Episode 19
Brody tilted her head.
Usually, when one introduces a woman he loves, doesn’t he talk about her beauty or lovely features?
Zelda Arsha’s rich and shiny dark brown hair, golden eyes shining like a burning Venus, exceptionally beautiful face, tall height, thin and healthy body.
A personality that was cold when it was necessary, but was also infinitely soft when it came to things that were weak and cute.
Plus, she has a straight and upright character….If she were to praise her beauty, she could write a whole book.
But was he really going to leave out all this talk and just talk about her combat power and other things like that?
Well, of course, Zelda’s strength, leadership, and excellent rational thinking skills were also attractive aspects.
Brody was also familiar with the novel, and she also acknowledged Kyle’s praise. However….
The way Kyle just described Zelda seemed like he was introducing a colleague rather than a woman he loved.
Brody walked slowly and was lost in thought as she began to question his feelings for Zelda, when she suddenly looked up and saw Kyle struggling on the floor in front of her.
Why was he doing that?
Kyle was digging the floor with his front paws and looking closely at something.
She became curious, so she ran over to see what he had dug, and saw that some black lumps that looked like rocks had gathered there.
“What is this?”
After asking her, Kyle rolled the lumps around and sniffed them.
Brody, who had already figured out its identity, spoke to Kyle, who was sticking his nose into the lump as if he had discovered something suspicious.
“Kyle.”
“Why.”
“Don’t touch that.”
“What is this?”
Brody’s gaze became a little pitiful.
“That’s shit.”
“…….”
Kyle’s body suddenly stiffened when he realized that what he had been touching and rolling was actually a lump of poop.
But he soon raised his head with a face feigning calm.
And in an effort to get out of this awkward situation naturally, he asked Brody a question he wasn’t even curious about.
“What kind of animal is it?”
“Musk Ox.”
“Musk Ox? It’s a beast I’ve never heard of before.”
When Kyle tilted his head, Brody shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s a beast that looks exactly like a goat grandfather.”
The fact that there was animal excrement, whether from the goat grandfather or the goat grandmother, meant that this was no longer a land where not a single animal lived, like the areas they had passed through.
Brody realized that they had entered the territory of the musk ox tribe and looked around.
Seeing that the poop had been buried in the snow for so long that it was frozen and odorless, it was clear that there were no musk oxen nearby.
It wouldn’t matter either way if she was alone, but Brody was now with Kyle, a wolf.
They had to pass this place quickly so as not to get on the nerves of the musk oxen, who were extremely wary of predators.
Brody stopped Kyle, who was swallowing his saliva when he heard that there was a ‘beast’ like a goat grandfather nearby, from getting his imagination too far.
“If you’re thinking of killing and eating a musk ox, stop it. Musk oxen are pack animals, so you can’t hunt them alone.”
“Huh. I can catch an old grandfather goat by disturbing them.”
Brody laughed at the sight of Kyle snorting and speaking confidently.
“Even if that old goat weighs over 300 kilograms, would you be able to catch it?”
“300 kilograms?”
Kyle’s eyes widened in surprise. No matter how heavy he was, 300 kilograms was a very distant number for a wolf that weighed over 70 kilograms.
Brody urged Kyle, who was frozen, to stop dreaming and leave as it was not a beast that could be dealt with alone.
Fortunately, while crossing the musk ox territory, they did not encounter any landowners.
Moreover, unlike the north, where even the trees were frozen white and Kyle’s blue-black fur was immediately visible, this was an area bordering the southernmost tip of the relatively temperate continent of Asgar.
Since all the trees were only slightly covered in soft snow, it would not have been easy for Kyle to be spotted even if there were musk oxen nearby.
Thanks to this, they were able to reach the end of the musk ox’s territory with peace of mind rather than worry.
***
Compared to the north, where everything was frozen solid due to the Kalks Mountains, the air in the south was definitely warmer.
Kyle, who was walking next to Brody as he looked at the map, realized that he could no longer feel the wind that had been whipping them like a knife for a few days.
According to Brody, the south of Asgar was a place where you could see seasonal changes, unlike the north, where it was midwinter all the time.
At first he thought it made no sense, but now he realize that there really was a season called summer.
Kyle found a fallen tree in front of Brody, who was walking with her face buried in the map, and picked her up by the backpack she was carrying.
Then he passed the log and put her back on the ground and asked.
“Hey. But you said we had to pass by the glacier lake at the end of this old grandfather goat’s territory. The water there didn’t melt, right?”
In response to Kyle’s worried question, Brody smiled and waved her hand as if she could hear all the strange things.
“Hey, why would that water melt?”
“Because of the weather?”
But Brody confidently told him not to worry.
“It’s okay. Even if it’s melted, we can go down the path below the cliff.”
“The road under the cliff?”
“Aha. The glacial lake is on top of a cliff. In the first place, the cliff acts as a natural embankment, so even if the water melts, there is no problem with the road below the cliff.”
“Hmm, really?”
“Of course. Just trust this guide, Brody.”
When Brody patted her chest with her soft, bat-like paw and told him not to worry…
Sniff.
Suddenly, Kyle stopped dead it his tracks, turned his head behind Brody, and sniffed.
“What’s the matter?”
In response to Brody’s question, Kyle repeatedly stuck his snout around her and sniffed.
“It smells strange.”
“Wh-what smell?”
“A little… stench.”
“That can’t be possible!”
Brody suddenly screamed as if something had stabbed her.
“My farts don’t smell that bad! Besides, I just farted over there just now!”
She was jumping up and down in frustration, constantly fiddling with her buttocks with her short front paws as if trying to cover them.
Kyle looked at Brody with a slightly cold face, and then pushed her with his front paw as she squirmed under him.
Then he walked past the spot where she had just been standing, walked over to the tree behind her, smelled it, and muttered.
“I think there’s a beast nearby.”
Kyle craned his neck and looked around. A light flashed in his eyes as he looked closely at the forest.
He smelled the scent in the tree again and started following the traces of the animal that had been there.
Hoping it was an animal he could catch and eat.
Meanwhile, Brody, who had been stabbed by herself and had said something she shouldn’t have said, followed Kyle and sniffed the tree, but when a really bad smell hit her nose, she was startled and rubbed her nose with her front paw.
Then she suddenly realized that this smell was similar to musk and raised her head.
“!”
This must have been the smell of a musk ox.
Brody covered her mouth when she saw Kyle, who had already gone far away, following the scent and wagging his tail.
“Gasp, Kyle!”
For fear that there might be a musk ox nearby, she couldn’t make a loud noise, so she ran towards him, calling him in a low voice.
But before she could catch up, Kyle saw an animal wandering alone among the tall fir trees.
It was a beast whose entire body was black and reminiscent of a water buffalo.
What made it different from a water buffalo was that it was covered in long, shaggy fur and was much smaller than a water buffalo.
Kyle was certain that this was the musk ox that Brody had mentioned.
However, despite her strong warning, it was smaller than his own body.
He tilted his head to see the musk ox snooping alone among the trees without even noticing his presence, and soon realized that the musk ox had no horns on its forehead.
It was a cub.
That musk ox was now a cub wandering alone without its mother.
This meant that it was the perfect opportunity for him, a predator.
Kyle immediately lowered himself. The plan was to quietly approach the young musk ox in the distance and attack it.
However, this ambitious plan was completely ruined by the sound that followed.
Brody, who was following him in a hurry, stepped on a tree branch without realizing it and broke it with a crack, shattering the silence of the forest.
Only then did the startled musk ox raise its head, look around, and make eye contact with the predator that was targeting it.
Kyle, who was discovered, had no choice but to run straight toward the baby musk ox.
The young musk ox found Kyle and began to run away.
“Kyle, where are you going!”
Brody shouted as he saw Kyle suddenly running away.
However, he had not been able to eat meat since eating seals, and since he was obsessed with food he had not seen in a long time, he could only eagerly chase the baby musk ox.
While the young musk ox was running as fast as it could to avoid predators, it suddenly disappeared beneath the ground.
Kyle ran to the place where the musk ox disappeared in an instant, and saw the baby musk ox tumbling down the gentle slope that started in front of him.
Soon the musk ox calf stood up. But there wasn’t just a musk ox calf at the bottom of the downhill.
In the snow at the bottom of the hill, which he had not seen before, a herd of black musk oxen covered the bleached ground with complete blackness.
The herd of musk oxen looked up at the predator following their cubs.
They were individually twice as big as Kyle.
Not only did they have a massive body, but the tips of their horns, which curved down from their forehead and stretched out threateningly, looked strong and sharp even when viewed from a distance.
Kyle took a step back, stunned by the number that suddenly attacked his field of vision.
He was always with the pack when dealing with animals gathered in groups like that.
But now he was completely alone, and even the musk oxen noticed this.
Normally, they would have instinctively put the cubs into the adult group and surrounded it like a barrier to fight off predators, but now they began to come together aggressively.
It was a movement against the predator that tried to mess with their young and invaded their territory.
Countless angry gazes were focused on him and his position as the one chasing changed.
***
TL:
This chapter is such a mood ( ╹▽╹ )
Edit: This chapter and the next 10 chapters are sponsored by Aphoditie, thank you so much dear for the kofi❤️
