TCGAD 24

Life was breathed into the forest that had been growing desolate like an arid desert. Now, as the land was cultivated to be fertile, the fruits grew abundant, and the animals fattened, the goddess of grain, in her delight, blessed the land, ushering in an even more prosperous time.

Thump. A disturbance arose in the forest. Startled birds flapped their wings and fled, and the animals scurried to hide their bodies.

The jet-black predator of the forest, which darted out at a speed invisible to the ordinary eye, burst out laughing, euhahaha! It madly kicked the ground with its hind legs and chased after its prey.

“Hah, heok, heuk.”

The prey kept looking back, checking the distance. Bulkan could have snatched the prey’s leg in an instant just by speeding up a little, but he purposely kept it at a thrillingly close distance. The reason for this was that it was much more amusing and fun that way.

“Go on, go on, run faster from my jaws! Amuse this body to your heart’s content!”

With its jaws wide open, it soared high into the air. The predator’s momentum as it cut across the sky was ferocious. Like an arrow, it swiftly pounced on top of the prey.

“Kraaaaaaah!”

As it crushed the prey with its own body and growled, the prey shrieked wildly, its pants completely soaked in urine.

“Euh, heuk, eoheoheong, heuk!”

It was an exceedingly filthy and horrid sight. His interest waned completely. Bored, Bulkan opened his jaws wide and let out a yawn.

“Keuht, heong, heuk, heueuk! Hiccup, hiccup!”

After wailing foolishly, it even started hiccupping. The sunset draped over the face of the prey, which was doing a little bit of everything. It meant it was time to go back.

Bulkan snatched the scruff of the prey’s neck with his jaws. As he dug his sturdy claws into a tree trunk, the prey babbled something or other again. He couldn’t care less. It was annoyingly bothersome.

“It would be wise to shut your jaws. I am a new groom who is not very patient.”

He climbed to a height that only he could reach and draped the prey over a tree branch. He had to hide it well, because if he left it in the grass, there was no telling which beast would come out and snatch it up, thinking, what a find!

The prey, its body now completely limp, turned upside down and went retch, retch, throwing up.

Tsk tsk, Bulkan clicked his tongue. When his own bride threw up, only a sweet scent emanated, but this one was utterly foul.

“You pathetic thing.”

It looked like it could drop dead at any moment, so he had even gone to the trouble of catching and feeding it a sparrow, but it was so ungrateful. He felt like tearing it to shreds and feeding it to his cubs.

A relationship where blood and flesh have been shared is bound to resemble each other in some way. Even his own cubs were the spitting image of him. But with this one, even after giving his bride his seed, he couldn’t find a single shred of resemblance.

“How did you give birth to such a thing?”

Just in case, he tried pulling its tongue and even pried its eyes open to look deep inside, but truly, everything about it looked different. So much so that he wondered if he had picked up something else by mistake.

“I’d like to have one like that, too.”

Ueoueou, the prey mumbled something. Until now, Bulkan had not paid the slightest attention to whatever the prey wailed. But the thought that it might be the language used in the place his bride came from suddenly sparked his interest. Bulkan held a small bit of curiosity in his heart.

“What was that?”

He pulled the wolf bone out of the prey’s mouth. He had shoved it in himself because its constant wailing was noisy. It was a very wise course of action. He just wished it would say something, anything, that would amuse him.

“J-just, kill me.”

As it tried to bite its tongue and die right there, he decided there was nothing more to hear and shoved the vertebra back into that noisy mouth. Eup, eup, eu-eup! it struggled continuously, but it quieted down a bit after Bulkan struck the back of its neck with his forepaw.

“You should not lose your life so easily. Only after being rolled and rolled by this body’s forepaw will I personally bite your neck.”

With the already fainted prey before him, the predator spoke ominously. He leaped nimbly from the tree branch and landed on his hind legs. When he sniffed his forepaw, a faintly sweet fragrance brushed past. The scent had already become too faint.

It was only natural, as it had been too long since he had touched his bride’s body with this forepaw. To think the scent had weakened so much already. Bulkan went smack, l**king his lips, and hurried his steps.

The world was dark as dusk settled in the night sky. As he entered the cave, a torch was approaching. At the same time, a sweet scent spread out and filled his lungs. His entire body trembled. This feeling, which sent a wave of pleasure through his whole body like an o**asm, was none other than,

“Where have you been?”

His own bride. Bulkan’s forepaws, which had been on the ground, gradually rose. The black fur covering his back grew shorter and became messy hair covering his neck. He returned to a completely n**ed state and met his bride. Completely mine.

“Hunting.”

A peculiar light flickered across the bride’s face. Then he started to look his own body over here and there. Lingering around while exuding a sweet scent, it seemed he wanted to be held by him. What a sly little vixen. Absolutely cunning.

“But you… you don’t have the prey you brought back?”

He must have come all this way to wait for him. Was he hoping he would lift the hem of his clothes and sniff him? How crafty. Bulkan’s chest heaved with excitement. The feeling of exhilaration from parting the undergrowth had not yet subsided. Looking at his bride in a more agitated state, an uncontrollable passion stirred in his g**in.

“Where did you leave it?”

He asks, taking a step closer. Unlike other females, his bride’s chest was not ample, so his clothes were loose. Hebeoljjuk, his n**ples would occasionally peek through the gaping clothes. And that looked so incredibly vulgar. Bulkan drooled as he looked at the bare skin.

He wanted to ravish that body right now. If he took even a single bite, the juices would burst out and soak his molars completely. It would be as delicious as ambrosia and fatten him up plenty, and as sweet as nectar, it would please him.

“I left it hanging in a tree. It’s fun to play with.”

The bride’s head tilted slightly to the side. He wore a look of not being able to understand what was said. Keuhat, Bulkan swallowed the overflowing laughter and joy down his throat. His bride, being a human, was foolish and amusing.

“I pinned it to a tree. So other things won’t take it.”

“…Okay, I’m sure you did something.”

The bride smiled faintly. The way the corners of his mouth split into a thin line was bewitching. He was curious what exactly was hanging on those lips. It felt like the wind that cools down fur drenched in sweat after a satisfying hunt, and also like the damp earth he had fiercely clutched with his claws after the rain. A startling jolt that struck his whole body as if hit by lightning. A thrill that made his ribs tremble.

“…What are you?”

What in the world was the identity of this wicked thing, that it entranced him so lewdly. Bulkan had to know its identity.

At the sudden question, the bride furrowed his brow slightly. His soft lips parted with a chok sound.

“I am Gu Myeongha….”

And the sound he utters is this.

“Myeongha.”

It was a truly funny-sounding word. At the pronunciation that gets mashed on the tongue, a dark desire grew to a frightening size inside his chest. Bulkan panted for breath.

“I remember every single thing about you.”

Bulkan boasted wildly. The gaps in his memory were now filled. He had buried his past self, who had acted like a brutish pig, deep within him, and had only recently dug it back up.

His bride seemed to be recalling the memories of that time in his head as he continued his words haltingly. His eyes looked somewhat dazed, as if he were drunk.

“I don’t remember everything…. But when I think back to that time, it’s only you.”

“I see now why I chose you as my bride.”

The bride slowly closed and opened his eyes. The long lashes, like blades of grass, flowed forward and danced a bewitching dance.

“Why did you?”

He had been a dog. An ignorant dog. A four-legged beast with no reason whatsoever. But a young human came to him, saying he would protect him. While fearing him, he fed him, petted his fur, and spoke to him, even though he could not understand what was being said.

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

He remembered the pounding of his heart he felt when his bride had uttered those words. It was similar to the feeling of being beaten. It felt as if someone inside his ribcage was continuously punching his inner walls with their fists.

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

His bride’s words were not a lie.

“When I lost my reason, only instinct boiled within me. I greedily took in only your breath, smelled only your scent, and held you in my eyes.”

The bride’s lips moved continuously, as if he had something to say.

“So.”

Those lips, small and plump like a baby bird’s beak, were as red as the bright red berries in the thicket. Since he could not just pluck them off and taste them, he thought of picking a whole bunch of berries and shoving them down his own throat.

“So that must be why you said you remembered me by my scent….”

His bride mutters something. In the next moment, a question his bride had asked in the past floated into the dog’s mind.

‘…Why did it have to be me?’

What had he babbled back then?

‘I don’t know either. Just, at some point, a certain scent brushed past my nose.’

Ha, that was a truly foolish answer.

‘It smells of flowers, and the scent of grass floating on the pond. It’s the scent of the forest. I was born in a place like this.’

And then he had added that.

“Yes, that’s right. I was born in a place like that.”

As he voiced the thoughts winding through his head, his bride tilts his head slightly to the side. He has a look of not knowing what he means. Soft, red hair framed his white face.

“What did you say?”

As usual, he exhales with his lips slightly parted. If this air had mass, what my bride breathes would amount to no more than a handful. Like an herbivore that lives by drinking the rainwater pooled on leaves.

The corners of Bulkan’s eyes shot up sharply. The innards that had spilled out when a hole was punched in his chest had been that exact color. Hair the color of a deep, red berry.

‘Oho.’

It seemed he was born from his bride’s hair. Most humans and beasts have parents. Beings that give them blood and flesh, and bestow upon them the affection called love. Though gods were sometimes born not from a womb, but from the white foam that bloomed in the sea, or even from a flower. But for Bulkan, whose eyes had already gone wild, such facts were not important.

Bulkan idly set his eyes on his bride’s belly. He wished that was his land. He would open it as he pleased, roll around inside, and madly inhale his bride’s scent. He would caress his bones until his forepaws were crushed, and grope his skin. So, what a wonderful position it must be to be the bride’s baby? Just hearing about it felt like his insides were melting away.

“I will s**k every single hair on your entire body.”

Though there were probably only a few hairs on his bride’s body, Bulkan wanted to painstakingly s**k and taste each and every one of them. If he were to covet this body right now, his bride, being a weakling with not even the strength to kill an ant, would have to offer up his g**in to him.

However. What would follow that? The empty l**t in his l**ns could be filled, but his heart would surely be left with a deep hole as if clawed out. If the wind were to pass through his empty chest, his innards, his inner walls, everything would flutter about.

Instead of overpowering his bride with force, he returned to his beastly form. He folded his forelegs and flattened his body to the ground. Then, a hand followed. Gently, gently. It was a hand stroking his back. And at the same time, it would check to see if he was hurt anywhere, and if there was blood on his fur, it would look at it quietly and then wipe it with a cloth.

The bride’s hand moves softly. The flame of the torch flickered and swayed, and the beast’s heart, too, flickered and surged.