章 9: What? Not Another (Ridiculous) Encounter???

After she finished eating her dinner by the fire while accompanied by Kuro, Hana was too tired to move; she desperately wanted to sleep. She groggily charged her trusty smartphone with the powerbank she brought along. She fell asleep there and then with drool frothing at the corner of her mouth.

This aunty is so defenseless!!!

Without anyone feeding the fireplace with dry branches, the embers burned dimmer after a while. Insects and arachnids slowly creeped out from their hiding place at the nook and cranny of the cave. Insect sounds were getting louder; without the presence of fire, they became bolder.

Kuro silently slithered away from Hana's wrist and began its royal hunt.

The sausage was too little for its tummy. It planned to make a clean sweep while filling its tiny belly. This way, it can help its new mommy cum mistress to sleep better without all that noise.

It turned out, Hana got herself an automated insect repellent cum house guardian.

....

Arash did not fall asleep after his virtual rendezvous with his wife. He was too worried about her. He knew his bumbling wife best. Although she is very competent in her wifely virtues which included house management and rearing children, on other matters she usually faced them with a halfhearted cincai(1) attitude. It was somewhat due to his own fault. He doted on her too much until she became too lax and less vigilant. He had been managing all the external affairs all this while, shielding his wife from outside harsh elements.

He quickly came up with a list of new guides for her and DIY methods to make practical items. It was nearly 6.00 am when he realized he needed to get to work.

[Ah… I'll just ask for another EL(2) again today.]

He shrugged.

Arash knew Hana must be sleeping without a care. He truly hoped nothing will hurt her during her sleep, especially that suspicious snake. He himself had never slept in a cave before. Heck, he never even went outdoor camping before. Sighing heavily, he finally searched the name of the peculiar snake his wife naively picked up.

After spending quite some time searching, Arash massaged his glabella(3) depressingly. No matter how he rephrased and searched in several search engines, he couldn't quite find the right answer.

It turned out there were several snakes with nose horn and supraocular(4) horns, but there was none with embedded crystal on them (except for jewelry of course).

Only one snake has a single horn and crystals. Nonetheless, the location of the crystals were different.

Yup, you guess it right, dear readers.

I choose you, Dragonair!

Arash nearly puked blood. [What pokemon Dragonair your sister!]

He threw his smartphone on the bed in frustration and went to lie down beside his two little girls.

[I need some rest. This is too absurd.]

He closed his eyes for a short nap to gather energy to handle the kids and continue helping his wife later.

He will never give up.

....

Hana woke up abruptly when she heard a shrill scream of an animal very near to her. The fire had long been extinguished. It was total darkness. Goosebumps could be felt on her skin.

Hana panickily fumbled for her smartphone everywhere. When she found it, she immediately switched on the flashlight and placed it upwards. Immediately the cave lit up like daylight. She picked up a palm size stone that she found nearby and vigilantly walked to the source of sound.

It came from the back of the cave where she forgot to properly seal the small tunnel.

Feeling dread, she inched herself forward with a stone on her right, and the smartphone cum flashlight on the left.

Then she saw a fox-like creature with white fur being coiled tightly and savagely bitten by Kuro!

Hana straight away gave 100 Likes to this brave little pet of hers in her heart. She saw Kuro in a new light.

Although small, Kuro is really like a bird's eye chili(5)!

The fox creature was way bigger than Kuro (although it was smaller than herself, ehem ehem.. a bit shy shy here). It looked like it came from within the tunnel, already wounded. It forced itself through the stacked boulders.

Hana made a mental note to fix and strengthen the blockage as soon as possible (which is after breakfast haha).

"Good boy, Kuro. Don't kill it."

Kuro slowly untightened its body grip on the creature.

The creature tried to attack Hana!

"Aiyooo!!!! Go away!!" Hana jumped to the back in reflex and fall on her butt like a 'spoilt mango' (6).

Seeing its mommy fall, Kuro got so angry that it strangled the creature's throat until its face turn blue.

"Don't Kuro!!! Leave it alive...It is just scared" Hana coaxed the little snake. It's a miracle that the snake actually understood her words. Hana still did not realize this.

Hana approached the creature to observe it better. It has already passed out. She can only see the white of its eyes now. Its pink tongue lolled out with a little bit of froth from the strangulation. She checked its breathing from its nose. She could feel some air going in and out. Sighing, she checked for its injuries.

It seemed like its front and back leg were twisted in a horrible angle. She suspected that they're broken. It even had a big raw scratch marks from its left eye towards its right cheeks in a diagonal direction. Every scratch mark was deep and oozed with nearly dried purplish blood.

[Is it poisoned?] She thought worriedly.

[Surely this was not due to Kuro. Kuro's bitemarks were seen everywhere on its body. However, those were just shallow bites. Furthermore, Kuro was not poisonous.]

Hana feared the animal that might be hunting this fox creature. This strengthen her resolve and let her overcame her laziness. She immediately piled rocks on the opened tunnel again. She then used her hands to scoop the damp soil from the cave floor and packed the tunnel until firm. Finally, she gathered the remaining unused branches and made a big fire next to the blocked tunnel to increase the rate of drying faster. Surprisingly, the time for Hana to lit up the fire has reduced significantly.

Really, when there's a will, there's always a way.

The rate of branches being consumed was high; it was not enough to sustain the fire from burning for a long time with that kind of intensity.

"You stay here and guard the fox thingy. I'm going to get more dried branches to feed the fire. I won't be gone for long. I'll just be in the vicinity of the cave okay."

Kuro lightly nodded. Hana was dumbfounded. This time she did see the little snake cutely nod. It implied that this little one understood her complex instructions.

[So cute!! So intelligent!] Hana was shocked but very pleased with her new little pet.

After a minute, she finally managed to adjust her mind back to her main tasks.

Hana removed the stones blocking the cave entrance. Gentle sunlight spilled in. This was an excellent ambient to bring the children to play at the playground, she lamented in her heart.

[I missed them so much.] She pushed her fleeting thoughts away and immediately scavenged for dried woods and branches. Since it was quite early, all of them have a slight moisture on top from the early morning dew.

She dragged them in forcefully and dry them for a little while near the fire before feeding them to the roaring fire. Thick smoke appeared which nearly choked her.

She dragged the fox creature on a banana leaf she used as a sleeping mat, then continued dragging the banana leaf to the cave entrance. She could not carry it out since it was too heavy. Mind you, her limit was only 20kg, two packs full of rice(7).

[My old bones! Aiyoo... My back will hurt a lot after this...this is definitely not just 20 kg…]

Feeling the aching pain on her back, Hana just stayed there cross-legged and begun washing the injuries on the fox creature with her wetwipes and a small amount of her drinking water while grumbling in her heart.

Although she was unwilling and a bit scared, she still got softhearted.

No choice. The creature was too cute and cuddly.

Hana stared intently at the fox creature to determine its species. Its body was as big as a grown German Shepherd. The whole body was white as snow with banded shallow vertical gray stripes on the surface. Its face and body were akin to the bug eating hyena, the aardwolf, with long muzzle and big pair of ears, except that the color and the size were way different. She saw an article of the adorable fox-faced hyena in the kid's version of Readers Digest subscribed by her hubby for her girls before. They were supposed to be light brownish in color with black stripes on the body. The size was also wrong. It was supposed to be just as big as an adult cat.

However, the most ridiculous thing was its two white antler-like horns on the side of its temples. It really resembled the Rudolf antlers(8) free giveaways from Baskin Robin's ads she saw in the old newspaper a few days before. It was cute and not majestic-looking at all. It also absurdly reminded her of a certain midget reindeer doctor working on a jubilant pirate ship. She always had some soft spot for Mr Tony Tony Chopper!!

[Is it a mutated albino aardwolf? What did it eat to get so big?]

Hana chuckled gleefully while gently caressed the soft fluffy fur.

If it did not seem so ferocious, she would've subconsciously cuddled it to death! Just like a big plushie.

She took some straight branches with the intention of binding its broken legs. Kuro vigilantly tightened its hold so that the creature won't accidentally move and hurt its mommy. Hana adjusted the creature's broken legs and bind them up one by one using the strips of clothes from her inner t-shirt firmly.

[Ahhh… My lucky shirt. Who's going to compensate me for a new one. If there is more cuter animal got hurt in the future, am I going to resort to clothes made from leaves later...]

Hana grumbled in her heart again silently while expecting to see more cute animals. Her bad habits of loving furry animals and collecting plushy toys silently coming out.

After she finished her first aid, she went out to collect dried bushes. All of them were already dried since it was nearly afternoon. She placed them on the now-dried muddy tunnel blockage and lit them up some more! She stoked the fire to continue burning harshly for another hour to strengthen it.

She finally felt at ease and released a relieved sigh.

....

The creature opened its eyes.

The horrible black snake was still on its body. It started to squirm and wanted to continue their previous duel.

"Stop it! You'll get worse!"

It looked to the source of sound. This being emitted a strange smell. It then realized that it felt a little better from its previous condition. This being must've help it.

"Shiro!"

It tilted its head in confusion. [What does Shiro means?]

"I'm calling you Shiro. Non-negotiable. It doesn't make a difference to pick one stray or two strays since you are so cute."

The being make a fawning funny look.

It felt the damnable snake's unhappiness as it kept on feeling confused.

Whatever. It will just stay put for the time being until at least it got better.

Author's Note:

(1) cincai = half-hearted attitude/not being serious

(2) EL = emergency leave

(3) glabella = the spot at the center of one's eyebrows. We think some people call it 'niwan palace'? not so sure tho

(4) supraoccular horn = horns appearing on top of eyes on snakes

(5) like a bird's eye chilli = [Malaysian translation: kecil-kecil cili api] means, although small, but brave/strong/courageous. In those contexts. In Malaysia, the smallest chili, which is the bird's eye chili was the hottest as compared to other bigger sized chillies usually used (thai chili, cayenne chilli).

(6) like a spoilt mango = [Malaysian translation: macam pelam busuk] try throw an overripe mango and see. haha. definitely won't bounce. especially not graceful-looking.

(7) 20kg, two packs of rice = For readers with non-rice as staple food info. The largest regular sized rice packaging for consumer in Malaysia was sold in 10kg per pack.

(8) Google this and you can see what I mean!! https://www.loopme.my/post/free-rudolph-headband-with-baskin-robbins-cake