11. Fishing

11. Fishing

Ever since the first fish was caught, my fishing rod had remained stubbornly silent. It was all the more embarrassing considering how confidently I had held my tail high, boasting about catching a huge fish.

Seeing how I magnificently reeled in a fish earlier, it’s clear I’m not bad at fishing. It must be that this spot is just really bad.

So, in the end, it’s the uncle’s fault for drilling a hole here. If Uncle had just picked a better spot, I would have caught over a hundred fish!

Hmph!

I stuck my tongue out at Uncle.

Too bored to wait any longer, I ended up carelessly leaving my fishing rod on the ice and started rolling snow to make a snowman.

“Hehe.”

The goal is a huge snow wolf.

I plan to create a truly large and magnificent sculpture, just like the ones I saw at the snow festival in my past life. It would be incredibly cool to have a massive, pure white wolf standing majestically on the ice!

To do that, I first need to create a large pile of snow. Then, I’ll slowly carve it down to shape the wolf. It doesn’t require any complex techniques, so I can handle this much.

After all, I’m confident in my snow-digging skills.

“Are you making a snowman?”

“It’s not a snowman, it’s a snow wolf!”

“Oh, okay.”

Since I don’t have time to explain the grandeur of a snow wolf to Uncle Polar Bear, I quickly raised my hands high in the air and started digging snow with a “Wababa-bat!”

Snow flew into the sky with a “Pabapap!” and piled up behind me.

“Huk!”

As I flung the snow, I looked back to see a pile of snow twice my height. It was a fluffy, powdery snowdrift.

If I roll around in there… it would feel amazing, right?

I looked at the snowdrift and shivered. It would be really fun to jump in and bury myself in it, but then the snow I worked so hard to dig and pile up for 2 minutes would be ruined. All of that is potential wolf material for a huge wolf, so how could I, a proud wolf suin, possibly harm that snowdrift!

“Kkang-kkang!”

However, unable to resist my desire, I ended up stuck in the snowdrift and couldn’t move. As I struggled, with only my legs and tail sticking out of the snow, I called out to Uncle Polar Bear. Soon, my tail was grabbed, and with a “Ppong!” sound, my body was pulled out of the snowdrift.

“Is this a snow wolf?”

“No!”

Uncle looked at me, covered in snow, and said.

Hmph, now that I’ve satisfied my urge to bury my face in the snow, it’s time to make a real, truly, really snow wolf. I even said “real” twice, so from now on, I’m completely serious.

I gathered the snow into a pile and compacted it so it wouldn’t collapse. It turned out to be an enormous pile of snow, but as a wolf who is particularly good at climbing trees, I could easily climb a snow pile twice my body size, so there was no problem.

After carefully shaping the snow several times, a neat, rectangular prism of snow was created.

Huk, it’s so pretty.

But this perfect cube will soon be sacrificed as an offering for the wolf. It’s unfortunate, but it’s an unavoidable sacrifice.

“Oh, what’s this? Did you make it?”

“Yes!”

“Can I break it?”

“Kkang?! No!!”

I quickly stood in front of Uncle Polar Bear, protecting the snow prism, and made the ‘super scary, threatening wolf Kuaang face’ that I learned from my sister, Dad, and Mom. Then, like my sister looking at prey, I lowered my voice and growled!

“Kang!”

Even though I’m still young, a wolf’s threat is still a threat, so it seemed to be effective. Uncle Polar Bear stepped back. He seemed quite scared by my fearsome growl.

“If you break it, I’ll scold you!”

“Shuk-shuk.”

“No!!”

However, as Uncle didn’t stop and assumed a boxing stance, preparing to throw a punch, I was startled and puffed up my tail, blocking Uncle. I was so surprised that the snow might collapse that tears flowed down to the floor.

“What, you’re crying?”

“I’m not crying!”

I am a cool and strong wolf, and in my heart, I am an adult. How could it be that I am crying? I wiped the melted snow from my eyes and glared at Uncle.

Uncle often teases me like this. The end of it usually involves him receiving a super powerful back smash from other wolf suin, but since I’m alone now, I have to overcome it by myself.

Yes, this is a trial. A trial to become a strong wolf.

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“Kuaang!”

“I really won’t.”

I threatened Uncle and made him step back. As Uncle walked backward endlessly, he reached the water hole he had dug, and was in a predicament: a scary wolf in front and icy water behind!

At last, Uncle surrendered, raising his hands and feet.

Victory for the wolf!

At that moment, a tremendous rumbling sound echoed, shaking the entire lake. Unlike me, who immediately curled my tail and whimpered, Uncle Polar Bear looked into the water and said.

“What is it? It looks like there’s something big down there?”

“Something big?”

“I mean an eel.”

Do eels make that kind of sound?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Uncle took off his shirt, stretched, and prepared to enter the water. I peeked my face out from my tail and asked.

“Are you going to catch it?”

“Yes. If we leave it, it will be a nuisance.”

When catching ordinary fish, he would just dive in and come out, but this was the first time I had seen him prepare so seriously. Since I don’t really like going into the water, I decided to continue sculpting the statue while cheering for Uncle in my heart.

I am left alone on the ice. Snow falls heavily from the gray sky. The biting cold wind and solitude envelop me.

But it is in such solitude that an artist’s inspiration shines. I looked at the snow prism and began to sculpt a magnificent wolf.

The snow pile crumbles, collapses, and is carved with a “Pash-pash” sound.

When it’s this quiet, various thoughts invade my mind.

Like how big and magnificent I should make the wolf’s tail. Or how prominent I should make the nose.

What’s certain is that once it’s finished, I’ll definitely carry it home and show it to Sister. I’ll decorate it in front of our house. Other kids will be surprised when they see my sculpture.

Huk, what if they all beg me to make one for them too!

Wagging my tail, wiggling my hips. I carve the wolf with excitement. The rectangular prism is gradually taking the form of a dignified and magnificent wolf. At that moment, I heard a sound.

“Kkang!”

“Kkang! … Huh? Where did that sound come from?”

My excellent wolf ears hear something running with a “Dodo-do” sound. But I can’t find the source of the sound. I look around.

Snow, tail, snow, snow wolf.

There’s nothing else. But the sound gets louder and louder. I look closely at the snow wolf. The snow wolf, showing off its dignified posture, is making a “Dodo-dodo-do” sound.

Poof!

“Kkang! Pant, pant.”

“Uh….”

And a white ball of fur bursts out, smashing the snow wolf’s face. The magnificent wolf’s head is instantly transformed into the face of a foolish fox.

What just happened?

As I stood frozen in bewilderment, the destructive ball of fur, covered in the remains of the magnificent snow wolf, licked my cheek with its tongue sticking out. As my cheek became wet, my overloaded thought circuits restarted.

“You… you…!”

It’s definitely the Arctic fox with the same foolish face that mysteriously disappeared from my embrace before. Trembling with rage, I finally threw myself towards the fox, whose face was peeking out from the snow.

“My wolf!!!”

“Kkang!”

But that annoying, bad, completely, incredibly, very, extremely evil fox expertly dodged its body and moved back. As a result, I had to bury myself in the snowdrift, having destroyed even the remaining body of the snow wolf.

“Hey!!”

I stood up from the snowdrift and glared at the fox. Through the falling snowflakes, the fox looked at me with a foolish smile. Shamelessly, the fox let out a cry while looking at my face.

“Kkang.”

“What do you mean, Kkang!!”

I really should have just let it go back then. I should have bitten its huge tail and pulled out a handful of fur! I jumped high into the air and threw myself towards that white ball of fur.

As expected, the fox quickly dodged my attack. But I’m not a fool either. I won’t fall for the same trick twice. I immediately pushed off the ground and ran towards the fox.

The fox circles the remains of the snow wolf. I circle with it. The world spins!

“Hey!”

It’s dizzying!

After repeating this endless, infinite orbit countless times, the fox finally escaped the circle of hell. But this is a huge mistake for that foolish ball of fur, because I predicted that the fox would run in a straight line right now!

I am a cool wolf. I can easily predict the fox’s intentions!

“Caught you!”

As the fox ran away, I threw myself forward and finally caught up to the fox.

“Kkang!”

The fox and I, unable to control our speed, rolled around in the snow. I felt like I was going to turn into a snowman. Even in this chaos, I held the bad fox tightly so as not to let it go.

It felt similar to my tail. After rolling for a while, I stopped, covered in snow, and growled at the fox.

“This time, I really won’t forgive you….”

At that moment, the place where I was sculpting the snow wolf collapsed, and a giant pillar of water shot up.