?"
"……You're giving it to me?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'll take it gratefully."
The fox girl accepted the rice ball from Hoeyeon's hand with both hands, polite as could be, plopped down, and started munching away.
"Is it good?"
"It's good… yeah."
Sitting beside her and eating as well, Hoeyeon asked. The girl answered around mouthfuls.
"Can I touch your tail?"
"You can't!? What kind of thing is that to say!?!"
"Sorry, sorry. Big sister's name is Hoeyeon. What's yours?"
"…Arang."
"Arang, huh. Where are your mom and dad?"
At Hoeyeon's words, the fox girl Arang's face crumpled.
"I dunno."
"Did you get separated?"
"Uuuu……"
"Want another one?"
"Hic… I want… another…"
Hoeyeon set a waterskin within reach of Arang's hands as she chewed her second rice ball, and kept talking.
"How many days have you been alone?"
"Um… three days? Three days, I think. I was scared."
"Your mom and dad must be worried."
"Uuuu…"
"Drink some water or you'll choke."
"Scary people came after us…"
"After you?"
Arang nodded as she drank.
"Do you remember where you used to live?"
"I dunno…"
Hoeyeon lifted a hand slightly.
"The direction?"
She set the raised hand on Arang's head and began to scratch gently.
"I know it was north… There were lots of cliffs."
Arang didn't pull away, so Hoeyeon slowly worked her way toward the fox ears and scratched where ear met scalp. Arang's expression went blissfully slack.
"A mountain with lots of cliffs… north…"
Where was there a mountain like that up north? Hoeyeon tried to summon a map in her mind, but nothing quite fit.
"Kiiing……"
She seemed to like it, so Hoeyeon used her other hand too, gently scratching behind both ears. Something like a fox's sound slipped from Arang's mouth.
Hoeyeon glanced at Gayul, asking with her eyes. What do we do?
"Hah…"
Gayul, who had been able to do nothing but listen from behind the whole time, let out a sigh.
"Nothing for it. We can hardly abandon a child this young and walk away."
"Yeah. I think the same."
"You handle children well."
"…"
"Don't look at me like that."
Even while talking with Gayul, Hoeyeon had kept scratching. Arang had gone past blissful slackness into full melted-rice-cake mode, making soft purring little sounds.
"By the way, is Arang a demi-human too?"
Hoeyeon asked, remembering something Gayul had said before. Gayul nodded.
"They take the character for fox — Hoin, Fox-kin. Even among demi-humans their numbers are especially few. I've only seen them myself a handful of times."
"So she is a demi-human… We'll have to carry her, right?"
"Nonsense. A Hoin of that age can match our pace easily enough. And it is high time we eased off our strength and traveled more gently anyway."
"Kawuu… I, I can run real good… hewu…"
Come to think of it, what had that whole "this humble one" and "doth" and "shall" business been at the start? Had she been imitating someone so she wouldn't look weak?
It was about time to get moving, so Hoeyeon touched the pointed tip of one triangular ear. Soft fox fur brushed her fingertip.
"Kyaung!"
Arang flailed and scrambled up.
"We should rise. I would like to reach the border region of Sang before the day is out."
Gayul stood as well.
"Where are we going?"
"Hmm… roughly that way?"
"Okay!"
Sunny as anything.
The three of them traveled until nightfall and arrived at a border city just short of crossing into Sang. Hiding Arang's ears and tail took a little time, but they managed it without trouble.
"It's so soft and fluffy!"
The moment they finished eating and entered the inn room, Arang rolled around excitedly on the bedding — then closed her eyes and fell straight asleep. She probably wouldn't even know when she'd drifted off.
"She really is just a kid."
Hoeyeon said. Gayul nodded.
"And now the child is asleep."
"…Huh?"
Hoeyeon didn't immediately place the emotion in that voice, but she knew at once that it was serious.
"May I have a moment?"
"Uh, yeah…"
There were three sets of bedding side by side, with Hoeyeon in the middle. Gayul came over to Hoeyeon's place and sat with her back turned.
"Uh…"
We can't talk like this? What is this? Some new technique for conversing with the back of someone's head?
"Hoeyeon."
"Uh, yeah."
"Do you remember the second of the two things I asked you to help me with?"
"Of course I remember."
Help me understand the feelings I hold for you.
Words she could never forget.
"During the day. What you did with Arang."
"What I did…?"
"You did it in this posture, did you not?"
Hoeyeon ran back through the scenes of the day and finally understood what Gayul meant.
"You mean touching her ears?"
Gayul nodded quietly. Her blue hair swayed with the motion. When the flustered Hoeyeon couldn't answer and simply sat still, Gayul's head dipped a little.
Hoeyeon doubted her own senses. Because the feeling coming off Gayul's back felt like sorrow.
"Never mind. Forgive me."
Gayul started to rise. Hoeyeon pressed down on her shoulder and kept her seated.
"Forgive me. There is no need to force anything. Forget I spoke."
"That's not—"
"Forgive me. Mine are ugly. Forgive me."
When Gayul tried to stand again, Hoeyeon pressed her shoulder more firmly and sat her back down. Then she gently swept her hand up the nape of Gayul's neck.
"Don't say another word."
"Nh…!"
Hoeyeon brushed Gayul's long blue hair aside, and both ears came into view. Come to think of it, this was the first time she had seen them from so close. Just as Gayul had said before — cut short and shaped.
Hoeyeon slowly lifted her hand from the nape and caressed the underside of an ear.
"…!"
Gayul's body shuddered. When Hoeyeon traced a fingertip lightly along the outer rim, a pained little breath slipped from Gayul's lips. Where the rounded shape would once have continued into a pointed leaf, Hoeyeon paused a moment, then followed the line back the way she had come.
"Hnh… ah, nh…"
Pressing gently just below the ear canal, Hoeyeon said quietly,
"They're not ugly."
"Ha— ah!"
Because of how she was holding Gayul's ear, the breath of her words seemed to brush it.
"So from now on, don't you think that either."
Gayul's ear, which had been flushing red from the first touch of her fingers, was now scarlet. Suddenly Hoeyeon felt the impulse to take that ear into her mouth.
I'm drunk. Once again — drunk. I haven't had a single drop, and yet whenever I'm with Gayul this drunkenness comes over me.
If I'm with this woman, will I keep feeling this drunk from now on?
And if so — do I mind?
I don't know.
Hoeyeon parted her lips, just slightly.
"They're beautiful."
"A-ah, Hoeyeon, I underst— nh, ahaah, stop, auhah, ehn—"
Gayul had forgotten Hoeyeon's order not to speak another word, and her voice came out almost like crying. That voice only deepened the drunkenness.
"Yeah. Really beautiful."
Hoeyeon's lips closed on Gayul's ear.
"Ah—"
She nipped gently with only her lips, and her hot tongue traced the skin.
"!!!!!…!!!……!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Gayul saw stars.