[BotB] Chapter 36

Overcome with urgency, the young lady transformed into a fox as soon as she left the village and bolted up the mountain. It had been so long since she had run this swiftly on all fours through the thick underbrush. 

'Tiger hunters! No, this can't be happening!' 

It was then, amidst her frantic ascent, that she heard a ghastly cry, like a strangled scream. 

Startled, the young lady's fur bristled. 

It was the cry of a vixen. 

As the young lady paused, her senses on high alert, she heard the vixen's dying voice begin to scream. 

"Help! Please, someone help!" 

Listening closely, she recognized the voice of Miho, the red fox she had met before, crying desperately for help. 

The young lady's large eyes darted back and forth. 

Surely someone would help the poor vixen in distress? There must be someone! Someone else must have heard her pitiful cries and gone to help! 

'I must find the tiger hunters first.' 

Knowing Dohwi might be in danger, the young lady closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the cries. 

"Please! Someone, come and save me! Please save me!" 

In the end, the young lady could not ignore Miho's desperate voice and changed direction. 

After following the distressing sounds, she finally found Miho. The smell of fresh chicken blood hung heavy in the dense underbrush. 

"Why is there chicken blood in such a dangerous place?" 

As the young lady pushed through the underbrush and poked her head out, she froze. There lay a red fox, larger than herself, caught in a trap, upside down. 

"Save me! Please, quickly!" 

Seeing how Miho had struggled, her glossy fur matted with blood, the young lady was so shocked that she fell backward. 

How much pain must she be in? Oh, how much pain! 

Miho looked so drained of strength that she couldn't even change her form. The young lady had to transform into a human; otherwise, she too might be caught in such a trap and die! 

Quickly changing into her human form, the young lady cautiously approached Miho, wary of other traps. 

"How did this happen to you?" The situation was just as it had been described: around them, chicken blood was suspiciously splattered in abundance, and a dismembered chicken was conspicuously placed on a log. A bent piece of wire was connected to the log, and it was tied so tightly that no matter how much effort was made, the wire could not be undone by bare hands. 

"Quickly untie me! It hurts! Hurry! Hurry!" cried Miho as the snare tightened with every movement of the trapped prey. Miho's flailing legs only made it harder to untie the wire. 

"Just stay still!" someone pleaded. 

"Hurry up and untie it! Quickly! Quickly!" 

"Ouch!" Miho's wails and the subsequent strikes resulted in Sohwa's hand being scratched by sharp claws, drawing blood. Despite the bleeding, freeing Miho from the snare was the priority. 

'I would have died long ago if I had been caught here,' thought Sohwa. Thankfully, being a healthy red fox like Miho meant survival, but if it had been a weakling like Sohwa, trapped by the hind leg and hanging from a tree, death would have come much sooner. 

The mere thought was dizzying, and Sohwa, unaware of her own wounded hand, struggled to release the snare when suddenly— 

Bang! 

A sound like a rock splitting rang out, and a death scream echoed from nearby. 

Miho, the red fox Sohwa had been trying to free, convulsed violently and then lay still. 

Miho was dead. 

Sohwa collapsed to the ground, trembling as she heard the malicious laughter of men nearby. 

"Ha ha! Bull's-eye! A perfect shot!" 

"The best marksman of Chakhogun has done it again!" 

"Ha ha ha! At least we caught a fox, saving some face!" 

The raucous laughter seemed to shake the mountains. Sohwa, unable to close her eyes, looked at Miho's dead face and felt tears welling up. 

"With five red foxes, we can make a fur coat," remarked a bandit-like man who had approached and cut the snare, lifting Miho's body. He glanced at Sohwa as he nonchalantly placed the fox's body, tongue lolling out, over his shoulder. 

"What are you doing here, miss? This fox was my prey," he said to Sohwa. 

Sohwa quickly wiped away her tears and stood up. 

"I was just passing by and heard the pitiful cries of a fox, so I tried to help it out," she explained. 

"Wandering alone on these mountain paths without a guide?" another man questioned with narrowed eyes. 

"This mountain is no ordinary place. It's so treacherous and filled with yin energy that if you're not careful, you could easily lose your way," added another man, chiming in.