60. Hunting Day

60. Hunting Day

Whoooosh-

My eyes were tightly shut.

Only the sound of a gentle breeze could be heard.

Since I could still think clearly, it seemed that the wyvern hadn’t eaten me or anything. What on earth happened?

I very, very carefully opened my eyes.

The sight of the white snowy field pierced my eyes, and then….

“Huk.”

I saw the wyvern, turned into an ice statue.

It looked like an immense cold wind had blown from my direction, with icicles growing all over the wyvern on the opposite side.

Frozen with its mouth agape, it looked as if it would wake up any moment and bite me. That’s how vividly the wyvern was trapped in the ice.

“I-I defeated… Mmph.”

I quickly covered my mouth.

Then, I looked around with wide eyes, and thankfully, due to the quick response, the cliché of another wyvern appearing didn’t happen.

“Phew.”

I won! I’m a very, very cool wolf!

At that moment, a wyvern flew from somewhere and crashed.

Kwaang-!

“Hweeeeng!!”

Kwagwagwagwag, the wyvern slid across the snow, making a mess. I was so startled by its sudden appearance that I couldn’t help but cry like a child.

Just as I was starting to fear that I might have to fight the wyvern again, a white wolf fell from the sky and severed the wyvern’s neck.

“Seol-ah!”

“Oh, Sister…!”

Sister had appeared.

“Uaaang…!!”

“Yes, Seol-ah, it’s okay now. Sister is here.”

Seeing Sister’s face, the tension I had maintained until then instantly dissolved. At the same time, the fatigue I had been trying to ignore flooded in, and I stumbled towards Sister on unsteady legs.

Perhaps it was because I felt safe now. My tears wouldn’t stop. It felt like all the fear I had suppressed until now had burst out at once.

Sister embraced me and patted my back. I clung to her tightly, afraid she might disappear, and cried my eyes out.

“There, sniffle. Sniff.”

“Kkhae-heung.”

“Wipe your tears too.”

Sister took out a handkerchief from her embrace and wiped my face. As time passed, my crying subsided. When I showed signs of calming down, Sister said.

“There should have been another wyvern… Hmm?”

“Why…?”

“What is this….”

I buried my face in Sister’s chest. I felt like I would start crying again if I couldn’t feel Sister’s warmth, heartbeat, and scent.

While I was doing that, Sister sighed as she looked at something.

“This… Did Seol-ah do this?”

“What…?”

“This wyvern.”

I sniffled and raised my head. What Sister was looking at was the wyvern I had frozen solid with magic.

“Yes, I did it. To protect Yura and Yuri… Hehe, I did well, didn’t I!”

Forgetting that I had been crying my eyes out just moments ago, I smiled sheepishly and boasted to Sister. My un-wiped snot trickled down, but Sister wiped it away for me.

“I see… You did well, truly.”

“Hehe….”

I did it alone. Without Sister’s help, I hunted this giant wyvern all by myself. Not just hunted it; I hunted it to protect Yura and Yuri.

It might be a childish thought, but I wanted to be praised for that fact.

“Am I a grown-up wolf now, right? A strong and powerful wolf, like you, Sister.”

“Yes. Seol-ah, you are truly a great wolf. I was surprised too, thinking, ‘Seol-ah can protect others now-‘.”

Sister reached out and tidied my hair, which was messy with snow and dirt. It wasn’t properly tidied because there was no comb, but I didn’t care.

“Seol-ah, you’re cooler than Sister. When Sister was Seol-ah’s age, she was terrified of wyverns.”

“Really…?”

“Of course. If young Sister were here, she would have been trembling with fear and hiding. She wouldn’t have bravely protected her friends like Seol-ah.”

It feels strange that Sister, who seemed so cool and strong even when she was young, wasn’t.

It’s a strange feeling.

More than the shock of my illusion about Sister being shattered, it felt… peculiar, I guess. The fact that Seol-ah and Sister were both just wolves felt deeply resonant.

And, a sense of satisfaction and pride in my bravery bloomed from within my heart. Still embraced by Sister, I placed my hands on my hips and declared confidently.

“Look forward to it, Sister! Someday I’ll become a bigger wolf than you!”

“Bigger… wolf?”

“Yes!”

Before, I just vaguely wanted to be a cool wolf like Sister. But now I know. My goal should be to become an even cooler wolf than Sister, not just like her!

To do that!

First, I need to grow taller.

“I’ll eat a lot, drink a lot of milk, and sleep early and wake up early. Then I’ll be much taller than Sister, right?”

“….”

I’ve already become a braver wolf than Sister was at my age. That means I have the potential to become a bigger, stronger, and more powerful wolf than Sister!

I roughly compared Sister’s height to mine.

It looks like I’ll be the same height as Sister if I grow just 60cm taller. Since I’m 8 years old now, if I grow 5cm per year, I can be taller than Sister when I become an adult!

“Hoo hoo hoo….”

“Yes… Seol-ah will become taller than Sister… you will, surely.”

Sister said, her lips twitching strangely. It was as if she had a lot she wanted to say but was holding back. Does she think I won’t grow?

Hmph, just you wait. I’ll be looking down on Sister in the future!

“Yuri… you’re here. Where is Yura?”

Sister approached Yuri, who was frozen like a stone next to the ice statue of the wyvern.

Yuri had been motionless since I froze the wyvern, and seeing her tail standing stiffly, it seemed her body had frozen from the shock of seeing something astonishing.

When Sister patted her shoulder, Yuri slowly started to move.

“Seol-ah!!!!”

“Kkang?!”

“What did you just do?!”

Yuri pulled me out of Sister’s embrace and then, grabbing my shoulders, shook me violently and shouted. She was shaking me so fast that I couldn’t even open my mouth.

I was afraid I might bite my tongue if I opened my mouth, so I had to shake wildly and scatter my fur all over the world until Sister stopped Yuri.

“Kkae, kkae-haeng….”

“Just now, with a huge flash! The wyvern!!”

“C-calm down…!”

Even after she stopped shaking me, Yuri’s excitement didn’t subside.

Yuri’s tail was wagging at an incredible speed, her tail fur scattering almost as much as my magnificent tail. Goodness, she might sprain her tailbone at this rate.

After some time, Yuri spoke with a relatively calmer demeanor. And I mean ‘relatively’.

“How did you do it? Huh??”

“I-I hunted the wyvern with magic.”

“Magic?!”

Yes. Magic so powerful it could freeze an entire wyvern!

I didn’t expect it to be this powerful, but it’s a great relief that we escaped the crisis.

Come to think of it, I was going to show Sister my magic too. I couldn’t show her the act of hunting the wyvern directly, but I could show her a glimpse of it.

I held up the stone so Yuri and Sister could see it clearly and shouted.

“Shine!”

And surprisingly…!

“It’s not very bright.”

“Ah.”

The stone emitted a weak light, like a mood lamp.

Come to think of it, I remember proudly proclaiming I was a wolf earlier. This stone was a gift from a fox, and it seemed to hate the word “wolf,” so there was no way the magic would activate properly now.

“Wait a minute… Kkang! Kkang kkang! Kkang kae rae kkang kkang!”

I finally had to bark a few ungraceful times at the stone before I could use magic. I wanted to show Sister a cool magic display!

“K-kuhum. It should work now! Shine!”

Then, the stone emitted a dazzling light, illuminating the surroundings.

Yuri’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the stone, and Sister also looked quite surprised by my magic.

“Oh….”

“Cool, Sister!”

Seeing Sister surprised, my plan to surprise her seemed to have succeeded perfectly. I let out a pleased “Kkang kkang” sound and smiled sheepishly.

“Me too! I want to try too! How do I do it? Do I just bark like Seol-ah?”

“Probably not anyone else but me. I’m a very, very special wolf!”

“I want to try anyway!”

Yuri took the transparent stone from me and barked “Kkang kkang.” But the stone, having left my hand, immediately turned gray and became ugly, and of course, it didn’t react to Yuri’s barks.

“Shine, Kkang! … Why doesn’t it work for me?”

“Maybe it’s because your ‘Kkang kkang’ doesn’t have soul. Try putting more vibration into it!”

“Kkang kkang!”

“More powerfully!”

“Kkaeng!”

After several more attempts, Yuri returned the stone to me with the bitter realization that she couldn’t use magic.

Sister said.

“Then let’s head home soon. Everyone’s tired, right?”

“Yes! But….”

“Don’t worry about the wyvern. Seol-ah worked hard to catch it, so you should show it off to the tribe members. I’ll carry it.”

“Yes! Ah, and I caught a rabbit too!”

Although it was a tiny prey compared to the wyvern, we shouldn’t leave behind prey that we worked hard to catch. I told Sister where the rabbit was buried.

“I think we’re forgetting something….”

“I know. It feels like someone is missing… Ah!”

Sister looked around and exclaimed.

“Yura! Where is Yura!”

“Ah!”

Yura, who had sprained her ankle. I had left her in a safe place, being Yuri’s twin sister, but I had forgotten.

We hurried to where Yura was.

Yura, who had been left alone for a long time, clung to me crying, saying she thought something terrible had happened when she saw us, and after calming down, she reacted the same way as Yuri to my magic and shook me violently.

And so, we returned home, chattering noisily.