STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

22. ANIMAL PILES

"Hey, I saw you yesterday."

"I also saw you yesterday."

Hong and On were having a lot of fun scaling the short tree known as South. They were kneading their paws into his hair and everything, poking his cheek as he brushed the horses.

"You did? What was I doing?" South humoured them.

"You were sleeping with the little Dragon!" On accused.

"Yeah, he was sleeping on you!" Hong added, like that was some kind of scandalous cheating situation and they were calling him out on it.

"Well," South began, "if a Great Dragon wants to use you as a personal ice pack sometimes, a mere human like me can't exactly say no."

Hong and On pouted.

"I'm not very comfortable to sleep on, trust me," South wasn't exactly looking forward to being used as bedding in the night. "Sometimes I wake up very violently."

The Dragon wasn't bothered with it. Even the dragon woke up violently sometimes, but when he remembered where he was, he would curl back up and sleep again.

Sometimes, he would even boast.

-

"I caught a biiiig boar! I am awesome!" he said, excited. "You should eat some, then you won't be so weak as to get captured again."

"Really?" South found him very endearing, even if he was planted firmly in the middle of his chest. South was effectively trapped between a dragon and Christallion and he didn't know what he could do about it. "I'll try some when Vicross-nim cooks it tomorrow."

"Yes, you should! The great me hunted it for you and the weak human, after all!"

"You hunted it all by yourself? That's very impressive."

"Yes!" now the Dragon was so excited his eyes twinkled with the high of excitement, "so what I did was I snuck up on it! I saw it was alone and knew it was the one. So I followed until it was in a quiet spot and waited, and waited— the waiting is the important part! I was so patient!"

South had to exercise all the self-control in his body to not squeeze the epitome of cuteness on him. His hands were halfway there when his rationality told him the dragon would probably not like it.

Instead, South listened to the story.

The jacket— washed, mended, and warm— draped over both of them, and even when South fell asleep in the middle of the story, he woke up feeling content and safe.

The dragon stayed on until the sun rose and South woke up horribly sore.

-

"Why are you always so cold?" Hong whined, sprawled in South's lap in his human form.

South leaned on Pengallope's flank.

Behind him, sitting on the horse's back with her legs on either side of South, was On. She was trying to figure out if South's hair could be braided. She was having minimal success.

So, South was effectively trapped.

"Even your hands are cold!" Hong marvelled, poking at South's hands under his gloves, taking them off, discovering cold fingers, and systematically putting it back on.

"Yes, yes," South was more preoccupied by wondering about the state of Hong and On's clothing. They were decent, actually quite nice quality like South's new clothes they bought from the cities they've stopped at so far.

Ron must have bought these, South guessed. Choi Han wouldn't have the time, and while Hans would be more than happy to dress them, only Ron among the servants knew the kids were beastmen.

The kids didn't seem very familiar with these clothing, though. Hong's sleeve buttons weren't properly done, and On had a ribbon around her collar, except it was crooked.

Sure, they had to dress like nobles since they were Cale's... children? Yeah, but they've lived so long in the wild that they weren't too sure about all this etiquette anymore.

"You finally smell like the horses again," On said, taking a deep sniff of South's head. "That day you smelled really weird."

He wondered if he should be offended.

"Yes, I killed a few people back then," South said.

"We know what dead bodies smell like!" Hong insisted, "that was different," he wrinkled his nose. "I don't like that smell."

South nodded.

"Yes. It's a very hateful smell," South assured. "Even Mama North hated it. Sheesh, humans are so evil, aren't they? I like animals better. That's why I'm always sleeping here."

"Beastmen can be bad too!" On said. "They can be big and scary, and when they're hunting you they're more persistent than humans!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Hong agreed. "Humans at least leave us alone. They give us dirty looks but when they thought we were beggars they just left us alone. You wouldn't get that with beasts, they want you gone!"

South winced at that.

What a way to be reminded that these kids have had a rough life in their single digits of years on this planet.

"Do the horses here treat you well?" South brought up. "They haven't been bullying you, have they? Their kicks can hurt."

On shook her head.

"The horses are nice!" she assured. Glancing at Pengallope, who lifts her head to be addressed, On leaned down to hug her around the neck. "Weirdly nice actually."

"Some of them are scary, though," Hong whispered like that was a secret.

Pengallope huffed at him.

"Sorry!" He squeaked, spinning around and hugging South tightly like that would hide him and protect him from his transgressions.

"But South-Oppa, are you sure you're not half-Beastman too?" On began. "Like, your mommy's a horse, so you're like, part horse, right?"

"Yeah!" Hong said. "You must be, that's why the horses like you so much."

Uh.

How is he supposed to explain to a child that his mom is a horse, but his mom is not literally a horse? He didn't know his actual mother in this life, but that didn't mean he didn't consider Mama North his actual mom—

Yeah, nevermind. Explaining is too annoying.

"Yeah, I'm half horse, I guess."

The kids made mutual enlightening noises of "Aaaahhh, okayyyy," and South decided that he would die for them.