The Nature of Possession

397 – EP.15 Jang Yi-long-ear

***

The tiger was finally able to fill its hungry stomach after a long time. The neck of the prey it had caught was gently broken.

Along with the sensation of his neck breaking, a handful of blood flowed into his mouth. San-gun wrinkled his nose at the pungent smell and buried his head further into his hanging prey.

The mountain tribe’s meals continued deep in the mountains, untouched by human footsteps.

Despite its nickname of King of the Mountain, the tiger hurriedly tore at its prey’s body.

He tore the soft cloth with his teeth and chewed the soft flesh and entrails with his molars.

I wanted to move my prey to a safer place and eat, but my hungry stomach was growling, so I had no choice.

The tiger, which had been chewing on meat for a long time, raised its head in surprise and looked around.

The tiger realized where he was. Surely he hadn’t entered their territory.

He sniffs around to gauge the area. Luckily, this is his territory.

Actually, the guys weren’t scary. It was just their leader that was scary.

Thinking about the leader made my hair stand on end. Maybe it was my mood, but the trees and grass around me seemed to be swaying.

The time when the tiger, who had been watching the surroundings for a while, finished eating was around the time when the sun was rising over the mountain.

The tiger attempted to carry the torn and open remains of its prey back to its den.

At that moment, a cold wind blew from the top. The tiger jumped up and faced the wind.

His front legs trembled, and his tail curled up on its own. He lowered his body and growled to maintain the empty reputation of the mountain range that only had a name left.

Old trees that were over a hundred years old bowed their heads, and peaks that had been sheltered from the gentle breeze opened up all at once.

A terrible smell began to fill the mountain.

And then the wind blew again.

The wind coming down the mountain swept over the prey that the tiger had just been nibbling.

And just as it had always done, the prey sprang to its feet.

The prey arose, just as it had been seen in the bushes, its body clean and unscathed.

***

The man woke up. He looked different than when he was taken from the house.

Same face, same body type, same smell, but something was different.

“Where is this place?”

The man who had been opening his stomach with dead eyes until just now changed his behavior.

He quickly scanned his surroundings, as if bored, as if he was now used to it, and asked the huge beast standing before him.

The tiger simply growled in a situation he had never experienced before.

“Ah… You can’t speak. That’s right. It’s weird that there’s a talking tiger.”

The man looked at his own body, which was tattered and worn, and stepped once into the puddle of blood on the ground.

Blood splattered onto the flower with a snapping sound.

The man briefly glanced at the red-painted flowers, then pulled up his clothes to cover his body.

While he covered his upper body appropriately, Sangun began circling around the prey he had caught.

“Can’t we just go? It’d be better if we don’t drain each other.”

The man spoke absentmindedly, tying a knot with his torn clothes, but the beast did not understand the human words.

Without any warning, the tiger ran at full speed. Its heavy body flew into the air with the power of its hind legs.

The mountain man lifted his right leg and tried to crush the man with his own weight.

Before the tiger’s attack made its trajectory, the man who had once been its prey stepped into the trajectory.

The water in the valley flows naturally from top to bottom, neither fast nor slow.

Kung. He knocked the tiger back as if he had brought the northern warrior to her knees. The beast of the mountains did not back down despite the pain he felt in his abdomen.

The beast sank its teeth into the nape of the man’s neck as he entered its arms.

“Wow… this is a bit too strong.”

The man lifted his gaping jaw with his hand.

He has the courage and skills, but his body to execute them is not trained.

The man broke out in a cold sweat as he kept raising his tiger’s gaping mouth.

“I don’t mind dying… but it would be too painful to die from a tiger bite.”

The stench of dead animals and rotting flesh filled my nostrils.

The corners of his mouth twitched and he lifted the beast’s chin with both hands.

The man’s body gradually collapsed under the weight of the tiger leaning against him.

“Hey… Mr….”

With his breathing becoming more rapid, the man sensed that the world was coming to an end.

Whether it was long or short, it was all the same anyway, so there was nothing to regret.

At that moment, the sound of the wind was heard along with the strong fragrance of flowers.

***

Bam! Blood spurted out.

Bright red blood soaked the man’s face.

Something was sticking out from next to the tiger’s wide-open head.

“arrow?”

It was a peculiarly shaped arrow woven from tree trunks.

The giant beast fell sideways, stricken with despair.

The man sat down and took a deep breath.

He guessed the direction from which the arrow had come.

He caught the gaze of someone looking at him from between the densely packed trees.

There was a person hiding under the thick foliage.

The outfit was similar, but there was one thing different.

Long ears extending horizontally, golden eyes shining brightly.

Even though his eyes met with the mysterious woman’s, he did not avoid her.

Rather, he stared at him as if he had discovered something strange, as if he were looking into his soul.

‘I wish you would just go.’

It was a blessing that there was no hostility in the other person’s eyes, but it was a shame to hastily form a relationship.

“ah….”

When the other person opened his mouth to say something, he felt a number of people approaching.

“Master! Master Inho!!!!”

A large number of young men were rushing forward, honking their horns and shouting.

“!!!”

As I turned my head towards the sound, the woman who had been observing Kang In-ho under the shade of a tree suddenly disappeared.

Kang In-ho admired the woman’s movements that he could not follow even with his own eyes, and waited for the voices of those looking for her to come closer.

***

The man who shouted my name loudly is called ‘Bangja’.

As I stood still, Bangja felt around my body, and when she confirmed that my body was intact, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Do you know how surprised I was?”

“Yeah. I was surprised too.”

It was difficult to imitate the polite speech.

“You were bitten by a tiger, but you didn’t have a single wound on your body… The mountain spirit must have helped you.”

While the village youths hired by Bangja were dismantling the skin of the fallen tiger, Bangja spoke.

“It wasn’t the mountain god, but I received help from a woman.”

“Are you talking about a woman? In this mountain?”

“Do you see that arrow? The woman shot the arrow and killed the tiger just before it bit him.”

When he pointed to the unusually shaped arrow made by weaving together tree trunks, Bangja’s eyes began to waver.

“…Your Majesty. By any chance, what did that woman look like?”

“I can’t tell from a distance. The eye color is unique, and the ears are long.”

As I relayed what I had seen, the hands of the men dismembering the tiger all stopped moving.

“Do, Do-ryun, let’s go to the village first.”

“Huh? The leather dismantling isn’t finished yet.”

You can see the men tidying up their places one by one. Everyone, why are they doing that?

“This is no time to be leisurely tearing at tiger skins. Now that we know they’re here, we need to get out of the mountains.”

“Those guys?”

Bangja shouted, pounding his chest as if he was frustrated with my question.

“Jangi Tribe! I told you that the Jangi Tribe is in this mountain!!”