Episode 20
Brody, who had been following Kyle without knowing what to do, stopped when she saw Kyle, who was standing far away, suddenly turn towards her and run like crazy.
“Kyle…?”
There was something strange about the way he was running. As if being chased by something….
“Run away!”
Kyle left that one word and walked past her.
Along with that, black objects were seen running up from where Kyle had been standing a moment ago.
But while she looked away for a moment1To see the rushing Kyle.., the number of things that had been one or two increased exponentially in an instant.
Only then did Brody realize that the enormous number of dark objects was a herd of musk oxen.
She screamed as she saw cows2She once said they resemble goats, too, so a mixture of the two of them it seems. the size of a house rushing towards her in a herd so large that it covered the horizon.
“Aaaah!”
Brody panicked and started running after Kyle.
When she ran with all her might and caught up with Kyle, she shouted at him, who had dragged the herd after him.
“How on earth did this happen?”
Then Kyle got annoyed with her again.
“**** rabbit, it’s because of you!”
Kyle was quick to criticize her even as they ran away, saying that if she hadn’t been so noisy, he would have ended up eating the baby musk ox.
“But where are we going now?”
When she came to her senses, she saw that they were now running back the way they had come earlier.
In short, they were heading deep into musk ox territory. Brody, realizing this, said to Kyle.
“Kyle! We have to go in the opposite direction! If we go any further from here, the musk oxen will run rampant!”
It was natural for the musk oxen to gnash their teeth and chase after them, as they were already going further inside as if laughing at them who were trying to drive out the intruders out of the territory.
Brody and Kyle immediately changed direction. As a result, the distance between them and the musk oxen chasing them became shorter, but there was nothing they could do.
Kyle asked Brody.
“How far did you say the musk ox territory extends?”
“All we have to do is to cross the glacial lake! After that, they won’t follow us again!”
“You’re sure we can cross that glacial lake, right?”
“Of course!”
Brody answered confidently. However, as they ran towards the ice lake, they both heard an unusual sound coming from somewhere.
Shaaaa-.
“What?”
It wasn’t the sound of the wind passing through the forest. It wasn’t even the sound of those following behind them.
It was the sound of something pouring out non-stop.
And if there was a place around here that a sound like this could be heard….
“!”
Kyle and Brody looked at each other with confused faces.
This was definitely the sound of water. As soon as they realized this, they ran through the forest at full speed towards the place where they heard the sound.
When they arrived at the source, the two opened their mouths at the sight unfolding before them.
“Crazy…!”
A huge river was blocking the way. Kyle turned his head and looked up at the top of the cliff that was pouring out enough water to create this large river.
‘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.’
The natural embankment Brody had mentioned was nowhere to be found.
The cliff was already pouring out chunks of ice that had melted from the glacial lake like a waterfall.
“You **** rabbit! You told me to just trust you! You said the road down there will be okay!”
Kyle shouted, realizing that they had no hope of crossing the rapidly flowing down the river. He looked like he was going to grab her by the collar.
But Brody just stood there frozen, like a startled squirrel, with her front paws awkwardly raised and her mouth wide open.
“What are we going to do now!”
“…….”
She had no answer. Kyle couldn’t bear this situation with no way out and screamed.
“Ahh!”
Right now, the musk oxen were following closely behind them.
If he didn’t want to be stabbed to death by their horns or crushed to death by the weight of 300 kilograms, he had to find a way to survive.
The moment he despaired of the fact that no matter how hard he racked his brain, there was no solution…
He suddenly looked up and saw huge chunks of ice passing in front of him.
Looking back at the cliff, he saw that the ice layer that had covered the glacial lake upstream continued to slide down.
Kyle turned his attention to the ice floes flowing along the river.
The ice floes that were swept away by the rapid currents were unable to continue going down the river and gathered at the steep shore.
Kyle’s blue eyes flashed as he confirmed this.
He has now come up with a very dangerous and ingenious idea. A crazy smile appeared on his lips.
It was like the smile he wore when he was a child and often did dangerous things.
Kyle tapped the body of the rabbit standing next to him. Brody, who came to her senses, slowly blinked and looked at him, as if she still had trouble grasping reality.
Of course, Kyle, who was not at all interested in Brody’s mentality, pointed out an ice floe floating under the waterfall to her.
“Do you see that ice?”
“Uh? Yeah….”
Brody nodded absentmindedly. Then Kyle smiled horribly and said,
“When I say, ‘Jump!,’ you jump on that ice, okay?”
“….What?”
Brody looked at Kyle as if he was crazy.
But Kyle, whose eyes had already rolled back, turned his head away without another word.
The ice floe he had spotted was being swept away by the current. After seeing him bend down and get ready to jump, Brody finally realized that what he said was true and shouted with a terrified face.
“No! I can’t jump! How am I supposed to jump to over there?”
“You can just jump!”
He was crazy.
“That’s easier said than done! Can’t you see that current? If we fall into the water, we could die!”
“Then what are we going to do? Are we going to get caught and beaten up by those guys?”
Kyle shouted. True to his words, the ground was shaking due to the herds of musk oxen getting closer and closer.
Kyle ignored Brody, who was at a loss for what to do in this helpless situation, and lowered his body, glaring at the ice floe he had set his eyes on as if it was a prey.
He took the posture just before jumping or running.
The moment Brody saw it, they shouted at the same time.
“Jump!”
“No!”
Kyle jumped up with a powerful kick. And just as the drifting ice floe passed right below him, Kyle managed to get on top of it.
It was truly incredible agility. His back foot slipped slightly, but he immediately hit the ice with his claws and held on.
But when he got up there, he suddenly heard a scream coming from an unexpected place, so he quickly turned around.
“Kyle!”
The rabbit was still on land.
In the end, she was unable to jump and was desperately calling out to him as she ran along the riverbank, following him as he was swept away by the currents.
He shouted at her as he fidgeted.
That **** rabbit was real!
“Jump on the ice coming down over there!”
“No! I can’t do it!”
Brody cried and shouted.
However, Kyle screamed at the top of his voice when he saw that the musk oxen had reached the river and were running towards her as if they were going to attack her.
“Can’t you see those guys behind you? Jump quickly, jump quickly!”
There was no other chance but now.
Brody’s face was soaked with tears as she ran down the riverbank.
Brody was so scared of the water that she couldn’t see its depth. She was already out of breath when she thought that she might fall into the wrong place and be carried all the way to the sea.
Since she was already so scared and her body was rigid, there was no way that she, who had no motor skills at all, would be able to land on the floating ice like Kyle.
However, if she did not run here, she would face one of two fates, either being kicked on her torso or impaled by the sharp horns of one of the musk oxen that were running towards her with their horns raised.
“Jump quickly!”
Her heart was beating like a bat.
Soon, a huge musk ox rushed towards her. Brody closed her eyes for the last time, kicked back as hard as she could, and jumped toward the ice floe that Kyle pointed to.
Her small body flew into the air.
And when Brody saw ice floes passing beneath her, she realized with her whole body…
That she had become X.
“Brody!”
When Kyle saw the rabbit that had fallen into the river, he called her name for the first time since they met.
It was really his first time.
When he was shocked and looked to see where the rabbit had fallen, he saw a white body floating from the water ahead of him and being washed down to where he was.
“Kek! Ka, Kyle!”
Brody, who had fallen into the water, screamed and flapped her front paws.
To save her, who was struggling to escape due to the rough current, Kyle went to the edge of the floating ice and stuck his claws in to support himself.
Brody’s body was being pushed towards him.
Kyle lowered his body and craned his neck. And just as Brody was passing right in front of him, he didn’t miss the chance and immediately put his snout into the water and pulled Brody out.
Brody, soaked in water, climbed onto the ice floe and vomited all the water she had consumed. She was lying face down, coughing and spitting out water as if she was out of breath.
The musk oxen that came rushing couldn’t jump into the water, but instead stood on the riverbank and looked at the intruders they had driven out.
The ice floe they were on flowed along the river until the musk oxen were out of sight, and then entered an area where the current became faster.
Then things happened really quickly.
Kyle raised his legs, which were about to give out with tension.
Then, he bit the back of Brody neck, who couldn’t even control her body properly, and went up to land through the gathered ice floe.
Brody, who was put down on land, crouched down and trembled.
Kyle stood on the floor, dusted himself off, and walked over to Brody, who was still curled up, to check on her.
“Are you okay?”
There was no way she could be okay.
Rather than the miraculous fact that she had just survived the crossroads of life and death, Brody was unable to recover from the shock of almost being swept away to death by the water.
Her heart was beating hard and her pulse was quickening. Even though she tried to calm down, her body didn’t listen.
It was an ominous sign. Her brain recognized that it would be difficult for this small body to withstand the inevitable forces of nature.
Brody sneezed loudly.
Meanwhile, Kyle, who had gone closer to Brody, who was sitting huddled and shivering, felt his vision becoming blurred and flinched back.
But after a while, as his blurred vision became clear again, he felt something strange under his front foot. He looked down at what he had stepped on.
“……..?”
Kyle narrowed his eyes.
There was no rabbit where the rabbit was supposed to be. In front of him, a woman he had never seen before was sitting naked and looking at him.
