CHAPTER 3

Yamato the wolf awoke to the sound of Hibiki greeting somebody. He rolled over, hearing a couple of unfamiliar voices greet the rabbit in likewise fashion. His sharp eyes discerned an ordinary-looking yellow-scarfed male raccoon and an unusually big-bosomed female porcupine walking up to Hibiki near the lip of the cave.

"What brings you here, guys?" Hibiki asked.

"Hibiki, we heard from Jungo... Did you call him to help you carry a beat-up wolf to his old cave?" The raccoon asked worriedly. Yamato's ears pricked up indignantly at the description "beat-up". /I was not that hurt... All right, I may have passed out from my injuries, but I am not beat-up!/ He thought haughtily.

"Yes...?" Hibiki sounded like he does not know where the raccoon was going with his line of questioning.

"And you're tending to his injuries...?" The raccoon continued while the porcupine looked at Hibiki in concern.

"Yes, why?" Hibiki questioned.

"Dude, he's a wolf! He could eat you or something!" The raccoon exclaimed.

"H-Hibiki, you won't put yourself in danger, will you?" The porcupine said softly.

"No, guys, I won't." Hibiki said reassuringly. Seeing his friends' unconvinced faces, he added, "Seriously, I won't. Yamato said he won't eat me."

"So, that's his name, is it? The nerve of him, stumbling into our forest like that!" The raccoon said hotly. "...Wait, is he in the cave right now?"

"Yes I am, little raccoon." Yamato's deep voice echoed from the cave's shadows. His face suddenly appeared behind Hibiki's shoulder. "Indeed, I promised the rabbit that I won't eat him... I wouldn't promise the same for other irrelevant little raccoons." He smirked menacingly at the mammal.

"EEEEP!" The raccoon jumped in fright and hid himself in the nearby bush. The porcupine bristled in alarm, her spines twitching.

"Yamato, these are my friends. They're not "irrelevant". Promise me you won't eat them too." Hibiki said a little sternly to the wolf.

"...All right." Yamato acquiesced. The raccoon peeked out from the bush while the porcupine looked surprised, her gaze shifting from Hibiki to the wolf and back again.

"Yamato, these are my friends Daichi..." Hibiki indicated the raccoon trying to extricate himself from the bush. "And Io." He motioned at the porcupine standing shyly nearby. "Guys, this is Yamato, the wolf I took in for a while."

"You have... interesting friends, rabbit." Yamato watched as the porcupine Io took hold of Daichi the raccoon's arm and helped him pull himself out of the bush he was trapped in.

"Why? Don't you have friends, Yamato?" Hibiki asked curiously, staring carefully at the wolf's face.

"I have no need for friends where I came from. I require only subordinates." Yamato said tersely.

"...That's kinda sad, isn't it?" The raccoon's voice called out.

"...What?" Yamato folded his arms and stared haughtily at Daichi.

"I mean..." Daichi looked uncomfortable. "...You don't get to play normal stuff with anybody? Like tag or dodge-acorn?"

"No, I do not. What is dodge-acorn?"

"I see..." Daichi looked dispirited at Yamato's words. "...It kinda makes me glad I'm just a normal little woodland critter."

Yamato looked surprised at the raccoon's words. "You... Nngh!" The wolf clutched his side in pain. He staggered, his balance unsteady.

"Yamato!" Hibiki was at his side in an instant. He slung Yamato's arm across his shoulders and held him upright. "It might be too soon for you to be up and about, wolf."

"...It looks that way, rabbit." Yamato muttered gravelly.

"Guys, I have to tend to Yamato now... Let's talk sometime else, okay?" Hibiki called out to his friends.

"Alright, Hibiki, I understand." Daichi said. "And for what its worth, Yamato... I hope you get well soon." As the raccoon trained his brown eyes on the wolf, Yamato saw only seriousness in his eyes and resolution in his posture.

"Yes, and please don't hurt Hibiki, wolf-san. If you do, we'll come after you." Io held one of her spines in front of her like a spear.

Yamato looked at the two. He could see the value of having companions such as these. Then he and Hibiki turned and walked back inside the cave.

"Friends are not... irrelevant after all..." The wolf murmured softly. Unbeknownst to him, the rabbit heard and he smiled, glad at the aloof hunter's realization. /No, they're not irrelevant at all, Yamato./

Hibiki reached the hay bed and deposited Yamato on it. He started tending to the wolf's wounds. Yamato stared silently at the cave ceiling as if pondering something. Then he asked: "What is dodge-acorn?"

Hibiki chuckled slightly. "It's a game where you dodge acorns. If you get hit by one, you're out. You form two teams and they try to take each other out by hurling acorns at one another. The side who has most members not hit or whose member is the last one standing is the winner."

Yamato huffed. "It sounds ridiculous. This is the "normal" stuff you do with friends?"

"Yes, and it's fun. I could teach you sometime." Hibiki smiled.

Yamato fell silent once more. Hibiki was curious at what the wolf was thinking but he focused his attention on the wolf's injuries. Suddenly, Yamato spoke again.

"Who is this Jungo?" He asked. "He helped you carry me to this cave?"

"Yes. He is a bear. A grizzly, in fact." Hibiki replied simply. "And this is his old cave. He's found and moved into another one. He says that this one's getting a little small for him."

Yamato stared wide-eyed at the rabbit, thinking that he must be joking. /This rabbit has a grizzly bear for a friend?!/ But he feels that the herbivore is completely serious. It was faint but he smelled the scent of bear on himself when he first awoke. He had dismissed it as the scent that lingered when this cave was once a bear's refuge. /He called his friend Jungo the grizzly bear, to help carry me, a wolf, into this cave?!/

"...You have interesting friends, rabbit." Yamato said dourly.

"Yes I do, don't I, Yamato?" Hibiki smiled cheerfully, but a bit menacingly as he dabbed crushed herbs on the wolf's vulnerable areas.