And so, from that day, my quiet battle alongside Four Seasons-san began.
We exchanged magic power during the day and went to sleep each night hoping for dreams that would bring back memories. If I could glimpse a memory, great. If not, we’d try again the next day. It wasn’t exactly the most thrilling process, despite the gravity of our goal.
Still, we were making progress.
While I exchanged magic power with both Four Seasons-san and Color-san, only Four Seasons-san seemed to get feedback in the form of dreams. Yet, oddly enough, the memories that were recovered weren’t just his alone—they were shared with Color-san as well. In a sense, Four Seasons-san’s recollections were synchronized with Color-san’s, as if they were both accessing the same memory network.
「I think it’s a fairy trait. We’re connected at a deeper level, in the subconscious.」
Color-san had explained.
When I relayed this to mother, she mused,
「In spiritual terms, it sounds like they’re less of a swarm of individuals and more like a collective being—a single entity, really. But that’s just a theory.」
I wasn’t sure if I fully grasped the idea, but it seemed logical.
At least, that was how things worked for them, so we decided to continue with our current method since the flow of magic power improved when both Four Seasons-san and Color-san were involved. The real issue, though, was figuring out how to trigger the specific dreams we needed. We had no guarantee of seeing a useful dream on any given night, and even when we did, there was no certainty it would provide the right information.
Ideally, we needed a way to guide the dreams. Something like, ‘If you do this during the day, you’ll dream of that at night.’ A method to steer the process.
By the fifth day of magic exchanges, I found myself pondering possible breakthroughs.
And then, unexpectedly, one arrived.
※※※
Of course, while investigating the Rare Existence was crucial, we couldn’t neglect preparations for the winter.
According to the Japanese calendar, December was only a week away. Since our return to the forest, the air had steadily grown colder, and it felt as though autumn was giving way to early winter.
That day, Karen, Chocola, and Mint had gone out hunting.
Karen and Chocola were in charge of tracking and catching prey, while Mint was responsible for foraging mushrooms and wild plants. We aimed to gather slightly more than we needed to eat daily, setting aside the surplus for winter reserves. So far, things were going smoothly, and I was confident we’d be ready in time.
Meanwhile, mother and I were splitting firewood together. With winter approaching, we’d be burning more wood, so we needed to stockpile as much as possible.
I swung Ridill, chopping through the logs with a steady rhythm. But mother… well, her method was far more impressive. She casually tossed logs into the air and, with a quick flick of her hand, used magic to split them mid-flight. In a single motion, the logs would be cleanly sliced into five or six pieces, falling in perfect stacks.
It was a technique she’d recently developed, she told me—combining fire magic to burn and ice magic to cut. The fiery, razor-thin ice blades were practically invisible, and they melted away immediately after doing their job. To an observer, it looked like a sudden gust of wind had sliced through the logs.
She’d created this spell using the power of the ring father had left her. The ring was crafted from materials rich with magic, imbued with all sorts of properties. It was the last gift my father had given her, a parting token from a world brimming with magic.
Despite the fierce power of the spell, there was a calm warmth in mother’s expression. She was probably thinking of father.
As mother and I continued working, Karen returned through the gate, her expression unusually grim.
「Welcome bac…… What happened? Something wrong?」
「Sui, Viole-sama, something big happened.」
Her face was tense, her lips twitching in a way that reminded me of her playful side, but this wasn’t that. This was frustration, or maybe even disbelief.
「What on earth……」
「Just… look.」
She stepped aside, revealing Mint and Chocola standing behind her.
Mint, with her basket full of mushrooms, fruits, and wild plants, was beaming with pride. ‘I’m back!’ she chirped, running over to mother.
And then there was Chocola.
Panting happily, tongue lolling out, he sat down obediently, just as cheerful as ever.
But—
「You’ve got to be kidding me…」
I was speechless.
「Well…」
「Look, mother, Sui! Shocora…..like that…..」
Mint added, her earlier joy replaced by a small frown.
Mother’s eyes widened. Mint looked slightly deflated, and Karen seemed utterly defeated.
「Bark?」
Chocola tilted her head in confusion as if asking ‘What’s wrong?’ clearly unaware of the chaos he had caused.
「This can’t be….you 」
His head, back, legs—his entire fluffy body—was covered in burrs. Hundreds of tiny burrs had latched onto his fur, leaving him in a state of utter disarray.
「Bark?」
「What bark… How in the world did you manage to get into this mess?」
The types of burrs were varied—similar to earth plants like burdock, beggar-ticks, and agrimony, though they were native to this world. Their names and shapes might differ, but the result was the same: they clung tightly to everything they touched.
Would I be able to get all of these off?
And would I be the one stuck with this task?
「There was a deer horned rabbit, jackalope.」
Karen sighed, beginning to explain what had happened.
A jackalope, as its name suggests, is a large rabbit with antlers. Unlike the more aggressive wolpertingers, jackalopes are swift and elusive, highly prized for their tender meat and the medicinal properties of their antlers.
In the forest, they’re known for their agility, and only a few of them were caught in years.
「We were chasing one when it darted into a thicket—one of those dense patches full of burrs. I hesitated, but Chocola… well, he charged right in.」
「I see. And what about the jackalope?」
「……It got away.」
「Bark…」
「I see…」
So the only thing we gained from the hunt was… a burr-covered Chocola.
「Well, no point in lamenting it. We can’t just leave him like this.」
With a resigned chuckle, I knelt down and called him over.
「Come here.」
「Bark!」
Chocola bounded toward me, completely oblivious to the state he was in, and pounced at me playfully. No, stop! Not now! If he rubbed against me, I’d end up covered in burrs, too!
「Alright, I’ll handle this. Mother, can you keep working on the firewood? Karen, Mint, once you’ve finished sorting what you gathered, come give me a hand.」
I stroked Chocola’s back to calm him down and decided to start with his face.
He must have run through those bushes quite a bit because the burrs were a tangled mess in his fur. It looked like trying to pick them off one by one with my hands would take forever.
「Maybe I should try using a comb. Wait here for a second.」
「Bark!」
I headed to the bath area and grabbed Chocola’s grooming comb, a fine-toothed iron one I had bought here, typically used for picking out fleas.
「They’re kind of like fleas and ticks, right? Let’s see if this works… Yeah, looks like it’ll do the trick.」
「Bark? Kuuu…」
Thank goodness, it seemed to be working.
As I brushed Chocola, who looked like he was enjoying the pampering (this isn’t a spa treatment, okay?), I started removing the burrs one by one.
「My barrier couldn’t stop this, huh? I guess it’s just like with fleas or ticks—they won’t bite, but they’ll still get caught in the fur.」
「Kuu… bark…」
「Ugh, stop getting so relaxed! Okay, now roll over so I can get your belly.」
「Kuuu…」
I kept combing through her fur, picking out the more stubborn ones by hand. The repetitive task was strangely satisfying after a while.
「Your fur’s starting to get all fluffy. Looks like you’re getting ready for winter.」
「Bark!」
「You always get more energetic in the colder months. Must be that Siberian Husky blood in you.」
「Bark?」
「There wasn’t much snow back where we used to live, but I wonder how it’ll be here. You were always so excited on snowy days, though.」
「Bark, bark!」
We chatted while I kept working, slowly making progress. The burrs were coming off pretty easily now, and as frustrating as it was at first, I had to admit it was kind of fun. Plus, petting Chocola always had a calming effect. I decided to chalk this up as a funny little mishap, even though I’d been dumbfounded at first.
「Hey! Stop squirming! I know you don’t like me touching your inner thighs, but you’ve got burrs stuck there too! How did they even get in there…?」
「Kwuunn!」
—That’s how the day passed.
Despite the whole burr fiasco, it was still just an ordinary day in the end.
※※※
But that night, as I lay in bed, drifting into sleep, I had another dream—one that shook me awake, leaving me sitting up, exhaling deeply.
I dreamed of Four Seasons-san and Color-san fighting one of the rare existences.
Its form was grotesque, no less bizarre than the last one I had seen.
It had a round, caterpillar-like body, and its surface was covered with tiny creatures, almost like parasites, that it launched at them like projectiles—similar to…
「Of course… burrs.」
Then, what about that first dream? The one with the rainbow-eyed rare existence?
「Was that triggered by washing Pochi and seeing the rainbow?」
It seemed that the dreams were being triggered by things I had experienced during the day. Ordinary moments that left a subtle impression were somehow tied to the resurfacing memories.
Well, at least I’d figured out the pattern… But seriously, could I stop having nightmares about disgusting monsters inspired by nice, everyday memories?
AN: Dogs will cover themselves in burrs with neither awareness nor remorse.
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