“Kan is definitely hiding something incredible. Sneaky bastard.”
Ollie was convinced that Kan had to be hiding a hawk’s egg or an eagle’s egg. Kan was big-framed and built with solid muscle, so he could easily retrieve a hawk’s egg from a cliff or the crack of a rock. And then, the sneaky bastard, he’d been planning to eat it all by himself.
He didn’t bother putting his clothes back on over his soaking-wet body. He walked home just like that, bare feet pressing into the damp earth. A tree with an impressively enormous trunk welcomed him back.
“Time to eat.”
Changed into clean clothes, Ollie couldn’t contain his excitement and bounced in place. His small body hopped here and there in a frenzy of restless energy. The egg sitting quietly in the bowl was giving off a deep crimson-black glow — the kind of thing most people wouldn’t easily reach for — yet he felt a strangely intense hunger pulling at him. He figured it was because he’d gone nearly a month without properly absorbing any vital energy and had been stuck eating nothing but chicken eggs, but the truth was that his shining eyes already looked exactly like those of a young man who’d fallen under a woman’s spell.
He turned the fist-sized egg over and over, then opened his mouth wide. It didn’t seem like it would go in easily, but he forced his mouth open and shoved the egg in. With a sensation of his throat stretching wide, the egg slid straight down his esophagus. His throat bulged significantly, and the outline of its path was visible as the egg traveled down through his body. Ollie didn’t move until it had settled into his vital energy pouch.
“Phew……”
After a short while, a heavy, solid weight made itself known in his vital energy pouch. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. Once he’d absorbed the vital energy from the egg, the hollow shell would be expelled. Given the size of the egg, it would probably take a fair amount of time. He stroked the spot where the egg now rested — the thing that would keep both his body and spirit full until then — and smiled brightly.
A day had passed since he’d taken in the egg. But contrary to his expectations, the vital energy wasn’t as potent as he’d thought. Normally, once an egg settled in, vital energy would flow out steadily after a day — but from this egg he’d swallowed, he couldn’t sense anything of the sort at all. Absorbing vital energy was supposed to restore his stamina immediately and fill his body with the force of life.
“That’s strange……”
He tilted his head, rubbing his slightly rounded belly. It seemed like the egg was simply too large for his body to draw the vital energy out of it properly. His half-and-half body had always been full of problems.
Would it have been easier if he could eat human food? The sudden thought of his mother — who had abandoned him here and left — made him feel hollow. His father, who had been a Tree Folk, had met a tragic end, and after that his mother had raised Ollie alone. But raising someone who wasn’t human among humans had been too much for her, and the year Ollie turned ten she abandoned him in the forest. The same forest where she had first met his father.
On the surface, all the different races lived side by side in coexistence — but becoming each other’s family was still something people couldn’t easily accept, and so Ollie understood her.
It was Masa who found him wandering the forest after being abandoned. She always had “poor little Ollie” on the tip of her tongue, but even so, there was no one else in the village who looked after him the way she did. Perhaps because he looked slightly different from the others due to the human blood mixed in him, he never quite managed to fit into the village. Eventually, around the time he was old enough for his coming-of-age ceremony by Tree Folk standards, Ollie left Masa’s home and made his own nest.
Perhaps it was because they couldn’t stand Ollie’s slightly selfish streak — the human tendencies that remained in him unlike the rest of the Tree Folk. Ollie had learned to look out for himself before he learned to consider others, and he had no qualms about stealing what belonged to someone else.
“Today I need to make fig jam.”
His hobby was picking fruit, mashing it up, and turning it into jam. It was a hobby shared by most Tree Folk. They would share what they’d made with one another and eat it together, but Ollie had never shared jam with anyone except Masa. When he made jam, he would take it to the human village to sell. This time too, Ollie thought only of Masa’s share as he pulled a jar for jam-making out of the cupboard.
Knock, knock —
Just then, a knock came at the door. Ollie lifted his head, and with an expression that immediately soured, he ignored it. It had to be Kan, coming to look for his egg.
Knock, knock — Even with the homeowner ignoring him, the visitor didn’t leave. At the sound of the knocking continuing without pause, Ollie scrunched up his face and climbed the stairs.
“Who is it!”
“Hey. Ollie.”
Just as he’d expected, the visitor was Kan. Rubbing the back of his short-cropped hair with an awkward hand, Kan looked past Ollie into the house. It was his own way of asking to be let in. Ollie knew that perfectly well, but ignored him and planted himself in the doorway. He didn’t forget to cross his arms and glare either.
“What do you want.”
“Hmm…… Could I come inside first?”
“No. Say whatever it is here.”
“I brought a gift……”
The word gift instantly made Ollie’s crossed arms drop. His eyes lit up as they landed on the box in Kan’s right hand. He quickly shot out his hand to snatch it, but Kan lifted it high out of reach and that was the end of that.
“What! You said it was a gift!”
“Let me inside and I’ll give it to you.”
“Fine, fine. Come in.”
Generously allowing him entry, he turned his body aside from the doorway. Even so, his eyes never left the box — wearing the look of a hunter calculating the exact moment to pounce. Watching him with quiet amusement, Kan made sure to grip the box a little tighter.
They went down the stairs just inside the front door together. It was a staircase Ollie had built himself, though he never could have made it without Kan’s help. Kan followed behind, watching Ollie step down onto it with a faint sense of wonder. The lower they went, the lower the ceiling dropped. It was just barely high enough for Kan, who was tall, to stand upright.
“You look ridiculous.”
Ollie burst out laughing at Kan standing there with nowhere comfortable to put himself. Kan, acting as if it didn’t bother him in the slightest, found a chair and sat down. Ollie shouted sharply, “That’s my seat!” — but naturally, Kan didn’t so much as pretend to hear. Ollie fumed for a moment before calming down slightly and stepping up to stand in front of Kan.
“Give me the gift.”
“One cup of tea.”
“Ugh……”
Ollie puffed out a breath through his nose and turned around. He scooped out powder from a glass jar with rough, careless hands and dropped it into a cup. He had no intention of preparing hot water, so he poured in the cold water he’d drawn that morning. He stirred it around halfheartedly and thrust it at Kan.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
Kan smiled and took the cup. Even so, Ollie’s gaze never left the box. When is he ever going to give me the gift? Laughably, everything going through his mind had long since been read by Kan. The veins on the back of Kan’s hand stood out as he held back his laughter. The muscles running up his arm were something worth looking at too. Things a half-breed had none of whatsoever.
Ollie had been staring with eyes full of envy, but he snapped his head away. The reddened corners of his eyes betrayed his bitterness, and Kan felt a little sorry. He’d only dressed lightly because Tree Folk, by nature, didn’t feel the cold — but it seemed to have hurt Ollie, and that bothered him.
“Ollie. Did you eat an egg yesterday?”
It was a casual question about whether Ollie had eaten the woodpecker egg he’d secretly left in the house — but Ollie’s body flinched visibly. He turned his head with a creaking stiffness and gave a small nod. The suspicious display made Kan’s brow furrow, and his eyes sharpened slightly. His gaze then traveled slowly down Ollie’s body and landed on his stomach. Only then did Ollie startle and cover his belly with both hands.
His stomach was full to a degree that was impossible to explain away with a single woodpecker egg. Kan set his cup down with a thud and stepped squarely toward Ollie.
“What did you eat?”
“It’s nothing! I didn’t eat any egg you were hiding!”
The fool Ollie had, without realizing it, blurted out exactly the truth he’d been trying to conceal — but since Kan hadn’t been hiding any egg, Kan simply couldn’t make sense of what Ollie was saying.
“A hidden egg? Were you not just trying to steal my egg?”
“I was! I mean — no, I wasn’t!”
“Oliver. Be honest with me. What did you eat?”
Kan’s eyes flashed with a sharpness he hadn’t been expecting, and Ollie shrank back. Unlike Ollie, who had human blood mixed in, Kan was pure Tree Folk through and through, and his build was enormous to match. Unable to hold up under that downward gaze, Ollie dropped his eyes and muttered quietly.
“I found an egg you’d hidden and ate it……”
“What?”
“But! You couldn’t even stop Danny…… you just let him take my egg without doing anything!”
“That was Philip’s egg. You’re the one who stole it.”
“I found it, so it’s mine!”
“Ha……”
Kan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The short strands swept back once, and he took hold of Ollie’s shoulders and turned him to face him squarely. But Ollie bit down on his lip and stubbornly refused to meet Kan’s eyes.
