30- A corpse of giant plants

When I regained consciousness, I was lying face up on the ground.

The only thing I could hear was the rustling of the leaves in the wind. I couldn't detect the presence of other people.

Where had the men gone? Had they taken away Brian and the others while I was unconscious?

I was so afraid. I didn't want to open my eyes.

If I opened them, then the fact that I couldn't save everyone would become a reality.

"I'm sorry everyone."

I knew it was too late. Even if I got up now, I wouldn't know where to start looking for them.

If I was lucky, then maybe I'll be able to find Brian and the others since those men said they were going to sell them off.

But Pyonkichi...

They'd said they would have a party. They'd said he looked tasty.

Remembering the sight that I saw at that food stall, of the skinned ravi and its discarded ears just lying carelessly on the table... My nose stung.

Now my family was all broken up. Even though they'd given me so much happiness, I couldn't protect them at all.

There was only me left. By now, everyone else was......

No, wait. It wasn't everyone. What happened to Pochi?

The last time I saw him, though he was lying still on the ground, he was still alive. His chest had been moving up and down so I was sure of it.

The men hadn't looked interested in him, so if they'd left him alone, he was probably still alive.

"Pochi, Pochi, where are you?"

I tensed my stomach and made to get up. This wasn't the time to be sleeping. If I couldn't save anyone else, then I had to at least save Pochi.

My whole body ached, and every single movement caused me to cry out in pain. I grit my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut.

It took me a while, but I was finally able to sit up.

"Haah, haah." With just that bit of motion, I was already gasping for breath. My vision swayed. I shook my head to dispel the dizziness, and placed both hands on the ground to support my body.

"Please be alive, Pochi."

It didn't seem possible for me to stand up. But even if I had to go on all fours and shuffle around like Pyonkichi, I had to find Pochi.

I endured the pain and opened my eyes. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sprawling scene in front of me.

The last thing I remembered seeing was the knife of the man who had Pyonkichi by the ears, and the eastern sky faintly lightening up behind him.

Now the sky had lightened further, almost the time for the sun to appear from the horizon. That wasn't anything strange.

But this.......

"Where is this?"

I had the thought that I might have accidentally fallen into another world. Maybe a Gate had appeared out of nowhere and made a portal into another world, different from my original world and the one I was currently living in.

Or maybe I'd suffered brain damage from all the beating I had received, and my eyes had gone weird. I went to rub at them with my muddy hands.

Just from touching it, I could tell that my right eye was hot and swollen.

Grandma had always told me that if you rubbed your eyes with dirty hands, you'd get a stye, but I didn't heed that warning and proceeded to clench my hands into fists and vigorously rub at my eyes.

When I slowly opened my eyelids, the same sight greeted me.

I was in a clearing, surrounded by grass which covered everything else in the vicinity. No, but could I call these things grass?

Each stalk was as thick as my waist and more than double my height, and they were densely packed together.

Had I stumbled into the land of giants, just like in Jack and the Beanstalk? Or had I turned into the size of an ant?

"What in the world......"

Surrounded by these giant grass, I was completely puzzled. Like this, I didn't know which way to go.

The wind blew, and the grass swayed with it. From between the leaves, I caught a glimpse of a familiar-looking red roof and unconsciously let out an, "Ah!!"

That was the roof of my house. Which meant...

I changed course and made my way through the grass. I thought that it would take a lot of force to make the thick stalks move, but the path towards my destination opened up as if they were giving way for me.

"I knew it."

My destination was in front of my barn. The door looked a little sad, listing off of broken hinges from that man kicking it open. And as I had expected, the barn was completely empty.

I tried not to cry as I headed to a different direction. Pochi should be further up ahead this way.

I'd noticed this when I first made my way through them, but these giant plants looked exactly like the grass that grew around my house. I knew these slender leaves that looked like those of grain plants.

Or more like, they looked exactly as if the grass had been scaled up in size.

"He should be around here."

On my knees I waded through the grass, occasionally resting on the thick stalks as I made my way forward. There I found a clearing like the one I'd been in.

"Pochi!!"

I found Pochi still lying on his side, just like I remembered, and hurriedly went closer. His mouth was slightly open, long tongue hanging out.

"Pochi, Pochi, no way, you're still alive, right?!"

Pochi's fur was stained red. The blood on it had already dried and it had gone all stiff and bunched up.

The other day I had fallen asleep surrounded by that warm, fluffy fur, but now it was all dirty, with no trace of that fluffiness anywhere.

I desperately crawled up to Pochi on my hands and knees and laid my head on his chest.

The stiff fur hurt my cheek a little bit, but his chest was warm and I could feel it rising and falling.

"I'm so glad; Pochi is still alive. He's still alive!!"

Now the problem was his injuries.

I hadn't bought any medicines in this world yet. I'd been focused on buying food and other daily necessities so I had none prepared.

But even if I had them, I had no idea if they could be used on Pochi anyway.

I think I read in a book somewhere that human medicine was too strong for animals so you couldn't carelessly use it on them.

I wanted to let him rest in the barn, but it was impossible for me to carry the tiger-sized Pochi by myself.

"Once morning comes, Genett-san should arrive......"

Genett-san owned cows too, so he might have some animal medicine with him.

I cautiously ran my hands through Pochi's fur, looking for his wounds. Huge areas of it were stained in blood, so you couldn't tell with one look where the cuts were.

The largest area of dried blood was on his back, and when I focused on investigating there, I found a large cut spanning from his hip to his rear end where his tail began.

It was still bleeding a little, so I pulled at the hem of my shirt and tried to tear it up, thinking to make a makeshift bandage. But contrary to how I imagined it ripping off easily, with my strength I couldn't even make a small tear in the shirt.

I gave up and just took the shirt off, found a relatively less muddy spot on it and pressed it against Pochi's wound.

"What should I do after this?"

I wanted to get some clean water to wash the wound with, but it would take too long for me to get to the pond, draw water and carry it back here while pushing through all that grass.

And before all that, I found it difficult enough just standing up unaided, so I doubt I could drag a bucketful of water here.

Rustle, rustle

"Eek!"

A rustling noise came from the nearby thicket of giant grass. It wasn't because of the wind; only a part of the grass was moving irregularly. There was clearly something else besides me and Pochi there.

Cold sweat dripped down my forehead. This was the same feeling I had when I was facing those men last night. Having bad night vision, I'd been scared witless in that split-second when I caught a glimpse of the men in the dark.

If one of those men appeared... How should I chase him away?

I couldn't even walk steadily enough to be able to protect the injured Pochi at my back.

Rustle, rustle

At the base of the giant grass, a furry face poked out. I let out an, "Ah?!" at its familiar form, surprised. At the same time, all the tension drained out of my body and I slumped down.

"No way, Pyonkichi?!"

The one who'd appeared was the nose-twitching Pyonkichi. He had a plant in his mouth that I had never seen before, and, upon hearing my voice, his ears wiggled and he creeped closer towards me.

I wanted to run to Pyonkichi and hug him tight, but my knees felt like jelly. So I held my hands out for him and waited.

Pyonkichi's hind legs were hurt, so he was moving slower than usual. However, he walked steadily onwards, as if that moment earlier when he'd been crying out in pain was a lie, until he'd arrived in front of me. Then he rested his head on my lap.

"Pyonkichi, I'm glad you're alright!! How did you escape?! Hey, how's your legs? Does it still hurt?"

I was so, so happy that he was still alive. I sniffled as I pet Pyonkichi all over.

I thought I'd never see Pyonkichi again.

But how did he get away from that hopeless situation?

Was Pyonkichi actually strong, and he'd kicked the man to death with his hind legs?

Pyonkichi dropped the plant in his mouth and pawed at me with his forelegs.

"What is it? What's up with this plant?"

I felt like I'd seen it somewhere before.

It had long and fleshy green leaves, with lots of rounded spikes sprouting from its ends, and thick sap oozed out from the part where Pyonkichi had been biting.

"This looks a bit like the aloe that grandma had."

There was one time when grandma had gotten a burn from oil splatter when she was frying something. She'd cut a leaf from her potted aloe, and applied the sap on her burn.

If I remembered correctly, she'd said that it was effective on cuts and abrasions too.

'No way, right?' I thought as I put some of the sap on the scrapes on my left hand. Pyonkichi had had it in his mouth, so it shouldn't be poisonous.

The viscous sap felt nice and cool on my wounds. It adhered smoothly, and at the moment when the slimy feeling disappeared, I could feel a slight pulling sensation on the skin of my abraded left palm.

I clenched my hand into a fist then opened it to make sure. The pain was gone.

Dumbfounded, I looked back and forth from the plant to Pyonkichi, then looked behind me at Pochi.

I might be able to heal Pochi's wounds with this.

"Pyonkichi, you're amazing!! Thank you!!"

I determinedly squeezed out the sap from the leaves and applied it on Pochi's injuries.

With my weak, trembling hands, I patiently squeezed the sap out starting from the ends of the leaf-like it was a tube of toothpaste, then applied the sap onto Pochi's wounds.

"Hold on, Pochi. I'm sure you'll get better as soon as I finish applying this."

I was afraid to touch the cuts made by blades. It probably hurt a lot for gaping open wounds to be rubbed like this, even for Pochi.

The unconscious Pochi kept twitching in pain, and I repeatedly apologized to him as I worked. Still, I was glad to see signs of life from him.

When the sap lost its sliminess, Pochi's open wound rapidly grew new, pink skin.

Perhaps because it was a deep wound; unlike the grazes on my palm, the wound didn't entirely close up. Nevertheless, I was already satisfied that it had stopped bleeding.

Pochi let out a weak whine.

"Pochi, are you awake?! I'm so glad!!"

Hearing the sound he made, I looked closer and saw that his eyes were slightly open. When I pet his head, Pochi made soft whining noises and licked my hand.

"Pochi, thank you for doing your best to protect everyone. Because of you, Pyonkichi and I are safe. You're thirsty, right? Wait here, I'll go get you some water.

"Pyonkichi, stay with Pochi. I'll be back soon."

As if he'd understood what I'd said, Pyonkichi huddled closer to Pochi.

I pet their heads one by one, then crawled on all fours back towards the path.