DRAWN MOCHI VOLUME 1 CHAPTER 8: STRANGE HORSES AND POACHERS*2

　A horse is visiting the spring, which has become a water source for my daily life as well as a bathing place for giant birds.

 

　But the horse is a strange one, with something that looks like wings on its back.

 

The word “Pegasus” flashed through my mind. Yes, if such a thing existed, it might look like this.

 

　…However, the Pegasus(tentative) is a little strange.

 

　I found out why when I observed it from the window of my house.

 

 

“…It’s injured.” (Tougo)

 

 

　The horse had only one wing growing out of its back. The other one… was cruelly cut off at the root.

 

 

　I quietly left the house, wondering if it would escape if was seen, and the bird noticed me.

 

　The bird noticed me, but did not seem particularly alarmed, but shifted its body slightly to make room downstream. It seemed to be making room for me to bathe. Well… I’ll assume you’re being kind.

 

　Now, let’s leave the bird out of it, but the horse.

 

　The horse noticed me and looked frightened.

 

　But it didn’t try to run away when I approached the spring, probably because it saw that the bird wasn’t particularly concerned about me.

 

　…As I approached and took a closer look, I saw a wound on one of the horse’s legs. Perhaps it couldn’t run very fast even if it did try to escape.

 

　I felt sorry for him and thought it looked painful, but I decided to take a bath as usual. After all, the bird had made room for me.

 

　While I was bathing, the horse seemed to be gradually getting used to me, although it seemed to be paying attention to me. After finishing their drink, they continued to graze near the spring and showed no signs of running away.

 

 

　So after I finished washing and bathing, I quietly picked up my art supplies and came back… and I tried to draw some medicine there.

 

　Yes. A medicine for wounds. I don’t know how long it’s been in my teacher’s house, but it’s an old one. It’s a kind of medicine, but it’s effective against abrasions, cuts, and burns, and I’ve been indebted to it.

 

　…I immediately made such the ointment, and I brought it to the horse. I can’t do anything about one of the wings, but I thought it would work on the wound on my leg.

 

　However, from the horse’s point of view, it was probably none of my business.

 

　When I approached the horse with the medicine, it moved away. When I approached it again, it moved away again.

 

　I felt sorry… So, I gave up approaching it. In the meantime, the horse went back to the depths of the forest.

 

　I wanted to do something, but I wondered if it was unnecessary to help.

 

 

　I was worried about the horse, but there was nothing I could do.

 

　I’ve taken the time to draw a few more medicines and materialize them to prepare for emergencies, but I’ve also materialized and increased the number of pencils that I drew and failed to materialize in the beginning. While I was doing that, I wanted to draw glass, so I drew a glass lamp and made it materialize.

 

　…Then I would paint as much as I could and go to sleep at night, and soon the morning would come.

 

 

　When I looked out the window in the morning, there it was… the horse from yesterday.

 

　As usual, the wound on its leg and the wing on one side was still there. It was painful to see.

 

　And it seems that it can’t move its body very well, so it can’t bend down to eat grass. I guess it must be hungry.

 

　But I’m not a veterinarian, and I’m sure he’d run away if I tried to apply medicine to him.

 

　…All right.

 

 

　I would draw grass near it. It should be tall enough for the horse to eat without having to bend down too much. But I also want it to be soft and easy for the horse to digest.

 

　…First, I draw a rough sketch of the ground. I drew the edge of the spring and the rocks there, etc., and then I drew grass near.

 

　It is quite difficult to draw a grassland. When you are in a hurry, you can’t paint the grass one by one, so I used watercolor to paint roughly.

 

　But it still worked.

 

　As soon as the painting is completed, it trembles, shrinks, and expands.

 

　And the grass was growing on the ground.

 

 

　The horse was puzzled. It might be natural since the grass grew suddenly.

 

　But the horse was puzzled, but little by little, it began to nibble on the grass. I hope it tastes good…. I don’t eat grass, so I don’t know what it tastes like.

 

 

　…By the way.

 

　I thought about this when I painted the spring, but I think that “painting something new on an already existing place” is a little different from “making a picture materialize”.

 

　It was the same with the grass this time. Instead of grass appearing on the paper, it grew on the ground. It means that the painting was reflected in the actual landscape.

 

　Hmmm, I wonder what this means… One thing I know for sure is that it is more tiring to reflect the painting in the actual landscape than to materialize a painting…

 

　…whatever.

 

　Let’s do a little experiment.

 

I’m curious to see how far I can go in “reflecting the picture” instead of “materializing a picture”.

 

 

　From this point on, it’s a race against time. I hurriedly sketched the horse on watercolor paper.

 

　I didn’t have much experience seeing animals up close, but I had seen pictures and videos, so I could manage the rest by observation alone. I knew the general structure of the body, so I could work out the details as I looked at it.

 

　Once I had a certain amount of detail, I started the coloring process. I’m pretty slow, but I think I can get by with this. Well, even if it doesn’t work, let’s just give it a try.

 

　The horse is white, so it’s difficult to color it. The white fur, the golden mane and tail. It’s a beautiful horse, I thought, as I colored in more and more. I kept the white color as it is on the paper and only added color to the shadows.

 

　…in the midst of this, I added bandages to the horse’s legs.

 

　I thought to myself, “Well, water came to a dry spring, so I can at least put a bandage on the injured horse’s leg.”

 

 

　Then I added a wing to the horse’s back and colored it in.

 

　The picture shook and trembled, shrank, poofed… disappeared.

 

　I looked up from the paper and saw…

 

 

“……Amazing.” (Tougo)

 

 

　Outside the window, the horse was puzzled by the bandage on its leg.

 

 

　As I quietly walked out of the house, both the bird and the horse noticed me.

 

　As usual, the bird made room for me and I went in there to wash, and then the horse approached me.

 

　…Yes. The horse came up to me.

 

 

“…can I touch you for a second?” (Tougo)

 

 

　I asked, and the horse stuck its neck out in front of me as if to say “okay”.

 

　I carefully touch the horse’s neck… and felt that there was skin under the coat, bone and flesh under the skin, and a definite heat of the creature in it.

 

　I stroked it as it was, and the horse was quiet and let me continue. I wonder if it realized that it was me who put the bandage on them… If so, they’re pretty smart horses.

 

　Well, it doesn’t matter.

 

　It seems that the horse decided not to be wary of me. I’m glad about that because I don’t mind animals.

 

　And above all, if their legs get better, even just a little… I’m really happy for them.

 

 

　Anyway, this was another discovery.

 

　Apparently, it is possible not only to “materialize what you draw,” but also to “reflect your drawing on something that actually exists”.

 

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　Using this, it is possible to make fruit trees that are already growing bear fruit again or to make grass that has been eaten by a horse grow back. And it seems that I can bandage a horse without touching it, as I just did.

 

　This is useful. …though it does seem to be very tiring if I use it too much. I’ll have to be careful. I’ll be very careful.

 

 

　And one more thing.

 

　…I seem to be able to materialize things to some extent even if I draw them in a hurry and cut corners. I wonder if it was because this time I had the original and materialized only the bandage on it.

 

　Hmmm…I’d like to try for a bit, but that’s enough for today. I’m kind of preoccupied with the horse.

 

　So, I ended up practicing drawing horses that day, remembering horses. It was a new experience for me because I had not drawn animals so often. I had always done still-life sketches.

 

　Living things have hair, skin, flesh, bones, and warmth.

 

　I could feel its pulse. I could feel it breathing. It felt like it was alive.

 

　I didn’t dislike that feeling. I wanted to draw all the way down to that feeling.

 

　Yeah, I need to practice for that.

 

　I have to practice…

 

 

“I never thought I’d have a practice subject.” (Tougo)

 

 

　The next day, the horse brought another horse.

 

 

“Eh… Huh? There’s another horse…? I wonder if it’s a friend.” (Tougo)

 

 

　I’m shocked, I was really shocked.

 

　I was surprised at the horse with wings, but I was also surprised at the horse with a horn. Why does this horse have a horn on its forehead?

 

　…No, it would be better to say, “it had before”.

 

　The horn was broken off near the base, and the cross-section of the horn is visible. I think the horn originally grew straight…

 

　Also, there were a lot of wounds. The body of the horned horse had wounds here and there. Some of the wounds seemed to have been made recently, and blood was still seeping out.

 

 

“…are you telling me that this horse needs to be healed too?” (Tougo)

 

 

　The horse with wings whinnied as if to say, “Yes.”

 

 

　Then I drew a horse with a horn and put a bandage on it.

 

　While I was painting, the horned horse looked uncomfortable, but it did not run away, probably because the horse with the feathers was standing close to it as if to admonish it.

 

　The horse with the horn had a lot of wounds and needed a lot of bandages for them. The horse on the drawing paper was covered with more and more bandages.

 

　…It was kind of pitiful and a little painful.

 

　I wonder what happened to hurt like this. Did they fall off a cliff? But it looks like there are a lot of cuts…

 

　…I was able to bandage all of the horse’s wounds with my drawing while thinking about it. But just a little more.

 

 

　I drew the horse’s horn.

 

　The horn was broken, but I bandaged the broken part and drew the horn as if they were at the end of the broken part.

 

　I drew it as if it were a prosthetic hand or a prosthetic leg or something like that. I thought that if I put a prosthetic horn, it might make the horse feel a little better.

 

　…Well, I don’t know how horses feel, and I feel it would be rude to weigh in on that. …Yes. I just thought it would make me feel better.

 

　A white horse with a silver mane and tail. And the horns, which were still pale and shiny even after being broken, were beautiful. That’s why.

 

 

　… Then I finished bandaging the horse with horns, too.

 

　The horse looked startled when it was suddenly bandaged and given a horn, but it only went wild for a little while, and then quickly quieted down.

 

　The horse was poking at the surface of the water and the ground with his horns, spinning around and around on the spot, looking confused, but it was not going wild, just confused. It was like that.

 

　When the winged horse snuggles up, the horned horse also snuggles up. Then the winged horse put its head to the horns of the horned horse… it rubbed against the horns and then whinnied happily.

 

　Then the two horses began to drink water in good humor. Apparently, the treatment was to the liking of the two horses.

 

　I was glad to hear that. I hope the pain has subsided a little. That wound looked so painful.

 

　…Now. I’m going to take a bath too.

 

 

　When I started to bathe, the horse with horns looked a little uncomfortable. The horned horse made a face, or rather, its whole-body expression of dislike.

 

　I thought I heard that “unicorns” don’t like men. Yeah, I’m sorry about that. But I want to bathe.

 

　When I proceeded to bathe without hesitation, the unicorn still seemed to dislike it, but the Pegasus seemed to reprimand it. The Pegasus is somehow very understanding. It seems that I can see the personality somehow, which makes me smile a little.

 

　The unicorn that had been admonished by the Pegasus seemed a little reluctant, but eventually, it came closer to me.

 

 

“Can I touch you?” (Tougo)

 

 

　I asked them, and they didn’t run away, so they let me pet them.

 

　It felt a little different from the Pegasus’s. Maybe their fur was a little shorter. But I really liked the feel of their tail. The Pegasus’s tail was soft and fluffy, while the unicorn’s was smooth and silky. I think that’s what it feels like.

 

　…Then, for a moment, I noticed a corner.

 

　I think the bandages all worked, but what about the horn? I think the horn, unlike a prosthetic hand, can become a nuisance.

 

 

“Umm… can I touch yours too?” (Tougo)

 

 

　I asked them, and as if they knew what I was talking about, they bowed their head and moved their horns closer to me.

 

　Somehow, I feel a little timid in front of a beautiful creature and gently touch the horn.

 

 

　…The horn I touched was warm.

 

 

　I pulled my hand back involuntarily.

 

　I didn’t think that the horn… a fake horn can be warm.

 

　But as soon as I pulled my hand back, I realized that there was something wrong with it.

 

　The horn I touched seemed like a real, living, horn.

 

 

　Touching the horn again.

 

　It was pale and beautiful. It’s a straight line, and the twisted shape looks like a piece of art, and it’s so beautiful that I really want to touch it.

 

　…As expected, it was warm.

 

 

“… Can I remove the bandages?” (Tougo)

 

 

　After consenting, I gently put my hand on the bandage wrapped around the base of the unicorn’s horn.

 

　There must be a seam under the bandage. Because the horn was broken at the root. I just added a new horn over it…

 

 

　Beneath the bandages was a horn.

 

　There was no seam, there was nothing broken… it was a “real” horn, and it was there.

 

 

 

　As soon as I saw it, I felt my consciousness fading away and I probably just passed out.

 

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