Daisy carefully set down a bowl of boiled meat and a bowl of fresh water beside the dog’s snout and nudged them forward. The dog’s nose twitched, but it remained asleep.

“Make sure you eat later. You need to eat well to get better fast.”

She said something the dog may or may not have understood, then climbed onto the bed beside it and flopped down. She pulled the blanket over herself, and her consciousness faded right on cue. Daisy fell asleep in an instant.

And she slept deeply.

While the sun climbed to its peak and began its descent, Daisy slept on, oblivious to the world. She finally opened her eyes in the early evening, when the setting sun had turned the sky a shade of violet.

“Mmm….”

Lost in a sweet, deep sleep, Daisy blearily opened her eyes at the heavy pressure she felt on her chest.

Right in front of her face, two yellow eyes like suns in the dead of night stared down at her.

“Ugh!”

Daisy startled and tried to sit up, but the dog pinned her down and made it difficult. Looking up at the creature on top of her, it was less the size of a calf and closer to a full-grown bull. Fortunately, heavy as it was, it wasn’t quite as heavy as a bull.

“Why did you climb up here? What if your wounds tear open….”

That worried Daisy far more than the dog attacking her, and she asked as much. And of course, the dog had no way of answering.

“Did you eat? Let me check….”

Daisy struggled to shift her body to the side of the bed to check the bowl on the floor, and the dog, which had been watching her quietly, smoothly rose and stepped aside to sit next to her hip.

‘What a perceptive dog.’

Daisy marveled at that and leaned her upper body over the side of the bed to look down.

The bowl was completely empty. Daisy got up from the bed and picked it up.

“Did you wake me up because you were hungry? I’ll bring more. I’m glad you ate well.”

Even knowing the dog couldn’t understand her, Daisy smiled and spoke to it warmly. The dog watched her for a moment, then turned its head away and rested its chin on top of its two front paws.

With an air that said it would let her do as she pleased for now.

*   *   *

One month later.

“Is the owner in… Oh my!”

Elma, the woman who ran the neighboring fabric and clothing shop, stepped through the open front door of the flower shop and stumbled back in surprise.

Daisy, who had been in the first-floor kitchen, heard the commotion and hurried out, wiping her wet hands on her mint-colored apron, now faintly stained, and greeted Elma.

“Mrs. Ridn, welcome.”

“I’m sorry for startling every single time I come in. I just haven’t gotten used to it yet.”

Elma and Daisy looked at each other and laughed, a little sheepishly.

At the center of that sheepish laughter was the large black dog lying on the floor of the flower shop. Just as it had been before Elma walked in, the dog lay there with an air of lofty indifference, as though the commotion was neither seen nor heard.

“Our Ruik is a bit large, I know.”

Ruik was the name Daisy had given the dog in the meantime.

“A bit large is an understatement. I never knew dogs could get that big. Are you sure it’s actually a dog? Not some kind of monster?”

“Oh, what are you saying? What kind of monster is this cute?”

Daisy pushed back against Elma’s opinion lightly, in a playful tone, but firmly.

“I think it might have some northern breed in it. In the far northern countries, they use dog-pulled sleds instead of carriages, and those sled dogs are said to be large and long-haired, just like Ruik.”

That was the conclusion Daisy had drawn from the stack of books she had diligently borrowed from the library during the two weeks she spent tending to Ruik’s wounds.

And indeed, the black dog, Ruik, was large beyond measure. Its bone structure was clearly different from the affectionate companion dogs one commonly saw, and its eyes gave off their own light in the dark. Its fangs were as long as Daisy’s little finger, and its tail was as thick as her forearm.

So when Ruik’s wounds had healed enough and Daisy brought it downstairs from the second floor to introduce it to people, those who saw Ruik for the first time either recoiled in fear or, in more extreme cases, showed outright hostility.

The question on everyone’s mind was what Daisy, slight as she was, could possibly have been thinking, living alone and taking in a dog that large and fierce-looking.

In those moments, Daisy would bring up the northern breed theory she had laid out for Elma, and most people found it convincing enough.

“So you never found the owner? If it’s a northern dog, it probably belonged to some eccentric noble.”

“No, I never found anyone.”

While nursing Ruik, Daisy had put up notices and spread the word around the neighborhood, doing her best to find its owner, but nothing had come of it. Nobody knew where Ruik had come from, and not a single person came forward who had even seen it before.

“Someone might show up later, but for now I’m thinking of it as fate and keeping it myself.”

“How is a woman living alone supposed to care for a dog that big? It frightens me terribly. Won’t an animal that size cause harm?”

There were a few people as stubborn about Ruik as Mrs. Elma. Of course, Daisy had a response for that too.

“Ruik has been living with me for a month now, and we’ve been sleeping in the same room this whole time. Ruik has never once put its teeth on me. Even when children grab its fur and pester it, it doesn’t bark. It just moves away. It’s so well-mannered and gentle.”

“Even so….”

“By the way, did you come today to place a flower order?”

“Oh, that’s right. What was I thinking? I came to order a rose corsage….”

Elma placed an order for a rose corsage and a floral hat decoration for a new outfit, paid for them, and then lectured Daisy some more.

“Anyway, be careful. An animal won’t always behave the way people expect.”

“Yes, yes.”

“And that one needs a bath.”

Elma said a few more things no dog owner would enjoy hearing, then left.

It was only natural that Daisy’s expression crumpled the moment she saw Elma out with a bright smile on her face.

“The nerve of some people. Ruik, don’t let it bother you.”

There was no way a dog could understand human speech precisely, yet every time something like this happened, Daisy would always walk over to Ruik and stroke its head.

Today was no different. Daisy went to Ruik’s side as it lay on the floor and ran her hand over its head. Ruik quietly lifted its chin and rested it on her knee.

A smile spread across Daisy’s face, fair-skinned and delicate-featured.

She knew very well that this dog, so dignified and gentlemanly, so cool and unresponsive to most things, was deeply fond of her.

Ruik followed Daisy wherever she went. Whenever Daisy was tending to potted plants or flowers and suddenly came back to herself and looked around, Ruik was always right there beside her. When mealtime came, Ruik would tug at her apron, but when she set out the food, it wouldn’t eat. It would just stare at Daisy. Only after Daisy took the first bite, even just a piece of bread or a spoonful of soup, would Ruik finally begin eating.

When she went into the bathroom or changed her clothes, Ruik would stand guard outside the door and never once came inside. Whenever Daisy spoke, Ruik would keep its eyes fixed on her until she finished, even though it couldn’t respond.

And when it was just the two of them, it would show its affection in quiet ways like this, resting its head on her knee to ask for pets, or giving her leg the gentlest nudge with its head.

Daisy stroked Ruik’s head to her heart’s content and gently parted the fur at the back of its neck to check.

The wound it had suffered when they first met had healed completely under Daisy’s devoted care, leaving only a scar behind.

“Alright, you’re good to bathe now.”

The tips of Ruik’s pointed ears twitched.

Daisy smiled and got up, heading to the bathroom first and calling out to Ruik.

“Ruik, be good. Come here.”

But Ruik, who always padded after Daisy without fail, would not follow.

“Come on, okay? I’ll give you beef jerky.”

Even the lure of a treat did nothing.

‘This dog.’

Daisy decided to change tactics.

“Ruik, are you really not going to wash up?”

“……”

“Then I’ll just wash up myself. You keep watch.”

With that, Daisy went into the bathroom and made a great fuss, heating water and pouring it into the tub, then closed the bathroom door. She had been so busy making noise that the door didn’t even close all the way.

Ruik eyed the door with suspicion, but slowly rose and padded over to the bathroom. Just as Ruik pressed its nose against the door to push it shut.

“Ahhhh! Ruik!”

A piercing scream erupted from inside the bathroom. In that instant, Ruik wedged a front paw into the gap and flung the door wide open, bounding inside.

Crash!

What greeted Ruik was Daisy, apron still on, grinning from ear to ear.

“Bath time. Your fur is seriously out of control right now.”

“Woof!”

For the first time since meeting Daisy, Ruik barked in protest.