I raised both hands in a surrender gesture and stood. Kallen fumbled up and mirrored me.
I forced a lazy smile toward the men.
"Run away? Nah. Just stepped out for some air. The tower air’s no good."
The man in front snorted at a lie that wouldn’t fool a child.
"Yeah? And whose fault is the air so thick. Khak—ptoo!"
He spat something viscous from his throat onto the ground and then honked snot into the air.
Ugh. Filthy.
I almost lost my face control and let my features crumple.
"Sorry, sorry. Tried making fireworks—ran a bit spicy?"
"Spicy? You set off a bomb, and spicy?!"
I tossed it out to buy time, and his face flushed scarlet with rage.
"Th-that one! Grab the smarmy bastard first!"
What did I even do to be smarmy.
I wanted to ask, but at his order the Hunters advanced with ropes.
"Hold still!"
A man grabbed my arm with a brutal paw. He wrenched both hands behind me and wrapped a thick rope round and round.
If you’re just binding hands, you don’t have to be this rough. Payback for the tear gas, apparently.
"Boss, what about the girl?"
The man in front of Kallen asked, raking his eyes up and down a girl half his height.
The chief smacked his lips with a creepy grin.
"What did Lord Jed say again? Ah—‘Have your fun,’ wasn’t it?"
Dozens of dirty, blatant stares swung to a young girl.
Kallen dropped her head. Her shoulders shook, and her frizzy orange hair bobbed with them.
In a lopsided situation like this, provoking Dragon Hunters any further doesn’t gain us a thing.
My head knew that, but....
...God. Killing my temper is hard.
"Open your eyes and look straight, you little shit!"
I used the moment their eyes bunched up and threw my whole body into the man in front of Kallen.
My secret weapon, a full-body check, knocked the able-bodied man backward, and I covered Kallen behind me.
"Kh—this bastard! Still hasn’t learned!"
"How about you learn. Even if there’s nothing in your skulls, if you wear a human face you should act like one."
If sermonizing worked on them, they wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.
With my hands bound behind me, I groped for Kallen’s position. The skin under my fingers trembled.
Tch. After soaking up all those filthy stares, of course she’s scared....
"Disgusting bastards—drop dead, all of you...."
The voice only I could hear sizzled with rage.
"Things lower than monsters... human masks... humans, right, humans are the problem...."
Thinking about what Kallen had been put through today, she could come out of this with a hard case of misanthropy.
I agreed to the bone, but this wasn’t the time to echo it.
"Steady. You don’t treat things like that as human."
"Uuuh, kill them all...."
I wanted to kill them too, but the situation wouldn’t have it.
Being docile and waiting for an opening is correct, but even a worm squirms when stepped on.
And this wasn’t a step; it was a grind. Who sits still for that.
I lifted my eyes in a glare to say I wasn’t taking this lying down.
"Back off. Don’t touch the girl."
They laughed big, like I’d told a joke.
I ground my teeth at the confidence of whelps who wouldn’t make a mouthful for a dragon.
"Khahaha—if we touch her, what’ll you do, huh?"
"Let just one of you step up. I’ll fix him so he pisses sitting down."
So desperate to play with what hangs below? If you’ve got no hands, I’ll lend you those.
I bared my teeth and growled the way Varen did. Of course I wasn’t truly threatening like a monster.
"Uh—h-hey...."
But the Hunters spooked in an instant. They froze and started inching backward.
If this actually worked... Gaining confidence, I showed a bit more tooth.
"Gr-r-r-r...."
Wait. That wasn’t me.
A real monster’s low rumble rolled over my shoulder.
"Arr-r-r...."
And another, thinner and lighter, braided into it. An exquisite duet I’d heard before sent a thrill up my spine.
I snapped my head back. A big cat stepped lightly through the conifers.
Beside her, the cub—grown from calf-size to a one-ton truck—paced ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) with her.
"Gr-r-r-r...."
"Arr-r-r...."
At the appearance of two predators sizing up prey, the Hunters fell into chaos.
The sheer size broke their will; some even dropped their weapons.
"T-Tymer... it’s Tymer!"
I snorted at the pathetic display.
Where’d the swagger go from the pricks who’d driven me to a cliff edge? A living diagram of bully-the-weak, bow-to-the-strong.
With a backup I hadn’t planned on at my back, I shouted, full of bravado.
"Pretty girl! Bite those bastards!"
Cats don’t move to that cue. They don’t take orders from their keepers.
Something else lit my pretty girl up.
"Run! Run, run!!"
The Hunters who’d dropped weapons scattered and bolted.
Tymer and her cub snapped bright eyes and sprang in place.
"Kraaaang!"
"Kyaaaang!"
The two monsters chased their prey at full speed. Big and small feline footprints stamped the dirt.
Kallen muttered to herself.
"Idiots. You don’t show your back to a predator."
At the un-Kallen-like roughness, I glanced over.
Her amber eyes had a strange tilt, and a mild gleam of mania filmed her young face.
"Kraaaang! Kraaang!"
Tymer moved through the forest in quick, light bounds.
Like swatting flies, she swept a paw that looked like a puffball. Each nyan-nyan punch sent a man flying.
"Kuhek... kuhk...."
One man sailed and smacked into a conifer, then slid down. He coughed a clot of blood and let his eyes drift closed.
Hmm. Minimum eight weeks off his feet.
"Kyaaaang! Kyaang!"
The cub pulled weight too. That adorable thing roared like a proper predator.
Judging by how he swung his paws, he hadn’t learned from mom how to use forelegs yet.
So he made do by chomping Hunters with forearm-length sabers.
"Uaaaaagh! Help me! Aaaagh!"
"Khk—my leg... my leg...!"
They thought they were a mouthful for a dragon; turns out they were a mouthful for Tymer, too.
Men with matching holes in their thighs rolled and bled.
Anything making too much noise, mom finished by grinding underfoot.
Kallen came to stand beside me, hands clasped, eyes dewy with emotion as she watched the cub.
"My gosh. The baby runs so well."
"Sure does. Looks like the leg’s fully healed."
I’d almost forgotten.
Right—this is the joy of veterinary work.
Sharing the same feeling with Kallen, we watched the big cats’ glorious hunting time.
***
We watched Dragon Hunters go flying without any sense of time, when a rattle sounded at our feet.
"Khk... cough, Ceryl...."
Margon had finally come around and was groaning his way upright.
I turned my back toward Kallen. Without being told, she untied my rope.
I rubbed feeling back into my freed arms, dropped to one knee, and checked Margon’s condition.
Ridiculous—but his color had improved. Sleeping like a rock—no idea what we were going through.
"You bastard, now you wake up? The man who swore to guard me decides to faint."
"Kh—Ceryl... hurry, we should run...."
"It’s fine. Situation’s over."
Peaceful forest, reeking of blood.
The Hunters hadn’t slipped the predator’s radar. Tymer and her cub came back, having left not a single one.
"Gr-r-r-r...."
"Arr-r-r...."
Mom licked the blood wetting her forepaws, and the cub flicked a scarlet tongue over his mouth.
My stomach flipped; I waved both hands fast.
"Hey—no, no! Pretty girl, don’t eat that!"
I tried my best to stop them, but the big cats used their rough tongues to groom.
I should be giving them only good, pretty, tasty things.
It burned that I’d let them eat filth.
"Kh... Ty... mer...."
Still lying down, Margon grimaced. His hand fumbled and closed on a stone.
"Ceryl, run... kh—f-from here on, I’ll take them...."
"For—put that down, will you?"
At the sharp scold, Margon just blinked, stone in hand.
Hah. I really am getting older.
Once, a face that stupid would’ve made me crack him one. Now I could let it pass.
"They saved us. Say thank you."
"...A monster saved a human?"
Margon stared at Tymer and her cub like he couldn’t believe it.
The lovely big cats finished their toilette, licking each other.
"There, there—my pretty girl. Did you come to rescue your keeper?"
I spread my arms and trotted toward the house-sized mother.
She lowered her head and presented her brow to me.
"Good girl. Who’s the prettiest Tymer in the whole world?"
"Gr-r-r-r...."
Thanks to Varen, I’d learned the knack of petting large monsters.
I spread my arms as far as they’d go: one hand rubbed her brow, the other scritched hard under her chin.
Her tail swung slow side to side, pleased.
