The bag, packed full with food, drink, and potions and bandages just in case, was heavy, and its weight dug into her slight, frail shoulders. She thought it would leave red marks by tomorrow, but the pain tomorrow brought was not what mattered right now, so she tightened her grip on the strap.

‘Let’s go. It’s not like I haven’t walked this path before.’

She just had to follow the trail and she would arrive at the cottage.

‘Right.’

Lisette drew a deep breath, steeled herself, and took one step toward the forest.

But whatever boldness had carried that first step, the further she went along the forest path, the harder it became to see ahead.

She had thought that as long as she followed the cleared trail, she would get there quickly. But no matter how far she walked, the cottage never appeared. The deeper she went into the heart of the forest, the thicker the fog grew, and from every direction within that invisible dark, sounds poured in around her.

The rustling of insects and birds. The small movements of little woodland creatures. Everything in the forest set her on edge.

‘I’m scared.’

Her legs trembled with every step, threatening to give out beneath her, and she stopped where she stood, unable to go any further.

“Where is….”

She lifted her head and looked around. But there was nothing to see, nothing to help her get her bearings. She could not make out anything in any direction. She could no longer even be sure this was the same walking path she had always used.

“Where am I…….”

She looked back. But she had already gone too deep, and the thought of turning back felt impossible. She wasn’t even sure she could find her way out of the forest if she did turn around, and just then…

“!”

Something rushed past her ankle. The strange sensation startled her so badly she couldn’t even scream, and she stumbled and sat down hard on the ground.

“Ah!”

The tumble sent the bag sliding off her shoulder and onto the ground, and the impact spilled its contents, sending everything rolling across the dirt.

“What do I do…….”

In that moment, it wasn’t the pain that hit her first but a sudden surge of grief, and she bit her lip.

The bread and cured meat were caked in dirt and ruined. The potion bottles had shattered. The bandages were soaked through with potion, mud, and food, completely unusable.

Lisette stared at the mess, and the tears broke free. She reached for the bread, then stopped and flung it to the ground.

She felt wretched.

She couldn’t even explain what exactly made her feel so wretched, but the grief welled up and she sobbed in broken gasps. She wasn’t even sure herself what she intended to do once she found him, or why she had come looking for him in the middle of the night. At this rate, even if she did find him, nothing good would come out of it, no kind words, no good feelings.

And that day, three years ago. Hadn’t it ended between them then?

‘Right. I should just go back.’

She thought she never should have come this far.

She scolded herself for acting on impulse again and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

‘Right, it’s over between us.’

Lisette let out a slow breath, pressed her hand to the ground, and pushed herself to her feet. She turned to retrace her steps. And in that moment, not far ahead, she heard the snap of a dry branch breaking.

‘What is that?’

It was not a sound coming from beneath her own feet.

The soft crunch of movement, followed by the sharp crack of something breaking. The strange noise raised every hair on her body, and Lisette tensed and looked up…

“…….”

The insect sounds that had been crying from all around her had gone silent. She could no longer sense the small creatures that had been moving through the low brush around her shins. She felt the wrongness of it in her whole body and narrowed her eyes.

‘Surely not.’

It was a small patch of woodland, one the servants walked through every day.

There had been talk of wolves, yes, but she had thought there was no way a dangerous animal could be lurking somewhere the gardeners tended to constantly.

“!”

As though to trample that thought, not far from where she had entered, a pair of golden eyes crouched low in the dark.

‘A wolf?’

A single wolf, still and low in the undergrowth. Those golden eyes were fixed on Lisette. It scraped the ground with its paw and growled, ready to lunge the moment she moved, and her mind went blank.

‘If I get bitten by a wolf here. No, what would I even say to Mother and my brother?’

She pictured the eyes of her mother and Théodore asking her what she was doing out here at this hour, and her body swayed. She shifted the tip of her foot just slightly. And in that instant, the dry grass crackled under her foot, and the wolf snapped its head up and threw its muzzle toward the sky.

Awoooo!

The wolf’s howl echoed and spread through the silence.

Then the birds that had been holding still burst upward into the sky with a flurry of wings. The sounds closing in from every direction sent Lisette into a panic, and she spun around and ran. Even so, one last thread of rational thought remained, telling her not to scream, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Through the fog that had hidden it until now, a cottage came into view.

‘Yes, just get there!’

Driven by the single thought that she only had to reach that house, Lisette ran and ran, wringing out the last of her strength with every step. She felt certain that if she could get inside that cottage, she would be safe.

‘Because Leon will be there.’

That one thought alone carried her to the cottage’s front yard. She grabbed the door handle and turned it.

“!”

It turned more easily than she expected. She gasped for breath, and from inside she sensed a familiar presence. That sound of footsteps made her hesitate for just a moment, wondering whether she should go in. She looked up at the door, and just then…

Awooo!

A wolf’s cry rang out right beside her, and the fear that she might actually be bitten crashed over her. Goosebumps broke out all over her body. Right, this was no time to stand around with her mind elsewhere. She turned the handle in a rush.

Only after she finally stepped inside the cottage and pulled the door shut could she breathe properly.

“Hah, hah.”

Her heart pounded so hard it felt ready to burst out of her chest, separate from the taste of blood in her throat.

Her body, which had been clenched tight with fear, heaved with each ragged breath.

Her legs gave out beneath her, and she could barely stay upright. She leaned her back against the door and sank straight to the floor. She wanted to let go of her senses entirely and just pass out right there.

She had spent every last bit of strength in her body. Her eyes were half-closed. Then she sensed someone’s presence and looked up, and in that instant…

“…….”

Her half-shut eyes flew open wide. Her mouth fell open.

“You.”

A towel hit the floor with a dull thud, but she couldn’t look away. He was completely soaked, wearing nothing at all, bare in every sense, and facing her, and right there in her line of sight, at the exact level where she had sunk to the floor, was his manhood, and she couldn’t say a word.

“That… what.”

It hung halfway down his thigh. She couldn’t look away from the sheer size of something so alarming she almost doubted it was what it was.

‘Is that really…’

She sat there opening and closing her lips like someone who had lost their senses, and finally covered her mouth with her hand.

‘A person’s?’

Why. No, why. That….

“Le, Leon, you’re too….”

Big.

She swallowed the words she couldn’t bring herself to say and looked up at him.

“…….”

Leon felt her gaze and quickly turned away, covering himself with the towel. Even from the side, his face had gone rigid and the tips of his ears had gone red, and it seemed to tell her everything about how flustered he was.

And about what she had just done.

‘I’ve caused trouble again.’

Lisette took it all in at once, squeezed her eyes shut, and covered her face with both hands. With her eyes closed, the heat was even more obvious, not just in her burning ears but all over. The shame felt like it might kill her, and she pressed her hands over her entire face.

“I’m sorry.”

She truly wished the floor would open up and swallow her.

Three years, and this was how they reunited.

Without any warning, and even if there had been warning it would still be mortifying. Lisette sucked in a sharp breath.

She was too upset to know what to do with herself, but she couldn’t walk back out with a wolf on the other side of the door, and staying here with him like this was….

‘What do I do?’

She wanted to stomp her feet from sheer embarrassment and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Miss.”

“Don’t come…… Ahh!”

She moved to stop him from approaching, and at that moment a loud thud came from behind her and the door shook hard. The wolf slammed into it again and again, its howl carrying through the wood, and the fear she had forgotten came rushing back all at once.

“No. No.”

Terror flooded through her, and Lisette trembled from head to toe, curling into herself with her hands over her head, when…

“Shh.”

He closed the distance in an instant, pulled her into his arms, and braced his other hand against the door. He held the shaking door steady by force, and leaned close to her ear, still hunched into her shoulders, and whispered quietly.

“Stay still.”

“…….”

“Stay still. As long as you don’t make a sound, it will leave soon… it will.”

Then, out of what seemed like habit, he looked down at her, and his gaze met Lisette’s. He breathed in and stopped, unable to finish what he had been about to say.

No, he could not say anything at all.

Her eyes, wide with fear and brimming with tears she hadn’t let fall, were looking up at him.

‘Don’t go.’

‘Let’s run away. Just run away. Leon.’