* * *
“Peeee!”
I’m here!
Having used his head to calculate the time it would take for the man to go down to the village and come back, the otter came running to the cabin and let out a loud cry in front of the yard with confident steps. But there was no hint of a human presence. The otter tilted his head and blinked slowly.
Has he not come back from the village yet? How far is the village from here?
He lay sprawled on the firewood and waited for the man, thinking this and that, but he hadn’t returned even as the sunset faded and the sun began to drop. Before long, a deep darkness settled over the forest, and in the lightless woods, only the hooting of an owl could be heard.
“Kyeeeng.”
Why isn’t he coming?
Could he have been attacked by a beast on the forest path? He had only met him yesterday, but the otter wasn’t so cold-hearted as to not worry about the benefactor who had so readily offered him food. Meanwhile, his oblivious stomach was steadily growing hungrier. This won’t do. I’ll go look for him.
The otter started heading blindly down the relatively tidy dirt path that led from the cabin. It was his first time wandering through the forest in the dark, and it was eerie and frightening, but he couldn’t stop his feet. He went on for quite a while relying only on moonlight, but there wasn’t a single ant in sight, let alone a village.
“Pee…?”
Something felt off. At some point, even the owl’s hooting had gone silent. Only the desolate rustling of leaves stirred by the night wind filled the forest. The otter paused, deliberating whether to keep heading down in search of the village or turn back the way he’d come — and just then.
Thud— Thud—
The ground trembled, and a strange, eerie cry began to echo through the forest. He flinched violently at the sudden sound, but that was all — his legs had turned to stone and refused to move. A rough, ragged breathing was drawing closer and closer.
A tiger? A lion? Or perhaps a wolf? He had never once encountered a predator in this forest. The largest mammal he had seen here so far was a deer.
What do I do… I need to run….
This life wasn’t going to end in starvation — it was going to end by being eaten alive, was it?
Just as his fear-frozen legs began to move, he spotted a pair of huge, blood-red eyes through the trees. The ground shook with each thud as the unidentified beast drew nearer — it was that enormous. Thick, viscous saliva dripped from the beast’s maw. It was clearly savoring the sight of him. The otter trembled.
Up close, its shape was that of a wolf. But the problem was that it was the size of a house and clearly afflicted with rabies. Its blood-red eyes blinked slowly, and it looked as though it could lunge at him at any moment.
One of the few notable advantages of inhabiting an otter’s body was his quick, agile movement — but that had become utterly useless the moment he locked eyes with those blood-red ones. The otter trembled in tiny shudders, locked in a standoff with the wolf, unable to move forward or back, for a long while.
“Grrrgh….”
Without warning, the wolf let out a pained sound and began dripping saliva. The grotesque sight sent his fear spiking in an instant.
“Peek! Peeee!”
Whether his body sensed that this was his last chance to flee, his fear-frozen legs began to move on instinct. The otter bolted without looking back even once, but the rabid wolf caught up in an instant. When the wolf’s ragged breathing reached the point where it could be heard right behind him, he found himself calling out to a god he didn’t even believe in.
“Peeee! Peek!”
Help! Someone help me!
He was weaving between the trees, sprinting with everything he had — when he spotted a man sitting on a low hill in the distance.
“Peee!”
Help me!
He was clearly watching him — yet even in this horrific situation, the man was simply sitting there, perfectly at ease.
Risking everything, the otter turned his course toward the man and ran for him — and with the wolf’s breath bearing down right behind him, he wrung out every last drop of strength he had and scrambled up the hill.
“Peek!”
When he was close enough to make out the man’s face clearly, the otter hurled himself at him with everything he had. He latched firmly onto the man’s leg, and with a desperate hope that he had a reason for sitting there so calmly all along, he squeezed his eyes shut.
The man looked down at the otter clinging to his leg and trembling with an expression of disbelief, then let out a short sigh and drew the sword from the scabbard at his hip. The wolf, wary of the man and baring its vicious teeth, lunged at him in an instant.
Thwack! Swish—
The man’s legs moved a few times, followed by a sound he had never heard in his life. A heavy thud, then the sound of something hitting the ground — only then did the otter work up the courage to pry open his eyelids, trembling.
“Pee…!”
The moment his eyes opened, he saw the wolf lying on the ground, bleeding dark red and reeking terribly.
Is it dead? Did he kill it? The otter stared at the dead wolf, then stiffly lifted his head to look up at the owner of the legs he was pressed against.
Light brown hair that swayed in the night breeze caught his eye first, followed by a pair of sharp, brilliant orange eyes that seemed like they might gleam.
“Get off.”
Embarrassed by his quite-annoyed expression and firm tone, the otter quietly released his trouser leg and climbed down to the ground.
“Peee….”
He looks like him….
Those uncommon orange eyes reminded him of someone. Relying on the moonlight, the otter opened his tiny eyes as wide as he could and stared at the man’s face once more.
It was an absurd assumption, but he felt unmistakably familiar. However, after having just come so close to losing his life to a rabid wolf, his fear-seized mind wasn’t functioning properly. Just as he was about to look up at the man one more time, he began walking down the hill.
In a daze, he followed after him — and from ahead, he heard a quiet sigh. Undeterred, he trotted up on all fours, cut in front of him, and drank in that familiar face once more.
“Peeee…?”
Rutilian…?
No matter how he looked at him, the man resembled that person greatly.
The otter circled around in confusion, and the man, looking as though this was the most tiresome thing in the world, stepped around him and continued down the path. The otter stared blankly at his retreating figure and swallowed dryly.
He had assumed that having passed through a past life, he would naturally have reincarnated into the future — but seeing the dead wolf and the man with a sword at his hip, he felt only more confused. Above all else, this man seemed to share even the personality of the Rutilian he knew.
When the man callously walked away without him, the otter hurried after him urgently.
“Peee? Peee?”
Hey, what’s your name?
He chased after him, squeaking away frantically to make him stop, but he didn’t spare him so much as a glance. The man was tall, and his long stride made keeping up a struggle. Part of it was also that he had spent the morning eating nothing but berries, and had just burned through most of his stamina being chased for his life by a rabid wolf.
“Kyeeeng….”
He was out of breath, his hind legs were shaking, and he could no longer chase after the man. He stopped and gasped for air, while the man pressed on as if he had never existed to him in the first place. Watching his retreating back, he felt a strange, inexplicable sadness well up inside. He slowly steadied his breathing — and suddenly, his vision spun and went dizzy.
Do otters… get dizzy too?
Thud—
At the sound of something falling behind him, the man turned his head and looked back. He stared at the otter collapsed on the ground for a moment, then turned back around and began descending the mountain. He walked about five paces. Then he stopped — and retraced his steps.
Perhaps it was because the little chirping squeaks kept circling in his ears? He couldn’t help but feel bothered, and simply couldn’t bring himself to walk away and ignore it.
“Such a nuisance….”
He grabbed the otter by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up, then turned the limp little body this way and that to check for injuries. Concluding that he had simply fainted from physical and mental exhaustion, he tucked the otter away and began descending the mountain again.
* * *
“Kyeeng….”
He woke up squinting hard against the blinding light and the surrounding commotion.
Where… is this?
“Oh my, you’re up. Are you feeling any better?”
A woman in an apron was looking down at him with a worried expression. Her clothing looked just like something out of the medieval era. The otter blinked slowly, waking from sleep — he was gazing at the woman when suddenly, the events of the previous night came flooding back.
“…Peek!”
He shot up, stood on his hind legs, and looked around — but the man was nowhere to be seen. There were only two wooden buildings and women dressed the same as the apron-wearing woman, moving about busily.
“Are you looking for the knight who brought you here? He left before sunrise. He’s probably already left the village by now….”
Perhaps taking pity on the otter’s frantic squeaking as he desperately searched for someone, the woman told him what she knew. At those words, the otter blinked rapidly and clutched his little head with his front paws.
A knight? No — more than that, he had left him here alone and gone? Of course he had no obligation to take him along, but he still had unfinished business with that man. There was a mountain of things he wanted to ask him.
“Pee….”
The sun was already high overhead. He had left early in the morning, so he would already be far away — and at the thought of having to find that man, his vision went faint.
“Peek? Peeee?”
Where is this place? Do you know where the man went?
