After listening to Luna’s story, I think to myself that it really is just like her to do something like this.
After leaving our tent, she went out looking for a wolf that strayed from its pack, as a wedding anniversary present.
That’s not something that you’d usually find just like that, but Luna was confident that she’d find what she was looking for. That’s probably some special sense divine beast people have or something.
And apparently it didn’t take her long to find it, but her timing could have been better.
Luna found three wolves. A mother and two pups.
They were being attacked by another monster, and Luna ended up saving them, but…
“The mother was fatally wounded and died…”
“I see.”
“And then, Luna thought if Luna left them alone they’d just get attacked by other monsters, so Luna wanted to take them home, but… They didn’t want to…”
“Yes…”
I listen quietly to everything she has to say, as she explains what happened bit by bit.
“Luna kept telling them their mother is dead, but they didn’t get it… And they didn’t want to leave her. So Luna tried burying her and then taking them, but they still don’t want to leave.”
“Yes.”
“And they’re gonna end up dying like this… So…”
So she’s been watching over them.
“Good job, Luna.”
“…”
Luna responds by hanging her head and shaking it with a pained expression on her face.
“If Luna got here sooner, Luna would’ve protected all of them.”
“But if the mother was here, she might’ve attacked you.”
“And Luna could’ve just held her down without killing her.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Mothers can be really strong when they’re protecting their young. And I’m not even sure if Luna can hold back against something that’s attacking her.
From my point of view, I actually think it might be good that another monster got there first, and Luna didn’t end up dirtying her hands.
“So, what now?”
“Luna will explain it to them again when they wake up.”
“Can they understand you?”
“Dunno.”
Probably not. Apparently some monsters are relatively intelligent, but they don’t look that strong.
And since they were just born, there’s no way they can understand her.
…So what now?
It’s easy to tell Luna to just give up, but it’s not like she did anything wrong.
In fact, she’s trying so hard to come up with a solution, that I feel like praising her instead.
I look at the two sleeping wolf pups.
“What kind of monsters are they?”
“Bloody wolves… They’re really strong when they get big.”
“I see.”
If Luna says they’re really strong, that’s got to be true. At the very least, she didn’t call either the shantak bird or the emperor boar strong.
If they’re strong, considering their mother is dead, will they become a threat?
Forget me, what about Reina and the others? Should we kill these two now…?
“Ah…”
“Hn?”
As I think about that, the bloody wolf babies start fidgeting. I guess they’re waking up.
“They’re waking up…”
“They are…”
Luna looks happy, but I’m a little perplexed.
The two wolves look at each other, rub their noses together, get on top of each other, and generally act like babies. There’s no real threat there.
Then they start looking around, and suddenly run towards a certain place on the ground a little far from here.
“Ah…”
“Luna? What’s wrong?”
“That’s where Luna buried their mother.”
“…I see…”
The two little wolves rub their noses on the ground while making sad noises. They keep doing that, because the newborns aren’t strong enough to dig.
I can’t help but feel a little compassion. It doesn’t matter that they’re monsters, it’s just a real pity that these babies are going to be separated from their birth mother for the rest of their lives, and they know it too.
“Luna, can you raise them?”
“Yes…”
“Then let’s wait for them to finish saying goodbye, and then bring them along.”
“Yes!”
Luna and I sit down, and wait for the wolf pups to understand that they have to leave their mother.
“…There you are.”
“Ah, Elga.”
◇ ◇ ◇
As the sun turns red, I hear something moving through the trees, and see Elga is coming up behind us.
“Hey Arata. So you found her first?”
“Yes… Sorry I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s fine. It looks like you can’t really move.”
He says with a mocking tone, and with his eyes pointed at my lap, where Luna is sleeping along with the two wolf pups that got tired from crying.
“Well, I can hear about it later. It looks like Luna’s been causing you trouble.”
“Not really.”
I pat Luna’s soft hair, and she fidgets a little.
I do the same to the two wolf pups holding each other as they sleep, and they react the same way. It’s like they’re her little brothers.
“So, what do I do now?”
“Good, straight to the point. Can’t you just say no?”
“I dunno what this girl and Livia are gonna do to me if I tell’em no.”
“Hahaha, they’ve got you under their thumbs.”
“You’re gonna be the same sooner or later.”
As we chat, Elga sits down next to me. He looks at Luna’s sleeping face, and sighs.
“She’s sleepin’ with a stupid look on her face.”
“Let her sleep for a while longer. She didn’t really sleep last night.”
“Fine. Livia can’t get mad at her either.”
He says she gets mad at him instead, and laughs, looking really manly.
Elga’s always blunt, but he’s about as caring as Reina. That gets me thinking about how they might be kind of similar, which feels a little odd.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I was just thinking that you’re a nice guy.”
“Ah, I don’t wanna hear that from a guy. Well, I gotta watch my back if a woman says it, so I don’t wanna hear it from them either.”
“She really cares about you, uh?”
“That face is annoying.”
Even from an outsider’s point of view, they seem like a really nice couple. It makes me wish that I have a home life like his one day.
“Hn…”
“Looks like this sleepyhead is waking up.”
“And the cubs are starting to fidget too.”
I could carry Luna and the wolves by myself, but she’s holding on to them so dearly like she’s protecting them, that I feel sorry about separating them.
But now that Elga’s here, it’s different. She opens her eyes just a little, and after looking at him with her sleepy eyes, she opens her arms.
“Hn…”
“You want me to carry you? Yeah, all right.”
Elga holds Luna, and I take the two sleepy pups.
Maybe it’s because they’re babies, but the warmth coming from their small bodies gives me this feeling in my heart that they’re really trying to live.
“Let’s go back before the sun sets.”
“Yes. And I’ll carry these two to the divine beast people’s village too, so take care of the rest, please.”
“…Geez, okay.”
Elga looks annoyed, but I can tell by his tone of voice that he really isn’t.
And so, rather than run through the forest with our usual incredible speed, we carefully, very carefully, head back.
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