Tymer’s body length came to three meters. But like a feline monster, it walked light and silent even on heavy paws.
Each step left little kitty prints in the mud. Oh—cute.
“Ty—Tymer... aaah!”
As Tymer came closer, Kallen screamed again. Strength finally returned to her legs; she lurched up to bolt.
“Grrr....”
At Kallen’s loud reaction, Tymer lowered its head with a growl. Round eyes lined like kohl flashed sharp.
I snagged the nape of that orange head as she flustered to flee.
“Calm down, Kallen.”
“B-but... Tymers punch through people!”
They said on its first day at the facility, Tymer had speared a handler’s thigh with those long fangs.
Not conduct to praise, but the one acting wrong right now was Kallen.
“You don’t show your back to a predator.”
Kallen’s behavior was baiting a predator’s hunting instinct. She was volunteering to be prey.
I rubbed her shoulder to soothe her, but the young girl had started hiccuping. She feared the beast more than the hunters.
I sank my body slowly while keeping my shoulders open. And I aimed my gaze slightly off to the side.
Predators take direct eye contact as a challenge.
“Hello, Tymer. Been a while. Have you been well?”
Voice as low and soft as possible. Even my breathing, steady in tempo.
Tymer rumbled as it assessed me. Thankfully it seemed to read no intent to attack; its rope-like tail gave a small sway.
Not missing the moment, I met its eyes carefully. Instead, I blinked slowly and offered a cat greeting.
Varen studied me, then cut in at once.
“What are you doing, Ceryl. Why are you seducing a monster?”
There he goes again, that bastard.
I waved him off with a broad flick, signaling him not to come closer. Hot-blooded dragon he was, he still listened well.
I kept up the slow blink and checked the monster’s condition.
At the facility, Tymer had refused feed and gone gaunt. Its coat was coarse from husbandry stress.
I’d thought returning to nature to hunt freely would fix it. In truth it hadn’t. Tymer still didn’t look good.
“Grrr... grr....”
At last Tymer’s ears settled easily straight ahead. The slowly swaying tail wrapped close, and it sat down to set itself.
Its forepaws came together neatly, claws carefully sheathed. I wanted to touch those plush, huge paws, but bit my lip and held back.
Instead I kept talking, gently and in a steady cadence.
“Tymer, have you not been hunting? Why are you so thin.”
“Grrr....”
“Oh, I see. I should’ve carried some lick treats.”
Varen folded his arms and scowled.
“She’s female.”
“Oh, is she? Oh you sweet thing, big brother should’ve carried lick treats.”
“Big brother?”
Varen echoed me with a sharp edge. For some reason, “big brother” in his mouth sent a chill up my back.
Then Tymer rose. She turned smoothly as if to head for the brush, halted, and looked back at me.
“Grr.”
“Why should Ceryl do that.”
I looked up at Varen at the non sequitur. The only interpreter who understood monster speech let out an irritated sigh.
“Why? What did Tymer say?”
“...She asked for help.”
When I looked back, Tymer swayed her tail slowly and slipped into the brush.
I didn’t waste a second. I grabbed my pack and stood.
“C-Ceryl. Why help Tymer? She’s the bad monster that stabbed Sven’s thigh.”
Kallen whispered, sticking close.
Who was Sven again. The face was hazy, but it must have been the unlucky handler Tymer attacked.
I’d thought she’d changed a lot, but Kallen was still a long way from being my deputy.
I shook my head and tapped the orange hair.
“There are no bad monsters in the world.”
Nine times out of ten the human was at fault. What sin could that giant kitty have.
Tymer sashayed her heavy rump and walked slowly. The one doing the tempting wasn’t me—it was the monster.
Tough-leaved tropical trees hindered our stride. We had to push through with our hands.
Tymer glanced back to check I was keeping up.
Kallen followed, trembling; Varen followed, displeased.
After a long walk we reached a place where sticky mud lay under a tangle of vines.
“Kyaang... kya-aang....”
In one corner, a Tymer cub. It cried with a thin, mournful sound.
Tymer went straight to the cub. She sat as if to fold it into her chest and licked hard with her rough tongue.
I’d thought the crouching in a cage at the facility was just stress.
“So our pretty girl was pregnant. And I didn’t even know.”
Behind me Varen let out a baffled sigh.
Whatever. Tymer’s state crushed my chest. My eyes blurred.
If I’d known she was pregnant, I’d have boiled a pot of chicken breast, cooled it to a good temp, shredded it into strips, and brought it.
“Grr.”
“Kyaang....”
The mother looked rough, but the cub’s cry was worse.
Now I saw the cub’s vitals were bad. All it did was wheeze, head leaned against the mother’s belly.
I set my pack down carefully so as not to provoke a mother newly post-partum and on edge.
Then I raised both palms to show and approached slowly.
“Tymer, may I take a look at the baby?”
“Grrr....”
A gentle cat, she kept licking her cub and showed no guard at all.
Up close, I took stock. Predator or not, it was still young, but its size was that of a calf.
And its emaciated hind leg was caught in a hunting trap. It had been days; dried blood and mud had caked the wound.
“Kya-aang... kyaang.”
The Tymer cub was spent. In pain, yet it couldn’t even cry loud.
The trapped hind leg was ragged. A small body in a big trap, a large hole bored through the thigh.
With a wound like this, it should have bled a lot. It was a wonder it hadn’t died.
“The mother’s milk saved it. She’s pushed all the mana she had into the cub.”
Varen, standing well back, tossed in a line.
At last I understood why Tymer looked even rougher than at the facility. Once we treated the cub, I would absolutely get chicken breast and boil it for her.
“Kallen, bring the bag.”
“Me? M-me?”
“Who else but you.”
Kallen tottered over with the pack, shaking. When she glanced at Tymer, the mother wrinkled her nose ridge and rumbled at once.
“Shhh, it’s all right. She won’t hurt you.”
“H—hii...”
“Kallen, lower your eyes.”
“Y-yes!”
Kallen, eyes obediently down for the monster, finally handed me the pack.
I pulled out the Spirit’s water bottle at once. Then I started pouring the cold, clean water over the cub’s wound.
“Kyaaa! Kyaang...!”
Even the touch of water hurt; the cub thrashed in agony. The mother, at a loss, licked its head faster.
With the clean cloth Kallen passed me, I wiped the wound. The trap was larger than the one that got me, and older.
“You remember from last time, right? Press here.”
“Uuuh... o-okay.”
“Slowly. If you pull it wrong the laceration will tear more.”
The spring plate was rusty and wouldn’t move well. Even Kallen had to grit her teeth and strain. With a screech, the trap’s jaws opened.
“Kyaaa! Kyaang!!”
“Sorry, sorry. There, it’s done. All done. Oh, baby. Don’t move!”
As the teeth buried in flesh shifted, the cub started thrashing. Sharp metal chewed through the thigh muscle.
“Kallen, hold the baby so it can’t move.”
“......”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
Kallen, white as a sheet, was on the verge of tears. She flicked a glance at the mother.
“I—I’m s-sorry... please don’t... bite....”
For a request delivered so politely, the restraint was rough and strong. She grappled the cub whose bulk matched her own, climbed up its torso, and pinned the flailing leg.
Thanks to that, I could free the leg fixed in the trap. Without a breath’s pause I flushed and wiped the injury with clean cloth and water.
When the crusted blood and mud came off, the ghastly wound showed.
The thigh had a large hole punched through, and mud and iron rust were ground into the torn muscle.
High risk of infection. In the worst case, tetanus.
At times like this, the lack of modern medicine hurt to the bone. Shots that could prevent monstrous diseases with a single jab—and I had none.
“Ceryl, shouldn’t we stop the bleeding first?”
Kallen, apparently more used to wrestling beasts now, craned in to check the wound.
It sounded decently like a doctor-to-be. So I’d humor her.
“Do you know where and how to compress it?”
“Umm... here?”
She pointed above the wound, sneaking a look at my face.
She’d picked the wrong pressure point, and my expression went cold.
Since the facility burned and we lost everyone, I’d tried to treat her kindly when I could. But you don’t smile and wave things off ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ when you’re handling a monster’s life.
“Who told you to guess at a pressure point.”
At my chill tone, Kallen’s face fell at once.
