As the hot days continued, so did the number of days I spent submerged in the river. I struggled with the heat. I also struggled whenever it was cold, but hot weather was worse. Especially in this world—summer here was a whole different beast.
It’s gotta be over forty degrees by now... It’s hooooot.
Today was another river day. I drifted along on top of the amoeba, pushing as much of my skin as I could against the cool, slightly gelatinous surface.
It’s always so nice and chilly... I wonder if it’s because it lives underwater? Come to think of it, the water’s always cool no matter how hot the sun gets. It’s a little weird, actually... Oh well. Suits me just fine, so there’s no point dwelling on it.
My gaze drifted to the side. An amoeba stared back at me.
Huh?
I looked back beneath me. The amoeba was still there.
There’re more of you?! Wait, don’t amoebas reproduce by division? I think so... Hang on, doesn’t that mean they can just keep dividing? Guess I’ll have to wait and see... Or not. I’m surrounded by them. When the hell did this happen?! Stop dividing!
I shook my head.
I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t see anything. Maintaining peace of mind is very important! Hmm, I should start getting ready for dinner soon.
Today’s dinner was my attempt at nikujaga, the Japanese version of meat-and-potato stew. It had been simmering all day. The recipe was simple: a good helping of potato-like and onion-like vegetables and a hearty amount of mysterious monster meat.
The first nikujaga in this world... I can’t wait to eat it. It should be just about ready I reckon. If only I had some rice.
I really need to get around to checking out that place I noticed on the drone... But I’m gonna wait until it gets a little cooler.
Forget about exploring. I was going to have a hard enough time forcing myself to leave the river for nikujaga.
Huh? Do spiders usually shoot webs from there?
My gaze had landed on Spider Boss and a few baby spiders. What had my attention was the three webs shooting from Spider Boss’s back—and the other from its leg.
I’m sure that’s not right... Where does the web usually come from? From their wrists, right? No, wait—that’s the dude with spider powers from that movie. I’m pretty sure normal spiders shoot it from their butts... Hang on. This is a parallel world, remember? The webs could come from anywhere here! No point trying to think about it rationally. Also, when did Spider Boss start making webs too? What a strange, incomprehensible place this is.
Jeez this tastes good! Yup, it’s scary delicious. Scary... Nope, ignore them, ignore them. So good! Mmm...
I sighed.
It’s impossible to ignore them. Their fights are getting even worse. Someone’s gonna seriously get hurt before long. I should probably start doubling the amount of food I cook. Or tripling. I’ll have to make a few more stewpots. Three more should do it... No, four. Five? I dunno. I don’t want any to go to waste.
A itsy-bitsy ant went flying past my head and into the wall.
Let’s start with five.
While making my way to the river the next day, I realized that more burrows had appeared near the house—two of them, in fact.
More of Shuri’s nests? Or one more, with an entrance and exit? Hmm... These holes feel different from Shuri’s, though.
Whenever I approached Shuri’s nest—which was as infrequently as possible—it felt like the gaping hole was about to swallow me. It was terrifying. I didn’t get the same sensation from being near these new holes, though.
The aura here is more relaxing, or something. Vibes are hard to describe!
I shuffled a little closer to the nearest hole and peered inside. A face stared back at me.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t Shuri. It wasn’t even an ant. It was some kind of lizard. I jumped backward, afraid it was about to attack me, but it just stared at me. I stared back. We stared at each other for a while.
Our staring contest soon started to get pretty boring, so I gave it a friendly wave.
Crap, now it’s coming closer. I’m pretty sure it’s a lizard. It looks a little different from lizards back home... Parallel world, remember?
Actually, a lot of the animals here looked pretty similar to the animals back home. I would have thought parallel worlds would have been inhabited by fantasy creatures, but most of the animals I’d met were just weird versions of the ones I knew. Weird, giant versions.
This one’s pretty lizard-like, so I’ll call it a lizardy lizard... Just lizard is fine. I think the heat’s getting to me.
Shuri seemed happy to see the new arrival. Koa and the other wolves each touched their own noses to the lizard’s in turn.
Is it some kind of greeting? I guess this is what they call cross-cultural exchange... No, that’s wrong. I don’t think it’s cross-cultural unless you’re the same species.
Chai and his friends, on the other hand, seemed scared of the lizard. They all lowered themselves to the ground when they saw it.
Spider Boss reached out with one long leg and tapped the lizard on the nose several times.
Was that a greeting too? Maybe different species have different greetings... How mysterious.
Fluffy and the lizard seemed particularly friendly. Pretty soon, they were flying around together—
Flying?! Lizards don’t fly! It doesn’t even have feathers! It does have wings, actually. And I guess Fluffy doesn’t use its wings anyway... Clearly feathers aren’t important to flying. Maybe they’re the same species? Ha ha, idiot. They’re clearly different. Why the hell would you think they’re the same? Well... Guess we’ve got another new friend.
The dogs—the ones we’d found most recently, not Chai’s friends—wandered out of the house, possibly roused by the commotion. They were still quite thin, which made me worry.
They look surprised. I wonder if everything’s all right?
I called them over, and they hesitantly approached. The timidness made them even cuter.
One’s missing, though... Guess it still can’t walk. I’ll go check on it later. I hope they all start feeling better soon.
I spent day after day playing in the river with the amoebas. Recently, all the days had started to blend together.
I gotta start pulling myself together...but it’s toooooo hot. I can’t motivate myself to do anything in this heat. Can’t I get my act together when it’s cooler? Okay, fine. I’ll go all out making dinner today! I’ll push myself! Besides, if I don’t make enough, it’ll just get scary again.
Oh, you’re back!
The newest batch of dogs had left the house together today. It was the first time they’d all been well enough to do so. The weakest one had started standing up a few days ago, much to my relief. It was still much thinner than the others (and they were pretty thin), but it seemed like it could run without too much difficulty.
I’m glad. Guess I’ll have to decide on names for you soon, eh?
Trailing behind the dogs were Charu and Chata; I’d asked them to supervise, being their first outing and all.
Thanks, you two. I’ll make you a special dinner today... Nope. Terrible idea. I may as well paint a target on your backs. How about a nice head pat instead, hmm?
Even I could be perceptive every once in a while.