Chapter 15 Did I Adopt a Human or Did the Human Adopt Me?

As Lief had begun retreating from the Mr. Protagonist, he suddenly heard a voice shout something.

"@#$_&-+!"

Unfortunately for him, he didn't have Silvester with him to translate, so it all just sounded like meaningless nonsense.

Then there were quick footsteps accompanied by strange tapping sounds, headed clearly in his direction. He also heard the shuffling footsteps of the zombie, but they were much slower and starting to fall behind.

He spun around and waited nervously, his tail spines rising like how a cat's fur fluffed up when it got nervous or startled.

Then, out of the fog came two skeletal dogs, made entirely out of bones. The way their bones seemed to magically connect reminded him of his own tail and how it could move despite not having any visible joints.

As if sensing his similarity to themselves, the two skeletons eagerly circled around his legs, rubbing against them. Their jaws opened as if they were barking happily, though no noise came from their non-existent throats.

Lief gently patted their bony heads, his tail spines retracting.

Then, he turned to face the protagonist who was following the two skeletal dogs. Luckily there seemed to be no sign of the previous zombie, and the it's shuffling footsteps had disappeared as well.

"+&_$@#_-!"

The boy with silver hair spoke again, but he might as well have been speaking in barks or meows.

Lief shook his head from side to side, trying to figure out a way to communicate.

"I don't understand what you're saying."

He made a mental note putting asking Silvester to teach him the human language higher up on his to-do list.

The boy stared up at Lief for a moment, then pulled out a notebook and quill and began drawing something.

Lief sat down so he wasn't towering over the human, watching the drawing process with interest.

~~~~~~~~~~

Liam glanced up at the unknown creature with awe as he watched his two bonehounds frolic around it like they were still puppies.

He had already recalled Maggy because it walked too slowly when the bonehounds seemed to sense something and rushed up ahead.

The something up ahead which he decided to temporarily call Forrest, for its pretty green mane, until he learned its actual name was a skeletal creature with a majestic aura that was only increased by its rather tall height, nearly double his own. It had bright red eyes that were filled with the sharp intelligence of a demon beast but its gentle nature was showcased when it patted the bonehounds' heads.

"Hello!"

*growling noises*

When Liam spoke, Forrest seemed to respond but also shook its head, most likely saying that either it couldn't speak the language or didn't understand the language at all.

Liam thought for a moment, then took one of his empty notebooks from his bag. He decided to communicate with what most other demon beasts could understand: art.

With fluid strokes of a pen, a series of several images appeared on the paper.

The images included him being chased, him entering the forest, then a white flag surrounded by flowers that represented friendship.

Although Liam didn't know whether the demon beast would know what a white flag meant to humans, he hoped that the flowers would show his friendly intent.

Forrest examined the pictures for a moment, then stood up and left.

Before Liam could finish wondering if he did something wrong or if he accidentally offended it, the 3 meter tall being returned, cupping something carefully in its claws.

Forrest crouched down and revealed what it was holding, a flower that very closely resembled the ones in his drawing.

The flower was gently held out towards Liam.

"This is for me? Thanks!"

Liam accepted the flower happily.

Suddenly it began to rain, replacing the vision obscuring fog with a sheet of water that poured down like a waterfall.

~~~~~~~~~~

Surprised by the sudden arrival of the rain, Lief quickly came to a decision. He carefully grabbed the silver haired protagonist who had accepted his friendship flower, plus the two skeleton dogs, and activated his Shadow Travel skill to start heading back towards the treehouse. The benefits of traveling via shadows were that the rain wouldn't hit them as long as he went fast enough and it would be far more comfortable than if he ran while carrying them.

Soon, they arrived at Lief's treehouse.

Silvester would've warned him if the human was trouble, so he didn't mind bringing him to his house to get out of the rain. The treehouse had plenty of empty or unused rooms anyways.

Lief set down the human and two dogs inside what would be the living room of his treehouse. He felt that the young man might find the house too cold and searched around for a bit, eventually finding a pelt that could be used as a blanket that had been gifted to him by Krow.

Normally the wolfish demon beast would not have kept the fur of his prey, but apparently he had learned from previously watching a group of humans that gifting the fur of the prey they caught was considered a sign of friendship. Since Lief had a somewhat humanoid body shape, and also lived in a structure that was modeled after that of human abodes, Krow thought it would be a good idea to give him a pelt.

The pelt came from an unknown animal that he could not recognize, but Lief didn't really care about Krow's hunting habits as long as he didn't attack the friendly neighboring animals that lived near the treehouse. After all, it would be wrong for him to try to get a carnivore to stop hunting for food when in his old world, he wasn't exactly a vegetarian either.

Besides, Krow was hunting for his survival. It was much better than the human hunters who would hunt for fun, or because a certain part of an animal such as ivory was extremely valuable.

After wrapping the young man in the pelt, Lief sat down beside him to wait out the rain.