Chapter 9: Fishing

“Rise and shine!”

I shot up from where I was buried in my tail.
A child’s fatigue vanishes after just a little sleep, and I can guarantee I woke up with a clearer mind than ever before.

‘Is this Eonni’s room?’

I looked around and realized the place I woke up in wasn’t my room.

The last thing I remember was waking up in the middle of the night, excitedly doodling, and then falling asleep.
The beds in our sisters’ room are all single-sized, so I naturally thought Eonni would have moved me to my room, but it seemed she didn’t.

‘Then how did Eonni sleep?’

‘Did she sleep while holding me?’

I am huge.
Of course, I don’t mean tall like Eonni, but that the space I take up is huge compared to my body.
The reason, needless to say, is my super big tail, and thanks to this proud, fluffy tail, I take up almost twice the space of my body.

‘It must have been uncomfortable to hug someone this big on a single bed… but I feel like Eonni would have figured out a way.’
‘Because Eonni is a smart and cool wolf.’

“Heehee.”

Suddenly, I remembered the masterpiece I drew yesterday, and my mood brightened.

A picture of me, Eonni, Dad, and Mom.
And I even wrote our names coolly… well, I couldn’t finish writing them all, but I still wrote them somewhat coolly.

‘Did Eonni see it?’

‘Of course she saw it, it was such a well-drawn picture!’

I close my eyes and picture the drawing I made.
The four cool wolves I drew with a pencil, big and bold on top of the work Eonni was on all night, roaring….

‘Work?’

“Uh, oh….”

A sudden chill ran down my spine.
Goosebumps covered my whole body, and the fur on my tail stood on end.
My body froze like a stone.

‘Come to think of it, that’s right.’
‘There’s no way she’d just put documents and books with difficult writing on her desk and stare at them all night, so of course she must have been doing something with them.’
‘And based on my past life experience, things like this were usually very important.’

‘And I doodled on it!’

I even put a lot of pressure on the pencil to add shading, coloring it in with all my might.
‘Even if I tried to erase it, given the poor quality of paper in this world, it was highly likely it wouldn’t be restored to its original state.’

“Huk…!”

‘Eonni was a gentle and kind person.’
‘So even though her all-night work was ruined because of me, she must have just put me on the bed without waking me up.’
‘And then she probably sighed while looking at the documents that were no longer usable.’

When my thoughts reached that point, my conscience pricked me so much I couldn’t move.
‘Eonni looks out for me and worries about me, but all I do as her younger sister is ruin her work.’

‘I’m a failure as a wolf!’

‘A fox, no, worse than a fox… yes, a hamster.’
‘I’m no different from an arctic hamster.’

Tears trickled down my face.
The door opened.

“Seol-ah? When did you wake up….”

“Waaaaaah, Eonni, I’m a hamsterrrrr…..”

“…So that’s why you said you were a hamster?”

“Mhm….”

Eonni wiped the tears from around my eyes.
She even picked out the sleep from my eyes.
But even after my vision cleared, I didn’t have the courage to look at Eonni.

‘After causing a huge accident like getting lost in the forest, I haven’t learned a thing and caused another one.’
‘At this rate, I don’t even know if I’m really a reincarnated person.’
I apologized to Eonni in a tiny voice.

“I’m sorry….”

“Seol-ah… that wasn’t that important. You don’t have to be so sorry.”

‘That’s a lie.’
‘Judging from my more than twenty-something years of past-life memories, documents filled with such difficult writing are definitely important.’
‘Moreover, since she must have worked on it all night, Eonni’s effort was in there too.’
‘But that…’

‘Eonni is probably lying that it wasn’t important to comfort me.’
But that consideration was instead becoming poison to me.

Tears gushed out again.

“I’m sooorrrryyy….”

“Haha… Seol-ah. Want some candy?”

“Yes!”

‘Huk.’

When I failed to control my expression and broke into a grin, Eonni smiled back at me.
‘It was all Eonni’s ploy.’
‘I’m not even a kid, and yet I fell for an offensive of food!’

‘If you laugh while crying, you’ll grow hair on your butt.’

‘…Come to think of it, I already had hair on my butt.’
‘My super big, fluffy tail fur.’

I accepted the candy that Eonni had kept in her pocket.
It was the same as always, a special candy of the wolf tribe made by processing ice treats.

Munch, munch.

Just like the original ice treat, the candy was sweet and cool.
It’s a bit harder than an ice treat, but still soft enough to crunch on.

“Hehe….”

Eating something sweet made me feel better.
Eonni picked me up as I wagged my tail like crazy, stroking my head as she spoke.

“It really wasn’t important, so you don’t have to worry. In fact, Eonni loved the picture Seol-ah drew because it was so cool.”

“It was cool…?”

“Of course!”

I looked at Eonni and asked.
My eyes were probably sparkling.

“How cool was it…?”

“As big as the sky and the earth, as big as Seol-ah’s tail.”

“Huk…!”

‘My tail is super big.’
‘To say it was as cool as my tail means it was really, really cool.’
Hearing Eonni’s praise, my spirits began to soar.
‘High enough to pierce the sky and the clouds!’

‘I take back what I said earlier.’
‘I’m not a hamster, I’m a cool wolf!’
‘A strong, cool wolf who’s also good at drawing!’

I looked up at the sky and howled to express my happiness.

“Awooo~”

“Ahaha….”

Eonni started moving while holding me.
Seeing the direction we were headed, it seemed we were going outside, so I looked back at Eonni, tilted my head, and asked.

“Where are we going?”

“Remember the wyvern we caught a while ago? Today’s the day we trade its meat for the fish the Polar Bear Mister caught. That’s why everyone’s been working hard since this morning. We’re going there.”

“Are you giving him the rabbit I caught, too?”

‘If that huge mister eats a rabbit, it surely won’t even tickle his stomach.’
‘Actually, rather than that worry, I was just unhappy that the prey I caught was going to the mister.’

Eonni chuckled lightly and shook her head.

“No. The rabbit Seol-ah caught belongs to Seol-ah, so Seol-ah should eat it. It’ll be for dinner tonight, so you can look forward to it.”

“Keng!”

‘A howl of joy!’

For the wolf beastkins’ meals, meat is usually served, naturally.
Vegetables are served very occasionally, but due to the climate, the variety is very limited, so in the end, only meat is served on the table all the time.

Even so, you get tired of eating only one type of food, so the wolf beastkins try to prepare as wide a variety of food as possible, and this barter is part of that effort.

The wolf beastkins get meat with their excellent hunting skills, and the Polar Bear Mister catches fish with his excellent swimming skills.
And by trading a portion of it, they fulfill each other’s needs.

‘…Actually, I can’t imagine the Polar Bear Mister swimming.’
‘No matter how I think about it, if he fell into the water with that huge body, I feel like he’d go splash and cause a tidal wave.’

I was imagining the Polar Bear Mister with his huge, chubby body freely doing the butterfly and freestyle strokes, when I suddenly came to my senses and my stomach was growling.

‘Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.’

“Eonni, I’m hungry.”

“Wait just a little longer. We’re going to eat right there.”

“Right there?”

Without answering, Eonni just chuckled and stroked my head.
‘I don’t like having my head stroked!’

In the very center of our tribe’s village, several wolf beastkins were moving about busily.
Some were moving large barrels filled with fish, and others were moving barrels filled with raw meat…
Today was a clear day with no snow, so the work seemed to be going smoothly.

Even though it was clear, when the wind blew, my ears would get so cold I’d have to duck down, but anyway, for the north, this was considered very good weather.

I got down from Eonni’s arms and ran across the snowy field.

“Mister!”

“Hm? What’s this, why are you so late? The fishing rod must be all frozen over with snow by now.”

“The fishing rod?!”

Just as I was about to approach the mister, my body was hoisted high into the air.
Eonni had lifted me up by the scruff of my neck.
I looked at Eonni, wagging my tail gently.

“Time to eat.”

“Ah!”

‘Right, we were supposed to eat here.’
I didn’t know what on earth we were eating, but I followed Eonni, constantly wagging my tail from side to side.

Where I followed Eonni to, there was a wyvern being dismantled.

A raw wyvern carcass, that is.

It seemed the blood had all been drained, but watching the meat being butchered in real-time didn’t seem very good for my mental state.

“Eueh… surely we’re not eating that?”

“Huhu, of course not, Seol-ah. Look over there.”

Where Eonni pointed, there was a pit dug to block the wind, with a bonfire lit inside, and a salty, savory smell was wafting from it.

‘This smell is…!’

“Fish!”

“That’s right. Let’s hurry up and eat.”

I quickly ran over and ate the fish being grilled over the bonfire.
It was just grilled with a bit of salt at most, but eating it with Eonni made it so delicious.

After devouring the grilled fish that Eonni deboned for me in an instant, I looked at her and asked.

“What now?”

“Hmm… Eonni has to work here, so does Seol-ah want to go play and fish with the mister?”

“No, I want to work too!”

‘As a proud member of the wolf tribe, it was only natural to work alongside the other tribe members.’
But Eonni just stroked my head and said there was no need for that.

“Why?!”

I said, on the verge of tears.
‘I’m a grown-up wolf too, so why can’t I help with the work?’

At that, Eonni chuckled, then answered while combing my wind-blown hair with her fingers.

“Seol-ah has been given the mission to catch fish with the Polar Bear Mister to feed the wolf beastkins. It’s a very grave mission.”

“A-a mission?”

“Of course. Seol-ah is a cool wo…lf, so you can do it well, right? Eonni is counting only on Seol-ah, okay?”

‘Huk….’

‘Eonni is counting on me.’
My heart is pounding.
My tail fluffs up.
I nodded my head eagerly and answered.

“Yes! Because I’m a cool wolf!”

I immediately ran across the snowy field to the Polar Bear Mister.