At the Northern Fort Chapter 6

The next morning. I woke up as the surroundings got brighter.

While I was stretching outside the hut, with the  -gatagata- sound of a window opening,

“You’re up early.”

The one-eyed knight poked his head out. He was still in his pyjamas. Maybe he still has low blood pressure in the morning. He still felt drowsy.

He just woke up, yet his eyes or his face didn’t get puffy. How enviable.

“Wait a little longer for breakfast.”

Saying that, the one-eyed knight went inside.

I climbed up on the wooden boxes to peek inside since I was curious, but I was greeted by the scene of the one-eyed knight changing his clothes, so I hurriedly turned away.

My face still in its hot state, I went back down to the ground. To calm my heart, I continuously dug up the piled up snow. -zubabababa- …Oh my, this is quite fun.

The one-eyed knight brought my breakfast when I reached the mud as I dug the snow, that my front paws were all muddy.

“Don’t dig too much. You’ll fall in,”

he said while placing a plate of food on the wooden box.

How rude. Even I don’t fall into my own holes.

Then I fell in.

I was too focused on the food that my front paw fell in the hole and I tripped over.

“That’s why I told you,” laughed the one-eyed knight.

Embarra.s.sing. My face heated up.

“Eat well,”

he said with a smile on his face and then disappeared inside, closing the window behind him.

After I got myself out of the hole and climbed the boxes, I peeked inside, where I found the one-eyed knight just about to exit the room.

Having noticed me peeking inside, he lightly waved his hand, saying, “see you.” He’s probably going to go training.

After seeing him go out, I started eating.

It was a soup with carrots and potatoes, along with bite-sized pieces of bread. This feels like cat food. I’m glad he didn’t give me raw meat from overly considerate.

Hafuhafu, I breathed as I brought the food to my mouth with my tongue. The bread was soaked so it looked unappetising, but it still tasted good.

Now that my belly was full, I started thinking about the future. I really want to go to where Mother is, but I still don’t know the way to the Capital. So instead, maybe I should stay here for a bit.

Here in this base, there are no innocent but scary children, nor are there any hunters aiming for my fur. There are only knights here. I think it’s a rather safe place.

I can’t imagine a knight bullying a small animal. Even the one-eyed knight was kind.

The way from here to the Capital is endlessly long for my small legs. There might be danger on the way too.

Then, it might be best to wait for Mother here without moving. There are many people here, so I won’t get lonely like when I was up in the mountains, and plus I can have tasty food.

…That could actually be the number one reason.

After using my hind leg to scratch my head with a -kakakat-, I walked around the hole I dug. I will be here for a while, I should take some time to look around.

Moving around stealthily as to not encounter any humans, I arrived at the sports ground that I visited yesterday. To be accurate, a training ground maybe? The one-eyed knight had his subordinates here.

However, today, there wasn’t anyone here, and the snowy ground was silent.

Maybe they ran, since there were many footprints drawing a circle around the field. There were footprints where the knights trained yesterday, but as for the rest it’s all fresh. No one stepped on them.

Fidget fidget…

Fidget fidget…

My big eyes are probably shining brightly. I can’t stop this pounding in my chest.
Who could win against that white temptation.

It’s impossible for me, impossible!

After checking that there wasn’t anyone around, I ran out while my tail wagged -bunbun-. I am going to make footprints on this untouched snow.

About twenty centimetres high. It’s soft and clean, it’s the best. Hwafuhafu. I ran around the field, jumped about, rolled about, buried face in the snow and dug holes.

How fun!

“Are you a kid?” you might laugh but I’m still fine if you say that. Because I am a kid.

I wouldn’t have the courage to this in my previous life’s appearance, but now that I am a baby fox I have no shame in doing this.

Panting about, I rolled around freely on the snow while attaching snow on my fur, my pride and joy.

After I played around until I was satisfied, I went back to walking about the base. It was also fun moving around stealthily to not get spotted by humans. It felt as if I was playing hide-and-seek.
I stalked a knight that was moving knight, and sneaked up to the sentry knight as much as possible.

I lose if I get spotted, but so far I haven’t been discovered.

Usually, I do have my consciousness as a human, but once my play switch is on, I can’t stop myself. My instincts demand fun things.

Though I am dumbfounded at how childish it is, I still rushed in when I saw fresh snow, sadly.

Leaving paw footprints on the snow, stalking a knight, climbing a small mountain of snow that was created from cleaning the snow, sniffing the horse in the stable, going into some place like a toilet and almost falling in.

I played around for the whole day. When I realised it, the sun was already setting.

When I returned thinking that I needed food, the one-eyed knight was waiting in front of the shed. It appeared that he moved all the shovels away someplace else and laid out blankets.

After placing dinner――some sort of meat, roasted simply――on top of the wooden box, he looked at me and said this teasingly,

“Did you have fun running on the snow? You looked quite excited.”

…You were watching?

For some reason, I felt really embarra.s.sed. Just where did he see that from. Was it when I was on the training grounds.

While slightly shaking my tail as if to hide my embarra.s.sment, I pledged to be careful from here on.