Loving The Cursed Werewolf King-Chapter 72: Saving A Wounded Fox

They left the main road and headed back to their horses. Before they left the village, Ronan bought Arielle a grilled squid to help warm her up.

They then rode through a small alley and through some trees. The two of them followed the path, and Arielle heard the roar of the water.

"Wow, the water here isn’t frozen?" asked Arielle when the two arrived at the riverbank.

"Of course not. This water flows from Wolgast. They’re warm," said Ronan.

"May I come down?"

"Yes, but you can’t go in the water."

"I promise."

Ronan helped Arielle get off the horse. The girl stopped right by the riverbank then sat crouched down. She took a bite of the grilled squid that Ronan had bought while she looked at her reflection on the water surface.

After Ronan tied his horse to a nearby tree trunk, the man crouched down beside Arielle.

"What are you looking at?" asked Ronan.

Arielle pointed at the water’s surface. The confused Ronan tried to sharpen his eyes to look at the bottom of the river. But he saw nothing, only rocks or small fish.

"What is it?" asked the man once more, but Arielle kept pointing into the water without explaining.

He stared at the water with a frown.

SPLASH!

Without any warning, his face was splashed by a handful of warm water, which left the man startled.

"You–"

Arielle burst out laughing so hard at the surprised face of the king. Even the squid she held on the stick fell off her grip. Arielle didn’t think much of it, her stomach still felt funny. Arielle never stopped laughing, and Ronan just sat waiting for the girl to stop laughing.

Arielle tried to stop her laughter. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Satisfied?" asked Ronan.

"I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I was just trying the trick that Tania always used to me... and apparently... haha... it worked... hahaha..." Arielle still couldn’t stop laughing.

Ronan rolled his eyes.

"Oh, hey, isn’t that the famous redfish?" said Ronan in surprise.

"What redfish?" Arielle paused from her laughter and eagerly looked back into the river. "Where?"

SPLASH!

As soon as Arielle wanted to ask about the fish, her face was splashed with water.

Now it was Ronan’s turn to laugh so hard that the man sat on the ground. Arielle tried to splash the water with her hands, but Ronan quickly restrained her and grabbed the girl’s body, and pulled her into his arms so Arielle could stop playing with the water.

Arielle tried to free herself from the man’s embrace, but Ronan didn’t allow her to get out of his arms at all.

"Promise you won’t play in the water again," said Ronan half-laughingly. It was cute to see Arielle’s adorable struggle to free herself from him. It was all in vain.

"Okay... okay... I won’t do it again," said Arielle as she squirmed in his grip.

Ronan didn’t listen. Instead, he lifted Arielle’s body and placed her on his strong arms, facing him. She froze.

"Give me a kiss, and I’ll let you go."

"It’s not fair," Arielle said sullenly.

"That’s fair enough," the man replied.

Ronan never let go of his arms even though Arielle hit his shoulder many times. His eyebrows shot up when the girl suddenly stopped her tantrum and her face grew serious.

"Your Majesty? Did you hear it?"

"Hmm?"

Ronan sharpened his hearing, and he could faintly hear a small whimper. It sounded like an animal’s voice. Not a baby. Ronan half-heartedly let go of his embrace and let Arielle stand, she left him still lying on the snowy ground.

But he couldn’t leave her alone. That girl could do things beyond reason. Worried, he went along the riverbank and trailed after Arielle from behind.

Arielle eventually stopped at a pile of snow. She asked Ronan to come closer.

"What is it?"

The girl crouched quickly and looked at a fox whose legs were caught by a rope trap. The fox looked frantic and even growled at Arielle.

"Arielle, back off," Ronan ordered when he saw the animal’s unfriendly attitude.

Arielle didn’t listen, she reached out her hand to stroke the fox’s body a few times. And the panicked fox just now slowly turned calm.

"Your Majesty, could you please let go of this trap?" asked Arielle. She pointed at the fox’s hind legs, which were starting to bleed from the tight ropes.

"After that, we let go of it. Understand?" Ronan suggested. He didn’t want any extra animals nearby. "We are not taking in more animals."

Arielle put on a pleading face which made Ronan curse inwardly. Gosh... why was he so weak when it came to her?

He cleared his throat. "Only until you heal his wounds. We will we release him back into the forest."

Arielle nodded in agreement. Ronan crouched down. He took out a small dagger that he always had with him when traveling like this.

After the traps were released, the fox ran into Arielle’s arms. Ronan watched the girl who hugged the fox tightly.

"Shh... calm down, you’re with me now," she whispered with a soothing voice.

And so Ronan brought home another animal to add among their family of bunnies.

Wait. Someone needed to remind Ronan to ask for a kiss for everything he did. This was a missed opportunity!

***

Arielle immediately rushed and left Ronan when they got off the horse because she wanted to look for Tania. The fox in her arms was still wincing in pain, and the girl’s dress was starting to get dirty with blood from the fox’s injured leg.

The snow kept falling and the temperature was getting lower and lower.

Arielle looked for Tania frantically in the courtyard and finally found her alongside the butler.

Ronan still didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. He never cared about injured animals. If Arielle wasn’t with him, Ronan would have let the fox remain entangled in the trap even though he saw the fox struggling to escape.