Jirube had been observing the strange visitor’s sleeping face all morning. The sun hadn’t risen yet, so Jirube’s masters Ai Fa and Asuta were still sleeping soundly. And a short distance away from them, their odd guest was sleeping peacefully too.
The visitor’s name was Tia. She was an odd being who had been living at the Fa house for several days now.
Odd... Yes, Jirube couldn’t help but see her as such. She was a kind of creature Jirube had never encountered before.
Jirube had been born on a farm in Jagar, after which he had been taken to the western capital and had experienced a great many things next to his former master Dregg. In his role as an observer, Dregg had traveled all over, and he would always have Jirube accompany him on such trips as a guard dog.
However, Jirube had never seen a person like her in any of the places he had traveled to. She looked the same as an ordinary human. Her smell was a bit strange, like a mixture of flowers, plants, and stones, but that wasn’t especially unusual. The aura she gave off underneath that, though, differed quite a bit from other humans.
It was similar to the aura he sensed from his new master, Ai Fa, and her fellow people of the forest’s edge. Theirs were rather unusual too, which had been a great surprise to Jirube at first. The people of the forest’s edge were totally unlike townsfolk, and not just because of the smell of dirt and vegetation that clung to them. There was something completely different about who they were as people. If anything, they felt more similar to wild animals than they did the people from town.
Jirube had once encountered a beast known as an algura silver lion. Some eccentric noble had decided to keep it as a pet, and after hearing about that, Dregg had gone out of his way to see it.
“Ooh, silver lions are huge! My lion dog could never hope to compare!” Dregg had exclaimed, though there had been a clear note of frustration in his voice as he did so.
The humans referred to Jirube as a lion dog, and the reason had been obvious after encountering that silver lion. Like Jirube, there had been a fine mane around the beast’s neck. That had been the only similarity between them, though, as the beast had been around twice his size and had an entirely different aura to it. Just like humans and dogs were totally distinct creatures, this silver lion was something else entirely.
However, the silver lion had felt similar to Jirube in a different way, that being how the smell of humans had clung to it. It was the aura of a beast kept by humans. Just like Jirube and the totos that pulled carriages, in the end, the silver lion was a creature humans had raised. That had given it an aura that was nothing like the auras he sensed from the people of the forest’s edge. They actually felt more like wild beasts than domesticated animals did. Yes, wild beasts such as karon. Many karon lived on farms, like Jirube once had, but wild ones existed as well, and at some point, Jirube had gotten the chance to see one while out on the road.
“Look, it’s a wild karon! That’s a pretty rare sight!” one of the soldiers guarding Dregg’s carriage exclaimed. Hearing that, Dregg had exited the carriage in order to take a look.
The wild karon had been standing there all alone out on the plains. It hadn’t looked all that different from the karon on farms, except for the impressive horns on its head, which were cut off of farm-raised karon when they were young. And yet, it had been a whole other sort of beast entirely. It’d had splendid horns, but it had also been dirty, and its musculature had been rather different too, but above all that was the aura it had given off. The strength of a being that lived on its own in the wild without any human assistance positively radiated off its huge body.
“Hmph. What a stringy, unappetizing karon. But if we take it down, perhaps it would make an amusing souvenir,” Dregg muttered, his breath smelling strongly of wine.
Instantly, the soldiers proclaimed, “You mustn’t! Wild karon are ferocious. It would be dangerous to even get any closer to it. In fact, it would be best for us to move on before we upset it too much.”
“Hmph. What a spineless lot. And you’re supposed to be the elite of the capital?”
Despite Dregg’s derision, Jirube had agreed with the soldiers. The karon had just been standing there calmly, but the ferocity he’d sensed from the beast had been overwhelming even for him. Though he believed he would have won if he had fought with no regard for his own life, he wasn’t confident that he could have protected his master while doing so.
Wild beasts possessed a sort of strength that was unique to them, but the auras of the people of the forest’s edge were similar, and the strange girl named Tia had an aura that was even more so.
In terms of pure strength, Ai Fa was surely stronger than Tia was. When Jirube had first faced off with his current master, he had ended up tucking in his tail and cowering before her. No matter how hard Jirube fought, he could never defeat her. That difference in strength was clear right from the start.
However, Tia was even closer to a wild beast. She spoke and walked and ate like any other human, but her aura was similar to that wild karon’s. In fact, it almost felt strange that she was human in shape. And though she was weaker than Ai Fa, she was stronger than Jirube. Most hunters of the forest’s edge possessed strength that exceeded Jirube’s, and Tia was even stronger than many of them. At present, one of her legs was injured, but she would likely win in a fight between the two of them even so.
That was why Jirube had failed to protect Asuta. When Tia had attacked, he hadn’t been able to move a single step, much to his regret. Ai Fa and Asuta were Jirube’s current masters, and Asuta was about as weak as Dregg had been. Jirube had sworn that he would protect Asuta’s life, only to break that oath in just a few short days.
It wasn’t as if Jirube had cowered in fear. No, Asuta had been grabbed before he could even feel afraid. And after that, all he had been able to do was watch until Asuta had been released from Tia’s grasp.
Since Asuta and Ai Fa were very kind masters, they hadn’t scolded Jirube, but that had just made him feel all the more powerless. It might have been easier on him if they had derided him like Dregg had, in fact.
Of course, Jirube’s former master Dregg hadn’t been especially bad. He had gotten drunk often and would sometimes say unreasonable things, but he had never hit Jirube or taken away his food. No, he had treated Jirube like a sword, and had always bragged about Jirube to the people around him. Because of that, Jirube had felt great pride as a guard dog.
But Ai Fa and Asuta were much kinder. They treated Jirube as if he were their child. Just like the hunting dog Brave and the totos Gilulu, they saw him as a member of the family. He hadn’t felt like he was part of a family since he had been taken from the farm.
Asuta was important to him, as both a master and a part of his family, but Jirube had failed to protect him. And that was why he was watching Tia reproachfully this early in the morning.
But as Jirube kept on staring at Tia, her eyes suddenly shot open. Her unexpected gaze caused the guard dog to shrink back without meaning to. Tia tilted her head and crawled over toward Jirube with her uninjured leg.
Ai Fa, Asuta, Brave, and Gilulu were all still sleeping, not having noticed a thing.
Jirube watched as Tia approached, preparing himself to not back down no matter what.
“You’re already awake? You really get up early,” Tia whispered, coming right up to Jirube’s nose. “So, do you hate me because I hurt Asuta?” she asked.
Her eyes like red jewels were staring straight at Jirube. They looked even clearer than those of the wild karon he had seen in that field.
“Hmm. You are a beast of the outside world, so I can’t understand you at all. If you were a varb wolf, we could speak without any words,” Tia said with a small sigh. “Still, your anger and sadness are just. If I had been unable to protect my family, I would have been left trembling with regret over my lack of strength. I am deeply sorry for causing you to feel that way.”
Jirube stared silently at the strange girl.
“However, my life has been entrusted to the people of the forest’s edge, and the leading clan heads decided to let me heal and to forgive me, so I cannot allow you to take my life. I’m sorry for that too.”
Jirube just kept on staring.
“Would you at least bite my arm? If I happen to forever lose my strength as a hunter as a result, I wouldn’t blame you for it. And I am the one asking you to do it, so I would explain to Ai Fa and the leading clan heads that you didn’t do anything wrong,” Tia said, holding her right arm out in front of Jirube’s nose. It was a strange arm that smelled of flowers, plants, and rocks.
Jirube gave the back of her hand a lick.
“You forgive me? All of the members of the Fa house are so kind,” Tia said with a smile that looked like a baby’s, patting Jirube on the head.
At that point, Ai Fa awoke and slowly sat up on her bedding. “Tia...what are you doing over there?” she asked.
“I was speaking to Jirube. I wasn’t able to talk with him properly, but I seem to have gotten my feelings across a bit.”
Ai Fa directed a seriously scary glare at the girl. But despite that, Jirube’s regrets had vanished, and he felt ready to continue living with their strange guest.