Episode 22
***
It was about a month after they began their long journey that the two arrived at the final destination on the continent of Asgar, ‘Port Apen’.
As they passed a wide plain lined with fir trees like a folding screen, a fence made of carved wood appeared before them.
This was also the boundary line that signified the emergence of a home for beastmen living in human form.
Kyle sniffed around and headed into the woods beyond the fence, then asked Brody.
“Whose territory is this land?”
Then Brody answered.
“The Apen Port is not anyone’s territory. That’s why people from various tribes live there.”
“Hmm. Really?”
Brody and Kyle walked through the forest toward where the scent of the ocean filled the air.
And after a while, they arrived at the head of the forest, overlooking the distant dock.
In front of the dock, where old and shabby shops stood in the sea breeze, large and small fishing boats were anchored.
The North Sea that stretched out behind it was dark blue under heavy dark clouds.
There were people on the dock. Kyle’s eyes naturally turned to the people, and then he frowned at a few people who suddenly caught his eye.
The men loitering around the dock looked unusual.
Their heights and massive sizes, which were much larger than those of ordinary people, made them resemble giants. Even Kyle, who was of average height and build, felt intimidated by them.
Swallowing his tension, he asked Brody.
“Hey, what are those giants?”
“Giants? Where? Where?”
Brody, who had been holding her two front paws together like binoculars and watching the fishing boats, heard Kyle’s words and looked in the direction he was pointing at with curiosity.
Brody, who soon discovered the people Kyle was pointing at, also gasped in surprise.
“Wow, they really are giants!”
Her voice expressed more excitement than tension. But that didn’t last long.
Brody, who soon realized their true identity, looked up at Kyle with a slightly bewildered expression. Then she swallowed hard and said.
“Kyle, those guys look like moose.”
“Moose?”
For Kyle, who was from the South, it was a name he had never heard before. Brody noticed this and explained in more detail.
“They are called Mohawks, one of the deer tribes living on the continent of Asgard.”
In fact, she had never actually seen a moose before.
But because she had heard about them from her father, who was a traveler, she could immediately recall those memories when she saw them.
“Honestly, they are just deer in name, not in strength or attack in which they are said to be close to that of beasts. When they transform into their animal form and get angry, even a bear cannot touch them. They are also so large that when my father encountered them in the forest, it was terrifying in itself.”
“Just how big are they?”
“They are said to be taller and bigger than a horse. It is also said that their horns are enormous, as wide and flat as the palm of a hand.”
Brody looked serious and spread her short front legs out to the side to gauge their size.
Of course, Kyle was a bit nervous about what she was saying, but he understood the point.
“Anyway, the port of Apen is completely controlled by those moose. All the ships are in their hands. In short, they are the gangsters and real power in this area.”
Gangsters. It was a name that suited those huge men very well.
Kyle thought it would be best to avoid encountering them if possible, but he soon realized that that was impossible.
They had to board a ship at this port.
Still, he wondered if there might be another way, so he called Brody.
“Hey.”
“…….”
“Hey.”
Brody didn’t answer.
No, she muttered quietly as she made binoculars with her forelegs again and watched the moose.
“But those guys are really handsome. They’re so big and really cool.”
Kyle closed his eyes. He was doing well, but soon his instincts took over, and he gritted his teeth at the sight of the horny rabbit talking nonsense about this and that brother.
This **** rabbit was really….
“Aren’t you going to come to your senses?”
When he said that with a growl, Brody flinched and only then did she slowly lower her sinister binoculars.
She looked up at him with an embarrassed face and said.
“I was just saying. Actually, Brody is scared of those guys too.”
Kyle’s face twisted at the sight of her trembling body and the frightened expression within her bleary eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something to her.
“You keep….”
But the conversation was interrupted midway.
Kyle suddenly heard a faint sound from somewhere and immediately turned around.
“…….”
There was no one in the forest. No one was around except him and Brody.
His ears twitched. He must have misheard the sound of the wind.
He missed the chance to get angry at Brody because of being distracted for a moment, so he turned to her and asked the question he had been planning to ask her a moment ago.
“If we want to go to the Knohen Continent, we have to take a ship from this port.”
“Huh.”
Brody nodded.
“Then will those thugs allow us to board the ship?”
“They won’t! In the first place, the boat fare to the southern continent is incredibly expensive. Do you think they’ll let us, who don’t even have money, on board?”
Brody spoke in a tone as if to say ‘It is so obvious’.
Kyle, who was momentarily dumbfounded at the sight of her being so confident on such a topic, barely managed to pull himself together.
Then, while suppressing his rising blood pressure, he asked again calmly.
“Then… how do you plan on getting on a ship?”
“We have to sneak onto a ship going to the southern continent to sell goods.”
“What?”
He doubted his ears.
Was that possible?
But Brody waved her forelegs as if it was nothing, looking at his face full of disbelief.
“It’s okay. When my dad went on a trip to the southern continent, he hid in the luggage compartment without permission.”
Kyle looked at the dock in the distance at her words.
Even if that rabbit woman who had no fear was small and could somehow sneak up on a ship, How could he, who was much larger, board a ship without being noticed by people?
Besides, he wondered if it would be possible to hide in a luggage compartment with this body and survive without being caught.
He was reluctant to agree to the rabbit’s method because he didn’t like it, so he asked her later.
“Isn’t there any other way than to sneak on? It might be better to just steal a boat and go on it.”
Brody shrugged.
“Do you know how to sail?”
“We just have to follow the wind.”
“The wind is blowing south?”
Brody spoke as if she was genuinely curious, but to Kyle, the question felt like a derision.
He turned his head away, embarrassed, and replied as if he was just joking.
“You never know. If we’re lucky, we might even meet a Wishing Whale along the way.”
The Wishing Whale is a creature in Asgardian mythology. It is called the ‘Wishing Whale’ because it saves those in trouble at sea and grants their wishes.
But Brody, who was actually an Asgardian, covered her mouth with her two front paws and laughed.
She said.
“A Wishing whale. That’s a story that five-year-olds believe in.”
Kyle glared at Brody, who kept giggling. She was the legendary Clock Rabbit from a story even a five-year-old wouldn’t believe in.
He got annoyed and turned around, telling her to stop laughing.
But Kyle, who had turned around, suddenly raised his head at the faint sound he heard from before.
This time the sound was quite loud, so Brody was startled and froze.
The two stood there like that and looked at each other.
Kyle listened without moving an inch.
The sound of something scratching his ear was like a squeak or a cry of pain.
Kyle’s sharp gaze quickly swept through the forest before him.
There was still no one in the forest, but they were sure that there was something else around here besides themselves.
“Is it a bird?”
When Brody asked quietly, almost in a whisper, Kyle shook his head.
“It sounds like a beast to me.”
In fact, he wished that was the case.
The two heard an unidentified sound and walked towards the source.
Because the sound continued intermittently, they ware able to follow it without losing it.
But as they went on, it really started to sound like an animal. The squeaking sounded like the moaning of a baby animal.
“The smell is getting stronger.”
Kyle looked up as he followed the scent along the trees and ground. Then, Brody, who was walking ahead on the right, quietly called out to him.
“Kyle, look at this.”
What Brody pointed at with her forelegs were footprints. Judging from the shape of the hooves in the snow, it was that of a deer.
Kyle blew air into his nose. The possibility that it might be an edible animal grew stronger.
Filled with motivation, he hurried his steps.
The source of the sound was discovered unexpectedly quickly.
They found the owner of it groaning and unable to move, his body lying under a large tree that had fallen as if struck by lightning.
He was a reindeer.
At the same time, he was also a beastman.
“Please, save me…”
“Oh my god!”
Brody was so surprised to see the reindeer lying under the tree that she ran towards him in a panic.
On the other hand, Kyle, who had been desperately looking for the animal until just a moment ago, was disappointed as soon as he saw him.
The fact that he was a beast and not a human had ruined his appetite.
All the seagulls and seals that Kyle has caught and eaten so far have been animals, not beastmen.
Not all carnivorous creatures were like this, but most of them had no interest in eating other beastmen unless they were absolutely starving to death.
It was because of their reluctance to eat their own kind. Of course, they would kill them if they had murderous intent towards them.
There were exceptions though.
Kyle turned away indifferently, knowing that the reindeer was not a beast that would fill his stomach whether it died or not.
But unlike Kyle, Brody soon went to the reindeer to check on his condition.
“Excuse me, are you okay?”
It didn’t seem like it had even been a day since he had been laid down, but he looked extremely exhausted, as if he had used up all his strength from struggling.
“Hey, help me….”
The groaning reindeer looked at Brody with pitiful eyes.
But seeing the rabbit in front
of him, he immediately added as if he was sure she couldn’t get him out from under the tree.
“Please bring someone….”
Brody had already tried to lift the large tree to free the reindeer, but when it didn’t budge, she immediately called Kyle.
“Kyle! Come here!”
