“You caught a boar? Hold on, I’m heading there right now!”
Pops is fast. He really did get here right away.
“Ooh… It’s pretty big… How did you catch it?”
He asks with a quizzical expression, and I scratch my head. The truth sounds unbelievable, but saying I caught it by myself would be even worse, so I go with the truth.
“The chickens caught it!? How?”
“Well… I don’t know. I was out patrolling, and it was here when I came back… How did you do it…”
I say, and the chickens start wagging their lizard tails. Instead of feathers, they have reptile tails, and they start mercilessly smacking the boar’s legs with them as it yells in pain. These chickens are pretty terrible.
Ah… That’s amazing. So, what do you wanna do with this?”
“I guess eat it with everyone if possible… But I don’t know how to take it apart or anything…”
I think he’s got it figured out.
“We can’t really prepare it here. It can’t move with its legs like that anyway, so I’ll ask an expert to do it. It’s gonna take some time for it to cool, so drop by tomorrow night.”
“I’m sorry for the trouble… And if you want, ask the neighbors…”
“Yes, it’s pretty big, so I’ll call some other people. Hey, chickens.”
The three chickens raise their heads like they’re asking what he wants. My chickens really are smart.
“You’re the ones who hunted this, so you have the right to eat it too. I’m taking it with me today, but we’ll prepare it tomorrow, so you can come eat it with Shouhei.”
Pochi clucks, as if speaking for everyone. That means they understood. But just how much do they understand?
“Thank you very much.”
“Ah, that’s right. If a boar this big was out there, that means this mountain probably has a lot of them. I’m sure they aren’t used to people, so they probably won’t come out when you’re going around, but… If they get scared and you block their escape, they might charge at you and kill you. Watch yourself.”
“Y-yes…”
Wild animals are scary.
“Chickens, it’s great that you caught a boar! But don’t go after piglets.”
They all tilt their heads, and I laugh at how they all did it at the same time. It’s too cute. I want to take a picture.
“I’m talking about little boars. The ones with stripes. Boars have more babies when their kids die, so go after the adult ones.”
Pochi clucks. It really understood that? My chickens are scary.
“Really…”
“Yes. They tend to have about four babies at once, and they have a mating season two times a year. They don’t make new babies while raising the ones they have, but if one dies, they have more. That’s why it’d increase their numbers.”
“And they damage crops, right?”
“A lot. You could put up a fence, but that doesn’t come free. There are mechanisms to make noise to drive them away too, but they’re not stupid. They’ll get used to it as the years go by.
That’s why we’re glad to have someone hunting them, even if they’re chickens.”
If that’s the case, I get why he’s speaking to my chickens all serious like that.
Normally people would just make fun of you for talking to chickens, but pops and his wife face them directly. Thanks for that.
“I’ll get going.”
We load the boar on the mini truck. It’s so heavy. How many kilos does it weigh? I’m tired from just carrying it.
Then Yuma runs towards the house like it found something. Apparently my chickens have pretty good hearing and eyesight.
And then it comes right back with a pit viper on its beak… Just how many of these are around my house? It’s super dangerous.
“Oh! That’s great? Eh? You’re giving it to me?”
Pops greets Yuma with excitement, and Pochi clucks. You’re not the one who caught it.
“Let me get a bottle.”
Then he puts the pit viper in a plastic bottle more skillfully than me, and leaves in a good mood.
“I’ll give you the money for this one tomorrow.”
“No, that’s fine.”
He’s handling the boar and everything.
“Idiot, that’s that and this is this.”
“All right, thank you. I’ll go to your place tomorrow night.”
I thought people would be casual about that sort of thing in the countryside, but no. If you get something, you have to say thank you, and I heard that people will talk about you if you don’t. That’s just what I heard anyway. Then again, it’s only natural to thank someone for giving you something, right? Well, it’s not so good if it’s something you don’t need.
“Yuma, thank you.”
I say as I pet Yuma’s feathers. My chickens are so cute.
“A boar… I guess we’re having boar hotpot tomorrow.”
“Boarhotpot.”
“Boarhotpot.”
“Boarhotpot.”
“Eh? Why was that the only thing you reacted to?”
That was very specific. And it’s scary how they started saying it after pops left. My chickens really aren’t normal.
But anyway, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
“Are my neighbors coming?”
It would be nice if I got to take this opportunity to meet them.
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