[Child's POV]
I was so startled that my ears and tail stood up straight.
The woman in front of me suddenly offered to give me a name, which, honestly, I wanted.
But letting a stranger name me?
It felt strange.
"Ah… if you don't want it, that's okay."
Seeing that I didn't respond, she spoke, waving her hand awkwardly in the air.
I wasn't sure how I felt about it. The woman in front of me didn't seem like a bad person either.
"B-but… I don't even know your name…"
I stuttered, speaking softly out of embarrassment.
"Oh! I completely forgot."
"My name is Flora."
She used her finger to draw something in the dirt.
"Flora, which means flower."
I looked at the words she wrote on the ground, but since I couldn't read, I assumed it was the way her name was spelled.
"F-Flora?"
"Yep!"
She nodded with a smile, making me look down, unable to keep eye contact, while my tail wagged rapidly.
My tail moved on its own, and I couldn't control it, which I didn't really like.
But what could I do? I couldn't control it myself.
"Now that you know my name, we're no longer strangers. Can I give you a name?"
Flora returned to the previous topic.
Her reasoning was that since I now knew her name, we weren't strangers anymore.
I felt a little uneasy, but seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, I eventually nodded in agreement.
"O-okay."
Flora nodded with a smile when she heard me agree before she started thinking.
"Hmm…"
She thought for a while before gazing up at the sky.
"How about the name 'Ellie'?"
"Ellie, which comes from light."
When I heard the name, she thought of for me, I waved my hands in surprise.
"I-It sounds too good for someone like me…"
"No, it's not! To me, you really are like a light."
"When I was injured, wasn't it Ellie who saved me?"
"B-but…"
"You even shielded me when we faced that wild boar, didn't you?"
"For me, you really are like the ray of hope."
Flora kept trying to persuade me, speaking nonstop. I was overwhelmed by all the praise she was giving me, so I just lowered my head in embarrassment.
Getting so much praise, and in front of me like this… I didn't know how to feel or act.
"O-okay… Ellie it is…"
"Yes! Ellie!"
After seeing me accept the name, Flora lunged forward and lightly hugged me.
It felt strange. I had never been this close to anyone in my life.
It was odd and a bit suffocating, but… it felt nice.
Amidst this awkwardness, a small sound interrupted us.
Rumble~
"Ah! I completely forgot. Let me get the food ready!"
She smiled and went back to cutting up the wild boar.
Not long after she finished butchering the wild boar, Flora started to light up a fire.
With her strength and technique, she managed to light a fire after just a few attempts.
Compared to me, who took hours and sometimes couldn't get a fire started at all, the difference was disheartening.
"By the way, Flora, what are you doing in this forest?"
I asked while watching the wild boar meat that was now skewered and roasting over the fire.
When she heard my question, she fell silent for a long time.
Her expression was worried before she finally decided to speak.
"Outside the forest… I came to fight some barbarians…"
When I heard her answer, I tilted my head in confusion.
"A war with barbarians?"
"Yes… because they constantly raid others."
"I was ordered to wipe them out."
I looked down for a moment before something clicked in my mind.
Maybe the barbarians Flora mentioned were those people.
"Do you mean the Kuzlit?"
"You know about them?"
"Yeah… I've heard a bit… Sometimes, people wearing leather outfits come with horses carrying a lot of stuff."
"The Kuzlit often come to hunt them."
I stood up, spreading my arms wide to show her how much stuff they carried.
Seeing my gesture, Flora chuckled.
I tilted my head in confusion, not understanding why she was laughing.
But I chose to ignore it and continued talking.
"The Kuzlit also come around here often, so I usually go hide in my safe spot."
"I see…"
Flora nodded in understanding before handing me a skewer of roasted wild boar meat.
"This one's done, Ellie. You can eat it first."
I took the boar meat, and its aroma made me swallow hard, but I could feel Flora's intense gaze on me.
"A-aren't you going to eat too?"
I asked awkwardly.
"Huh? It's okay, really."
"But the others aren't done cooking yet…"
"I can wait for the other pieces. You go ahead and eat first, Ellie."
Flora said, reassuring me that she didn't mind if I ate first. But I still felt uncomfortable.
"W-well then…"
I sat down beside her and placed the boar meat between us.
"Y-you can eat with me…"
I spoke shyly, looking down at the ground. I felt bad about eating the boar meat alone.
However, I didn't expect what happened next.
"Ahh!"
Flora let out a scream, her face, which usually looked calm and composed, now completely changed.
She lunged at me and hugged me tightly, pressing me against her armor, making it hard to breathe.
"Ugh…"
"Why is Ellie so cute?! I can't take it anymore!"
I tried to push her away, but it was useless. The difference in our strength was just too much.
"I'm sorry…"
Flora apologized with her hands in a prayerful gesture, while I stood about three meters away from her.
My face hurt because her armor was so hard. It made my face ache from being pressed against it.
"…"
I stayed silent, biting into the boar meat with a large bite.
"Mmm…!"
I let out a sound of surprise… I had never tasted boar meat before, so I didn't know what to expect.
But when I tried it, I was so shocked that my ears and tail stood up straight.
It was delicious!
The meat was tough and coarse, but it had a sweet flavor and was fun to chew.
Even though I could taste a bit of blood and a slightly stench smell, it didn't take away from the sweet, delicious taste.
I focused on eating the boar meat, chewing slowly to savor every bit of it.
Because… I didn't know when I'd have the chance to eat boar meat again.
"Mmm… it's smellier than I expected."
I turned to look at Flora, who now had a grim expression.
"D-does it not taste good?"
I asked because, to me, it was really delicious.
But Flora's expression was the complete opposite of mine.
"N-no, it's good…"
Flora replied with a strange expression before taking another bite of the boar meat, but she only chewed a few times before swallowing it.
It made me wonder why she didn't chew the meat thoroughly, as not chewing it well could cause stomach pain. I had experienced that pain from not chewing my food properly before.
But thinking back to when she showed her strength, when she smashed the boar's head into the ground so hard that the ground itself was imprinted with the shape of its head… Maybe it wasn't a big deal?
I stopped worrying about her and focused on eating the boar meat.
Before long, the food was gone, and the sky began to turn orange, signaling that night would fall soon.
I had eaten about three chunks of the boar meat, while Flora only had one. I walked over to her and asked because I felt like I was taking advantage of her.
"A-aren't you hungry?"
I asked while rubbing my belly, which was now noticeably rounder.
"Ah… no, not really."
"By the way, Ellie, why are you in this forest?"
She brought up a new topic.
Why am I in this forest?
I didn't know either.
Since I could remember, I had been in this forest.
At first, not knowing any better, I would always approach dangerous things…
But now, I know what's dangerous and what's not. Like which fruits are edible and which aren't.
I even learned some things from people who came from outside the forest, like how to start a fire.
I learned how to make a fire by observing outsiders and trying it myself.
"Since I remember, I've been here in this forest…"
"I don't really know either…"
I spoke while hugging my knees as I sat in front of the fire.
I stared into the flames, watching the wood burn and the embers glow every time the wood crackled.
We were silent for a long time before Flora spoke up.
"In that case… would you like to leave the forest with me?"