I met Perrin six years after I was left to survive alone in the forest.
One day, a young child was lost in the Forest of Monsters and a monster happened upon the child and decided to protect the child on a whim. People might believe a story like this to write out like a fairytale. They would probably imagine something close to a heartwarming tale of a monster who protected a child. However, reality was not so beautiful.
“The smell of a trespasser.”
I immediately pursued the foreign trespasser in my territory. I arrived to the lakeside which was full of overgrown thicket. I chopped off a portion of the thicket to look inside, and found a seven year old small child cramped up inside.
“Pl-please sa…save m.”
The child trembled when his hideout was destroyed. The child looked up frozen with fright and he didn’t even try to run away. He simply remained in place and cried. This was how I met Perrin. His face was stained with tears and looked very swollen from crying. My first impression of the child consisted of pure pity. I thought it was so funny that he didn’t even try to do anything and simply begged for his life to be spared.
This child would probably be the lowest ranked living being in the food pyramid amongst those in the Forest of Monsters. He was the type of prey which could be easily hunted for food by all those in this forest. It was very uncommon to find such a weak child in the central land of the forest. Something like this would not be possible unless outside forces had helped the child get to this place. For example, with the use of magic.
My father used magic to return to the central territory of the Forest of Monsters. As I suspected, I found teleportation magic remnants around the child. I assumed that someone must have intentionally abandoned the child here. I wondered, why, and for what purpose? I observed the child’s state and easily deduce how this might have happened.
The child was dressed in a very flashy manner. His clothes were made of luxury fabrics and adorned with jewels, which only nobles could afford. There was only one reason why a child of a noble would be abandoned in a forest like this.
“You must have lost the fight.”
I split a portion of myself to form a mouth to speak. I formed a tongue, a set of teeth, and even a pair of lungs. When a mouth appeared from my pile of blue flesh, the child screamed and fell backwards. The boy must have thought I was opening my mouth to eat him, as more tears poured down from his eyes and even began to hiccup in fright.
“I’ve formed these lips to talk. Stop overreacting.”
Thinking back to the days of his childhood, Perrin was truly weak. As a child, he used to be innocent and soft hearted. But it didn’t take long before he adapted and changed into a monster. Nevertheless, at the start he was very docile.
“Pl-please save me. Don’t kill me. Please spare me.”
That was a difficult request. My appetite increased by many folds even though I had a full stomach. I looked down at the child shaking like a leaf that was blowing in the wind, and contemplated. Was it because this child was a ‘human,’ like my father? No. I just ate and didn’t feel hungry so I was feeling indecisive over my next step. I felt full, but it would be such a shame to let such delicious food walk away. After thinking for a short while, I compromised with myself.
“Then I will let you live for a little while longer.”
“A litt… little while?”
“Yes, a little while. I will spare you for now. Then, I will eat you when I feel hungry during winter.”
I thought this was a very good compromise. I could listen to the child’s request somewhat, and then when I became hungry during the winter, I could eat him. If I kept him alive, the meat will be fresh, and will be more delicious. I wasn’t interested in how my words caused Perrin to cry even more.
“Kid. What’s your name?”
“Pe…Perrin, Perrin Egloff.”
“Egloff…. The Baron noble house.”
I thought of the many noble families that my father forced me to memorize. A noble family house from the outskirts, one of the lowest ranking noble houses. The noble houses always fought to inherit the family wealth and lands. It was a very unkind environment. I could already guess the type of humans that the culprits were when I found a child abandoned in the Forest of Monsters.
“Do you know of my family?”
“Somewhat. That place is not so famous.”
Put nicely, they were not so famous, but were always talked about amongst the people. When I told Perrin I knew of his family, his expression brightened a degree. He must have mistaken that I would help him return home because he began to cry again with words of relief. Maybe he felt relaxed to meet someone who knew of his family.
“By any chance, do you have anything to eat?”
Moreover, he took the initiative to ask me questions such as these. It was such a bizarre experience.
“I couldn’t eat anything all day since I woke up this morning. I was playing with my older brother… and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was in this forest… and I’ve been hungry all day.”
The child blushed shyly and fiddled with his fingers. It’s not that he was innocent, he was just stupid. What I could deduce from the child’s story was that his brother had abandoned him in this forest. However, Perrin had no idea that he had been abandoned. I could somehow see myself in him. After father abandoned me, I unceasingly waited for his return. Ah, I truly felt how pitiful I used to be. I wanted to punch myself for realizing it so late.
“If you’re hungry…”
I looked around and then approached a bush full of ripe fruit.
“Do you want to try this? Though it’s not very tasty.”
There were tiny berry-like fruits all over the bush. Perrin smiled hungrily finding the small fruits. I’m not sure how long he’s been starved, but his eyes were filled with greed.
“Can I really eat this?”
“Yes. I dominate the territory here. You can eat as much as you please.”
With my permission, the child squat down on the ground and began picking off the fruits to eat. They should taste incredibly sour, but in the face of hunger, nothing mattered and he looked happy to fill his belly.
“Is it tasty?”
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
Perrin answered with his mouth full. He looked a degree relaxed after staving off his hunger, and even smiled at me.
“Delicious?”
“Yes, It’s yummy. Thank you very much.”
The child’s thanks connoted many things. He was grateful that I helped him, and he was thankful that I helped him find food. He was thankful that I saved him. I wonder what kind of delusion he was imagining. After Perrin was able to consume a great deal more of the fruit, I asked him once again.
“Perrin, does it still taste good?”
It seems he caught something was weird when I asked him the same question three times. Perrin stopped chewing his food and looked up to me. Easily trusting others in this forest was the same thing as accepting an early death. This child was closer to death than anything in this forest.
“Eat just enough to stave off your hunger.”
“Excuse me?”
His surprised round eyes reflected one who didn’t truly understand the state of this forest. Everything in this forest has grown absorbing the earth’s dark miasma. This forest sprouted from a cursed land. One can infer that anything that managed to survive these lands had evolved to be just as twisted and cursed. There were no exception to this whether it came to animals, plants, or vegetation.
“The thing you are eating is not a plant.”
“Huh… then?”
“That is a tick’s body secretions. That plant melted the ticks found in this forest and turned it to a solid form. The plant protects itself by distracting others with those things.”
The 7 year old seemed to have difficulty understanding my words. Perrin looked at the handful of red ‘berries’ he had grabbed with a complex expression. This looked like a fruit no matter what angle one looked at it. He looked with disbelief that it could be a tick. Then, he continued to eat once again. I then kindly briefed the child in simpler terms.
“That is poisonous.”
Finally, the child understood my words and dropped all the ‘berries’ on his hands at once. It was amusing to watch him trying to wipe off the poison off his hands using his shirt.
“You should remember my words well if you want to live to see a long life. Whether they are plants or animals, everything in this forest is poisonous. The only difference is whether the poison is weak or strong. Everything is dangerous here.”
I repeated the same words my father said to me. Perrin grabbed his stomach and backed away. He tried to throw up the food he just swallowed. However, his starved body had already long digested whatever he ate.
“Don’t worry, you won’t die right away. You will just become a little feverish and have some hallucinations. Don’t worry too much because that is the degree of the poison in these.”
Though, since the child was weak, there was a possibility that the child could die. Poison, no matter how weak, was still poison, and so the child’s survival depended on his own stamina and strength. However, I didn’t care whether he died or survived. I kept him alive for the days that I could not find food. Perrin was but a small existence in my life. His death wouldn’t impact my life in any huge way.
“I…I…..I, this….”
Perrin looked at me with an aggrieved frown. He looked like he wanted to strangle me, but he couldn’t even stand properly due to dizziness as the poison started to take effect.
“I…please… he-help me.”
“What a strange child. Why are you asking me for help?”
“But… this… I am…”
“What are you hoping for from me?”
Perrin trembled and looked up to me. I didn’t know whether he was scared of me or over the fact that he was poisoned.
“Do not misunderstand, and listen, I am…”
… only keeping you alive as an emergency food stock. Perrin fell to the ground before I could finish speaking. The poison seemed to attack his stomach first, as he sat on the ground grabbing his stomach. The fruit juices began to regurgitate back out of his throat.
“At least you’re still awake.”
“Ah…uh…hk…”
“Perrin. I will not eat you this instant. It is very easy to hunt for food at this time. It has been quite boring having nobody to talk to all this time. So, I think it will be a good idea to keep you alive until winter.”
I elongated a portion of my body into a long whip form and wrapped it around his right leg. I leisurely dragged him along behind me and headed back to my lair. Perrin clawed on the ground like he was being taken into hell. Of course this was meaningless on his part.
“Ssave me…. anyone. Somebody…. brother …! I’m here. Brother, where are you?”
It was hilarious to hear Perrin call for the very person that had abandoned him here. He truly resembled me a lot. We were both to stupid to realize that we had been abandoned.
“You should realize by now. Perrin. You’ve been abandoned.”
“No! Brother… brother will come for me!”
“Are you stupid? Or maybe you’re in denial. Think carefully. Did your brother usually care for you at all?”
Perrin couldn’t answer. His naive nature spoke volumes. Why would his older brother treat him nicely, when he had always given the other a cold shoulder? I could see how happy Perrin must have been that moment. The result however, was this.
“Stop denying and accept reality. You’ve been abandoned. They’ve left you here to die.”
Upon the words of cold reality, Perrin burst into tears. The truth must have been too shocking for a seven year old to accept. The child’s face was a mess and strewn with tears. The shining tears exaggerated and the child’s newly formed rashes which formed as a result of poison, and after rolling on the ground his face was covered in dirt. The child was too confused to wipe off the remnant streaks of the fruit that had dribbled down his chin moments ago.
“Don’t cry.”
He began to cry harder upon my words. I lifted him up in the air by his right leg. Perrin was crying so hard that he looked like he was having a hard time breathing. His blue eyes didn’t show signs of stopping at all.
“I told you to stop crying. You must not make a sound or cry in this forest. Monsters will hear you and prey on you. If this was not my territory, you would have long died.”
“Hu…aaaa…hup…”
“Stop crying on the count of three. If you don’t, I’m going to trash.”
I started my count, and Perrin panicked and muffled his mouth with both his hands. When I counted to two, he shut his eyes tight like he was trying his best not to cry. However, his tears didn’t know how to stop and he continued to cry. His muffled cries slipped through between his fingers and instead worked to make his cries louder.
“Three… you are really bad at this.”
As I warned, I threw Perrin aside. How much strength was required to throw a human child? If I use as much strength as I did with normal monsters, his bones would break in an instant. So, I threw him weakly, but even that seemed a bit extreme as the child harshly fell with a loud thump and tumbled.
Did he break his neck? When this thought passed my mind, he had already tumbled off into the distance, and hit his head on a tree.
“Are you dead?”
Blood dripped from Perrin’s forehead. I grabbed his shoulder and flipped him toward me, and he looked at me with sheer terror. His blue eyes trembled as they looked up to me.
“You’re alive.”
He was still fresh. I mumbled to myself and wrapped a part of myself to his leg once again. He didn’t cry anymore. No, maybe his state of consciousness was too chaotic, and so he didn’t have enough energy to cry. The child remained limp as he let me drag him across the forest.
“I see, children are very weak.”
I should throw him more gently next time. I planned for the future, but I had no idea that I would come to care for the child much more than I thought I would ever.
If I never threw Perrin, how would my future have changed? If I did my best to comfort the child instead, would he have come to like me instead? It would have been okay even if it would be a little… Would he have been able to smile at all? I regretted with all my heart, but after all this time everything was too late. It was impossible to turn back time. I couldn’t do anything but continued to regret.