Serdin quietly observed Formo, who pretended not to while sneakily watching for his reactions, then stood up from his seat. The response had been amusing, so he’d deliberately acted mischievous and brazen, which seemed to have made him thoroughly angry. The white-haired long-tailed tit with his unpredictable temperament was adorable enough today, too, that Serdin wanted to pop him into his mouth and roll him around.
Someday I’ll have to put him in my mouth and taste that round, little head of his.
Serdin’s tongue slowly traced his lower lip. Formo, who had been glancing at Serdin from the corner of his eye, witnessed that bizarre scene and gaped his beak wide open. It seemed that damn human had just licked his lips while looking at him.
‘……Cruel and wicked human.’
How tasty could this small, shabby body even be? Formo inwardly scoffed and turned his head sharply away.
“Pipi, shall we go for a walk later?”
Serdin mentioned “walking,” Formo’s favorite activity, to cheer him up. However, Formo’s reaction was rather lukewarm. No matter how capricious Formo’s temperament was, he couldn’t have lost interest in walks within such a short period.
Serdin’s eyes narrowed instantly.
Formo, who had been watching Serdin’s expression with his head turned, realized in a moment that he’d made a mistake and deliberately flapped his wings exaggeratedly.
“Cheep, cheeeeep……!”
[That, that sounds great……!]
He worried he’d reacted too late, but fortunately, Serdin asked if he was that happy, a gentle smile playing on his lips. It seemed he still hadn’t thought to suspect him.
“Cheeep. Cheep.”
[But aren’t you leaving? Are you not going?]
Formo tilted his head and looked up at Serdin. When his large, round eyes took on an innocent light, Serdin burst out laughing.
“Alright, Pipi. I’ll go out. If Pipi says to go out, I should obediently go out.”
The voice tinged with a strange amusement felt a bit unsettling, but the damn human was so peculiar that he wasn’t someone Formo could figure out his intentions, so he decided not to worry about it.
“Cheep!”
[Have a good trip!]
Formo waved his wing at Serdin as if giving a final farewell. Serdin also smiled and waved his hand. Seeing him smile quite brightly, unaware of the future that would befall him, made Formo feel a bit strange.
After that brief squabble, Formo was completely alone. Now the moment he had so yearned for was not far off. Formo decided to sit on the windowsill and wait for her so he could leave immediately when Armo arrived.
The wait for freedom was this thrilling. Even time passed quickly. How long had he been sitting there idly like that? In the distance, he could see in a small size Armo and several long-tailed tits from the search party who had come with her to fetch Formo, flying diligently toward him.
A gleam appeared in Formo’s transparent eyes when he spotted them.
“……Cheep.”
[……Finally.]
Finally leaving this wretched place. Finally…… Formo’s chest swelled with emotion. Formo flapped his wings to signal that he had been waiting for them here. Armo, who had been flying at the front, spotted Formo and her eyes became resolute.
Soon the dramatic moment arrived when Armo and the search party sat in a row on the windowsill. Formo was so overcome with emotion that he even welled up with tears and threw himself into Armo’s embrace.
[Sob, Armo……! You really came!]
[I’m glad you’re safe, Formo. You must have been very scared, right?]
[……Mm.]
At the question full of worry, Formo answered half-heartedly. Honestly, when he reflected on the days spent with that damn human, the one who had acted scary wasn’t him but Formo. And that damn human seemed to have felt a little, just a little, fear toward him.
So the one who was scared wasn’t him but that damn human. Formo wanted to explain that, but he kept his beak shut, thinking no one would believe him.
[You must have had such a hard time being trapped here…… You’ve been through a lot, Formo.]
Armo patted Formo’s shoulder gently.
[Let’s leave quickly. If we’re late, we might get caught.]
[That’s right, Formo-nim. If we’re caught by those vicious jaguars, there’s no telling what might happen to us. They’re so ferocious and cruel that they can even take down the fearsome crocodiles. Let’s hurry before we’re discovered!]
Formo, who had been putting his feet into the light basket that the search party had brought, hesitated at the unbelievable word.
[……Jaguars?]
Jaguars? What jaguars were in this place? Formo had never once seen a jaguar during his stay here. He hadn’t seen a single hair of the terrifying beast.
‘……Wait.’
Only then did the large paw prints and the tail of something he’d seen a few days ago come to mind. He’d completely forgotten about it because his attention had been solely focused on that damn human, but could those really have been traces of a jaguar, a ferocious beast? Formo’s beak began to gradually fall open as he realized this fact.
[Oh my, Formo-nim. Don’t tell me you didn’t know? This is the Tersium Empire’s villa, so jaguars are always stationed here. Since you’ve been staying here for quite a while, I naturally assumed you knew…… Don’t tell me those utterly wicked jaguars have been deceiving Formo-nim all this time?]
At the words of Lecho, a long-tailed tit from the search party, Formo’s pupils trembled violently. So did that mean he’d been staying among jaguars all this time? But that damn human wasn’t a jaguar…… Or could he have been a jaguar too?
Formo, whose beak trembled slightly, recalled the gaze that had seemed like a beast’s and the sharp fangs he’d seen between Serdin’s lips. And even that intimidating body scent…… His feeling hadn’t been wrong.
[Formo, we need to go quickly. We don’t have time for this.]
Armo urged her foolish younger brother, who was spacing out with his beak still hanging open.
[……Huh, gasp. Armo-nim! There’s a jaguar down there!]
While Formo was putting his feet into the basket with a dazed face, Peno, a long-tailed tit who had been surveying the surroundings, alerted them to the danger in a small voice. At those words, Armo stuck her head out and looked below.
Just as Peno said, below the building was a jaguar with bulging muscles prowling around while surveying the surroundings. All the long-tailed tits except Formo gulped and waited for the right moment. Though time was of the essence, acting carefully would result in less damage in case of failure than moving rashly and ruining things.
They killed time huddled together, waiting for the jaguar to disappear. Soon, when the bulky jaguar moved to another location, the long-tailed tits who had been waiting for their chance became busy.
[Formo, hurry!]
[Let’s go quickly, Formo-nim!]
Formo’s body slipped completely into the basket. The long-tailed tits wrapped the straps connected to the basket around their chests and tied each other’s straps tightly. Finally, having completed all preparations, Arancha’s valiant long-tailed tits began a vigorous takeoff with determined eyes.
The long-tailed tits spread their wings wide and flapped powerfully. Moving their wings with the thought that jaguars were chasing them from behind, they could advance at several times their usual speed.
Meanwhile, Formo was still unable to collect himself. During this historic moment of returning to Arancha, he was tasting only bitterness rather than being overwhelmed with emotion or moved.
‘Was that damn human really a jaguar?’
How could that be? Jaguars and other feline beasts were their natural enemies. Weren’t beasts the apex predators of the food chain, hunting small animals like flying birds and running rabbits?
And Formo was prey who had spent quite a long time stuck with such a predator. Moreover, he wasn’t just a beast but a beast beastman. A beast beastman said to be scarier than beasts themselves.
The basket carrying Formo was briefly placed on a tree branch. The long-tailed tits, who had settled in a tree beyond the villa building, looked around to check if there were any jaguars. Fortunately, the surroundings were quiet. They couldn’t particularly hear the sounds of beasts moving either.
Still, there was such a thing as “what if.” The cautious Armo listened as carefully as possible, double and triple checking until the very end, then nodded to the long-tailed tits.
[Let’s head to the gate now.]
Having finished their rest and vigilance, the long-tailed tits spread their wings again at Armo’s words and leaped into the sky.
[Formo, you’re okay, right?]
Armo, who had been flying in the lead, glanced at Formo’s complexion and asked worriedly. His already pale face had become even more ashen. He must have suffered tremendous mental anguish while staying with the jaguars.
[……Mm. I’m fine.]
Formo replied gloomily and hung his head low. He wasn’t just dazed from betrayal and fear alone. The biggest problem that had made him fall silent was shame. Since the damn human he had been acting unprecedentedly ferocious toward had actually been a beast, his past behavior couldn’t help but be shameful.
He had been completely arrogant, thinking the other party would find him scary, but who knew that past would be this embarrassing and regretful? If he saw a mouse hole, he wanted to make a reasonable agreement with the mouse, slip inside, and hide for a whole week.
lol