TCGAD 19

When the long train of Nyx’s dress covered the world, the sky turned pitch black and night fell upon the land.

On the day the dog’s bride was taken, the dog was in a swamp-like sleep. A world where the unconscious overflowed. The mind becomes muddled, and the five senses grow dull.

…Hoo, hooook. The dog’s heart was pounding. There was a distinctly unpleasant sensation in his heart.

From a certain moment, the scent of his bride had grown faint.

No matter how hard he concentrated all his mind to catch that sweet smell from between his legs, the knot kept coming undone, blurring away. His senses simply would not be sharpened.

‘F**k! This can’t be happening! I must not lose the bride’s scent! What the h**l is wrong with my sense of smell? Why can’t I smell my bride! D**n it all, I want to burn everything to the ground!’

His nerves were stretched taut, on edge. He struck the floor with his tail, its fur standing on end. When it came to his bride, Bulkan always became hypersensitive.

F**k, no way…, no way, no way, no way? No way…, d**n it, no way! Has that fucking b**t**d run away again!?

Heat surged up like lava. A flame that felt like it would flare up from the bottom of his chest and burn away his entire occipital lobe.

After all, the memories he possessed were nothing but a crude collection. He could not understand why his bride was so obsessed with memories. He hated that thing clinging to his bride.

If it were limbs, he could just chop them off and attach new ones, but because they were memories, he could not mold them as he pleased.

D**n it, f**k!

Bulkan’s eyes shot open. In the pitch-black darkness, the beast’s eyes glinted eerily. They emitted a blue gleam. His black pupils rolled gloomily.

He was not there. Nowhere in the room. That white body was nowhere to be seen. Bulkan sharpened his instincts. He searched every corner of the cave.

Half of his body was that of a god, so he could feel it intuitively without needing to see with his own two eyes. He imagines opening and closing the doors in sequence, starting from the one at the very end of the hallway. With his eyes wide open, he searches for his bride. He is not there. He is not in the next room either. Not in the one after that, nor the one after that. He even searches the room where the pups he so loves to suckle and l**k are.

He is not there, not anywhere…! D**n it, I have to chase him!

But why? It was strange that his body would not get up at all. The dog then slowly lowered his gaze. His own large body filled his vision.

Normally, he should have seen pitch-black fur. But what filled his eyes was distinctly bright red meat. It was raw meat, as if torn by a predator’s fangs. A large wound gaped open, the flesh inside lolling out like a tongue.

The surroundings were drenched in blood. Was I trying to tear off and eat my own flesh? The thought flashed through his mind.

“Hoo, hoo-hook.”

Every time he breathed out raggedly, blood gushed out like a fountain, pump, pump. His intestines were spilling out. Normally, his skin would have regenerated on its own like a spiderweb. But the area around the wound was burning away.

Something nearby was emitting a ghastly light in the moonlight. It was not the light from his bride’s white face. A knife, there was a knife lying nearby. That blade, Bulkan’s eyes flashed. A savage scent emanated from the blade, as sharp as his own fangs. It was coated with poison.

He tried to stand and walk, but his body collapsed. The dog fell, and fell again. The bleeding was incessant. As the blood boiled, his body melted. Like a lit candle, even as he melted away limply, only one thing pierced the monster’s mind—his bride.

With those slender legs, he could not have gone far. My bride has a sweet scent, so he will attract every single male in the forest.

…Will he be eaten then? Bulkan shivered. His entire body trembled.

The bride is carrying a pup in his belly right now. It is none other than Bulkan’s own child. He will not be able to escape far. I know it. This very Bulkan knows it well. Because Bulkan, too, has hunted things with pups in their bellies. To protect their young, they would flee to the very end. Such slow things were no fun to catch and were not usually Bulkan’s opponents, but he had captured them to feed to his pregnant bride.

If wolf-like things that covet my bride were to pounce on him, he would not be able to run away quickly, and my bride, with a neck as slender as a deer’s, might stop breathing at once. Daring to bite my possession’s neck. They will tear at his blood and flesh and freely indulge in his fragrant innards. Without even knowing whose they are!

Wait a minute. Bulkan stopped dead in his tracks. He is my bride. Because he is so pretty and smells so good, that thing which deserves to be torn to shreds might just take my bride for himself. He would pierce my bride’s soft skin with his molars and take deep whiffs of the scent into his nostrils, wouldn’t he?

The moment the image of his bride, now the alpha female in Bulkan’s mind, appeared, his vision was stained with the color of crimson blood. A pillar of heat raged through his body, wreaking all sorts of havoc.

Frenzy, ferocity, savagery—amidst all this, why did he feel an unavoidable thrill, a shiver down his spine and a tremor in his jaw, when he thought of his bride’s soft skin? It poked and prodded all over his insides, driving him out of his mind.

He is mine. Even a god would not dare take my bride from me. I will never stand by and watch that happen. If anyone tries to put a ring on my bride’s finger and l**k his g**in, I will kill them. I will surely rip off their limbs and cut off their breath!

All sorts of sinister imaginations burrowed into his mind, kneading his brain like smoke escaped from Pandora’s box. Bulkan had to fight against the maddening delusion.

He slapped his own cheek with his forepaw. Thwack, thwack! He slapped it mercilessly. The violent force burst the inside of his cheek, and his jaw shattered, causing his tongue to loll out.

He kicked the cave floor with his hind leg. The dog’s burning body leaped nimbly out the window.

“Kuaaaaaaack!”

His large body landed on the ground with unbelievable agility. He ran through the forest haphazardly. His tattered chest flapped in the wind.

The dog’s lungs and heart were as large as logs, allowing him to reach incredible speeds in an instant. His long, sturdy legs took wide strides, and he shot forward like an arrow, stretching and contracting his spine like a spring.

He sharpened his sense of smell, searching for the fragments of lingering scent his bride had left behind. He ran on all fours, panting, his tongue flying, but he could not find his bride anywhere. He could not find a single strand of that d**n red hair.

His whole body burned fiercely. His heart felt like it was being branded with a hot iron. Like a brand seared with a red-hot weapon, the bride’s name was engraved on his bright red innards, scarring Bulkan’s chest.

Odeu, oh. You said you would not betray me, Odeu, you said you would not leave me, you said you would not run away, but you stabbed my guts and fled, you must have stabbed my heart deep because it hurts and torments me like crazy, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu, Odeu,

“O- deu- oh!”

Bulkan howled. No matter how sharply he honed his sense of smell, he kept losing the trail. All the while, his body was steadily burning. Only a sharp, tearing scream remained, digging into the dry forest.

The dog greeted several mornings this way. The hot sun rose and sprinkled dustings of light over the earth, and then night crawled out like a spider again, casting a pitch-black web across the sky.

“Kaak, k, keu-euk.”

Bulkan crawled on his forelegs. The tall grass lay completely helpless under his large torso. By now, one side of his lower body was entirely burned away. Fsssh, white steam rose, blurring his vision. Do you think I will give up like this? If even my forelegs give out like this, I will roll with my head. I will catch and eat him with my own teeth, no matter what.

“Kuaaaa!”

The entire forest was burning from the fire that had spread from Bulkan’s body. His vision was hazy from the milky fog, and his throat stung as if a blade had been lodged in it. The animals, trembling in their scorched homes, had long since hidden beyond the back mountain, not knowing when a spark might fly their way.

Forward, he kept crawling forward until his foreleg buckled with a thud. It was a cliff. Bulkan tumbled and rolled, falling to the bottom of the cliff. A complete fall. Completely captivated by the empty feeling of having lost everything, the dog looked up at the sky. The sky leaped into his entire field of vision. It was a watery blue he had not seen in a long time. He had only been moving forward, so he had not had a moment to look up.

A white cloud drifted by. The white thing reminded him of someone’s face.

Is he smiling right now? He wondered. When he pulled his lips into a faint smile, his lower belly would tingle and all his insides would grow warm.

Something black crossed the pure white cloud. Bulkan’s pupils narrowed sensitively into slits. The dog immediately flattened his body against the grassy field. Caw, caw. The crow jeered heartily.

“Your bride has betrayed you. He stabbed you with a poisoned knife and ran away. He must have hated this gloomy, dark cave. Depression would set in and scabies would crawl on his body just from staying still. Did you think he would last?”

What is that? The predator’s five senses were on high alert. He was on the verge of snatching that wicked black bird with his forepaw. He intended to kill anything that coveted his bride.

“You will never find your bride, you foolish son of a b**ch. Prostrate yourself at my feet and beg for forgiveness, right now!”

It circled around him, sizing him up. Bulkan was poised to leap into the sky at any moment. With his upper body flattened to the ground, he sharpened the senses in his worn-out claws.

“Then I will take you as my husband.”

What nonsense! I have already exchanged rings on my forepaw with my bride, making a lifelong promise, and now you tell me to take another consort? That is something only pathetic philanderers would do!

“I already have a bride I’ve mated with. What for? Stop stinking like a b**ch and get the h**l away from me!”

Annoyed and infuriated, Bulkan bared his sharp molars and growled. But wasn’t this crow completely out of its mind, spouting such outrageous nonsense?

“I will r**e your bride and throw him into h**l!”

It was then that flames instantly blazed in Bulkan’s eyes, which had been as black and hollow as an empty cave.

“He is mine? Why would you r**e him?”

Something inside his ribcage began to spread its wings and run rampant. It was anger, pushing and tearing at his inner walls, growing fiercely in size. It was pain, it was disaster, it was liquefaction.

“The bride is mine, no one can touch a single hair on him without my permission, do not even dare to covet his breath!”

The predator opened his maw wide and soared into the sky. Crunch. His hard molars instantly pierced the crow’s wing, completely shattering the bone that formed its shoulder. As cruelly and easily as tearing the wings off a butterfly, he moved his jaw and chewed, crunch, crunch.

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

A horrific scream echoed through the forest. The dog filled his belly with the crow’s screams and filled his spirit with vengeance. He opened the gates of Tartarus, which only he could open, and threw the flailing body inside. Pushing through the undergrowth with his torso, he moved forward, and forward.

‘Your bride has betrayed you. He stabbed you with a poisoned knife and ran away. He must have hated this gloomy, dark cave. Depression would set in and scabies would crawl on his body just from staying still. Did you think he would last?’

The crow should have been dead by now, yet he did not know why something remained in his mind like soot, melting away his brain.

The image of his bride’s face, as if engraved before his eyes, came to mind. The bride had been getting thinner and thinner. He was already as scrawny as a chick that had not even had porridge. His eyes had lost their sparkle, and the smile had vanished from his lips. The flesh left on bones is bound to stink and dwindle after a few nights, and his bride was exactly in that state. Even though he had brought him so much food, he looked no different than a withered corpse.

If he ran away because he hated this gloomy, dark cave, did he run to a place closer to the sun? He could be in danger of having all his skin burn off if he is not careful, but Bulkan, fiercely captivated only by the thought of snatching his bride again with his forepaws, hatched a plan to steal the sun chariot in the morning when the sun rises.

The white clouds that had been floating in the sky turned pitch black, and they gathered like a pack of dogs, moving menacingly. Thunder raged. Lightning repeatedly whipped the ground.

<<O dog, guardian of h**l>>

It was then that a solemn voice was heard from the sky. Between the clouds, a large eye popped out fearsomely and looked down upon the earth. The god who governs lightning, unable to bear the commotion on the surface, had shown his face.

<<Why have you brought chaos to the land of h**l?>>

The forest was on fire. Animals were losing their homes, and the nymphs were grieving, sobbing, and shedding tears. Once again, lightning split the sky in two, as if a snake were coiling.

<<Return to your place at once!>>

It was an extremely strange and austere scene. A normal human or beast would have trembled all over and would have surely turned into a pillar of salt on the spot.

“O…deu.”

But Bulkan was like a racehorse with blinders on, only moving forward. If it had been anything else, a single strike of lightning would not only have burned its entire body but also dug out the surrounding ground into a pit, turning it to ash, but the dog endured it seven times.

Flash, flash, as he stared blankly at the white light spreading before him, a white face floated before his eyes like an afterimage. Whatever he saw was connected to his bride’s face. It was nothing short of raw torture. Even if they had hung Bulkan upside down from a tree and beat him senseless, it would not have been this agonizing.

‘Even if I had met you when you were young, I would have treated you the same.’

It felt like if he went just a little further, he could catch him with these forepaws, that he could smell that scent, but he kept getting further away. It was shattering into pieces like a mirage.

‘I would have wanted to feed you and treat you when you were sick.’

Rumble, crash, lightning struck once more. His vision turned white. Soon, it shattered into multiple scenes and crumbled down. His mind went completely white, as if experiencing the o**asm that had made his brain sticky when he thrust into his bride’s a** and moved his hips.

A scene flashed before Bulkan’s eyes.

☀️

It was a very old memory. When Bulkan was still a dog. Devoid of any reason, he was busy following only his instincts.

‘Grr, rrr….’

He preyed on all sorts of animals and went on a complete rampage.

<<For the balance of this world, that dog must be killed.>>

<<Yesterday, he snatched and ate my prized cow!>>

The gods who feared him tried to capture Bulkan many times, but they were no match for him. Thus, Zeus, the god who governs heaven and earth, struck him with a thunderbolt and cast him out.

The dog, struck by lightning, fell down, and down, and kept falling down. Kaa-boom! The moment his head finally slammed into the ground, the earth could not withstand the tremendous impact and split in two, just like a walnut.

‘K-heuk, how dare, how dare you do this to me…!’

Bulkan, fallen to the earth, opened his blurry eyes. He found himself locked in some kind of iron cage. Hmph, the dog snorted. Something like this could not hold him. All he had to do was bite through it with his molars. He opened his jaws to clamp down on the iron bars. But.

Clank, clank! Something was fitted over his muzzle. He tried to push it off with his forepaws, pushing again and again, but it felt suffocating as if his jaw was fixed in place.

‘Kuaaaaaaack!’

His muzzle felt maddeningly constricting, and the excessively narrow raised cage suffocated Bulkan’s chest. It was a pig-like confinement he had never felt before in his life. It was a humiliation he was experiencing for the very first time.

‘Grrrr.’

Bulkan shook his head frantically and scraped at his jaw with his forepaws, trying to throw off the muzzle. But it was of little use. These were claws that could instantly pierce the hide of any beast and end its life. But they were just—

‘F**k, fuuuck!’

—digging deep into his own skin, unable to unfasten this d**n muzzle. Wounds burst open and blood seeped out profusely. This was the same him who would charge through the forest several times a day, throwing himself into his hunting grounds.

Above his head, the vast sky should be, and under his feet, countless weeds should be bowing their heads towards him. He could not understand why these d**n iron bars were blocking his way.

A fire boiled over in his stomach. The intense heat traveled up his throat, reached his brain, and made even the back of his head feel like it was boiling.

Creeak, the door opened. And then, humans appeared. Something in their hands glinted sharply. Something pierced the nape of Bulkan’s neck and was thrust in. It was not the fangs of a beast.

‘Ka, aaaaack!’

It did not end his life. But, something spread from his neck throughout his entire body, his vision spun, and only a single sentence seemed to be branded in his mind, swirling around.

‘Kill, must kill.’

Bulkan thrashed about violently. He bit and tore at everything in the ring, and until the spark of life was extinguished, he would bite their necks and shake his head.

And then, it was a repetition of the same time every day. He was confined in the iron cage as usual. A small light attacked Bulkan’s eyes. A thorny light. And what appeared was a very small human. Bulkan flattened his upper body. He was excessively hungry. If it came down to it, he was planning to hunt that human and take him as prey.

“……”

An immature voice leaks out. For Bulkan, as a dog, he could not understand what the human was chattering about. He had never once wanted to know what that small mouth held. Humans were endlessly weak and insignificant things. Was there any need for the great dog, himself, to listen to their words?

“……”

The dog, who had not learned reason, would not have known what that little child had chattered about back then. Stupid thing. …But. But the him of now knows.

‘Are you like this because you’re hungry?’

What that little child had chattered about. Now that he had learned the human language, he could understand. And one more thing.

The pupils in the large eyes were reddish as if mountain strawberries had been embedded in them, and the small palms were immature, like the soles of a newborn herbivore.

‘I’ll give you food, …I’m sorry.’

Odeu, my primordial scent, the gaze of my creation. It was Bulkan’s first memory.

‘But I don’t have anything right now…. My grandma said it’s good for animals to drink sugar water when they’re weak.’

The way he kept mumbling something was quite annoying.

‘If you don’t get lost right now, I will snatch your neck and swallow you into my body…!’

As if understanding his threat, the human scurried out of the raised cage. His short limbs flailed about.

‘D**gy, wait here just a little bit!’

In an instant, silence filled the surroundings. And his past self, snorts, pffft. Of course. There was no way that little thing could have helped but fear him. Looking back now, it was truly foolish.

Because the lump of fragile flesh that he thought had turned tail and fled came back.

‘D**gy, I’m back….’

Creeak, the door opened again. This time, I will really kill him…! He made up his mind. But in the small hand, there was something.

‘There was no sugar, so I brought mixed coffee. Dogs can’t drink coffee, so just a moment…. I’ll do everything for you.’

When he flipped over something long and thin, sweet powder was sprinkled into the water. After mixing it well in the water, he pushed it in front of him.

‘You foolish thing! Not something like this, offer me raw meat!’

Bulkan roared, grrr-umble. He went crazy, biting at the steel bars with his teeth. As he threw a fit, gurgle. His stomach rumbled as if thunder was striking inside his hide.

D**n it, I’m hungry…. My throat is burning up. Isn’t there even a single chick anywhere?

His throat burned like crazy. An unbearable thirst set in. That plain water, that thing would be able to solve this maddening thirst. Having no choice, he took the limply sagging cup with his sharp teeth and gulped down the water.

Gulp, guuulp, glug….

At the sweetness that coated his tongue, Bulkan’s pupils dilated widely. A dark blue vein throbbed on the nape of his neck, and it felt as if the blood vessels all over his body were swelling thickly. At that moment, a shadow approached from above his head.

‘What?’

He wondered what it was, but it was the human’s incredibly small forepaw. It was so immature that it looked like he could not even step on the ground with it.

‘Just a moment, d**gy, I’ll pet your head….’

No way, no way, he thought. It was real. It really seemed like he was trying to stroke his head. He must be a complete lunatic. How dare a young thing without a shred of fear treat him as if he were a pet dog?

‘How dare this insolent thing!’

Bulkan puffed out his chest fur to look majestic and growled, grrr, opening his jaws to bare his molars. It was then. His own reflection appeared on the steel bars. It was, without a doubt, a mutt. His torso had become unbelievably small, and had he not lost a considerable amount of muscle? It was a figure in which no dignity could be found anywhere.

D**n it, f**k, s**t…. To think that he, who once commanded the world as a great beast, was in such a miserable state.

‘D**gy, I’ll be p-pwetty to you….’

Even as he was growling, grrr, the small hand kept approaching. It was an impossibly audacious act. The moment it touched his head, he was about to snap at it with his jaws, but. A human’s voice flowed from behind.

‘Where the h**l did this d**n brat go again, fucker, I sent him on a cigarette errand.’

It was then that the young human’s body stiffened. His large eyes rolled around.

‘Gu Myeongha!’

The shout from outside was heard again. The young piece of meat hurriedly dusted off his bottom and stood up. The small hand slowly moved away from him. Woof, I was going to bite him and teach him a lesson, but tch, what a shame.

‘I’ll come again tomorrow, d**gy.’

The small human disappeared in a hurry. Squeak, slam! The door of the raised cage closed. And so, the beast was left alone in the darkness. The silence of the shadows, where no one ever came. Bulkan gasped with hunger. The only salvation was the sweet taste left on his tongue.

“……”

And then, a ray of sunlight settled upon his eyelids again. How much time had passed? The door that had been squeakily shut, opened.

‘D**gy.’

It was that same young pup. Tch, you again. Annoyed, Bulkan spat, ptui! Normally, he would have pounced on him at once and bitten his frontal lobe. But the problem was that he had no strength in his body.

He, who used to go out hunting several times a day, picking out only the large ones to tear off and eat the best cuts of meat. He had not eaten any raw meat at all.

‘Try eating this.’

But wasn’t the young human holding something out in front of him? The beast sniffed, snuffle, snuffle. A scent that made his eyes fly open…! This must be the smell of meat. When he whipped his head around, something was placed before him. He quickly snatched it with his muzzle and shoved it down his throat.

Ugh, a strange taste spread on the tip of his tongue.

It was not raw meat. It was not just cooked on a fire; it tasted like it was slathered with all sorts of strange things. Still, he was in no position to be picky, as he was excessively hungry. The dog was busy stuffing his stomach greedily.

‘Is it good?’

A sound like ‘heh’ flowed from the young human’s mouth. Before he knew it, that small hand had come through the iron bars and was stroking his head.

‘F**k, get this off me right now!’

Bulkan was so furious he shouted wildly. As he growled and barked, the young human made a sound like ‘ack!’ and quickly pulled his hand back. Then he laughed again, hehe. What a stupid face.

The young piece of flesh came to visit the lonely Bulkan every day. He fed him and stroked him with his small hands. The things the young human brought were mostly pathetic, but he was so hungry he greedily filled his stomach.

‘It’s tasty, d**gy.’

His cheeks pushed up, puffing up plumply. A soft scent came from the kid.

“……”

Then one day. The door of the raised cage clanked open again, so Bulkan lazily turned his head. He thought that young pup had come again to offer a tribute of food. But it was not him.

‘My, look how sturdy this fellow’s forepaws are. He could take down a bear.’

It was the ones who had stuck a syringe in the nape of his neck…! Clank, the door of the raised cage opened and as a hand reached out, Bulkan growled and barked, throwing a complete fit.

‘Grrrrrr.’

Even when he opened his jaws wide to try and bite the human’s forearm, it was impossible. The problem was that d**n muzzle fitted to his jaws again.

‘I’m telling you, this guy is our ace, Black Bear. His personality is rotten, but his bite is absolutely solid.’

‘Taming his personality is as easy as one shot of this syringe.’

The human takes something out. In the white light, the sharp object flashed a ghastly blue gleam. That thing, it had been shoved into the nape of his neck before. The feeling had not been pleasant. Bulkan resisted like a madman.

‘Hey, come over here and give me a hand!’

Like that, the number of humans clinging to him increased one by one. In total, it took six of them to barely subdue Bulkan.

Four humans grabbed Bulkan by the nape of his neck, while the other two stuck the sharp object into it. Blood rushed through his body, and his head rang with a daze.

‘Look at the strength on this one. Good thing I was wearing a wrist guard, almost got my arm torn off. I’m counting on you, Black Bear.’

And when he came to his senses. He had been dragged out to that familiar square area again. Around the iron cage, humans were stuck to it like gnats.

When the human released the leash, the ones on the opposite side from Bulkan rushed in first. Such greenhorns who hadn’t even dried behind the ears were a piece of cake for Bulkan. And that day, Bulkan was able to eat his fill of meat.

Bulkan realizes something that day. To eat meat, you have to bite the opponent’s neck. It was not a difficult task. Wasn’t it something he had always done in the forest?

It did not take long to conquer the human world. Bulkan went to the dogfighting ring every day, and soon, he had completely dominated the scene. All the delicious meat in the whole wide world was his.

But f**k, the problem was that young piece of flesh. He was standing there, holding the iron bars with his immature hands, staring at him.

‘What are you staring at, fucker! I’m hunting!’

He was holding the opponent’s neck and shaking his jaw wildly. But that small piece of meat was contorting his face towards him. The dog did not know much about emotions. Even so, his mood was thoroughly ruined. He wanted to know why he was making that kind of face, and he wanted to snap at that tiny mouth and teach him a lesson.

‘…D**gy.’

One time, he was annoyed and got his ear bitten by a rushing greenhorn, and the young human came to him with an even sadder face. Hot water dripped, drop by drop, onto his fur. Why was water falling from his eyes? If he was marking his body, he would not have forgiven him, but it was not urine either.

‘It hurts…. I’ll treat it quickly so it doesn’t hurt.’

And then, wasn’t he spreading something on his body? It was very sticky and had a strange smell. Bulkan let the strength drain from his neck. He buried his face in the belly of the human who was much smaller than his own torso and stretched out comfortably. At the gentle touch examining his body, his jaws opened wide, yaawn, and his eyes closed languidly.

☀️

The illusion that had been filling his vision gradually lifts. The small, pathetically skinny little brat disappears, and Bulkan is left abandoned alone in the forest.

“Kk, Odeu, oh….”

Bulkan did not believe in anything that was still breathing. He believed that only the dead were true.

But why. Why on earth was he now searching every nook and cranny like a rabid dog, afraid that his bride might draw his last breath somewhere not by his side, afraid that he would not even be able to find his corpse?

He also did not believe in things that were invisible.

His insides were certainly tormented as if on fire and were cold and numb as if an ice pillar had been lodged there, but nothing could be caught in his forepaws. No matter how he set his molars and tore at his chest area, no matter how much he bit, he could not find a single flea.

This thing, with no scent and no form. But this thing that clearly remained inside him, tormenting him, must surely be an emotion.

Then what is the name of this emotion? The ground feels like it is collapsing under his feet, and everything seems to be not just disappearing but that the world itself will eventually end. What on earth is the name of this emotion? Then, the bride’s voice rang in his head.

‘You don’t happen to love me or something, do you?’

Bulkan had sneered at his bride who had asked that. Love, something like that has no form. It does not serve as any kind of trophy. No monarch wore something like love on their body.

Bulkan now poses the question. Love, what the h**l is such a thing? There was no one to answer, so even asking the question was just empty.

‘I know because I’ve waited up all night too. Even now, if you don’t come back, I get worried and can’t sleep.’

The bride’s voice echoed in his head. His temples throbbed as if being jabbed by lightning. His entire brain feels like it is being kneaded. Lies. Fucking lies. The words uttered by that pathetic tongue are all just lies. The bride stabbed my heart and ran away.

What am I supposed to do if I can never get him back? His bride said he did not want to be reborn as anything. Hades would grant his wish. Eternity is like a distant darkness. It was a place that even Bulkan, who could roam the surface and the underworld, could not reach.

“Kk…!”

Frustrated, the dog slammed his paw on the ground. Don’t be ridiculous, then where am I supposed to smell my bride’s scent now? If there is a h**l, it must be this place. It was truly a dreadful night. It was an eternal terror.

Bulkan howled. The abandoned dog was pelted by the downpour, howling, awoooo. Following him, the small beasts in the cave howled, awooo. They were looking for his bride. They were desperately yearning for the chest where they could bury their noses and take in his scent. But there was no one who answered the call.

“Awoooo…!”

At the utterly miserable howling, the mountain beasts all glanced around cautiously and returned to their dens. If they happened to get on his wrong side, a spark might fly their way. They could become the target of his wrath and be beaten until their brains turned to mush.

His heart raced. He wanted to embed that small shadow in his two eyes as soon as possible. He wanted to cage that small body in his two arms.

What if he had said that he loved him then? Would the bride not have stabbed him with a knife and left? The questions lead to more questions, one after another. The dog rolled on the grass, tormented.

A chaos incomparable to anything before descended upon the land Bulkan ruled. The undergrowth was all burnt, and the gods had to live in fear that the gates of Tartarus might open at any moment and a monster might escape. It was truly an age of great confusion, of chaos.

“Awoo, wooo…woo!”

Then, rumble, it began to rain. It was a rain that would extinguish everything. The fire went out with a hiss, and Bulkan opened his eyes again. Is it morning, or day? Is this the sky, or the earth? Such facts were not important. One thing was certain, that he had to find something.

The fiercely pouring rain melted the fire away. White smoke billowed up in coils and then clumped together like fog, forming a new face. It was his bride. He reached out his forepaw, but it did not touch. It was a mirage.

How? How on earth can I get my bride back. Bulkan began to frantically search for a way. At that moment, when his chest felt so constricted that he was tearing at it haphazardly with his claws.

Rumble, rumble, a deafening roar began to shake the heavens. The sky began to split in two, and a god with his hair let down all the way to the ground walked out. It was Hades, who had crawled out from the underworld to an even deeper underworld.

<<Olympus has become so precarious, and the crack in the world has collapsed. O god who guards the gates of Tartarus, why are you rolling on the ground here?>>

Tsk tsk, he looked down at the dog with a pathetic expression.

<<Arise, it is time to return.>>

The dog muttered through his beastly muzzle. I have to find my bride’s scent…. The beast chattered like a lump of instinct, having lost all reason.

<<Your bride’s name has appeared in the ledger.>>

It was then that the beast’s eyes, which had been fixed on the sky, rolled, thud.

“What?”

With his chest ablaze, he glared at the god of the underworld as if it were nothing.

<<Go back and kidnap your human again. And firmly let him know that he is yours.>>

Fsssh. The flames that had been burning his entire body gradually showed signs of stopping. Now, regeneration would begin. Whoosh, whoosh. I will chase, I will reclaim.

Finally, finally…! A shiver of thrill ran down his spine at the intense, surging desire.

☀️

I was in complete shock. Wondering if I had seen it wrong, I looked at it again several times.

Although it was soiled with dirt and dirtied by Haengbok’s drool. The brilliant red light confirmed it was my anklet. The one Bulkan had put on me like a shackle…. This anklet… what on earth is it doing here.

“Haengbok, where did you get this?”

Haengbok just wagged his tail gently. He probably had no idea of this horrifying situation, which felt like a scene from a thriller movie, so he looked utterly innocent. He just seemed to miss me, twitching his nose as if smelling me. Something behind his small ear caught my eye. It was a deeply dug pit. Seeing the mud caked on Haengbok’s front paws, it seemed he had dug it out from there.

A series of scenes flashed through my mind.

…The lightning that struck as if it would split the sky, the dog in front of the motel that barked persistently all night as if it had seen something strange, the pit that dog had dug, and.

‘I want to bury you in the ground. And I’ll only open it when I want to see you.’

I buried my face in my palms. My lips were half-crushed, and my voice leaked out inaudibly.

“Bulkan….”

I put a mouthful of the flesh from my palm into my mouth and bit down hard. My body began to tremble. The constant suspicion, the anxiety, was finally taking form. If Bulkan had really come for me, if he was here to punish me for running away with his seed inside me.

“Bulkan.”

Running away any further than this is meaningless. I was tired of feeling the fear of not knowing when I would be caught.

“Bulkan!”

I shook my head frantically, looking around. I ran around the motel like a madman, trying to find that black torso anywhere. I looked inside the parking lot, placed my hands on the parked cars to look inside, and even checked under the cars.

“…Bulkan!”

But he was not there. Nowhere could I find a single black hair of Bulkan, not a single large paw print. Just then, the motel door opened, and the owner came out, hastily adjusting his trousers. He looked at me, chattering like he was making an excuse.

“Well, I was just in the bathroom for a moment….”

Whether he was or not, I just yelled, putting on a show of bravado.

“You son of a b**ch, stop following me around creepily and come out!”

I could feel people passing by glancing at me. The motel owner stared at me with wide eyes. Using a strange language he had never heard before, his gaze seemed to say, ‘is he really crazy?’

Overwhelmed with emotion, I stopped shouting and panted for breath.

“Ha, haa.”

I quickly ran to the mister. The owner flinched and stepped back a little.

“Mister, have you by any chance seen a large dog come here?”

“…What? If a dog like that was wandering around, it would have been reported already. How are we supposed to live, scared of being bitten?”

I gasped for breath, my breathing rapid. The evening glow shining down on my eyelids was dizzying, and my eyes were dazzled.

“Really, it’s a really huge dog, there’s no way you couldn’t have seen it. It’s as big as a bear, you know?”

“N-no, I haven’t seen it.”

I stood there, panting, looking at the ground. Then, something flashed in my mind, and I moved my feet. I walked over to the motel wall and looked at it.

“What’s that?”

I heard the owner’s puzzled voice from behind me. The wall was gouged as if it had been struck by something very hard and sharp.

“Which b**t**d did this?”

I slowly backed away. A violent shiver ran through my entire body. I knew that mark. It was the mark of claws digging in firmly. Bulkan used to leave marks like that on tree trunks when he climbed down trees.

He really, really did come. For a while, the shock of that fact left me unable to move, like a person trapped in a crate. What do I do, what do I do now…. I didn’t know when or where Bulkan would appear and snatch me by the scruff of the neck, and the anxiety made my knees tremble.

My fists clenched on their own, making a rustling sound inside. I snapped back to my senses and looked into my palm, seeing a crumpled memo. It was the paper with my father’s address written on it.

Really, if I was in a position where I could be dragged away by Bulkan at any moment. This was no time to be standing around like this.

☀️

Before the sun had even shown its face above the horizon. I hid in the darkness and moved my body quietly. I was pulling on my socks, planning to be back quickly before Haengbok woke up.

“Kae.”

I heard a cry from behind. Oh no. I smiled awkwardly and turned around to see the white deer looking up at me.

“Y-you’re awake?”

He dropped the sock he had been holding in his mouth in front of me. He was telling me to put it on him so we could go out quickly. His eyes were still swollen from not being fully awake, but his short tail was busily wagging and shaking.

“Haengbok, well…”

It could be a dangerous situation, so I was trying to leave Haengbok behind. Since yesterday, he had been strangely unwilling to be separated from me, so I could not just leave him alone as I usually did. Worried that something might happen, I tried to feed him as much as possible and put him to sleep. But he kept crawling into my arms and settling down in a coil.

‘Stop that dog from barking, fucker!- ’

Because he was constantly whining, kae, kae, the person in the next room was even pounding on the wall with their fists.

Why on earth is he like this. They say animals have a sixth sense that people don’t. A strange thought even crossed my mind that maybe something like that had been activated.

‘Hah, let’s not think such unlucky thoughts.’

I shook my head vigorously. It was to erase the unpleasant thought that kept trying to stick to the nape of my neck.

“Aet”

He cried out questioningly and nudged my cheek with his nose.

“You see, the thing is.”

I did not know how to make this young deer understand the complex and crude circumstances of adults. He even tapped my knee with his front paw, asking me to hold him tighter.

“…Haa.”

I let out a low sigh. The way he was acting differently from usual, and the way his eyes looking up at me were particularly moist…. It really weighed on my mind in many ways. Haengbok was already thinking that he might be abandoned by me, so I wondered if it was okay to leave him alone in this strange place…. I wondered if that was really what was best for Haengbok. Even if I left him with someone else, it was clear he would just be waiting for me anyway.

“Okay, let’s go together.”

I finally made up my mind and put a leash on Haengbok’s neck.

☀️

Under the cover of the damp dawn, I slipped out of the motel. The still-damp air covered my face like a spiderweb. I looked around anxiously, like someone being chased. My appearance was no different from a criminal on the run.

Since I had Haengbok with me, I was repeatedly refused a ride, and I was finally able to get one only after shouting for a double-double fare.

And then, about two hours later? Unable to close my eyes for a moment due to the tension, I stopped in front of an old apartment building.

“Driver, here!”

I handed the taxi driver whatever cash I had and got out in front of the apartment. The location itself was secluded, and because all the lights were broken, it was very dark and gloomy.

‘Redevelopment!’

‘No Entry’

Letters were scrawled all around with a red marker, adding to the even more eerie atmosphere. An unpleasantly chilly feeling spread in my chest, and I held Haengbok, who was in my arms, tighter. His body seemed to have gotten bigger than before, and holding him quickly made my arms ache and my back throb, but I could not possibly put him down in a place like this.

The day was overcast, so the surroundings were dark, and with the wind blowing, it might even rain. Perhaps if I had waited, there might have been a better way. But that was just wishful thinking. Funnily enough, I was a wanted man, so I couldn’t afford to be leisurely. To put it bluntly, I could be caught by the dog and dragged back to h**l any second now. So I felt I absolutely had to go and find him.

“Let’s just look around for a bit and then go back.”

I deliberately spoke strongly, not showing any fear.

Inside, it was very cold, damp, and late. It was a shabby apartment complex with a creepy atmosphere, as if something might really pop out, but there was truly nothing there. I began to doubt if my father was really in a place like this. Since the weather was not good, it was possible he had gone home.

Just then, a sound pierced my sensitive ears.

Gururung, gururung.

At first, it sounded like someone talking in their sleep. It also sounded like the phlegm-filled voice characteristic of a long-time smoker. As I slowly walked towards the source of the sound, I saw some kind of yellow box tape stretched around like a barrier. I stepped over the box tape and went inside.

“Oof.”

Unfolded boxes were scattered about haphazardly, and liquor bottles, snack bags, and appetizers like dried shredded squid were lying around in a mess. And at the end of it, I saw a man lying spread-eagled. His face was flushed red from the lingering effects of alcohol, he had a wart like a large mole on his nose, and a thick neck…. It was the man who was my father.

He was fast asleep, even snoring loudly, drrreung drrreung. He still had not been able to quit that d**ned alcohol, and the strong smell of liquor wafted all the way to where I was standing.

I tied Haengbok to a pillar on one side. When he whined, kae, looking for me. I put my index finger to my lips, asking him to be quiet for a moment.

“Shhh.”

I had no choice but to bring him this far. But I did not want to take him any closer to my father. It was because I was worried that even a little bit of tarnish might stain the pure heart of Haengbok.