Carb Sears (R) 23

Chapter 23 – The Wolf’s Embrace.

“Usher.”

It reminded me of the pitiful golden light I had last seen before coming here. The girl who let him go even with full of desperate worries about not going. If he gets eaten by them and can’t leave the cave, what about Belka? How is she With that thought, Usher was no longer afraid of these strange fish. Because there was something more frightening. He swung his arms as hard as he could, shaking off the hands that were coming toward him. Their hands, which seemed like they would be pulled in just by touching them, bounced emptyly into his hands, but that was only part of it. Already they were coming close and some were biting him.

“Keep!”

Usher screamed at the sharp sensation of his teeth digging into his flesh. The feeling reminded him of the traps that the villagers who said they sometimes go hunting used to set in the woods. A trap set on the ground, as if it were trying to hold on to whatever it caught, even though only sharp teeth of steel could not fill the stomach. I’ve never been caught myself, but if I did, would it feel like this? Their teeth were sharp and rough enough to feel as if they were caught in numerous traps at once. Even inside the mouth where they were biting, I could feel the skin holding his flesh, even the tongue like a hand.

“Go away!”
– Kruck.

But fortunately, the strength of each of them was rather weak for a monster compared to the adults in the village. It wasn’t negligible, though, but it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t move. I fell into a panic because of their terrible appearance, but if you think about it calmly, it’s hard for them to attack all at once. Even if they attack all at once, judging from their size, six are the limit. At least if he wasn’t lying down, he wouldn’t be left helpless. It wasn’t even a desperate situation where I couldn’t understand why I had been so helpless until now.

“I have to go to Belka.”

After shaking off the fear and lethargy, what remained was an earnestness close to a sense of duty to get out of this cave, to meet the girl who would be waiting for him. The sharp teeth digging into the flesh hurt. The pain that seems like the flesh that is bitten by them will come off. The only clothes he was wearing right now was his top, but he didn’t have time to pack the rest of his clothes. The rest of the clothes will be buried among them because one of them spit it out trying to eat it.

It was fortunate that I was able to bring a mask. Usher surveyed the cave between them, feeling his head roll faster than ever. The moonlight coming down from the ceiling did not reach the walls of the cave, but it was possible to distinguish between the walls and the non-walls vaguely.

“Icicle?”

Then, what I found was a space lined with icicles that hung from the ends of the roof on cold winter days. When I listened intently to see if the passage was leading to that place, I could vividly hear the sound of the water flowing into this space and stagnant flowing out there. I didn’t know if that place really led to the exit, but I didn’t have time to cover him with cold or hot rice.

“Ha!!”
– Kkeuk!

When he kicked the one who had bitten him at his feet without hesitation, it was shocked and fell over. However, the foot that kicked it off wasn’t quite as well. Could it be because he kicked it without thinking about it? Blood was flowing with the tingling pain as if his bones were colliding with each other. But with just that, the road was a little bit clearer. Their tongues kept grabbing his ankles, and the things that were biting him still clenched tightly and didn’t let go, so the blood flowed out.

They move more slowly in the water, as if they had to crawl with their fins like legs even in the water for a fish subject. Thanks to this, he couldn’t catch up with Usher except for the three that were biting him. Still, it was clear that they would catch up to him if he had time, so Usher threw himself into the cave passageway that he thought would lead to the exit, hoping to get out of this dangerous cave even for a moment. Then, with a splash, Usher knew he was in the water.

The submerged ears caught the sound of the water flowing even though they were underwater, and when they tried to open their eyes, they closed them tight against the intruding water. It was a similar situation to when I was first washed away, but since I had already inhaled enough of my breath, I could endure it longer. He bathed in the flowing water, hoping that the current would send him to a place closer to the exit.

“Ugh!”

However, he let out bubbles of air in a sudden shock. He started crashing into something as if the current had intensified again. But he was different from the sensation he had when he first drifted away. It feels like colliding with a small pillar. Fortunately, the pillar was thin, so once hit, it broke with the impact and did not prevent it from drifting away. The number of bumps was too many. Some of them hurt as if the flesh from where they were biting would fall off, as if they had bumped into the things that were biting him instead of him. After bumping here and there in the water, Usher could feel the shallow water again.

“Okay, what the hell did you bump into?”

Fortunately, unlike the first one, the passage this time wasn’t that long, so he was able to get out of the water in a dangerous situation, but his body was more messed up than the first. The jacket was stained red from the blood that had flowed from the wound, and blood was still seeping from the wound. Most of the things that were biting him fell off, probably from the impact of hitting something like a pillar earlier. Even so, I was frightened to see their teeth sticking to the place where they were biting.

“How long are you going to stick with this?”

In addition, luckily, there was even one that was still biting him, as if he hadn’t bumped into those pillars. He couldn’t get rid of the one bite and its teeth, as if he tried to forcefully remove it, it would tear his flesh away. The blood kept flowing and I felt the sand grains scattering between my toes as I slowly made my way through the shallow water because my legs were injured. Could this be a sign that the exit is near? He was hopeful but unsure. He sighed and realized that the cave was not as dark as he thought as he walked slowly.

“This…”

And what they found were strange plants that glow on their own. Although he had seen the insects glowing, Usher walked towards the glowing plants as if enchanted by the mysterious appearance of the plants glowing and lighting up the dark cave.

– Oops! Kkeuk!

Then he felt the thing that had been biting him persistently until now finally drop. He felt refreshed when the thing he had just acted like he would never let go of had fallen off. I don’t know why it fell, but I guessed that there must be something about those plants that it doesn’t like.

– Kkeuk! Gurgling! 끅…!!

Its sound, which had been moving so fast that it made a splattering sound, suddenly disappeared with a cry of agony. Only then did he feel strange. It’s a cave where monsters like that live. But can we conclude that there is only one kind of monster like that? As he cleared his nerves from the glowing plants, anxious that there might be something more in this place, he lifted his injured foot and tried to get out of this place as quickly as possible with his single leg.

“Ehh?!”

With a splash, he fell as if he were being sucked into water. He reflexively closed his eyes and floundered, but his hand caught nothing. Only then could he do anything, and when he opened his eyes, holding back the stinging sensation of water entering his eyes at the thought that he would fall into the water, what he saw was a deep, deep abyss. He also noticed the identity of the glowing plant belatedly. It was not simply a light-emitting plant, but a water plant that crawled out of the silent abyss and stretched to the surface of the water. I didn’t know that, and I got close to it, so I fell into this deep water.

Even though I didn’t feel the current, the calm water with no flow is more terrifying than I thought. He tried to swim by somehow moving his limbs, but he couldn’t even swim properly, so trying to move his limbs was just a meaningless struggle. After floundering, he somehow looked back to where he had come from, but there was an endless cliff and the monster that had bitten him just before could not swim because it was a fish. I knew he was sinking lower and lower, but that didn’t help at all. On the contrary, I felt a vivid sense of despair as if it came into direct contact with my skin.

‘Belka.’

He had to go back, but he couldn’t go back. When he thought of the girl in the midst of his increasingly choking breath and fading vision. At first glance, it seemed that the figure of a woman was visible.

[Poor thing.]

I heard a voice I didn’t know who it belonged to. A disparate and unique voice that seems to speak directly to your head, and a benevolent voice that cannot be defined by anything else. It was a warm voice that erased the fear even though I was afraid of this situation where I could not see an inch ahead because it was full of darkness. But even in the darkness, there was something strangely clear. Large wings, long sharp claws, long neck and tail. He knows creatures that look like this. I couldn’t have known

[You ended up leading the thing you need to protect the most.]

It was called the king of monsters or a dragon. But it’s a little different from what he used to know. Perhaps it was thought that even the hard scales covering its body were not enough, it was wrapped in plain armor that looked like iron in layers from head to tail. Even the helmet covering its head doesn’t even have holes for its eyes, so it’s questionable whether it can see the front. However, the majesty felt in the figure was not diminished by any means. Nevertheless, what should I say about the cozy feeling that seems to give relief?

[Now that you are meeting with us, your skein says that this is not the end yet. Come on, go back. Poor Almighty.]

As soon as the voice finished, Usher stepped out of the darkness.

“Cough! Cough! Wow!”

I felt the water coming out as I coughed reflexively as I choked on a foreign object blocking my throat and nose. Even so, it was when I was lying on my stomach and gagging in vain at the fishy smell of water that seemed to still linger.

“Woke up!”

A woman’s voice was heard.

“Whoops! Who, whoops!”

Come to think of it, he was out of the water now. The last thing I remember was in deep water where I couldn’t even see the bottom, and I heard people’s voices, so she seemed to have saved me. Usher, who had barely vomited up the water, held back the disgusting sensation and raised his head to say thanks, but he was startled.

“Who, who are you?!”

Because the image of a naked woman came into his eyes. A beautiful woman with watery white hair and transparent red eyes, boldly exposing her torso with pale skin and her chest hanging like a juicy fruit, was prostrated at the same height as him, staring at him full of curiosity. . Her woman grinned as he asked, feeling her inordinate swell of appetite in him and hastily covering it.

“Uhhh, I didn’t see it wrong. It’s a male, too.”
“Soo, a male.”

A word used only for beasts was put in a woman’s mouth and pointed at him. Although he felt a strange sense of humiliation, he couldn’t stop his urge to take his eyes off her breasts.

“So you’re a female?”

She asked him as if she was strange, perhaps because she answered indifferently and awkwardly.

“That’s not it!”
“Right!? Right!?”

Usher had a lot to say, but he held it back. She was unable to utter words as the naked body of a woman kept catching his eye. Her woman’s ample breasts made her body curve differently from that of a girl. Her fingertips kept twitching at the urge to put her hands on her breasts, which were like a coveted fruit, but she managed to take her gaze away from her body.

“Hey, did you save me?”

The woman’s tone and behavior seemed young because of her childlike innocence, but even so, she seemed older than him, so he naturally respected her.

“Yes! Yes! I saved you from sinking in the water. You really can’t swim.”
“Ugh! Because I never had a chance to swim!”

After all, she had never seen water deep enough that she needed to swim. At most, she was in the valley behind the zelkova tree where she and the girl had bathed, but it wasn’t too deep either. Then she looked at the woman with an interesting look.

“Hmm, so you came from outside? Is there really no water outside?”
“Uh, it’s true if it’s outside this cave. Do you live here by any chance?”

Usher, who got the impression that she was living in this cave from her words, asked in a puzzled way. The woman chuckled.

“Yes, I’ve lived here since I was born.”
“From here?”

Looking around, he could see all around him the glowing aquatic plants he had seen just before sinking into the deep water, with their heads above the surface, emitting blue light. It’s colorless that he mistook the place where he woke up as the ground, but the place where he was was made by the intertwining of those water plants. At that, Usher despaired. I thought it would have been closer to the exit of the cave, but now that I look at it, the location isn’t that different from before. Rather, it was like a prison from which he could not escape because the water was so deep that he could not swim.

“How the hell can you do in a place like this…”

But Usher couldn’t continue. It was because after seeing the whole scene, the lower body of the woman he had seen again came into his eyes. Like her upper body, her lower half is bare. It shouldn’t have been, but there were pure white scales that were the same color as her hair. Not only that. Her woman’s legs were one, not two, and at the ends of her thin but very wide hair and fins the same color as the scales rustled.

After seeing her, she just thought she was a beautiful woman. Between her long, thin fingers, the membrane filling the gaps stretched all the way to her fingertips, and something like a small fin protruded from her elbow. Even her ears, hidden from view by her beautiful colored hair, looked more like fish fins than human ears. However, the scales that covered her body were more like ornaments like soft and beautiful silk rather than tough and hard like those of dragons. At that appearance, Usher had a word that came to mind.

“Mermaid?”
“Hey, is that what they call us outside?”

But the woman was startled and patted my lips disgruntledly, as if she didn’t like the words he had muttered.

“I am Pohati, Pohati.”
“Is that your name?”
“Yeah! What about you? Aren’t you going to teach me?”

She was surprised at the sight of a mermaid for the first time, but she didn’t even have time to be surprised about her because she was more talkative than I thought.

“I’m Usher.”
“Usher! Usher!”

When she heard his name, the woman seemed to find it amusing as she put his name in my mouth and called out his name several times like rolling candy.

“Usher, Usher!”

Suddenly, watching her chew on my name, she thought of a girl calling his name. Yeah, he couldn’t waste any more time here. So he called the woman who kept saying his name.

“Hey Pohati?”
“Yes why?”

As if she had been waiting, Usher asked calmly, even as she was surprised by the woman’s reply.

“Do you know where the exit is?”

At the same time, a woman with a clear expression of excitement as if she was excited stood tall. As if to let her know her mood, her beautiful tail fin stopped and the ripples she drew on the calm water disappeared. She began to stare at him with her expressionless stiff face and her translucent red eyes that seemed eerie at first glance. It was the moment Usher was trying to think about whether he had made a mistake or not.

“Huh, why is there an exit? Are you going out?”
“That’s it, yes.”

When she immediately relaxed her expression, she answered with a little relief.

“I know.”
“You know?!”
“Ugh! Noisy!”
“Oh, sorry.”

He pretended to cover her ears because he screamed in excitement, and when he apologized to the woman who frowned at her, she relaxed her expression.

“I can take you there if you want.”
“Really?!”
“Oh! It’s noisy.”

He tried to apologize again, but before that, the woman continued.

“Because you can’t swim.”
“That’s as long as I practice!”
“But don’t you have fins?”

Usher couldn’t say anything when she spoke as if to confirm her obvious fact. His pride was hurt, but it was true that he couldn’t swim.

“Can you take me to the exit anyway?”
“Huh.”
“Then right now…!”

But, in her excitement at the thought of being able to escape her cave, did she not cover his mouth with her hand as he begged her lady?

“But there are conditions.”

The woman immediately brought her mouth to his ear and she whispered.

“You’re having sex with me.”

It was so lascivious that it sent chills down her spine.