“Please be careful—they’re wet.”
I had wiped them with a towel, but their wings were still not completely dry.
She seemed unfazed. “I’ll bring a towel, then. Oh, and here’s your package.” She pointed to a package on top of the large shoe rack.
“Thank you. Excuse me.” I went back to my truck with the package and opened it. Yep, it’s the fruits, just as I thought. I returned to the house and gave them to her.
“Eeeeh?!” she exclaimed, wide-eyed. “My, you really didn’t have to! These must have been pretty expensive, no?”
Looks like it was a hit with her too—you can see it on her face. This is a lot better than rice crackers, I agree. Aikawa-san really knows his stuff.
“Just a token of my gratitude for helping me out, so please accept it.”
“My, my, thank you! Pochi-chan, Yuma-chan, do you want some veggies?”
Even her voice sounds different from usual. I had no idea fruits were such a great choice for gifts for women. Is it because they tend to like sweets? If so, I wonder if a box of chocolates would have a similar effect.
I’d also brought snakes, of course.
“Hoo, that’s quite a lot of vipers,” Yumoto-san remarked. “It’s starting to look like Brook Mountain was a breeding ground for ’em. Good thing you’ve got the chickens.”
I nodded. “For sure—I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Yumoto-san took the bottles and went merrily to the back of the house. It had already been a while since I’d started giving him snakes, and apparently, his friends had been pestering him to let them have a drink of wine.
“You gotta leave ’em in there for at least half a year. Otherwise, it’s rude to the snake,” he explained.
He must already have a lot of these wine bottles lying around. I shuddered to imagine what it might look like a year from now. A warehouse filled to the brim with bottles of snake wine...
I went to get us beverages and then sat down in front of Yumoto-san.
“You’re pretty hard at it, eh, Shohei? Remember to have a drink and unwind every now and then.”
With a gesture, I politely declined the beer. “I’m sorry, but I still have to drive up into the mountains. I wouldn’t want to drive off a cliff because I was under the influence.”
Some places had guardrails, but some only had small curbs. All it took to get in serious danger was a slip of the steering wheel. I should probably also look into doing something about that area.
“Guess you’re right about that,” he said. He poured the beer into his own glass.
Needless to say, even if I didn’t live in the mountains, drunk driving is still bad. You should avoid driving the next day too, just to be safe.
The pickles they served were great.
“So, you mentioned you had something to ask my chickens,” I said. “What is it?”
“Right, about that...” Yumoto-san began to explain.
Almost everyone in the mountain village ran a farm, and there were a fair number of rice paddies. Naturally, this meant the villagers were used to coexisting with various animals and creatures, but it seemed that this year, there’d been a spike in the number of yamakagashi snakes.
“There’re already a couple of people who’ve been bitten. One was all right, but the other is in the hospital. And what’s more, they seem to show up near rice paddies a lot, so everyone’s having a hard time.”
“That’s definitely troubling. Now that I think about it, Pochi actually caught one the other day.”
“Oh, so the chickens can catch them! That’s great to hear!”
Because yamakagashi snakes tended to avoid people, biting incidents were uncommon. Specifically, that’s true for yamakagashi in this area. I’ve heard it might be different in other regions. Also, the fangs that released venom were in the back of their jaws, meaning shallow bites weren’t usually venomous. On the other hand, the venom was stronger when compared to vipers, and they had venom glands in their necks, so if you pressed on their necks, they might release venom. Apparently, the venom in their necks comes from preying on toads and other creatures.
“Usually, you wouldn’t worry too much about them, but lately, they’re being spotted in the village pretty much every day...so yeah,” Yumoto-san concluded.
“So that’s what you wanted the chickens to help with?” I asked.
“Yep. More snakes means fewer frogs, and do you know what that means?”
“More bugs, right?” I certainly don’t want an increase in pests either.
“You got it.”
“That could throw the ecosystem out of balance...” I turned to my chickens. “Pochi, Yuma, Yumoto-san wants to talk to you both.”
Invasive species of frogs had to be dealt with, yes, but there were also native species. I didn’t know what could be the reason behind the increase in yamakagashi snakes, but I figured my chickens would be able to help.
“Er, Pochi and Yuma, was it? Thanks for always catching vipers. Have you seen any snakes with red and black patterns around? Those are called yamakagashi. Lately, we’ve been having trouble with them here in the village.”
I saw Pochi and Yuma listening attentively to Yumoto-san, and, once again, I thought, These are definitely not normal chickens. I could see them nodding every now and then too, which was pretty funny. Well, Yumoto-san talking to chickens with a serious look on his face is also quite a sight.
After hearing what Yumoto-san had to say, Pochi assented with a loud cluck.
“Good! You’ll help catch them, then? Thanks, that’s a big help,” he replied gleefully. I saw Pochi scratching the earthen floor with his feet, and I had a bad feeling about it. I quickly went over and held him.