Free Spice & Wolf I by Hasekura Isuna

seemed that discussion of Pasloe was taboo. He felt better when he considered that the legends of Holo made no mention of her actual facial features, only identifying her by her ears and tail. As long as she kept those concealed, she would go unnoticed. Legends were just legends—it was not as if she were on a Church wanted poster.
    A few moments after Lawrence resolved not to press the matter, Holo appeared to be considering something. At length, she spoke.
    “Hey...”
    “Mm?”
    “Even...even should they see me, they won’t know who I am...will they?”
    Her mood had changed completely from before; it was almost as if she wanted to be discovered.
    But Lawrence was no fool. He stared expressionlessly forward at the horse. “It is certainly my hope that they won’t,” he answered.
    Holo smiled slightly, almost ruefully. “You needn’t worry.”
    Once Holo started looking happily at the stalls again, Lawrence realized she’d been speaking to herself as well as him.
    There was no need to press the matter, however—Holo was quite stubborn.
    Lawrence couldn’t help smiling at Holo now. She’d cheered up completely and was excitedly looking at the delicious fruits they passed.
    “There’s quite a collection of fruit! Are they all picked nearby?”
    “It’s because Pazzio is the gateway to the south. When the season’s right, you can even see fruit from regions nearly impossible to visit.”
    “There is much fruit in the south, and good.”
    “Surely you have fruit in the north as well.”
    “Aye, but it’s tough and bitter. To make it sweet it must be dried and cured. We wolves can’t do such work, so we have to take it from the villages.”
    Lawrence would’ve expected birds, horses, or sheep to be more likely targets for wolves. It was hard to imagine them driven by a desire for something sweet. Perhaps a bear—bears often took the leather bags filled with grapes that hung from the eaves of houses.
    “I would think wolves would prefer spicy things. It’s bears that crave sweets.”
    “We don’t like spicy food. Once we found red fang-shaped fruit among the cargo of a shipwreck. We ate it and regretted it loud and long!”
    “Ah, hot peppers. Expensive, those.”
    “We dunked our heads in the river and decided humans were terrifying indeed,” said Holo with a chuckle, enjoying the memory for a moment as she gazed at the stalls. After a time, her smile l added, then finally reappeared as she sighed. The pleasure of nostalgia is never without its companion, loneliness.
    Lawrence was trying to decide what he should say when Holo seemed to perk up.
    “If it’s red fruit we’re talking about, I’d rather have those,” she said, tugging on his clothing and pointing out a stall.
    Beyond the stream of passing people and wagons, there was a stall with a generous pile of apples.
    “Oh, those are fine apples.”
    “Are they not?” Holo’s eyes glittered beneath the cloak. He wondered if she noticed that her tail was swishing back and forth underneath her skirts.
    Perhaps she really did like apples. “They look rather toothsome, no?”
    “Indeed.”
    What Holo was hinting at was clear enough, but Lawrence pretended not to notice.
    “Now that I think of it, I had a friend who invested more than half his worth in apples. I’m not sure where they were from, but if they turned out like these, he’s surely doubled his money.” Lawrence sighed regretfully. “I should’ve done the same.”
    Holo’s expression shifted as if to say “that’s not the point I was trying to make,” but again Lawrence pretended not to notice.
    “Hmph. Well…that’s most unfortunate,” Holo replied.
    “But the risk was very high. If it were me, I would’ve transported them by ship.”
    “A…ship, you say?” As they talked, they continued to move along the road with the clop-clopping of the horse’s hooves as accompaniment. Holo was becoming anxious. She clearly wanted the apples, but was just as clearly loath