TMDW | Chapter 009

Chapter 9

Without thinking, Shayla took several steps back.

But Callion didn’t understand the retreat signal and came even closer.

“Is this rabbit really…?”

Brazenly, without permission, he pressed his nose against her and sniffed.

“Shasha?”

When he met Shayla’s displeased glare, he flinched in shock and raised his front paw high.

“Is this really Shasha?!”

“…”

Shayla nearly froze in place from Callion’s loud commotion; he looked ready to pounce on her.

He was a real wolf. From this equal height, his claws looked terrifyingly sharp, his fangs horrifying.

‘Waving such lethal weapons around!’

Not even realizing it was a threat to rabbits… truly rude, completely ignorant of manners.

In an instant, her impression of Callion, who had seemed so very cute when she was human, changed.

“No way! It really is Shasha! You turned into a tiny brown rabbit!”

Driven by curiosity, Callion circled Shayla, sniffing her.

His tail stayed rigidly upright the whole time. He seemed to have gained confidence seeing a creature half his size.

“Oh my god, Shasha is such a tiny rabbit!”

She didn’t like the joy in his voice.

‘I’m the leader here.’

Shayla scowled.

“Do you not know that saying such things is rude to the one hearing it?”

But at the sound of Shayla’s voice coming from the rabbit, Callion grew even happier and bounced around excitedly.

“Shasha!”

Grinning widely, he tried to hug her, but Shayla firmly blocked him with her front paw.

“Wait, stop right there.”

“What? Why?”

Was it because she had turned into a rabbit?

She wanted to hug him too, but her instincts rejected the wolf.

“Can you keep your distance?”

Shayla hopped backward with her hind legs, trying to create as much space as possible between them.

“Yes, stay that far away until I’m mentally prepared.”

“Mentally prepared?”

He tilted his head, not understanding.

“But you just said we’ve become close…”

“Are you saying that you, as my husband, won’t listen to your wife?”

“Okay, I understand.”

Callion scowled but stepped back. Shayla sneered inwardly.

He hadn’t shown his face for nearly a month and acted like a stranger; what right did he have to say that?

True, she was the one who declared they were now close, but Shayla was always lenient about her own contradictions as a shameless rabbit.

“Sniff, sniff… Shasha always smells like vanilla. Rabbit-Shasha’s scent is even stronger!”

“…”

“And also corn… the smell of buttered corn.”

After sniffing greedily, Callion returned to his lively self as if he had never been scolded.

“Shasha became a rabbit!”

“…”

“Shasha is smaller than me! So, so tiny!”

The overjoyed Callion ran around the room in excitement, wagging his tail and leaping here and there.

“If you keep going like this, your tail will fall off. Stop…”

She looked at him with exasperation, but he paid no attention.

Shayla sat quietly, waiting for the little beast to calm down. In truth, she was terrified and couldn’t move.

‘Why does this wolf look so huge?’

She was still a nine-year-old child as a human, and now a tiny rabbit.

Even if Callion was a small wolf with ears not yet fully upright, a rabbit was far smaller.

“Shasha! Shasha!”

He was dying to touch her soft sandy-colored fur.

“Can I touch your ears?”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Just a little…”

“Don’t even dream of it.”

He reached out his front paw, then pulled back at her sharp glare and repeated the motion in the air.

‘If I’d known he’d be this happy, I would’ve turned into a rabbit from the start…’

She suddenly remembered the days she had spent painfully cleaning this dusty hole. A waste of time and effort…

At that moment, Callion lay down in front of her, gently wagging his tail, and asked:

“Shasha, can I lick you just once?”

“…What?”

Her heart raced. But he smiled, showing his sharp white fangs.

“You smell good, Shasha. Your golden fur is so pretty and soft. Can I lick it?”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Really can’t…?”

“No. If you ask again, I’ll punish you.”

“Heung.”

For rabbits, licking another’s fur means submission.

The lower-ranked rabbit licks the higher-ranked one.

But that’s a rabbit story.

Shayla was not at all prepared to become “a tasting rabbit” for this reckless little beast.

Callion still lacked self-awareness as a human and wasn’t socially adapted, so his relationship-building was one-sided.

“I want to be close to Shasha! I want to get closer!”

But his cannon-like leaps didn’t look natural at all. She didn’t know much about wolf behavior, but…

If he made a mistake, he might think she was a real rabbit and eat her. Such a tragedy must never happen.

“Stop right now! Fur is flying everywhere.”

The little wolf, who had been bouncing like a ball between the bed, table, and floor, suddenly froze in place.

“Okay!”

His tail was still wagging madly, but he showed absolute obedience to Shayla’s command.

“From now on, watch carefully. I’ll show you how to become human.”

“Oh, right, you said you’d teach me that.”

Finally remembering his original goal, he scratched his head with his front paw in embarrassment.

What a silly wolf.

Shayla took a deep breath and sat properly. She closed her eyes and brought her front paws together at her belly.

“First, tense your lower muscles hard. Then think deeply in your mind.”

I am human…

I am human…!

“I have a wonderful human body! I can stand on two strong legs!”

Then I will evolve into a true moon rabbit…! No, I will transform into a human body.

Her spine straightened, her arms moved freely, and she felt like a five-fingered primate.

Feeling inexplicable great confidence, Shayla realised she had returned to human form.

“Wow, Shasha is human again!”

Callion looked up at her with eyes full of admiration.

“Haa…”

Shayla felt immense relief, but collapsed onto the floor from the mental exhaustion.

“Shasha!”

The panicked Callion rushed into Shayla’s arms and licked her cheek eagerly.

“Shasha, are you okay? Are you sick? Can you get up?”

“Haa, haa…”

Shayla waved her hand, panting, signaling she was fine.

“It’s because I transformed after a long time.”

How long had it been?

The last time she turned into a rabbit was when she was six… more than three years ago.

When her twin sister Layla was drowning in severe loneliness, refusing even her favorite broccoli and depressed, Shayla had briefly turned rabbit to cheer her up.

‘Then Father saw me like that and beat me…’

Because of that, Layla was locked in an even deeper basement, and Shayla was severely punished.

“I was wrong! I won’t turn into a rabbit again! I won’t do it ever again!”

After begging and apologising to her father and starving for days, she was finally released.

Since then, no matter how much she missed Layla, Shayla never turned into a rabbit again, terrified her father would find out.

“Shasha, your hands are shaking right now…”

Hearing his worried voice, Shayla quickly hid her hands.

‘Calm down. Father didn’t find out I turned into a rabbit.’

Count Lexi, the most terrifying person in the world to her, was in the capital, far from the north. He would never know Shayla had become a rabbit.

Forget Father… let’s forget him.

“…Did you see how I became human again?”

“Yes. Shasha, are you really okay? Should I go call the head butler?”

“That’s not important right now. Just do exactly what I did.”

“I think that’s more important… Okay, I’ll do as you say, Shasha.”

Callion had become remarkably obedient.

Of course, he had probably heard plenty about variants born human. But a human freely turning into a rabbit? He had never heard of such a thing.

In Callion’s eyes, Shayla was a magician.

“Here I go…!”

Callion prepared himself, sat like Shayla, and brought his front paws together in front of his belly, and then…

“I… am human! Human!”

He shouted “Yaaap!” dramatically as an extra flourish.

Shayla watched him with curious eyes. It was a sight you couldn’t see even if you paid.

‘He really stood on two legs…’

In wolf form.’

His short hind legs bearing his weight looked pitiful.

Suddenly Callion opened his eyes and shouted confidently:

“I… did I become human? Did it work?!”

His sparkling, expectant eyes looked unexpectedly cute and beautiful.

It was a completely different impression from the intense fear she felt moments ago.

Now, with her familiar human hands, Shayla grabbed the adorable little wolf in front of her.

“Come here, you wonderful little wolf!”

“Ah!”

Without thinking, she rained kisses all over his soft-furred face.