Mister Ōkami
Hunting With Gargle

“Uh oh…” I say.

“SUISEN! I KNOW YOU STOLE QUICKIE FROM ME!” Frostt yells.

“Frostt, Quickie was seconds away from death,” Bounce says. “She needed immediate treatment.”

“Wha-“ Frostt says, freezing in fear.

“It’s okay, Suisen brought Quickie to me and I have returned her to the womb,” Bounce says. “I’m sad we had to lose such a valuable warrior, but she need not be lost to the void.”

“I… I failed…?” Frostt asks, looking utterly defeated. “I was supposed to heal her myself! I could have! I just needed some more time!”

“There WASN’T time, Frostt,” Bounce says.

“What have I done?!” Frostt wails, bawling bitterly.

“You can’t change the past, but you can get back to your room and focus on healing Hash and Chain before they meet a similar fate,” Bounce says.

“It’s okay to ask for help sometimes,” I say. “Even if not me. I’m sure any of the others would have been willing to help out.”

“I just wanted to heal all the pups!” Frostt cries, running back to her room.

Rest well, Quickie… I’m sorry that you have to lose your memory in order to be healed… Bounce makes her way to the nursery and I follow her. Viper and Jewel look up and realize something has happened.

“Did we lose Hash?” Viper asks.

“No, we lost Quickie… It was almost too late, but I have her inside my womb now,” Bounce says.

“Good luck, Bounce. May you have better luck than me,” Jewel says, motioning for Bounce to join the pregnancy snuggle pile.

It isn’t much longer until Mr. Ōkami wakes up and is strolling around the main room of the den. He is so beautiful, I catch myself sighing as I watch him. He stops, turning his head to look at me. A smile crosses his face and he stalks over.

“Heya, Suisen,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“Alpha, I have news to report,” I say, bowing low.

“Do you? Tell,” Mr. Ōkami says, licking my head.

“Quickie has been returned to the womb. Bounce has taken her in because she was about to die,” I report.

“Oh no!” Mr. Ōkami exclaims. “Not Quickie!”

“The other two seem stable for now, Alpha. Frostt is doing a really great job. I hope you let her know,” I say.

“Hmmm, I’ll go pay her a visit now. She’s one of my favorite family members…although I love all of you…aside from Boogerbum. I hate that guy. I can’t even pretend to like him,” Mr. Ōkami says, gagging.

“Even me?” Cuttoe asks, hobbling over.

“Y-yeah, even you…at least YOU don’t eat poop…” Mr. Ōkami says, grimacing.

“Wowie! Did you guys know there’s a buffet over that way?!” Boogerbum exclaims, bounding over with filth all over his face.

“No freaking way…” Mr. Ōkami says with a groan.

Boogerbum licks his face happily. His belly is full of, presumably, poop. Awkward… Well, I’m ready to go hunting again if that’s what Mr. Ōkami wants me to do. I’ll likely stop by and see Sage before summoning the unicorn to provide me with more magical meat.

“Time to assign some more roles today…” Mr. Ōkami says. “My pack! It is time to rise to action! The food storage is looking pretty good, but that’s not enough to feed everyone! So, today, I’m sending Suisen and Gargle out to fetch more food! Frostt, you keep looking after Hash and Chain. You’re doing a good job, and I am proud of you. Border Patrol! I need Hill, Presha, and Lucy. We might check the city again, but I think it is well past dead now. Bella, Yola, and Clementina, I need you three to watch the pups today. Viper, Jewel, Bounce…don’t forget to drink enough water and stretch once in awhile. We need healthy pups for our pack. Toosh, Kurai, Bound, Bat, and Squirrel, you five need to give Crisp, Vicious, Umami, Noise, Hoop, Iddi, Boogerbum, and Pooper a good bathing. Whether you use water or your tongue, I just want them clean. They stink so bad!”

“Alpha, sir, Suisen helped me clean up yesterday. See? I am clean,” Vicious objects.

“No you’re not!” Mr. Ōkami yells.

“Sorry, Alpha, you’re right…” Vicious says.

“The rest of you, you know the drill,” Mr. Ōkami says. “Come on, Border Patrol!”

I watch as the Border Patrol files out, once again. I smell something gross and suddenly WAH-BAM! Gargle tackles me! I yelp as she playfully chews on my ears. She’s small, but very strong.

“Ready to go hunting, Suisen?!” Gargle asks. “I sure am! Maybe I can create a giant meat pile like you did yesterday!”

“That would be cool,” I say with a smile.

“Where are you heading to?” Gargle asks. “I have to know…”

“Uhhh, I… Well…” I say, glancing briefly the direction of Sage’s house before pointing the opposite direction. “I usually hunt this way…”

“Ooooh!” Gargle exclaims. “Can I hunt there today?”

“You know what? Sure. But since I killed a lot of prey yesterday, I’m not sure how much will be wandering about today,” I say.

“I’ll give it a looksie. Thanks!” Gargle says and dashes away.

I sigh in relief and head for Sage’s house. I arrive and, at first, there is no sign of her. I sniff about, trying to locate my tiny friend. She’s here somewhere…

“Heya, Suisen!” Sage exclaims. “You’re looking rather healthy today!”

“Sage!” I exclaim. “I thought for a moment someone had killed you!”

“Oh, no, I’m fine. I bet you would like to hear some more lore on the history of our world?” Sage suggests.

“Yes, please,” I say.

“Well, you know about The Lion, and you know about the humans…but now I have a bit of bad news for you,” Sage says.

“Uh oh, bad news? What’s worse than knowing that humans ruined everything?” I ask.

“Because of the curse of sin, nobody is perfect anymore. Not you, not me, not your Alpha, certainly not the government… Nobody is perfect aside from the creator,” Sage says.

“What about the children? The little new born babies? Aren’t they still perfect?” I ask, looking surprised.

“NOBODY. We are all born with sin, now. You know what that means?” Sage asks.

“N-no…?” I reply.

“We can’t be with The Creator. Perfection and imperfection cannot mix. It doesn’t work. And so, we ALL are exiles. Even I, a harmless mouse, an exile,” Sage says.

“Well, dang! What am I to do?!” I ask.

“Tell the others, All have fallen short of the glory of God. No one can meet with God as they are,” Sage says.

“I… I don’t think Alpha is going to be too happy to hear this news…” I say, scuffing the ground nervously.

“Tell you what. Come back again and I’ll give you some good news,” Sage says with a wink. “Now, would you be interested in bread and cheese?”

“Do you have any fruit? We have a bat staying with us and he’s been complaining of hunger…he’s a fruit bat…” I say.

“Hmmm, I might…” Sage says.

The little mouse leaps back into her house. I wait, hoping Gargle won’t come back around to check on my hunting progress. Eventually, Sage returns with an entire watermelon and some bread rolls. Hopefully Alpha lets the fruit bat eat some watermelon.

“There you go! Mom didn’t want me giving away our summer fruits, but I think you need it more than we do,” Sage says.

“Thank you so much,” I say. “Keep an eye out for hungry predators!”

“Thank you, God bless you!” Sage says.

“And you, too!” I call out.

How can I bring myself to tell Alpha the bad news, though? He was interested in meeting The Lion, but now I know none of us have a shot at meeting him. I leave to take my new watermelon back to the den. After I drop off this watermelon, I’ll summon the unicorn.

“Wow! Where did you get that big watermelon?!” Dollop asks.

“I plucked it from a vine,” I lie.

“Cool! Where’s Gargle?” Dollop asks.

“Still hunting. I’m heading back out, too, I just thought this watermelon should be safely brought back to the den, first,” I explain.

“Okay, good luck! Keep an eye out for bears and snakes!” Dollop says.

“Thanks!” I say and head back out, no longer pushing a giant watermelon with me.

Gargle isn’t back, that means it is safe to summon the unicorn. I head off out of sight of the mouth of the den. Then, I take my magical summon and blow into it. The unicorn from before comes galloping over, neighing loudly. Timing how long it actually takes the unicorn to arrive, yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have had enough time to use this approach to save Quickie.

“I’ve been summoned!” the unicorn announces, rearing up.

“Heya! Sorry to have to summon you so soon, but I was wondering if you could magic up another pile of meat. My family said that was the tastiest meat we have ever had,” I say, bowing respectfully.

“You ate all that meat already?” the unicorn asks, sounding surprised.

“My family is quite extensive, my apologies. If that’s too much to ask, you can leave,” I say.

“No, no, I’d love to help! Here!” the unicorn says.

In a magical flash, another big pile of meat is spawned in. If this isn’t actually hurting anyone and has no negative side effects, imagine how much happier our society would be if we employed unicorns to make meat. I lick the unicorn in gratitude. She runs off, perhaps back to care for her daughter.

I lie down and wait. If I return too soon with this much food, Dollop would know. She was there when I checked in a few minutes ago. No way can you catch enough meat for 24 wolves in just a few minutes, unless you kill something very large.

This plus the meat in storage is enough to feed about 55 wolves, though I have a feeling it might multiply again. After a bit, I feel drowsy. I lie down and fall asleep next to my pile of meat. I don’t know how long I’m asleep for until…

“Uhhh, Suisen…?” it’s Gargle.

“Hmmm?! Oh! Gargle!” I exclaim, standing up.

“Exhausted from all that hunting?” Gargle asks, pointing to my meat pile.

“Yeah, absolutely pooped!” I say.

“Did someone say poooooooooooop?!” Boogerbum howls, bursting out of the den.

“Not that kind,” I say, scowling.

“Sorry,” Boogerbum says, his tail drooping suddenly.

“Anyhow, I couldn’t find much, but I did catch ten robins,” Gargle says.

“Since you’re here, help us carry this meat back to the den,” I command Boogerbum.

“You want my poopy mouth on your food?” Boogerbum asks.

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter too much. We all lick our own butts anyways,” I say.

“Yeah,” Gargle says, nodding her head.

We carry the meat back to the den. I’m surprised they let Boogerbum run so far away from the den. Then again, Alpha isn’t in. The highest rank wolf in the den would be Frostt and she’s likely busy with the injured pups.

“We got food!” Gargle announces, setting the food up.

“Nice!” Bound says, still busy cleaning Pooper as Bat and Squirrel hold the squirming child.

“I DON’T WANNA BE CLEAN!” Pooper cries out, “Ah Ah wooo! Ah Ah woo!”

“My tongue has been throughly busy,” Kurai reports, licking Umami’s bum.

“That tickles, Kurai!” Umami exclaims. “Surely this isn’t all necessary!”

“Alpha’s orders!” Kurai says. “Vicious was already clean so I just had to give her a few swipes. Your as filthy as me, almost, Umami!”

“And I’ve washed Noise and Hoop already,” Toosh reports, standing questionably on Crisp as she licks her belly fur clean.

“Talk about filthy…” Crisp grumbles, forced to stare at Toosh’s own filthy bum.

“Lick it,” I say, teasingly.

Crisp lifts her head and gives Toosh a swipe. Toosh squeals in surprise and goes tumbling away. The other wolves laugh. Crisp then rolls to her feet and shakes herself, refluffing the fur that was licked down.

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