19. Going Home

19. Going Home

“Huk… Sister!”

I smiled broadly, forgetting that I had been terrified and trembling just moments ago. Sister pulled me, who had been dangling upside down by my tail, back into her arms.

“What were you doing here?”

“Yeah, I was playing with Yura and Yuri, and somehow we all got stuck….”

Hearing Sister’s gentle voice naturally put my mind at ease. My tail wagged on its own; it’s definitely not my imagination. A lot of fur is flying because of it, but it’s okay since we’re outside.

“Yura and Yuri got stuck too?”

“Yeah! Over there, next to me!”

Sister walked step by step towards the spot next to where I was stuck. I also tilted my head and looked at the snowfield. There were two holes side by side on the fluffy snowfield, and inside them, curled wolf tails were visible.

It seems they are trembling. 

“Oh my… you’re right. If it weren’t for Seol-ah, I would have passed by without noticing. That’s a relief.”

“Hoo hoo!”

Yura and Yuri’s tails are small. Strictly speaking, my tail is exceptionally large, but anyway. Even stuck in the deep snow, I could ask for help from Sister with my assertive tail, but those two couldn’t.

At times like this, I can’t help but be proud of my big, fluffy, plump tail. If I had a normal tail like other wolf suins, Sister would have surely passed by without seeing me.

I really am a special and magnificent wolf!

“”Hyeok!””

“Are you okay?”

With a “Ppong!” sound, Yura and Yuri were pulled out of the snowfield like radishes. Seeing Sister, they whimpered, tucked their tails, and trembled.

It’s truly strange. Why are they so scared even though Sister came to rescue them? It seems they are more timid than I thought.

“W-we” “are okayyy….”

They are so scared that their speaking order is different from usual. It can’t be helped; at times like this, the adult me must step forward and calm them down!

“Don’t be scared, kids! Sister came to save us!”

“”Hyeung….””

“Oh, uh….”

Now they’re even crying. It’s perplexing.

Was being buried in the snow too shocking for the children? Or is Sister really that scary? For me, who jumps in the snow all day and sees Sister every day, it’s a reaction that’s hard to understand.

But in any case, I couldn’t just leave them crying. Here, I, the adult who doesn’t cry easily, must lead and comfort them….

“Oop.”

As I jumped out of Sister’s arms and took a step forward, my foot slipped on the snowfield, which was softer than expected, and I tilted forward.

Thud.

I don’t know which bad guy did it, but there was a stone hidden in the snow. Fortunately, it was a round stone, so it doesn’t seem like my forehead, which hit it, suffered a serious injury, but it hurts a lot.

“S-Seol-ah?”

Adults don’t cry. But there are times when you have to cry. And as a confident adult, I can boldly declare that this is the time.

“Uwaaang!!”

“”Hyeeng!””

“Uwaaang!!”

“”Hwaaang!!!””

As if proving that children’s crying is contagious, we cried in succession. When I cried, Yura and Yuri cried, and when Yura and Yuri cried, I cried. From the middle, my forehead didn’t hurt anymore, but I just cried.

“S-Seol-ah, kids?!”

“””Uwaaaang!!!!”””

——

“Heeu….”

“Seol-ah, hmph!”

With a powerful “Pueng!” sound, thick snot spurted out. Sister wiped my messy face with a handkerchief and gently patted my back.

In the room next door, Uncle Cheol-su and Auntie were comforting Yura and Yuri. The twins couldn’t stop crying when they were with Sister, so we had to divide the rooms like this.

I stopped crying like an adult, hoo hoo.

Sniff, I swallow my nose.

“Ouch!”

“Be patient.”

Finally, Sister’s hand pressed my throbbing forehead. She had applied a highly effective herbal medicine to my forehead.

It’s a dark green herb, about the size of Sister’s palm. When I sniff it, a bitter smell stings my nose.

“Ugh… I don’t like this….”

“Then you’ll have to walk carefully when you walk in the future, won’t you?”

As with most herbal medicines, this herb was quite rare. It only grows at the border where vegetation can grow, and it’s buried under the snow most of the time, making it difficult to find even with the excellent sense of smell of wolf suins.

Giving something like that to my forehead, which is only slightly scratched, is proof that Sister cherishes me, but the problem is that this herb has a strong smell, and the place where it’s applied will constantly emit a bitter scent.

And as I said before, wolf suins have an excellent sense of smell. The result of that is self-evident.

While I was holding my forehead and groaning helplessly, Sister said.

“I’m glad you’re safe. I was very worried because the weather was so bad earlier.”

“Earlier?”

“Yes.”

The snowstorm was indeed severe earlier. If it weren’t for the fox’s help, I would have definitely been stuck in the burrow for a long time. But still, it feels like the weather cleared up quickly…

“We were lucky the weather cleared up quickly. If it had been like this for several days, it would have been a big problem. And there’s no guarantee that there won’t be machines like eels on the ground.”

“Mmm.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let you go out….”

Sister hugged me and patted my back. It was warm.

Then, Sister sat me on her lap and began to brush my tail. It had endured the blizzard and gotten buried in the snow while playing with the twins, so my fur was quite tangled. When brushing, it should have made a soft swishing sound, but instead, it caught and hurt my tail.

“Oh, right, I saw a fox again this time?”

“Really?”

“Yes, it helped me.”

The fox that came to me through the fierce snowstorm that turned everything white. Following the fox, I fell several times and was blown away by the wind, but I still managed to arrive at the house next door, next door, next door, next door, next door. If I were to write this grand journey as an essay, I might become a great writer in this world.

“I see….”

“Sister?”

“It’s nothing.”

The brushing continued. Fur flew.

I wondered if it was okay to shed so much fur even though it wasn’t my house, but I didn’t want to say it out loud. I just wanted to enjoy this quiet stillness.

A warm fireplace and the sound of brushing. The sensation of my tail being brushed. Sister is behind me, and I am in front. It’s a pleasant atmosphere.

I wish the fox were here too.

I would hug the fox tightly in front of me like a stuffed animal. That Arctic fox has fur as soft, fluffy, and white as mine, so it would surely feel good.

Then, what would the fox do? It would probably look at me, stick out its tongue, and lick my face all over. It would wag its tail too. And then….

“Kkang!”

It would cry. Pffft, how foolish.

“Oh my?”

“Huh? Sister, why?”

“No, something just glowed inside your tail….”

Huk, my tail glowed?

I quickly turned my tail forward and looked at it. If this white, big, plump, fluffy tail could also be a glow-in-the-dark tail, that would be truly… magnificent! I turned my tail, with Sister’s comb stuck in it, back and forth and asked.

“It glowed? Where? Here? Or there?”

“No, it wasn’t the tail that glowed, it was something inside.”

“Inside?”

Plop, I put my face into my tail. Pushing aside the white tail fur, I found only my white tail base, my cherished treasure book, and my second cherished treasure, the transparent stone.

“There’s nothing glowing….”

“Really? Hmm, maybe Sister saw it wrong in the light.”

Hing.

I became dejected. I was excited about the thought of wagging a glow-in-the-dark tail at night. I took out the transparent stone from my tail and started playing with it, shining it back and forth.

This transparent stone with its strange light had a mesmerizing quality. Its unbelievably transparent body, combined with the way it scattered light to create a shimmering rainbow, made it impossible to look away once you saw it.

Come to think of it, Uncle Cheol-su said he would try to find out the identity of this stone. What happened to that?

A while after the tail brushing was finished, Uncle opened the door with a knock and said as he entered.

“Seol-ah, I looked into that stone.”

“Yes!”

“I don’t know what it is either.”

“What?”

Then, will the identity of this stone remain unknown forever? As my face contorted with disappointment, Uncle Cheol-su hastily waved his hands and continued.

“However, there are still places to look. But now, it will take some waiting….”

“Where is it?”

“The Magi Republic.”

The Magi Republic.

It’s the first time I’ve heard the name. As my head tilted to the side in confusion, Sister suddenly interrupted what I was about to say and joined the conversation.

“It’s a bit much for Seol-ah to know about that place.”

“But only people there would know.”

“You know, the people there are a bit….”

“Rude, aren’t they.”

Sister looked at me and spoke. Seeing her contorted face, Sister seemed not to approve of me learning about the Magi Republic.

“Seol-ah, do you really need to know what this stone is?”

“Uh… not really….”

“Then shall we go home now?”

I want to say goodbye to Yura and Yuri, but….

However, unable to resist the unspoken pressure emanating from Sister, I was helplessly led home.