5. Polar Bear

5. Polar Bear

I was a cool and strong wolf.

My young and small body had grown in an instant, and now my gaze was higher than my previous life’s body, and even higher than my older sister’s. My chest too.

It had been so long since I had felt like I was looking down at the world since my reincarnation. It felt like I had become a giant, and with a sense of exhilaration, I looked down at my older sister.

My older sister, who had been looking up at me, didn’t seem to care that I had grown taller than her. She stroked my head and said in a gentle voice, “You’re so cute.”

“No! I’m cool!”

“Yes, yes.”

Even though my body had grown this much, she still called me cute. This was unbelievable.

As I let out a loud “Kkang!” cry, the world suddenly flipped.

“Huh?”

My large body crumbled like a sandcastle in front of a wave, and my body instantly returned to its original form. When I quickly lifted my head, my older sister, who was looking down at me, had a cold and emotionless expression, unlike her usual self.

“Big sister?”

“Seol-ah.”

My tail twitched. My older sister’s voice was so cold, unlike how she usually treated me. Why were her blue eyes, which always looked at me warmly, now as cold as ice….

My older sister looked at me and said,

“Didn’t I tell you not to wander off to strange places when you go out?”

“Ah, no, that’s….”

“Don’t change the subject. Did you do wrong or not?”

My older sister scolded me. Then, before I could even answer, she lifted me up.

“Uh, big sister?”

“You did wrong, so you have to be punished, right?”

My pants were pulled down. My older sister slowly raised her hand.

And then-

“I did wrong!!! Waaaaah! I’ll listen to you, big sister!!”

I woke up from my dream.

——

“Seol-ah!”

“Huh?”

Crunch, crunch. The snow that had piled up overnight and blocked the entrance collapsed. Light seeped into the dark cave. My ears perked up, and I poked my head out of the hole.

The one who broke through the cave was… a ridiculously large mister with bear ears.

“Gasp… Polar Bear Uncle!”

“Why are you even here!”

In my joy, I scrambled out of the cave and leaped towards the mister. My body clung tightly to the mister’s mountain-like arms.

Polar Bear Uncle was a polar bear suin, just as his name suggested.

By the way, his name is Polar Bear. His surname is Polar, and his given name is Bear.

He lived alone in a house far from the wolf suin village, and I had intended to visit him if I hadn’t been stranded here. But he came to find me!

“Hello!”

“Hello, my foot! How much trouble did I go through looking for you!”

The mister’s cheeks were flushed red. If even suins with maximum cold resistance became like this, it meant he had been outside for a very long time. I said with a slight feeling of guilt,

“Well, a polar fox stole my ice fruit, and I got lost chasing it….”

Thinking about it again, I don’t feel guilty. It’s all that stupid fox’s fault. Even though I slept warmly thanks to that fox, I got stranded because of it, so it’s zero-sum.

Hmph.

“Polar fox?”

“Yes! Right over there… Huh?”

I turned around and pointed at the fox, but for some reason, the fox that had spent the night with me had vanished without a trace.

When did it disappear?

It’s not impossible that the fox ran away because it was afraid of my very wolf-like appearance while I was sleeping, but I remember hugging it warmly in my sleep, so it couldn’t have run away then.

Then, perhaps it slipped out when Polar Bear Uncle broke through the entrance?

“Did you happen to see a fox?”

“No… You said there was a fox?”

“Yes… It must have been really fast!”

To escape without being caught by Polar Bear Uncle… That sly fox.

Polar Bear Uncle is strong. Of course, he can’t compare to wolves working together, but with the immense brute strength characteristic of polar bear suins, he can smash anything in front of him.

Strength usually comes with speed. Even though Polar Bear Uncle’s visual acuity is far from ordinary, the fox managed to slip away.

Wasn’t it scared?

To run away without being terrified by that enormous size.

Anyway, since it’s already gone, I climbed onto Polar Bear Uncle’s shoulder and said,

“Okay, let’s go!”

“… What are you changing the subject for? You have to be punished for making Uncle work so hard!”

Thwack!

The mister’s hand hit the side of my head. It hurt!

“Waaah!”

——

“Uncle, how did you find me? I was hiding in a cave!”

“How did I find you?”

I rubbed my head. There must be a lump there.

That aside, I was curious about how the mister found me. I had dug a cave deep in the forest and hidden, and my footprints would have been covered by the snow that fell all night, so how on earth did he find me?

I worried that maybe my cave-digging skills were subpar. Even though I say so myself, I even got praised by my older sister for it!

“I don’t know. I just went with the flow and found you?”

“Ugh, what kind of answer is that.”

“I just felt drawn somewhere. And besides, you left your tail sticking out of the cave when you slept.”

“Really?”

Gasp. I made such a mistake!

I quickly wrapped my tail around my body.

Hmm.

It was warm.

“Where are we going now?”

“We have to go to your house. Do you know how much your older sister nagged me yesterday asking where you were?”

“Of course I don’t know!”

How would I know if she didn’t tell me? I put my hands on my hips and said that. And then I got hit on the head again.

“Kkang….”

Who hits someone twice in the same spot!

Meanwhile, Polar Bear Uncle walked through the snow with me on his shoulder. Looking at the forest, where I had run around haphazardly with a low perspective while chasing the fox yesterday, from this high vantage point felt strangely new.

Hehehe, I felt like the king of this forest.

Kuaaang.

I let out a quiet roar towards the sky.

-Rumble.

At the same time, my stomach roared too.

“Are you hungry?”

“Ah, yes… I’ve only eaten the ice fruit since breakfast yesterday….”

“Then, instead of going to your older sister’s, let’s go to my house first.”

“Really? If so… can I eat that giant meat too?”

Polar Bear Uncle’s house has incredibly large meat. I don’t know where he catches it, but it’s much bigger than my own body. Even though I wanted to eat it, he wouldn’t let me, saying I should eat at home, so I hadn’t even touched it, but maybe…!

“You’ll only eat a tiny bit anyway, right?”

“No, I eat a lot!”

Wolves are predators, and predators eat a lot. Isn’t that a natural law!

“Sure. Well, do as you please.”

“Yay!”

I raised both my arms high in the air and cheered.

Polar Bear Uncle started walking forward again. His large build seemed to be advantageous for walking, as he achieved the speed that I would have to run at full throttle just by taking leisurely strides.

“Uncle.”

“What.”

“I went hunting for the first time yesterday.”

“You?”

“Yes!”

This was the story I was supposed to tell the mister yesterday.

It was time to tell him about my magnificent hunt.

“I caught a huge rabbit there. My older sister told me that I caught it by biting it like this! Isn’t that amazing!”

My pride swelled. My tail rose proudly. My chest naturally pushed forward. Hoho, I was so amazing even thinking about it now.

The mister asked,

“What do you mean ‘she said you caught it’? Didn’t you catch it?”

“Actually, the rabbit attacked me first! So, I was in a daze and counterattacked to win. I fainted right after catching it, so I don’t remember, but my older sister remembered everything and told me!”

“… Uh, um. Right.”

My cheeks puffed out at his lukewarm reaction. Does the mister hunt large prey, making rabbits seem insignificant?

I tapped the mister’s head and complained,

“Praise me more! It was my first hunt! And it was a giant monster rabbit bigger than my body!”

“Yes, yes, you’re so cool. Happy now?”

Hoohohoho.

I felt happy with the praise. I spread my arms wide and said,

“For my next hunt, I’ll catch something bigger than a rabbit. Something so big even you’ll be surprised!”

“Yes… But don’t do anything reckless. Your family will worry.”

“Don’t worry!”

——

A log cabin built in the middle of the snowfield.

It was the mister’s house.

Perhaps because he built it alone or was too lazy to do it properly, the exterior of the house was a bit rough, but he didn’t seem to care.

As I entered, a fire was lit in a brick fireplace. Warm heat enveloped me.

And the smell that wafted with the heat.

“Meat!”

“Wait a moment.”

The mister sat me down at the table, gave me a plate, and then brought a giant piece of meat from somewhere. It was a piece of meat larger than my own body.

For a moment, I wondered what kind of meat it was. Then, the mister cut the meat with a *shuk* sound and placed it on my plate.

It was small.

“Is this all? Give me more!”

“You won’t be able to eat it all.”

“I can eat it all!”

To become a strong wolf like my older sister, I had to eat as much meat as she did. To do that, I had to be able to finish meat like this in one go.

“Haa.”

The mister sighed and cut a very small piece of meat and placed it on my plate.

This was all?

To show the mister my immense appetite, I decided to devour the meat in one gulp.

“Ugh… I’m full.”

“I knew it.”

I couldn’t finish it.

As I sat in the chair, patting my round belly, someone burst through the door and attacked the mister.

“I told you to find Seol-ah, why are you slacking off here…!”

“Big sister!”

“S-Seol-ah?”

It was my older sister.