‘She ran away? What does that mean?’
It took me a moment, but then it clicked.
‘Guide’s expression was troubled when he came to see me earlier. Was it because Bibi was missing?’
If that was the case, then Bibi’s claim that she had run away for Guide’s sake was simply wrong.
Knowing Guide’s personality, he was probably crying his eyes out somewhere right now over losing her.
“Grandmother! That doesn’t make any sense! If Guide is going to cry and fall apart because you disappeared, what good does that do?!”
At my words, Bibi shook her head.
“That’s how children are. He’ll be sad for a few days—but then he’ll forget this old woman ever existed, and he’ll be perfectly happy without me. You and everyone else here will take far better care of him than I ever could.”
Oh no.
The sheer certainty in her tone left my mouth open in shock.
“Grandmother.”
“What.”
“…You have absolutely no sense of responsibility.”
At that, Bibi startled so badly she dropped the bread she had been eating.
“What?! Wh—what did you just say to me, you little—?!”
“Responsibility. Completely. Zero.”
If Bibi truly cared about Guide, leaving was the last thing she should do.
Think about it from the other side. If Father and I were living well together, and one day Father decided on his own that his absence would be better for me, and vanished without a word—
How would I survive that alone?
Just imagining it was unbearable.
“You leaving is no different from abandoning Guide.”
I said it plainly, crossed my arms, and turned away—
“What?! What does a child like you know?! You have no right to say things like that to me!”
Pat pat pat pat.
Bibi came charging at me and began hitting my chest with those tiny pink palms.
If she had meant to truly harm me, I would have been shredded by now—but clearly she had no such intention. Her claws stayed retracted, and she was hitting me with soft little jelly-paw pats.
“Do you even know what I’ve been through?”
“Whatever you’ve been through, an adult should not leave a five-year-old child behind alone!”
“You insolent little creature! Do you have any idea what this old woman sacrificed to do this?!”
And then.
Thud.
The soft jelly paw pressed one last time against my chest—and then Bibi went completely still.
When she finally raised her eyes, they were ringed with red.
And in those little bean-like eyes, soft, clear beads of moisture were beginning to well up.
“You insolent thing… you don’t know anything about this old woman’s heart…”
“Grandmother. Are you crying?”
I panicked a little. I hadn’t expected tears.
“This old woman is not crying! It’s just—you said all that, and it suddenly made me think of old times… kii-ing!”
She had been blustering with anger, but the end of her sentence dissolved, and at last the tears fell.
“Grandmother!”
“When?!”
I flung both arms open in alarm, and Bibi burrowed into my embrace with the air of someone deeply wronged.
Kii-ing, kii-ing.
The heartbreaking sound echoed through the cavern from somewhere inside my arms.
I felt a pang of sorrow for her too, and patted her back—
When, after a long moment, she murmured in a low, raspy voice.
“…Before I met Guide, this old woman had a family.”
“Pardon?”
I stopped my hand.
Bibi lifted her head.
The tears had stopped, mercifully. The redness around her eyes lingered.
She closed her eyes slowly and began to speak of things long past.
“My daughter and her husband. And granddaughters that I could have put inside my eyes and never felt a thing. And then suddenly—we were attacked by Orcs.”
I could see where this was going.
My own eyes had begun to sting.
“As you ran—in the end—”
“When?! There is no such thing as running in a Perry’s vocabulary!”
I beg your pardon?
“I didn’t raise my family that way! Even if it means death—our Perrys move fast and nimble, and we go down fighting! We go for the ear at least before we go!”
My welling eyes cleared in an instant. I nodded rapidly to keep up.
“I—I see.”
I will revise my earlier mental image.
A Perry was not this world’s white ferret. A Perry was this world’s honey badger.
But the sharp defiance went out of Bibi’s small, raised fists, and slowly fell to her sides.
Her gaze dropped. In it was something beyond grief—it was guilt.
“…I shouldn’t have done it that way.”
“……”
“After they all died and I was the only one left, I finally understood, the stubborn fool I was. I should have run. To protect your family, you need the courage to flee.”
It was more than regret. It was a wound that had never closed.
“So I decided I would die too. The Orcs had already moved on. But there was a nearby human village—I thought, at least take me away, someone—and on the way there, I happened to cross paths with that boy…”
And that was how she had met Guide, and grown close to him.
My heart had gone soft with the ache of her story, and I quickly shook my head.
✿∘˚˳D°∘°✿∘˚˳a°∘°✿∘˚˳°∘°mஐﻬ
The past was the past—and right now, Bibi grandmother’s family was Guide. I understood why Bibi had left, believing it was the right thing for him. And I also understood that Guide, who had lost his only family in an instant, had every right to be devastated.
Hasty advice or empty comfort would only cause more pain. I knew that. Even knowing it, I could not leave these words unsaid.
“Still—you need to hear Guide’s side of it.”
Bibi’s story brought to mind the early days between Father and me.
Father had always tried to shield me from every situation because of the danger. And I had always tried to throw myself in to help him.
What we had both learned, in the end, was that the only answer was to talk.
I raised one finger.
“To begin with—Guide isn’t trapped in this estate. He was hired. He gets paid, he has a proper place to sleep, and there’s good food. He has everything he needs.”
“When?! That doesn’t matter! Once I’m gone, they’ll only watch him more closely! And you’ve taken him so far from his family—don’t you think that child is hurting?”
“If he wants to, he can go see the butcher every single day. And besides—you are Guide’s family too.”
“……”
“Then why aren’t you thinking about how he’ll feel when you leave?”
Flinch.
Bibi’s body locked up completely. The fact that she was this shaken could only mean one thing—she had always thought of Guide as family.
Those two need to stay together. I knew it.
But how to go about it?
The people of the estate wouldn’t try to separate them—I could explain that—but would Bibi simply believe that? And there was still the very real possibility that people who weren’t yet comfortable with Creatures would treat her with hostility.
After thinking it through, I spoke carefully.
“I think the first step is to talk with Guide.”
Above all else, if Bibi had already resolved to put distance between herself and Guide, then that resolve would need to be softened—and only Guide could do that.
“…How could I talk to him?”
“I’m right here! I’ll translate for you.”
“…When?!”
Grandmother Bibi still looked deeply displeased—but she did not say no. And then—
Wiggle, wiggle.
Despite her protests, she was cold, and she kept nudging her little white bottom closer and closer to me.
You like it here. Admit it.
I smiled and pulled Bibi into a proper hug.
But right then—
Boom!
An enormous tremor shook the cavern walls. My eyes and Bibi’s went wide at exactly the same moment.
“Father?”
Had Father arrived already? But Calypse would never announce himself by causing a small earthquake.
Boom. Boom!
And the tremors weren’t stopping—they were getting closer. Heavy and deliberate, like a great creature approaching step by step.
Bibi grandmother burst free from my arms. She planted herself directly in front of me, dropped to her hind legs, and raised her delicate pink palms in a sharp combat stance.
“Child. This old woman is going to count to three. When I say three—you run. Don’t look back. Just run.”
“But what about you, grandmother?!”
“Don’t you worry about me! Think about yourself!”
She declared it with utter conviction.
But wait—the only people who could be coming to this ice cavern were Father, or Lucas, or Kyle.
Wasn’t this almost certainly going to be fine?
Just then—
Crash! A tremendous boom, and the door to our chamber flung open. At the same instant, Bibi let out a sharp “Kii!” and launched herself forward with claws bared—
“Bibi!”
“Hm?”
—Guide’s voice cut through everything.
Already airborne, Bibi had no time to change course—but she had tucked her claws back in before landing, and Guide caught her immediately as she flew straight at him.
“Kuyak! This old woman is going to die!”
