Sohwa was born in the shape of a fox: her body snow-white, her tail ink-black. She had exactly eleven siblings—a "pure-blooded conception" in animal form, not human.
But Sohwa's parents couldn't care for all eleven offspring. Unlike other red foxes, with her small frame and strange coloring, Sohwa was forced to leave the pack's territory at an early age.
She couldn't understand why she had to abandon her beloved parents and mischievous siblings. But over the years, the truth settled into her bones like frost: she had simply been *abandoned*.
And so, wandering alone, she found refuge here in the Ikhwan Mountains. At the foot of the slopes, far below, lay a human village, but only one old gravedigger ever climbed this high. It was a very quiet place.
---
One day—barely surviving on berries, bird eggs, and the occasional frog—she stumbled upon *him*.
An ominous black bird had been circling the clear sky since early morning. That afternoon, Sohwa discovered the dying creature.
Its fur had a brownish tint in places. It wasn't as cute as a kitten, but it didn't look like a predator either—more like some funny, pitiful thing.
_It's a wildcat, for sure,_ she decided.
Having never seen a tiger nor heard of one dwelling in the Ikhwan Mountains, Sohwa mistook the creature for a wildcat with a peculiar 王-shaped marking on its forehead. Its paws were surprisingly large, and its coloring was downright strange.
_But are there really black wildcats?_
_If there are white-haired red foxes like me, why shouldn't there be black wildcats too?_
"You're apparently a mutant as well. You poor, pathetic little beast."
People often kept cute animals as pets. This one had probably been brought into some household as an amusing plaything, then discarded a few years later when it grew inconvenient. Besides, black had always been considered an ominous color.
His eyes were closed, his entire body bloodied and soaked through—a sight so pitiful that Sohwa couldn't simply pass by. She carried the baby home. Whatever creature lay before her, she felt sorry for it, and decided to shelter him until he recovered.
Carefully washing the blood-matted body, she noticed a wound near his navel. The damage was so severe she couldn't tell whether the thing hanging lifelessly was a scrap of flesh or a torn vessel.
Fortunately, after several days, the blood dried and the wound began to heal. But the animal remained in a semi-conscious state the entire time, doing nothing but sleep.
_He seems nearly grown, judging by his size..._
After examining him more closely and grooming his fur a little, she watched his eyes flutter open.
Golden eyes. Clear and luminous as harvest moons.
"How beautiful," she murmured, smiling.
Having never been a mother or cared for cubs, Sohwa didn't recognize the tiger cub for what he was. She mistook him for a sickly wildcat. The fox offered him the softest, sweetest thing she'd ever eaten, and he accepted eagerly.
So she tended to him for several days, until the baby finally began to walk—making funny little sounds as he went.
*Waang-waang. Kyaang-kyaang.*
Ever since her pack had abandoned her, Sohwa had lived in complete solitude. Now that there was someone else in the house—even something so small—happiness bloomed in her chest like the first wildflowers of spring.
Once he could walk, the little animal never left her side for a single moment, as if following her everywhere to express his gratitude.
Or so she thought.
---
One day, hearing that summer grapes were ripening beneath the mountain peak, Sohwa decided to climb the slopes. As always, she placed the animal in a fruit basket.
But the creature that once fit snugly inside no longer fit at all.
"Huh? Why did it suddenly get smaller?" she asked, puzzled.
She turned the basket this way and that, examining it from every angle. Then she looked at her pet.
The black-and-brown striped animal gazed back at her with gleaming eyes.
_Has it really grown? Or... has the basket shrunk?_
The animal had been tiny when she first found him—just small enough to nestle in the basket. Sohwa picked him up hesitantly.
"Oh! How *heavy*!"
The creature lay so still in her arms that they quickly went numb. Sohwa grew worried: she'd seen him every day, yet somehow hadn't noticed how much he'd grown.
_So he's still growing? And he'll get even bigger?_
She soon realized the little animal was already larger than her true fox form. Since he was bigger than a fox, he was naturally heavier.
"Are wildcats really this big?"
_Aren't they smaller than foxes?_ Sohwa had seen a wildcat once, long ago, but couldn't recall exactly how large they were supposed to be. Then again, she'd never been able to tell a hawk from an eagle.
"Why are you still growing? You're already an adult, aren't you?"
He tilted his head and mewed, as if he understood her—and yet didn't. Strangely, he seemed to comprehend nothing that worked against him, while understanding everything else perfectly well.
"Oh, no wonder you eat so much."
After considerable thought, Sohwa reached a conclusion: *If you eat a lot, you grow.*
"But I can't carry you now. You stay home. I need to fetch those grapes before the raccoons eat them all."
Sohwa licked her lips, remembering the sweet-sour burst of summer grapes. She hurried to prepare herself and was about to leave when her pet began squeaking indignantly behind her.
"No, I *can't* carry you. You're too heavy," she said sternly, closing the door.
Then the little animal began battering the door with his soft paws, as if determined to knock it down entirely.
_What a temper!_
Sohwa sighed and opened the door. Her pet bounded out immediately and planted himself beside her.
"Where will you go on those soft little paws? The path isn't easy."
But he climbed the mountain slope tirelessly, even overtaking Sohwa as she trudged along with her walking stick.
_Are all wildcats this resilient? More so than foxes?_
She tried her best not to show her exhaustion, which only made things worse. Sohwa barely managed to pick the grapes and, upon returning home, fell ill for several days.
---
Seeing that Sohwa hadn't appeared in the mountains, a raccoon came to visit.
"Are you sick?" Hoyeon asked.
Hoyeon the raccoon was a good friend of Sohwa's—also a purebred yokai. Ikhwan wasn't a large mountain, and there were no great predators here. The local spirits often checked on one another's wellbeing.
Hoyeon was friendly for a raccoon, but generally blunt and rough-spoken.
"I was worried about you, that's why I came," he said, presenting a basket of apricots and plums. But the moment he spotted *him*, he froze.
"Oh—what is *that*?"
The little animal, calm until that moment, suddenly bristled at the raccoon. For the first time, Sohwa glimpsed his fangs.
"Hey, idiot! Where did you pick up a *tiger*?" Hoyeon shrieked.
But the bedridden Sohwa only laughed and waved her hand dismissively.
"A tiger? It's a wildcat, you fool."
"Stop talking nonsense and throw it away *immediately*!"
Terrified half to death, ears and tail bristling, Hoyeon fled with a high-pitched squeal.
Sohwa watched his bushy tail disappear into the underbrush but paid it little mind. Raccoons were naturally prone to panic.
_Hmph. Where would there be tigers in the Ikhwan Mountains?_
Besides, the animal was far too small to be a tiger. People said tigers were as big as houses, with paws the size of cauldron lids. But this creature was only slightly larger than her true form.
"What, are you a tiger cub or something?"
Muttering this half-jokingly, Sohwa examined his paws with caution. If he really were a tiger, surely he'd have claws.
_They say tiger claws look like the sickles farmers use to harvest grain._
But no matter how carefully she looked, there was no terrifying weapon on those paws—only fluffy, soft pads. Charmed by their softness, she picked up the animal and began kneading his paw pads. Then she pried open his mouth and peered inside.
"I saw fangs earlier..."
But strangely, there were no fangs now. The little animal simply surrendered his muzzle to her inspection, gazing up at her with mild, trusting eyes.
"See? If you were really a tiger, could you possibly be this obedient and adorable?"
Since ancient times, the tiger had been called the master of mountains—the "Lord of the Peaks." Sohwa, however, had no intention of addressing this creature with such reverence.
"If you *do* turn out to be a tiger someday, I'll just kick you out. Simple as that."
That was when she should have heeded Hoyeon's warning.
But grown accustomed to the warmth and sweetness of her little companion, Sohwa dismissed the raccoon's words entirely.
---
The morning after Hoyeon's visit, Sohwa woke to an unfamiliar voice.
"Mistress, wake up. The sun is already high."
"...What?"
The fox rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. A boy was watching her with clear, earnest eyes.
"Who are you?"
"What do you mean, 'who'? It's *me*. Why don't you recognize me?"
Slightly hurt, the boy offered her a sliced apple. Sohwa accepted a piece and studied the neat cuts thoughtfully.
_They say that if a person lives alone long enough, fate sends them a house spirit to help..._
Perhaps this brownie had gotten the wrong door and wandered to her by mistake?
But she wasn't so naive. First, the boy was clearly male. Black hair. Elongated eyes that held a trace of melancholy, yet remained beautiful. Mysterious brown irises. Despite his delicate, almost feminine features, his voice and frame marked him unmistakably as a young man.
"You don't happen to be...?"
Sohwa swallowed her slice of apple and murmured softly:
"...the black cat I picked up?"
"That's right, Mistress."
The boy held out a basket of freshly washed cherries, an innocent smile lighting his face. Sohwa accepted them with a grin of her own.
"Well! So you're a yokai too!"
Since he'd never spoken before, she'd assumed he was simply an ordinary animal. Chewing on a cherry, Sohwa fell into thought.
When she'd found him, there had been no parents nearby—which meant he'd likely been abandoned, just as she had been. So instead of the painful question *"Where is your family?"* she asked something more neutral:
"Are you a wildcat?"
No matter how she looked at him, there was nothing of the fearsome tiger about this creature.
"I... think so."
The answer sounded uncertain, but she had no way to verify it at the moment.
"Well, when you turn back into your beast form, I'll find out everything."
He was definitely some kind of cat. And if she ever encountered another cat-yokai, she would ask them directly.
"How old are you?"
"I don't know exactly."
The boy shook his head sadly. Judging by his appearance, he seemed about fifteen or sixteen.
"It seems you haven't reached adulthood yet. You look young."
Someone who didn't even know his own origins couldn't be expected to know his age. Sohwa, for example, was young, and her animal and human forms matched each other perfectly. But some yokai, possessing powerful magic, could maintain a mature human appearance even as children.
So she guessed that since his true form was already quite large, he might be somewhere between adolescence and early adulthood.
"Did you lose your memory because of the injury?"
"It seems so."
Apparently abandoned by his parents, he must have wandered through the forest until someone—or something—attacked him. That would explain how he'd ended up bloodied and near death.
_The wound on his stomach has healed, but..._
Sohwa decided not to press further. What else could she ask of a poor young creature who didn't even know what he was?
"I am a red fox. This is Mount Ikhwan. Compared to great mountains like Kunlun or Tianmen Shan, this is just a humble hill."
The young man listened attentively, his light brown eyes fixed on her.
"Until you recover... would you like to stay with me?"
He nodded shyly.
"We're different species, so there won't be any... *urges* between us. And you're kind and obedient, so I think we'll get along. What do you say?"
Sohwa was pleased with this arrangement. Cats, after all, were excellent hunters. She'd heard they could even catch fish.
_Now I can eat meat... fish..._
Sohwa had never properly learned to hunt from her mother, and so she was miserably bad at it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd tasted meat. With such a skilled feline companion, the future looked bright.
"Well... I don't mind, as long as I'm with you, Mistress..."
"First, let's drop this 'Mistress' business. What kind of 'Mistress' am I? Call me Sohwa."
"Sohwa."
"There. That sounds much better." She paused. "And what should I call you? Hmm."
Not knowing his origin or age, the young man surely didn't know his own name either.
"What should I call you?"
"Dohwi."
The boy—who had claimed to remember nothing about himself—stated his name with sudden firmness.
"Call me Dohwi."
Something about this felt strange, but then Sohwa remembered how she'd first found him: covered in blood, collapsed on the forest path.
A child weaker than herself. Abandoned by his parents. Someone like that needed protection.
"Dohwi? Alright, I understand."
_His origins can be discovered later, when he transforms back into his true form. And his age... he's probably younger than me._
A miserable fate, with no shelter and no home.
_I'll take him in._
_And if I ever find somewhere to send him, then I'll let him go._
---
## — Twenty Years Later —
And so, twenty years passed since they began living together.
People say that even mountains change in ten years, but for yokai who live for centuries, decades were merely a blink.
For twenty years, Sohwa never learned Dohwi's true age or origins.
"Oh, you fool—how can a yokai *forget* how to return to his true form?"
And yet it was so. In all those years, Dohwi never once reverted to his original shape.
Sohwa—transformed into her lithe fox body and frolicking in the stream—glanced sympathetically at Dohwi, who sat in the distance on a flat rock, chin propped in his hand, looking thoroughly bored.
"Come here, at least wash the dirt off yourself. Aren't you hot? It's the end of summer."
"I'm fine, Sohwa."
Dohwi watched her splash in the shallows with a faint smile.
"Don't worry about me. Play as much as you like. Just don't go too deep."
"..."
Sohwa often noticed that Dohwi looked at her the way an adult regards a child, but she could never quite articulate why it bothered her so much.
_Ugh. What does this brat know about anything?_
Feeling defiant, she deliberately paddled toward the deepest part of the stream. Dohwi immediately leapt up, wading through the water with his long legs, and hauled her out.
"I told you not to go too deep."
The water barely reached his hips.
Now Dohwi was so strong he could lift the soaking-wet fox with a single hand.
His height had grown so immense that his head nearly brushed the ceiling of their home. His shoulders—if one exaggerated only slightly—seemed broader than their dining table. His thighs were thicker than the trunk of a centuries-old serpent.
Whenever they descended into the village together, everyone mistook them for brother and sister. The only thing unchanged was his handsome face.
Sohwa did not like these changes. Not one bit.
"It's getting dark. Stop splashing around—you'll catch cold."
At some point, Dohwi had stopped respecting her as his savior and caretaker. Instead, he'd begun to interfere and control her at every turn.
"I'll swim a little longer. If you're tired, go home, Dohwi. I want to practice my fishing skills while I'm here..."
"No. It's time to go home."
Dohwi was exacting and never missed an opportunity to scold her. When Sohwa refused to obey, he would simply overpower her.
Just like now: lifting her by the soft fur of her belly with one hand, he pressed her firmly against his chest. No matter how frantically Sohwa flailed her paws, escape was impossible.
She'd tried several times before. Even when she scratched and bit him, Dohwi never so much as flinched. It was as if he felt no pain at all.
Eventually she surrendered, lowering her muzzle onto his strong forearm and blinking sleepily.
"This world is too dangerous to be alone."
"What's so dangerous about these mountain slopes?"
"You'll stumble into a trap and be dragged away. There are plenty of evil people out there."
Recently, villagers from below had begun visiting the mountains more frequently.
One day, Dohwi brought back a terrifying hunter's snare to show her. Frightened, Sohwa had started avoiding forest walks in her fox form—even though she'd never actually encountered any hunters.
Now she listened to his warnings with half an ear, dismissing them as idle chatter, until her wet fur began to tremble.
"There, you see? I told you you'd freeze."
"It's not cold at all."
She answered stubbornly, but Dohwi simply stroked her damp back, warming her with his touch.
"Such a beautiful fox with such soft fur, wandering alone through the mountains... who *wouldn't* snatch you up? Do you understand?"
"..."
Her eyelids grew heavy. Sohwa, as usual, drifted off to sleep, snuggled comfortably in his wide, warm embrace.
---
She dreamed.
A massive tiger was stalking her. It seized her legs, then her body, refusing to let go. Tossing and turning on her silk pillow, Sohwa's eyes flew open, a scream tearing from her throat.
"A-a-ahh!"
The smell of chicken soup hung in the air. Dohwi, carrying a steaming bowl with a solemn expression, settled beside her.
"What happened? Are you alright?"
Her face was paler than snow. Dohwi carefully wiped the cold sweat from Sohwa's forehead and nose with his sleeve.
"Did you have that nightmare again?"
"..."
She could only breathe heavily, unable to respond. Her eyes seemed unable to distinguish whether this was dream or reality.
"The tiger... a tiger was chasing me."
Dohwi watched her with concern, tucking damp strands of hair behind her ear, waiting patiently for her to calm.
"It bit me as if it wanted to *devour* me. Its teeth were enormous..."
"Why do you keep having this nightmare?"
Dohwi stroked Sohwa's back gently, trying to soothe her.
"Forget it. Just forget it," he murmured, as if casting a spell.
She often suffered the same dream: a tiger would enter their yard and consume her whole. After such nights, Sohwa would feel utterly hollowed out, thinking of nothing but tigers all day long.
"Is it really true that a tiger lives in these mountains?"
Sohwa turned sharply and met Dohwi's warm brown gaze. After a moment's hesitation, he chuckled softly and asked:
"In *these* mountains?"
Indeed, Ikhwan was more hill than mountain. There was almost no prey for a tiger here.
Except perhaps...
_Me?_
No. That was impossible. Sohwa shook her head vigorously.
When the fox shuddered, Dohwi lifted her into his arms like a child, settled her on his lap, and gently rubbed his cheek against hers.
"There are no tigers here."
His confident voice calmed her a little, and she tried not to worry.
"That's right... you're right. Those terrible beasts roam the deep mountain ranges. They wouldn't be found in such shallow hills."
"Certainly not."
"But people from the village *said* they saw a tiger."
Sohwa's expression, which had barely begun to thaw, darkened again.
"And more than one person mentioned it."
Dohwi had been lightly nibbling her fingertips, but now he leaned closer and whispered:
"People always tend to exaggerate."
"That's true."
*But what if they're right?*
Hoyeon had left. Myojin too. The deer that once roamed these slopes as their rightful masters had vanished long ago.
The villagers claimed they'd been driven off by hunters, but it seemed there was no prey left in these mountains for a tiger...
...except for her.
"No, this won't do. I need to visit the monk."
"That *ragamuffin*?"
Dohwi's affectionate demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by undisguised displeasure. But the determined Sohwa rose to her feet, slipped on her flower-print slippers, and strode toward the door.
He could not stop her.
---