NF V2C10 — A Break on the Grass

“Look! There’s a rabbit over there!”

Across the pasture, I saw a brown rabbit in a bright green meadow.

Rabbits living in this area have different fur colours in summer and winter, but right now is when they start growing their summer fur, with some white fur remaining around the back and tip of their ears. If you grab and pull on it, some might come off in a clump.

By the way, according to the Captain, who is familiar with the animals around the fort, rabbits in this area will be bleached when they change from their brown summer fur to white winter fur.

I thought it would just grow out just like when it grows its summer fur, but it seems like that’s not the case.

It seemed to be aware of our presence, even though we were far away from it.

Foxes and panthers are both predators from a rabbit’s point of view.

“Catch it!”

Kugargue’s nose and mouth- the part that looked like “ω”- swelled up, and his whiskers moved forward.

Was he excited?

Kugargue crouched down, hiding in the grass, and prepared to hunt.

“You don’t have to bite it. Just catch and release it.”

I don’t like raw meat, and Kugargue doesn’t eat living things.

But Kugargue was so focused he didn’t register my words.

“Milfi,  turn here.”

“Alright.”

The rabbits here are different from the cute and gentle pets back in Japan.

Their faces are slightly longer, dignified, and overall more muscular. Particularly, their hind legs are well developed. They look much stronger than my furballs.

A sharp hare like that would be hard to catch alone, so I decided to help Kugargue with his hunt.

The fairy complained, “Another break?!” And bounced in indignation.

I can only sprint in a straight line, so I decided to turn left, as Kugargue said.

I pretended that I wasn’t interested in the rabbit, and ran around lightly in a large circle.

I felt kind of stupid trying to hunt a rabbit while wearing a rabbit backpack.

I kept my eyes on the rabbit as I continued to run, and Kugargue started closing the distance while keeping his body low to the ground.

The rabbit was distracted by me. He lifted his face and watched me warily.

I quickly changed directions to face the rabbit, and although I was pretty close to my opponent, I still kicked the ground to get a speed boost.

My nails hit the grass and dirt flew up, and as I ran forward, the rabbit backpack hit my back.

It’s in the way!

The rabbit turned around in an instant and ran off with an astonishing burst of power.

It moved so quickly I could barely follow it with my eyes.

The distance between us increased, but it was fine because we planned for this. Kugargue should be waiting where the rabbit is heading.

Ideally, the rabbit would rush straight into Kugargue’s hiding place, and Kugargue would catch it without running! He would then jump out and catch it, but in reality, the rabbit did not move as we planned.

Kugargue jumped out when the distance between himself and the rabbit was closest, but it was still around ten meters.

At that time I was catching my breath with my tongue stuck out, but Kugargue was seriously trying to catch the rabbit.

His sharp nails pierced the ground as he ran as fast as he could so that he would still be able to catch the rabbit even if it changed directions suddenly.

Wow, he’s fast. I don’t know how I’m able to keep up with him.

However, we couldn’t compete with the rabbit who had lived in a harsh environment full of predators.

As Kugargue’s stamina was being exhausted, the distance between the two grew larger, and he eventually gave up.

Kugargue and I stopped and watched the rabbit run to the forest at full speed.

“Damn it!”

Kugargue clawed the ground like he was sharpening his nails. I didn’t feel frustrated because I was only helping.

“I’m tired…”

As I rolled stuck my tongue out, Kugargue sat down and started grooming. Kugargue suddenly became attractive.

He always works hard to clean every inch of himself, so it sometimes feels like he’s a girl. I won’t tell him that, though.

On the other hand, I hardly groom myself, so Kugargue occasionally licks me out of nowhere.

I always say I’m fine because Tina brushes me, he still worries over me.

Even now, after finishing his grooming, he started working on the fur on my chest that was sticking up.

Kugargue’s tongue is rough and feels like a comb, but my fur is so long that it was hard to lick. I tried helping by raising my chin.

“Oh, right.”

When Kugargue was done, I suddenly remembered.

“I’m leaving soon!” I ran over to the fairy and managed to say.

“I’m hungry though, so I’ll eat first.”

It may be too early for lunch, but it’s still good. The hunt had tired me out.

I ignored the my voice in my head saying, “It’s too early to take a break. You’re not far away from the fort.” I should eat lunch with Kugargue.

I can’t take off my backpack in my fox form, so I changed into a human with fox ears and tail. It’s very difficult to get rid of the ears and tails, so I could only partially transform.

Even though I was a toddler, I had long silver hair, white skin, and round eyes the size of acorns, but it would be a long time before I would be called beautiful.

(And mother and the one-eyed knight would still send a young child like me to go alone!)

As I angrily opened my backpack, Kugargue suddenly changed into a human and looked inside with a curious expression.

Kugargue was dressed in Arabian light clothing that highlighted his slender figure. Still, he still looked young, and he also couldn’t hide his ears and tail. He’s pushy as usual.

“What’s in there?”

“Lunch. Also jerky. Let’s eat, it’s delicious… huh?”

The first thing I saw when I opened the backpack was a poisonous purple cloth.

There seemed to be something soft inside, and it felt fluffy.

I was wondering why the backpack was so big, this object took up a lot of space.

I grabbed onto it with small hand and tried to pull it out.

However, it was almost the same size as the opening of the backpack, so it wasn’t coming out easily. Kugargue held onto the other end of the backpack, and I pulled with both hands.

Pong! Something purple flew out of the backpack with loud noise.

-And at the same time, I screamed.

“Gee ah!?”

What was in the backpack was a large stuffed animal. It was made out of cotton and cloth.

It only felt like a stuffed animal. Only the texture.

“What is this……”

Kugargue widened his eyes and leaned forward. It seems that the stuffed animal was registered as an enemy.

But I understood.

This weird purple stuffed animal was probably meant to be a mushroom.

Eyes and a mouth had been embroided under the cap, but it was still supposed to be a mushroom.

Why is such a terrible thing packed in a cute rabbit backpack? Harassment?

For a moment, I was confused to see the mysterious mushroom, but when an image of Tina laughing appeared in my head, I knew what was happening.

This is not harassment. This is Tina’s good intentions.

However, she was a bit ridiculous and clumsy, had a bad sense of color, and wasn’t skilled enough to create a cute character, so this sad monster was created instead.

My chest hurt.

I told Kugargue, who had thrown a panther punch, that it was just a stuffed animal, and calmed the fairy who was flying around frantically as if saying, “Let’s escape.”

“I guess she put it in so I wouldn’t get lonely.”

I felt her kindness was misguided, but I put the stuffed animal somewhere out of sight and fished in my backpack again.

It contained two packets, in addition to the letter mother gave me. One was jerky and the other had lunch.

“Wow, look.”

Kugargue, who still hadn’t recovered from the shock of seeing Tina’s stuffed animal, stared at the packet.

There were my favorite potato pancakes. There were grated potatoes are in the dough, which made it thicker and chewier than the ones in Japan, so the texture was nice. The edges were crisp and fragrant because they were fried and baked.

I usually eat them with vegetables and bacon, but today it seemed to be baked with butter and made into sweets.

One was coated with red berry jam and the other was coated with honey, both on the inside and the outside.

I’m sure the chef prepared it, but I’m sure he gave it to me expecting that the lunch box filled with sandwiches and side dishes would be messed up.

“Kugargue, do you want jam or honey?”

“I don’t want it. I don’t like things made by humans.”

“Don’t say that. These are delicious. I’ll give you a honey one.”

I pretended to give him a recommendation and ate the other one because I wanted to eat the one with jam.

I held onto my pancake next to Kugargue and sniffed with him.

It was a simple pancake with a sticky texture and subtle sweetness of potatoes. The acidity of berry jam goes well with the flavor of butter.

I guess it was last summer, where I had fresh jam made with freshly picked berries that were boiled with a little sugar, but when I chewed the raw fruit, the juice slowly came out. That was also delicious.

I thought of this while I slowly ate into my pancake with a smile.

Kugargue was nervous, but as he took a small bite, he went “n?”. He bit it again, then again. Does he like it?

Even though I ate one of the potatoes, I was hungry, and I couldn’t resist the temptation of my favorite jerky, so I ate a little bit of that too.

I gave some to Kugargue, and his face glowed as soon as he put it in his mouth.

It’s delicious, you know. After all, carnivores like meat better than potatoes.

“Tummy full…”

When I started getting sleepy, the fairy hits my forehead as if reading my mind. “Get up and leave soon! ” it seemed to say.

However, when I looked at the frustrated fairy, I suddenly wanted to see if I could make one too.

(Let’s try it!)

I raised my hands in front of my chest as if scooping water, and imagined my power gathering at that point.

And that image that condensed into a ball of light.

“Huh? Wow..!”

Although I didn’t think I could do it, a ball of light appeared unexpectedly easily.

If the fairy my mother made was a Daifuku, mine would only be the size of a marble, but it was floating in the air while emitting white light.

“I did it! Yeah!”

When I jumped with excitement, Kugargue stopped hunting through my backpack to look at me–it seems he wanted more jerky.

“Another fairy…”

It made a beautiful sound. The fairy tickled my heart.

I was already attached to the little fairy that I had just created.

But speaking of that cute fairy…

“Wow, so small.”

My fairy hopped around like a bug at high speed, jumping up quickly, jumping down, moving right and left without hesitation, hitting the ground, colliding with my mother’s fairy, and finally hitting Kugargue. After colliding with him-it melted with a rattling sound.

“It’s not my fault!”

Kugargue defended himself before I could accuse him.

I know, I know. Kugargue only stood there without doing anything.

It was just my restless fairy rushing in and killing itself.

Kugargue is a fire spirit, so it would have been inevitable for an immature snow fairy.

It’s an idiot despite being my fairy…

“One more time…”

“I’ll make one.”

Two people were looking into their hands. My mother’s fairy said, “What are you…?” I looked over.

I’ll go after this!

“Yay!”

“Oh!”

Making a fairy may be easy. Both Kugargue and I succeeded, producing red and white lights respectively.

However, they were both marble size and still restless.

Rather than pretty fairies, they were more like drunk cicadas in the late summer.

They flew over there, they flew over here, and if they fell on the ground, they ran around in a crazy circle.

Calm down a little!

Meanwhile, my fairy jumped up again met Kugargue’s equally restless fairy! Head-on collision… disappeared again.

“Again! Stupid!”

My voice inadvertently shook as I scolded the fairy.

But it seems it’s too early to start making fairies. Perhaps no matter how many times I try, I will only get stupid ones.

In addition, the fairies are created by sharing my power, so I’m tired of making them.

It was okay since my mother has lots of power, but it’s a heavy burden for me as a child. Ishould stop here for today.

“Kugargue, let’s get ready.”

I pushed Tina’s eerie stuffed animal back into back into my pack, repacked everything else, and turned back into a fox.

This break on the grass was way too long.