“Ollie. Come here and take this with you.”
“Okay!”
He barely managed to leave Asel, who didn’t want to let go, and headed to the kitchen. He took the cup Masa held out to him.
“So you made up.”
“Made up? I’m the one who accepted his apology.”
Masa quietly smiled as she watched Ollie’s back turn away.
While Kan kept stealing glances at Ollie through the awkward silence, Asel was still gazing at Kan, his yellow eyes bright and intent.
“What’s up. Does Kan seem interesting to you?”
Ollie poked the child’s cheek and asked. Asel gave a coy little smile and shook his head.
Masa came over without anyone noticing, poured warm water into small cups filled with tea leaves, and a hazy steam drifted and curled between them.
“By the way. When did Bes and Lucy say they’d hold it?”
“I think they’re planning on sometime after the half-moon passes. Apparently the weather is clearest then.”
“Hmm…… that doesn’t leave much time at all.”
Ollie couldn’t keep up with their conversation and asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah…….”
Kan couldn’t hide the flustered look on his face and stalled, until finally Masa sighed and answered in his place.
“A child was born. There’s going to be a village celebration soon.”
In the Tree Folk village, when a child was born, a celebration was held around the time the child’s red, flushed cheeks began to settle. The villagers would present gifts to the child’s parents, and everyone would gather to celebrate the birth together. It was one of the village’s grand festivals — eating, drinking, and singing. When he was little, Ollie used to attend occasionally, but once he got older, he stopped going.
“But I have a family now too…….”
Even so, he couldn’t help the faint pang of longing, and the words slipped out of him before he could stop them.
“Why don’t you come then. What are you going to do if the village people keep seeing Asel as an outsider?”
He thought it over. He had no desire whatsoever to see the faces of the village people, but the thought of Asel being rejected by the village the way he had been made his chest ache.
I’d be perfectly happy living with just the two of us…… But…… when I think about Asel’s future……
He didn’t deliberate for long.
“I’ll go and introduce Asel.”
“……Then let’s stay together the whole day.”
Kan, who had been waiting for his opening, said it casually.
“Hmph. You stay with Bes. You’d end up leaving me anyway before long.”
“No. I’ll be with you. Bes is going to be run off her feet that day.”
“Fine, whatever.”
He said it curtly, but inwardly he felt relieved. With Kan there, the village people at least wouldn’t embarrass him in front of Asel. Danny had a lousy personality too, but when they were alone he wasn’t all that awful to him. Though of course, when he was in a group, it was a different story.
“That makes it even tighter on time.”
At Masa’s follow-up remark, Ollie startled.
“No. It’s fine, Masa. You don’t have to make clothes for Asel. He grows so fast…….”
“Ground Clan only has a growth spurt during their growth period, don’t they. If you put it on him now, he’ll be able to wear it for a good while.”
“Still…….”
“At my age, you need little tasks like this, otherwise the days feel empty.”
Masa was probably planning to give small garments as gifts to the newborns on that day. When he thought about his own family, Asel, being included in that, he felt a deep warmth spread through him.
“Thank you for getting along so well with Asel. He really adores you too.”
“What are you talking about. He won’t even leave your side right now. If you raise him like this, you’re going to feel very hurt when he grows up. Don’t give in to his every little thing.”
“I understand.”
He may not leave Ollie’s side now, but the Ground Clan had a fiercely independent nature, and as he went through his growth period, he would gradually grow more distant. That was what Masa was worried about. Ollie understood that feeling too, so he nodded firmly in agreement. Only Asel, nestled between them, beamed with a bright, innocent smile, expression saying he hadn’t the faintest idea what they were talking about.
The evening wrapped up that way. That was what Ollie thought.
In the house after everyone had gone, Masa welcomed Kan, who had come back.
“What brings you back.”
Kan sat with his arms resting on his knees for a long while, and only managed to speak around the time the melted candle had hardened and gone cold.
“Masa…… do you really think that child Asel is…… truly Ground Clan?”
“……Is there some kind of problem?”
“It’s not that…… it’s just a little strange.”
“There’s no need to go looking for things to worry about. For now, I think it’s best to leave things as they are.”
Masa’s answer was a little firm. But Kan didn’t back down.
“It’s strange. Ground Clan doesn’t have aggressive tendencies, but the other day the child bit me at Ollie’s house. They generally live alone, yet the child strangely refuses to be apart from Ollie…….”
“He wasn’t raised in an ordinary Ground Clan environment, was he. Not everyone is the same. And…… you must have raised your voice at Ollie. The child was only trying to protect his guardian.”
“……I’m just not sure. I also went to see George, but.”
“If he didn’t say anything particular, then you stop here too.”
Masa said it quietly, eyes cast down. The house was filled with an uneasy stillness, different from before.
“Understood. I…… never mind. I won’t dig any further.”
“Good. Ollie is in a much more stable place now too. Let’s try to think of it in a positive light.”
“I’m sorry. I wasted your time with pointless talk this late at night.”
“It’s fine. That’s enough.”
Masa smiled gently.
“Ah, come to think of it — how is Matthew doing. I heard animals kept disappearing from the traps.”
“He says he’s going to pick a day and set an ambush…… well, it probably isn’t a big problem. This kind of thing happens often in winter.”
“I see. Give him my regards.”
“Yes. I’ll come visit again next time.”
“Alright.”
As Masa saw him off, Kan bit down hard on his lip. He knew his worrying was excessive. But…… an unease with no clear cause kept gnawing at his nerves.
While Ollie had headed toward the kitchen, the child, who had been blankly staring at him, had at some point broken into a slow grin. Children laugh and cry without reason, they say — but for some reason, that smile lingered in Kan’s mind long after.
Hair and eyes the color of deep honey made the child’s striking features stand out all the more. There was nothing unpleasant about him — he was simply beautiful. Yet…… those soundlessly curling lips and those glittering, golden eyes.
Against Ollie’s wishes, it seemed like he simply wasn’t going to be able to warm up to the child.
With the village’s small festival drawing near, the forest was blanketed in a white, hushed stillness. Ollie, who had spent several days indoors under the warmth of the tree house to escape the cold, made up his mind to go out for the first time in a while to gather eggs. He’d been so caught up taking care of Asel that he hadn’t managed to gather any, and had been eating on the eggs that Kan and Masa shared with him. But the forest locked deep in a brutal winter stripped away Ollie’s energy — who felt the cold acutely — more often and more completely than before.
“I’m so sick of chicken eggs and quail eggs.”
“Ahh!”
Asel laughed brightly and wrapped his arms around Ollie’s legs. Ollie scooped him up just like that, and Asel poked his cheek, then wrote out words the way he always did.
Hungry……?
“Pfft, yeah. I feel like I could die of hunger. So, um…….”
Ollie lowered his head and dropped his voice, and the child tilted his head with a curious look on his face.
“I’m going to eat you up!”
“Eeek!”
