Ch.71The Wolf Cub’s Tree (3)

Kain demonstrated a downward chopping motion with an axe. Lily covered her mouth, and Maria, seemingly quite startled, pulled herself closer to Kain.

“You chopped down? Really?”

“I was a bit scared, but I think I was more angry than afraid. Like, ‘This is my land, how dare a wolf come here and growl?’ That’s how my mother would always get angry when rude people came. So I swung down.”

“Did it die?” Lily asked with her hand still covering her mouth. Kain stared at her blankly before shaking his head.

“No. No matter how brave I was, I was only eleven. Not old enough to freely wield a hand axe as long as my arm.

The wolf pup pulled its body back with its hind legs, and the axe blade landed about two hand spans away. It got stuck in an exposed tree root rather than bare ground, so my wrist didn’t twist, but the real problem came after that.

The axe wouldn’t come out. It was stuck too firmly.”

The wind howled as if the wolf was mocking him. The horses shuddered and snorted, shaking their heads uneasily.

“What happened then?”

“I tried pulling with both hands, grunting with effort, but it wouldn’t budge. I was wondering what to do when the wolf regained its senses. It started growling and tried to bite and scratch my hand even while dangling its broken front paw.

It seemed to know the axe was very precious to me and threatening to it. I eventually let go of the axe and backed away. The wolf kept growling but rested its chin on top of the axe. It was like it was saying, ‘This is mine now, don’t think about taking it.’

I froze, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ I was more worried about being scolded for losing the axe than for failing to catch the wolf.

Looking back now, my parents probably would have scolded me more for lunging at a wolf pup than for losing the axe. But at that moment, that seemed more important to me—that I neither caught the wolf nor kept the axe.”

Maria tapped the corner of the carriage roof.

“You were quite similar then and now, weren’t you?”

“In what way?”

“Being stubborn in the strangest ways.”

“Do you think so? I thought he was very brave even as a child.”

Lily pulled her legs up onto the driver’s seat, hugging them and resting her head slightly. Maria flopped back with a resigned look.

“Sure. Everything looks pretty through your eyes. How did you avoid getting caught by your parents? From what you’re saying.”

“I didn’t. I had a pretty clever idea for an eleven-year-old.”

“What was it?”

“Hiding it, of course.”

A stifled laugh came from the carriage roof. Kain scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed even now.

“Since the storm had just passed, there were lots of fallen leaves and branches. I stacked them carefully in front of the cave where the wolf was hiding. Partly to keep the village kids out, I blocked it up while trying to think of a good solution. But suddenly, the wolf started crying.”

“Crying?”

“Not howling, you know? Not that long ‘awoooo’ they do to find their pack. It was literally whimpering and crying, rubbing itself against the axe blade and the tree. All that fierce growling from before was nowhere to be seen.

Well, it was kind of absurd. This creature that had been so fierce was now whimpering and crying just because I’d piled some wood in front. It seemed so ridiculous even to my child’s mind that I sat down beside it and asked, ‘Are you scared?'”

Lily covered her face with her hands, squirming. “Oh my, that’s too cute…”

“Good grief, you were an old soul in a child’s body. Disgusting. Children should act like children.” Maria looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“And then it answered ‘yes’?”

“No, it growled at me. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I was hungry, and I figured there was nothing more to gain from arguing with this creature, so I said, ‘If you’re scared, I won’t pile up any more.’ Then I turned to leave. But it whimpered even more, as if begging me not to go.

I had a thought and slowly reached my hand toward the axe. The wolf watched quietly, but when I got close enough to grab it, it started growling again.

‘What do you want me to do!’ I was really annoyed, though I couldn’t shout too loudly for fear of being discovered. The wolf seemed pretty confused too, alternating between growling and whimpering.

But soon I felt more sleepy, tired, and hungry than annoyed. I hadn’t slept well because of the storm… I thought I should just go eat something. I turned to leave.

Then it dawned on me. ‘What if this creature is hungry just like me?’ My younger siblings were the same when they were babies. When they were hungry and sleepy, they would whine. Maybe wolf pups were the same.

The wolf whimpered and growled in confusion, but I ignored it and ran to the forest path. I knew where the workers set snares for rabbits. Sometimes when I went to throw out garbage, I’d see dead rabbits caught in them.

Sure enough, despite the severe storm, there was a rabbit caught in a trap. I was a bit squeamish about handling the dead rabbit, so I skewered it on the end of a large stick and ran back to the wolf.

‘Here. Eat this. Get better soon and go away,’ I said, tossing it over. The wolf eyed it cautiously but then immediately devoured it with crunching sounds. I watched carefully and placed more branches and leaves thickly at the entrance.

When I heard no sound, I wondered what was happening—the wolf had buried its nose in the rabbit’s body and was sound asleep. I remember thinking it was just like a baby—throwing all kinds of tantrums but falling fast asleep once its belly was full.

Anyway, I went back home and had breakfast. When my father asked where I’d been, I said I was worried about the orchard and had gone to check on it. I thought it was a very plausible answer, but my father looked at me with somewhat dubious eyes.

He knew I was diligent, but I hadn’t shown particular attachment to the apple trees before. But he didn’t press the issue. Except when he asked if I’d seen the hand axe from the woodpile in the back, and I answered, ‘I’m not sure.’

Fortunately, I got about a week off from studying. The monastery had suffered quite a bit of damage from the storm, and I needed to help with household chores. For some reason, even the lord’s soldiers were busy repairing fences and fixing collapsed roofs.

They hung bells throughout the village. If anyone spotted a wolf, they could quickly run and ring the bell. Then whoever heard the bell would ring it too, warning villagers to flee to safety.

The adults said that a wolf pack had attacked a village—not the neighboring one, but maybe three villages over. Several people had died or been injured, and many livestock were hurt.

‘It’s not wolves. It’s demons wearing wolf skins. They must be killed and burned,’ the elderly would say.

I thought about that small wolf. It didn’t seem like a demon at all. I had always imagined demons with horns, bright red bodies, and long tongues.

I was annoyed that it took my axe, but the way it whimpered because it was afraid of the dark, and how it ate the rabbit I threw it and fell asleep with its nose buried in it… Well, I didn’t know what demons were, but that didn’t seem like one.

For about a week after that, things were similar. Clearing branches, fixing fences, and taking damaged wood to the forest was a big job.

The adults tightly bound the wounded trees with rope and got some kind of crushed ointment from the village herbalist. They said applying it between the trees would help them heal faster.

Thanks to that… I could bring various things to the little creature. Birds that had fallen and died in the storm, rabbits caught in snares… There were especially many rabbits. Their burrows had been overturned in the storm, so many were wandering around lost and easily caught in traps.

I gradually became friends with the wolf that way. It still growled when I got close, but it didn’t refuse the food I gave. Eventually, it wouldn’t even complain when I parted the bushes, having heard my footsteps. It would just stay quiet and then wag its tail slightly when it saw me.

Each time, I would throw it something to eat. It ate extremely well, devouring everything I gave it. It neatly piled up the bones it couldn’t eat in one corner. It was quite smart—despite its injured front paw, it somehow managed to dig holes, put waste in them, and bury it.

When I asked, ‘Is it tasty?’ it would wag its tail gently and come toward me, panting with its tongue out. It reminded me of our dog at home, so I reached out my hand. It seemed to debate whether to growl or whimper, but then it rubbed its cheek against my hand. That was its compromise, I suppose. I stroked its head in return.

I didn’t try to take the axe back, and it didn’t growl at me. That was a kind of promise between us, I think. A promise not to harm each other.

The wolf pup grew incredibly fast. So fast that I suspected it grew in proportion to how much it ate. Its front paw seemed to have healed somewhat, as it moved quite well. After about four or five days, there was a change in the creature.

Remember how I blocked the entrance with bushes? When I removed them, it whimpered instead. I was confused. What was wrong with it? Was something bothering it? So I cleared away all the bushes I had placed. Then it hid deeper inside the tree hollow.”

“Hmm… had it adapted to the darkness?” Maria asked.

“Maybe it had become so accustomed to living inside that it lost the courage to go outside?” Lily offered her opinion.

“You’re both right. It was afraid of the outside world. ‘Hey, what’s wrong? There’s nothing to be afraid of,’ I said as I reached my hand in deeper. Of course, I didn’t thrust it in suddenly—I didn’t want to startle it. Instead, I made eye contact and extended my hand very, very slowly, as if to say ‘look at this.’

The wolf neither rejected my hand nor bit it. It stuck out its tongue and lightly licked my hand. It felt really rough. ‘Come on, what’s wrong? Are you scared?’ I asked as I raised my hand to its head, and this time it stuck out its tongue and panted.

Only then did it come out. Its leg had fully healed by then. It rubbed against my crouched body and then flopped down beside me. ‘We’re friends now, right?’ I asked. The wolf didn’t say ‘woof,’ but instead placed its front paw on my leg as if wanting to play.

Well… I didn’t know how to play with a wolf. So I just played with it like I would with a hunting dog. All that afternoon. I would throw a stick, and it would fetch it. I would pat its head, then throw the stick again…

Before I knew it, the sun was setting. The wolf seemed tired too and went inside to lie down. ‘See you tomorrow,’ I said and went home. I slept very well that night. My parents asked if something good had happened lately, and I made up an excuse that I was happy not to be studying. That was actually a lie. I enjoyed studying letters.

And when I went back the next day, the wolf was gone. Only the axe remained.”