18. The Twins

18. The Twins

Beeee.

I pressed my face flat against the windowpane, clinging to it. My soft cheeks were squashed and spread against the cold glass.

Yura and Yuri looked just like me. If someone saw us from outside, they would see three wolves stuck to the window.

“Seol-ah, what are we doing…?”

After we had been like this for a while, Yura was the first to speak. Rubbing her cheek against the window, perhaps because it was cold, Yura and Yuri asked me with a question.

“Heh heh.”

“”Heh heh?””

You still don’t know, you little ones. I thrust my arm out and pointed to the window, and Yura and Yuri’s heads swiveled to follow it. Then came a mighty cheer!

“The snow has stopped!”

“”Wow!””

Yura and Yuri looked at me, clapping enthusiastically with eyes like scholars who had made a great discovery. But after a moment, when the clapping stopped, the question remained.

“”But why?””

“If the snow stops, we can go out and play!”

“”Huk!””

“Let’s go!”

The North is quite boring. I’m happy just watching the snow fall, but these young children have only seen blindingly white snow since they were born, so it’s natural for them to get tired of the scenery.

Then, all that’s left is the fact that there are very few friends their age and a catastrophic lack of toys. It’s a place where it’s hard enough just to survive, so there’s nothing to speak of in terms of entertainment.

Moreover, on days when it snows heavily, neither of those few friends nor their games can be chosen, and they have to stay home, so there’s no need to say how bored these twin sisters must be.

That’s why I step in. I, the great one, will bestow joy upon these pitiful young children!

“Uncle! We’re going out for a… Hello, Auntie!”

“Oh my, Seol-ah. I was going to give you a snack, but are you going out?”

However, when I opened the door, it wasn’t Uncle but Yura and Yuri’s mother. Auntie smiled warmly as I bowed at a 95-degree angle.

Auntie was holding a plate, and a delicious smell wafted from it. Just by sniffing, my saliva went down my throat.

“I’ll eat and then go!”

Eating is, of course, included in the activities mentioned earlier. So, there’s no contradiction in postponing going out to play for a while.

I turned my body, which had been heading outside, and walked back into the room. Yura and Yuri followed.

“Seol-ah eats a lot….”

“That’s right, she eats so much for someone so small!”

After stuffing my mouth with the mountain of food piled on the plate, Yura and Yuri commented on my cheeks, which had become as round as a squirrel’s. I put my hands on my hips and proudly replied… but I had to swallow the food first.

“Because I… Yum yum… Because I’m going to become a very big wolf! It’s natural to eat a lot!”

“That’s weird…” “Seol-ah looks like she’ll stay small even after a hundred years!”

“What are you talking about!”

All wolf suins are tall and large. Just look at my sister; she’s huge. How can I, her full sister, be small? It’s nonsensical.

Even if I’m smaller than Yura and Yuri right now, this is just a difference in growth stages. When time passes, I will undoubtedly grow into a big, magnificent, and strong wolf suin.

Let’s see if they can still call me small then…!

“Let’s go!”

After the enjoyable snack time, we ran outside with our bellies bulging. The cold wind, the clear sky, and the incredibly deep snow that had accumulated in the meantime welcomed us.

The snow was so thick that the stairs leading up were buried, leaving only the wooden door. When I tentatively pressed my foot down, my foot sank incredibly deep.

It’s dangerous to throw yourself into snow like this as usual. There’s a high possibility that you’ll sink into it like a swamp and never be able to get out!

“Since we’re small, if we fall into the snow, we won’t be able to get out on our own. So we have to be careful.”

“We might be able to get out, unlike Seol-ah….”

Yura mumbled in a dispirited voice. Although she seemed to be muttering to herself, my hearing is so good that I can hear the sounds of hamsters swimming in the snow. I heard Yura’s mumbling very clearly, and I puffed out my cheeks and stepped onto the snowfield.

“Seol-ah…” “Are you perhaps sulking?”

Of course not.

Despite my appearance, I am an adult. I am absolutely not sulking. I’m just slightly, a little bit uncomfortable.

Yes, adult qualities are shown through actions, not words. Magnanimously forgiving Yura and Yuri, I turned around.

“Huk… she’s really sulking…” “Sorry!”

“Ah, no!”

My heart had forgiven them, but my expression hadn’t relaxed, as if my body couldn’t forgive. Seeing my face, Yura and Yuri were startled and immediately apologized.

This is making things awkward. Children who admit their mistakes and apologize first, and an adult who is still sulking.

“Th-that’s enough, let’s go quickly!”

To escape this embarrassing situation, we need to start playing quickly. What should we do? Should we build a snowman, or play hide-and-seek? Or race? Anything seems feasible to resolve the current situation.

After a moment of contemplation, hiding my reddened face in my tail, a good idea struck me.

“Let’s build a secret base!”

“Huk…” “A secret base?!”

That’s right. The word that children go crazy for, secret base!

A secret base doesn’t have to be anything grand. Since it’s for children to play, just digging a hole in the snow that many people can fit into is a secret base. Since the snow has piled up thickly, the situation is perfect.

“I’ll teach you how to dig a burrow!”

“”Yes!””

“Now, follow me! First….”

Lower your body, get on all fours. This is the preparation for digging a burrow. Raise your tail to maintain balance….

“Ah….”

But suddenly, I heard a rustling sound from the snow. Judging by my excellent hearing, this sound is definitely a hamster. A white Arctic hamster, hiding and running around while digging burrows. It’s passing beneath me.

This… I have to jump!

I immediately jumped high into the air and plunged my face into the snow.

“Ah, I found… Mmph!”

My body sank so deep that I passed the place where the hamster was and only stopped after digging much further. The snow, which usually only reached my upper body, swallowed my entire body this time, leaving only the tip of my tail exposed.

No matter how much I kicked my legs, my body was firmly stuck and wouldn’t budge. I could hear the hamster mocking me with squeaks as it disappeared, but I could do nothing.

“Guys, help me!”

“W-we’re stuck too…” “What do we do?!”

What?

Wait a minute. I’m starting to remember what I was talking about earlier. I told them to follow what I was doing to dig a burrow, so….

Did they perhaps follow me jumping into the snow?!

“Y-you shouldn’t have followed this!”

“You should have told me sooner….”

Yes, honestly, it’s my mistake. Yura and Yuri just did what I told them to do. But it doesn’t matter who made the mistake. The key is that we are now stuck in the snow!

I can vaguely imagine the scene outside: three young wolves, with only their tails sticking out, are probably stuck in the snow. They would look like white carrots.

Then, someone needs to pull out those carrots, but there’s no one here who can move. Although it’s right in front of the house, the door is closed, so even if we shout, Uncle and Auntie won’t hear us.

The fox probably won’t show itself because of Yura and Yuri. Even if it did come, I don’t even think that tiny creature could pull me out, stuck as I am.

“Is there anyone who can move?”

“We… can’t move!”

Oh dear, we’re doomed!

Then there’s only one possibility for us to escape. That Uncle and Auntie, worried because we haven’t returned by late, will come out and discover three white tails stuck in front of the house!

But I can’t even begin to estimate how long that will take.

At that moment, I began to hear footsteps.

Thump, thump. The sound of someone walking on the snow. Yura and Yuri didn’t seem to hear it, but I definitely heard it.

“Help….”

Just as I opened my mouth to ask for help, another thought blocked my throat. What if it’s not a person?

The northern snowfields are not very safe. If there are prey like rabbits, then there are predators that hunt them.

If we were in our normal state, we could defeat the predators with the strength of wolf suins. But what is our current situation? We’re stuck in the ground like fools, with our delicious-looking tails sticking out and wagging merrily.

“Huk….”

Not the tail…! How much I cherish it!

I have to hold my breath here. I need to minimize my presence so that this potential predator doesn’t notice us.

I held my breath and prayed to the sky again and again, hoping not to be eaten.

Thump, thump.

The footsteps grew closer.

Thump, thump.

I hold my breath. My body trembles.

Thump.

It stopped.

In front of me.

My tail is grabbed. My body is pulled out. The world flips, and I am dangled in the air, screaming, closing my eyes tightly, and praying with all my might.

“Hieeeek!! D-don’t eat me! I don’t taste good!!”

“… Seol-ah?”

But what I heard was not the growl of a predator, but my sister’s voice.