My eyes snapped open.
What is it?
That meant something dangerous was about to happen....
I crawled out of my hideout and looked toward the bed. Aria must already have been asleep, because all I could hear was her steady breathing.
No helping it.
I quietly opened the bedroom door and slipped out.
Once downstairs, I checked that the teahouse door and windows were properly locked. Nothing looked unusual.
I’d been ready to run upstairs and wake Aria if I spotted someone lurking outside, but there was no one there.
Nothing’s happening. So what is it...?
Uneasy, I prowled around near the door for another few minutes, but nothing changed.
The entire neighborhood was silent.
And yet....
My whiskers began vibrating again, as if warning me.
Is it outside?
I tapped the window latch loose with my paw, then pushed the window open with my head.
Creeeak.
I slipped through the gap and landed lightly on the ground.
After looking around the teahouse, I headed out into the village streets.
Everything was as familiar as ever, except for one thing.
...Something’s burning.
I stopped as the scent caught my sharp nose.
A faint smell of smoke drifted on the wind.
I immediately ran toward it.
The place I arrived at was somewhere I’d been once before.
Betty’s house.
The smell was much stronger beyond the door.
I clawed frantically at the wooden door and screamed as loudly as I could.
“Myaaaooong!!! Myaaaoooong!!”
Wake up!!! There’s a fire!!
I yowled until my throat felt raw.
After a while, voices finally came from inside.
Someone must have woken up.
“...It’s on fire!”
“Cough! Get outside, now!!”
Frantic footsteps pounded through the house before the door flew open.
Betty’s mother and older brother came rushing out, followed by her father carrying a sleeping Betty in his arms.
“Cough, cough!”
Behind them, I could see thick gray smoke filling the house.
“What do we do? We need to get water right away....”
“Betu. Go door to door and wake everyone in the village! There’s no time!”
“Yes!”
Betty’s father handed the sleeping Betty to her mother.
While he and Betty’s brother hurried off, Betty’s mother stood there holding her daughter with a stricken expression.
Then she finally noticed me.
“...So that cat crying outside was you.”
Her face crumpled with emotion as she approached.
In a gentle voice, she offered me a small, heartfelt thanks.
“You woke us up. Thank you so much.”
“Maong.”
I slowly closed and opened my eyes in reply.
I’d tried to stay calm while crying out, but honestly....
That scared the hell out of me.
If my whiskers hadn’t started tingling, I would’ve slept through the whole night too.
Does danger detection warn me when people I’m close to are in danger too?
That was a lot broader than I’d thought.
It would’ve been even better if it told me who was in danger, though.
“Mmm....”
At that moment, Betty made a small sound.
She must have woken up.
She rubbed her eyes and fussed sleepily in her mother’s arms.
“...Mom? Why are we... outside?”
She still looked dazed as she glanced around.
Betty’s mother pulled her tighter into her arms and began sobbing.
“Betty, sweetheart.... The house caught fire just now.... We almost....”
“A fire...?”
The seriousness of the situation finally seemed to sink in, because Betty’s eyes filled with tears too.
“Don’t worry. Everyone in the family is safe.”
But Betty didn’t calm down.
She whipped her head around, urgently searching for someone.
That was when I realized something was wrong too.
“C-Cookie?”
Come to think of it—
Cookie was nowhere to be seen.
“Cookie! Cookie!”
Betty hurriedly climbed out of her mother’s arms and looked around.
Then she grabbed her mother’s clothes and burst into tears.
“Mom, Cookie’s gone...! Sniff, he’ll be... hic... sleeping under my bed!”
Betty’s mother went deathly pale and froze.
“...We were in such a hurry, I forgot. Oh no. Oh God....”
“I’m going! I’ll go get him!”
“No! Betty, it’s too dangerous!”
Her mother grabbed her.
Betty could only stamp her feet helplessly and sob as she called desperately for Cookie.
“Waaah! Cookie!!”
The fire spread to the front entrance in an instant.
At this rate, it looked like it might jump to the trees and neighboring houses too.
Thankfully, villagers came running from the distance.
Betty’s father and brother were with them.
“Careful not to spill the water!”
“Douse the nearest doorway first!”
People carrying buckets filled to the brim began throwing water over the house.
But....
Could Cookie really stay alive in there until they put the whole fire out?
If they’d had a fire hose, maybe.
But hauling water bucket by bucket could take an hour.
By then, it would be too late.
“Huh?! That cat—!!”
I jumped straight into a bucket full of water.
The bucket tipped over, splashing water everywhere, but it soaked my whole body in the process.
“You little pest! Stop getting in the way and move!”
One of the men waved his hand, trying to chase me off.
I darted out of the bucket and ran straight toward the house.
“Gasp—Roro...!!”
Ignoring Betty’s shocked cry behind me, I charged inside.
...Urgh.
The house was already filled with choking smoke.
The door stood wide open, letting some of it escape, but even so, breathing was difficult.
Flames crawled up the walls, flickering like serpent tongues.
Even drenched in cold water, the raging heat made it feel as though my skin would burn.
I held my breath as much as possible and looked around.
Then—
“Aoung. Aoung. Aoung....”
A very faint cry came from deeper inside.
I hurried toward a room whose door stood slightly ajar.
In the darkness beneath the bed, I spotted a tiny living thing curled into a ball.
It was Cookie.
Terrified by the smoke and flames, he was trembling, too frightened to move.
“Myaaah!”
Come here!
I shouted the moment I found him, but—
“Aoung... nyaouung.... Auuung....”
I’m scared... Mom.... Betty....
He was so terrified all he could do was whimper weakly.
His tail was wrapped over his face as his entire body shook.
I crawled under the bed.
Then I clamped my teeth firmly around the scruff of his neck and dragged him out.
Cookie scraped along the floor, but at least the rough treatment seemed to snap him out of it.
“...Naoung?”
...Big bro?
Cookie lifted his head and looked at me.
His eyes were soaked with tears.
Get a grip! We have to get out right now!
...O-okay.
If you’re scared, just watch my back and follow me. Got it?
Cookie forced strength into his trembling hind legs and stood on his own.
The little guy had managed to find his courage.
I was proud of him.
There was no time to waste.
I immediately took the lead and ran.
“Myaaang!”
Watch where you step!
We avoided the glowing red patches of floor and the flames as we made our way toward the door as safely as possible.
Then—
Crrrack.
A deeply ominous sound came from nearby.
A charred wooden support beam was collapsing.
THUD!
I hurriedly dodged sideways with Cookie.
In the process, I must have stepped on some hot ash, because the pad of my left paw stung sharply.
Thankfully, it wasn’t bad enough to stop me from walking.
Whew....
Apparently, I’d relaxed too soon.
“Nyaong!”
Big bro!
Cookie looked up and cried out urgently.
By the time I raised my head, it was already too late to dodge.
*******
Gray smoke rose from the house whose roof had completely caved in.
The village adults, having finally managed to extinguish the flames, were just beginning to catch their breath when—
“Hic... waaah....”
A little girl choked back heartbroken sobs.
What devastated Betty wasn’t the sight of her precious home reduced to a burned-out ruin.
It was something else entirely.
“Cookieee... hic....”
She had been asleep and hadn’t taken Cookie with her.
That fact filled Betty with crushing grief and guilt.
No matter how much her mother and brother tried to comfort her, her tears wouldn’t stop.
Her eyes were already swollen from crying, but every time she thought of Cookie, fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
The image of the little cat she adored and carried around every day made her chest ache.
Then—
“Meow.”
Betty’s head snapped up at the sound, so faint she almost thought she’d imagined it.
Her eyes immediately widened.
“...Roro?”
The cat emerging from the bushes was unmistakably Roro.
His snow-white fur had been stained black, but Betty recognized him at once.
And behind him....
“Cookie!”
Betty screamed in shock and sprinted forward.
She scooped up the little cat beside Roro and crushed him to her chest.
Cookie was mottled with soot as though someone had dumped black ash all over him, but he didn’t seem to be hurt.
“I’m sorry! Waaaah, I’m sorry!!”
Betty collapsed to the ground and sobbed aloud.
Her family rushed over.
Once they saw Cookie safe and sound, relief finally broke across their faces, and they wiped away tears of their own.
Betty didn’t care that his fur was filthy.
For a long while, she rubbed her face against him.
“Nyyaang.”
Cookie rubbed his face against Betty’s cheek in return.
*******
The instant the ceiling collapsed, I used the Ground-Shrinking Technique.
It had been a complete gamble.
The technique wasn’t supposed to activate indoors.
Thankfully—
Thank fucking God—
it worked.
Maybe once the ceiling collapsed, the place no longer counted as indoors.
Either way, Cookie and I managed to escape safely.
Though we looked like absolute disasters.
Black ash coated us from head to toe like we’d just crawled out of a coal mine, and both of us reeked of smoke.