Picking Her Up in the Forest

About a month had passed since I began living in the forest.

I had grown accustomed to the dark forest, so I decided to start exploring a little. Of course, I couldn't afford to get lost, so I had prepared thoroughly.

The reason people get lost in forests is that the same scenery continues endlessly, making it impossible to tell where they are――.

The solution was simple. I sprayed pink paint marks onto the tree trunks.

That way, even if I got lost, I could follow the pink marks and find my way back home.

I explored the dark forest, leaving marks on the trunks of thick conifers. As I wandered, I took pictures of flowers blooming in the forest and unusual plants with a digital camera I had bought from Shangri-La.

What was the point of doing this? None at all. It was just a hobby. I had done similar things in my original world, so it was more of a habit.

It was fun watching my album fill up with beautiful flowers and plants I'd never seen before. It felt a lot like collecting game characters and aiming for a complete collection.

I saved the pictures to an SD card and stored it in my Item Box so they would be preserved.

However, I had a lot of things in my Item Box. If I ever returned to my original world, what would happen to everything inside it?

Would they disappear after all? I couldn't imagine getting back there in the first place, though……

Well, I had done similar things in the middle of nowhere in my original world, so living a slow life here wasn't all that different……

"Oh, this is a beautiful flower."

The large petals were lovely. I framed the white flower in the camera's viewfinder. This camera was also a used single-lens reflex camera I had bought from Shangri-La.

It was an outdated model that cost 30,000 yen, but it was good enough for me.

I couldn't use it as-is in the dark forest, so I had attached a diffuser for the flash.

I walked around the large tree with the camera raised. Then the black thing at the base of the tree moved.

Startled by the sudden movement, I jumped and fell on my rear, while the camera went flying and rolled across the leaf mold.

At the base of the great tree was a four-legged black beast covered in short, glossy fur. Looking closely, I realized it was a huge cat.

It was no cute house cat, despite being a cat.

Its body was as long as a large dog, with beautiful, slender legs, a sinuous tail, and long, pointed triangular ears standing straight up on its head――a leopard? No, a wildcat, perhaps.

I had thought it was completely black, but looking very closely, I could see faint tiger stripes amid the black fur.

Its belly moved as it breathed, so it was still alive……but it lay limp and motionless. After looking it over carefully, I noticed what seemed to be an injury at the base of its left hind leg, with a broken arrow lodged in it.

"Poor thing……I'd like to do something for it, but……"

But would it be safe to touch such a large beast?

If it bit me, I'd be done for in one shot.

Even so, when I tried to touch it, it apparently noticed and began threatening me fiercely. It threatened me just like a cat would.

But perhaps that had been its last bit of strength――it seemed to have exhausted itself, because afterward it lay limp and showed no sign of movement.

To protect myself from its bite, I bought a cushion from Shangri-La, wrapped it around my arm, and secured it with a cord.

And when it came to a beast's attack――the neck would probably be the target. After searching for various things, I bought a motorcycle neck guard and put it over my shoulders.

This would protect my neck and shoulders, so it probably couldn't bite a vital spot. I congratulated myself on what I thought was a clever idea.

But even with that, to be perfectly honest, I was terrified.

I had been bitten by a dog before――and when a beast bites you, it leaves a deep cut as if a blade had been driven into you.

If it hit a major artery, it would very likely be fatal.

I steeled myself and pulled out the arrow still lodged in the black beast's hind leg.

It must have been startled by the sudden, intense pain. It raised its body and made as if to bite me, but soon collapsed limply again.

Apparently, it no longer had the strength even to raise its body, so it was completely at my mercy.

In the wild, where the weak were preyed upon by the strong, an injury like this would make it an easy target for other beasts.

Looking at its face, it seemed to understand that and have resigned itself to its fate.

I examined the fur around the spot where I had pulled out the arrow. My fingertips felt short, smooth fur――glossy black, with the texture of velvet.

The fur around the wound was wet and black, and when I touched it, I could tell that it was quite hot.

"This wound's become infected."

It must have a pretty high fever too. That was probably why it was so limp.

Now, what was I supposed to do?

For the time being, I bought saline solution for cleaning wounds from Shangri-La. The plastic bottle had a narrow nozzle, making it perfect for washing the wound.

After pouring saline into it and thoroughly washing the inside of the wound, I took disinfecting alcohol and tissues from my Item Box and disinfected the area around it.

Because of the black fur, it only looked wet and black, but the tissue I used to wipe the wound came away red.

Now for some medicine……

Shangri-La sold medicine too, didn't it? The medicine I usually saw was for humans. Would human medicine work on an animal, especially a creature from another world?

When I searched, I found medicine for animals too――but most of it was for skin diseases or stomach problems. They didn't seem to sell anything for wounds.

I also found a tool like a needleless syringe for giving animals medicine, so I put it in my cart.

I suppose I'd have to try human medicine and hope for the best……

If it didn't work, there was nothing more I could do.

I searched Shangri-La for antibiotics.

Several products came up, but they were all ointments.

"It says it prevents infection and has broad antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria…… Is this the one?"

It seemed to be intended mainly for skin inflammation, but this was the only antibiotic for sale.

I bought the ointment in a tube and rubbed it into the wound and the black fur. The large black cat remained limp while I applied the medicine.

I bought Lox○nin as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, crushed one tablet, dissolved it in water, and used the syringe-like instrument I had bought earlier to pour it into the beast's throat.

Would this be enough? Would it work? I had no idea.

I vaguely remembered hearing that human medicine shouldn't be given to animals, but this was all I had.

I had treated the wound, but if I left it here, it would become easy prey for other animals.

It must have feared that too, which was why it had come near the edge of the forest, where there were fewer other beasts.

I spent a while thinking about how to transport it――living creatures couldn't be put in the Item Box, after all. What was I going to do……?

First, I searched Shangri-La for a carrier.

I had seen a tracked carrier in my original world, so I searched for one, but it wasn't for sale.

However――a folding, four-wheeled box carrier called a Wild Carrier was available for 9,000 yen.

It had wide, low-pressure tires designed for rough terrain, so it probably wouldn't sink into the leaf mold.

I decided to buy it.

"Click."

While assembling the carrier, I spread a brown blanket inside it――then lifted the limp, motionless black body into my arms.

"Oh, it's heavy!"

I lowered my hips and somehow hoisted it up――this thing had to weigh more than 30 kilograms. Whether I lifted it or gently placed it in the carrier, it remained completely at my mercy without twitching even once.

Could it already be too late……?

I slowly hauled it all the way home――if I could put it in my Item Box, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble.

Pulling the four-wheeled cart slowly through the dark forest, I followed the pink marks I'd just painted on the tree trunks toward home.

------◇◇◇------

I had brought the beast home, but what was I supposed to do now?

I searched for a dog crate, but it seemed cruel to put it in such a cramped cage.

――On the other hand, if I kept it in the room with me and it bit me while I was asleep, that would be the end of me.

"Hmm……"

I agonized over it for a while. But then I realized I could bring it inside and pitch my tent outside to sleep in.

Once I had decided, I began preparing. I spread a blue plastic sheet in the corner of the room, laid a blanket on it, and put it there.

When I had lifted it, I had confirmed that it had no male parts between its legs, so the owner of this black body seemed to be female.

Next was the toilet. I searched Shangri-La for a cat toilet, but they were all tiny. They didn't sell anything for a cat this large.

After searching through all sorts of options for a while, I bought a square blue plastic basin and decided to use it as a cat toilet. Once it arrived, I filled the basin with plenty of the cat litter I'd bought along with it.

I had no idea whether she would use it as a toilet, though. She lay on the blanket, limp and motionless.

Then I opened a can of cat food and put it, along with some water, in a small dish. I chose an expensive one in case she was a gourmet, but I wondered how she'd like it.

She didn't react to the food in front of her, merely keeping her eyes closed. If only she could eat, I thought her strength might return……but would she?

I pitched my tent in front of the house and began preparing my camp. It was a little ridiculous to camp outside after going to the trouble of building a house, but it couldn't be helped.

I would know within a few days whether she would survive. It was a pity, but there probably wasn't a veterinarian in a world like this.

There might be something like healing magic, though……

――The next morning.

I woke up in the tent outside and peeked into the room――but there had been no change in her at all. There were no signs that she had touched either the water or the cat food. I replaced both with fresh servings, just in case.

There was no point sitting here watching her, so I decided to ask around about treating animals while doing business at the market.

The old man at the tool shop seemed like the person most likely to know about that sort of thing. He knew the city well and seemed to have plenty of connections.

With that in mind, I visited the old man's tool shop.

As usual, I searched for the old man's figure in the dark interior.

"Hi~"

"What is it?"

"Whoa!"

I was startled when the robed old man suddenly emerged from the seemingly empty darkness. It had been like this last time too……

"Old man, is that magic?"

"……Heh heh, I'll leave that to your imagination. Now, what brings you here? Are you bringing in another strange item?"

The old man stroked his white beard with a sly grin.

"Is there no animal doctor in this city?"

"……Now that's a truly bizarre question."

According to the old man, there were hardly any doctors for humans, much less veterinarians.

"Then what about healing magic?"

"You're not planning to use healing magic on animals, are you?"

"Would that be bad?"

"I wouldn't say it's forbidden…… Hmm."

The old man wore a complicated expression, but apparently there was no mage willing to cooperate with such an eccentric undertaking.

"But if one of the fine horses owned by royalty or nobles were injured, wouldn't someone treat it?"

"Even so, I've never heard of such a thing."

Apparently, even in such cases, no real treatment was performed. They simply left things to fate――or to nature.

Well, if a horse injured its leg, it could no longer support its body and would have no choice but to die……

It seemed that in this world, animals were treated as either prey or expendable goods.

For one thing, it seemed that surgery didn't exist, and medicine consisted solely of things like medicinal herbs.

It wasn't as if eating a medicinal herb would heal your wounds and completely restore your strength like in a game!――If you suffered a serious injury, that was the end of you……

"What are you trying to save?"

"A huge cat I found in the forest."

"The black one?"

The old man seemed to immediately realize what beast I meant, raising one of his white eyebrows as he looked at me.

"That's right."

"That's a forest cat. Its pelt fetches a high price, you know? It's an extremely valuable luxury item."

That velvety fur certainly looked expensive…… So that was why it had been targeted. Normally, it was prey to be killed and skinned. The old man clearly couldn't understand why I would try to save it.

Our values and sense of ethics were too different, so there was no point discussing it further――I gave up and left the tool shop.

Besides, I had washed the wound and applied infection-fighting ointment. It should be fine――I told myself that as I sat on a stool at my stall in the market.

Even so, I searched Shangri-La from top to bottom, looking for some kind of medicine.

As I stared at the screen displaying the products and brooded over the black-furred female, someone suddenly spoke to me.

"Boss, what are you thinking so hard about?"

It was Amana from the stall next to mine.

"Nothing much."

"When a man gets lost in thought, it's usually about money or a woman, right?"

The woman part might have been right, but…… I told Amana about the forest cat.

"Ha…… What a ridiculously eccentric thing to do. I thought you were an unusual man, but you're really something else."

"Sorry about that."

As I talked with Amana, who was looking thoroughly exasperated, another woman suddenly spoke to me.

"I smell a forest cat!"

When I turned around, I saw that the speaker was Myaree, a beastwoman covered in fur much like the forest cat's.

Did I really smell that strongly? Well, I had held the forest cat, and I was still wearing the same clothes……

Unlike in my original world, bathing and doing laundry every day wasn't easy here.

When I told Myaree that I had saved a forest cat, she said she wanted to see it. To beastfolk like her, forest cats were messengers of the gods――in other words, angels.

------◇◇◇------

Toward evening, I closed up my stall and headed for the forest where my house stood together with Myaree.

She seemed somewhat surprised when she heard that I lived in the forest. Even to beastfolk who entered the forest to hunt, what I was doing seemed strange.

"So do the beastfolk take good care of forest cats?"

"We do!"

But to ordinary people, forest cats were nothing more than sources of expensive fur――which meant that whoever had shot the forest cat hadn't been a beastman.

"But the dogfolk are different. They're probably the ones who did it!"

Even among the beastfolk, the wolf-like dogfolk worshiped the black wolf that had attacked me――a black wolf known as a demon wolf――as a messenger of the gods.

Because of these ideological and religious differences, catfolk and dogfolk had apparently been on bad terms since ancient times.

"Then do catfolk hunt black wolves?"

"Of course."

I couldn't say anything about that. I had saved the forest cat by chance――and if I had found a lone black wolf on the verge of death, I might have saved it too.

But because I had saved the forest cat――Myaree seemed to regard me as one of the catfolk.

Still, what should I do if I met the dogfolk? My own carelessness had led to me being attacked in the forest, but it had left me with a poor impression of black wolves.

Hmm…… Well, I'd think about it when the time came.

We crossed the bridge over the river, went down to the riverbank, and walked along the road leading to my house. Since Myaree was with me, I couldn't use my bicycle.

I could have used it, but it would be bad if rumors started going around.

"You made a road into the forest? Amazing!"

It had been easy for me because I used a brush cutter, but doing all this with a sickle would certainly have been hard work.

Since she said my pace was too slow, she carried me on her back and dashed toward the house. She wasn't as large as a man, but a beastwoman had more than enough power.

She had enough strength to throw around a man who had gotten drunk, after all.

If I had to carry someone on my back, I would be hard-pressed even to walk, and my knees would probably be shaking.

After racing through the forest clinging to her back, Myaree was startled again when she saw my house come into view.

"You built a house in the forest?! Did you build it, Kenichi?"

"Yeah. It was a lot of work."

I hadn't realized it was a construction kit, after all. But in a way, it was precisely because it was a kit that I had been able to assemble it.

Designing and building this from scratch would have been a little beyond me. I had the materials and tools, as well as heavy machinery――so I probably could have done it, but it would have taken a long time.

"What's that smell?"

"Smell? Do you notice something?"

Apparently, what caught her attention was the smell of the insect-repelling marigolds I had planted around the outside of the fence. Her sense of smell really was incredible.

I climbed the small stairs and opened the front door leading from the equally small deck, inviting Myaree into my house.

"Welcome~"