“Are we close…?” (L)

“….”

Gazing at the endless expanse before them, Leion struggled to see an end to his suffering. Since leaving the cabin, they’ve continuously marched down the serene mountain in a seemingly random direction. Taking no breaks nor stopping no matter how much he protested.

“My feet hurt…” (L)

“….”

Silence.

Once again it met Leion’s words. Unperturbed by it, he continued voicing his grievances. If she was going to force him to suffer, then she had to be prepared to face the karmic retribution of her choices. She deserved to suffer for what she’s doing to him.

“I’m feeling cold…” (L)

Was that true? No, not really. Leion hadn’t experienced such a sensation in this life. The closest thing he felt was the exact opposite, funnily enough. The stark difference in warmth whenever he left his bed to clean gave quite the illusion of cold. But, did that matter? No! Of course not! Not when it comes to justice!!

“Master… I’m feeling sooo hungry…” (L)

‘Hehe’

Slightly trailing behind his “Master”, Leion reached out and tugged at her cloak. To be honest, it felt a little good annoying her like this. Despite not being a proponent for revenge—too time- and energy-consuming—finally getting some payback for all his free labour felt stupid good. Leion was slowly starting to empathise with revenge story sympathisers.

‘Do you think you can ignore me forever?’

Still tugging at her cloak, Leion suppressed a smile while continuing to rant in his head.

‘Everyone has their limits! It’s merely a matter of—’

The tiger woman stopped.

Leion froze in turn.

Slowly, she turned around and faced him, causing him to lose his grip on her cloak.

Cold, icy blue eyes glared down at Leion as regret gradually filled him. What did he think would happen? It was easy to forget due to her donning this human-like appearance, but his “Master” was a fear-inducing beast. A force to be reckoned with. The only possible outcome of messing with such a fearsome thing was death or, at the very least, immense pain. A fact Leion knew firsthand.

“No talking until we arrive.” (M)

After giving a shaky, affirming nod, Leion watched as his “Master” quietly reached into her cloak. Unease eating at him.

‘She didn’t sound too mad, right?’

Patiently awaiting his fate, Leion hung his head low. Fixing his gaze firmly to the ground. His “Master” was a hard enough person to get a read on. Looking at her now and trying to guess her mood would merely result in pointless worrying.

‘She wouldn’t do anything too extreme, right? She’s not unreasonable like that twisted giant, right?’

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Leion tried and failed to console himself. He simply didn’t know enough about his “Master” to make any such judgements or claims. She might be equally bad, if not worse, than the giant who condemned him to this place. So far, despite her aiding him here and there, her actions tended to line up with the giant's thinking—that being, forcing him to do things he’d rather not.

“Come.” (M)

Lifting his head, Leion noticed himself a distance away from his “Master”. It looked like his body was sharper than him. Swallowing down his nerves, Leion moved in closer before stopping short.

“Closer.” (M)

He moved in closer. Close enough that an outstretched hand from his “Master” could grab and lift him up. And that is precisely what happened. Caught off guard, Leion found himself lifted up and into the air by both of his “Master’s” hands. She brought him close to her chest after pulling back her cloak. There, tied in an “X” pattern, was a white, silky cloth. Before Leion had time to properly understand the sudden developments, he found himself entangled in the cloth.

‘Ah?’

“Warm?” (M)

It took Leion a moment to comprehend what happened.

His “Master” had swaddled him against her.

Right now, he could feel the warmth her body gave off. It was a warmth not too dissimilar to what he experiences when he awakes from the covers of his bed.

Dazed, Leion nodded.

“Good.” (M)

With that, the curtains of the cloak closed, encapsulating Leion. Trapping him in darkness where little light filtered from the bottom. Light footsteps sounded as the world around Leion slowly rocked back and forth.

Bewildered, Leion rocked back and forth. Pulled by the strings of momentum until a single thought popped into his mind.

Isn’t this the perfect place to sleep?

That single thought shocked Leion out of his stupor. Right now, right here, he had been given a glorious opportunity. Ignoring the weirdness of the situation, Leion rested his head against the chest of his “Master”. It appears all his nagging finally worked.

This was his reward.

‘Hehehe’

Closing his eyes, Leion prepared to sleep.

It was time to visit his most desired place.

A light rustling stirred Leion from his sleep.

Waking up, Leion let out a hearty yawn and rubbed his eyes. Seeing darkness greet him, Leion was momentarily confused before his memories arranged themselves.

‘A damn it… Woke up again’

Feeling slightly frustrated, Leion closed his eyes and snuggled closer to his source of warmth. This place was the perfect sleeping spot… in theory. Pleasant warmth to chase away the biting cold, vast darkness to set the mood, and gentle rocking motions to ease the body. However, despite all these advantages, Leion found himself repeatedly waking up at random times.

He would be just at the cusp of deep sleep, about to enjoy his usual musings, when suddenly, out of nowhere, his entire body would just jolt awake. So, instead of enjoying a long, deep sleep, Leion found himself taking what were essentially power naps.

It was beyond annoying.

‘Whatever… ninth... tenth? Times the charm’

With his body already ready, Leion prepared to sleep… When an abrupt light came and ruined his perfect atmosphere. It was shortly followed by a disturbing loss of warmth as if to mock him.

‘Come on, seriously?’

Wincing, Leion covered his eyes and cuddled ever so closer to his source of warmth.

It was then that a pair of hands grabbed him and lifted him out of his resting spot.

“Noooo, I was almost there!” (M)

Placed on the ground, Leion was forced to stand.

“Masssssster, put me back, please!” (M)

Leion, abandoning what meagre pride he had, walked up and tried to jump back on his “Master”. She, for her part, observed him without uttering a word. Merely raising a hand in an act of subtle threat. Through squinted eyes, Leion sensed her intentions and swiftly gave up.

“We have arrived.” (M)

Slumping his shoulders, Leion heard an unexcited announcement.

‘Oh, yeah… we were travelling somewhere?’

Rubbing his eye again, Leion forced himself to wake up. Staying in a half-sleep state was plain uncomfortable knowing he would be denied sleep. Finally opening his eyes, Leion stared at the ground and noticed something strange.

It was green.

Glancing around revealed a large forest filled with pine-like trees, their rich green needles swaying gently in a breeze he hadn't felt since waking in this frozen wasteland. The crisp scent of resin and damp earth replaced the icy sterility he’d grown used to, and the faint chirp of birds echoed in the distance. They weren’t loud, but compared to the utter silence of the mountain, they might as well have been a symphony.

‘Huh?! How far did we travel?!’

Looking up and at the sky, Leion spotted the sun still stuck in place. The same place as when they started.

That... something was terribly wrong. There was no way Leion slept for a whole day.

Baffled and still glancing around, Leion spotted another unusual thing.

At the base of the hill, thin tendrils of smoke curled into the sky, too orderly to be from a wildfire…

There was a settlement down there.