The next morning, I woke up with a sneeze as Dante's new pet sniffed my face.
Her fur tickled my nose, and I was pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing. In a flash, I was on my feet, this caused Dante’s head to slip off my shoulder, and slowly, his eyes began to open. How could someone look so innocent after everything that had happened yesterday? "Good morning, little one," I said. "It’s probably going to take a while for you to teach your new pet some manners. And a proper sleep schedule. Who on earth wakes up this early?" The animal wagged its tail, which I took as an answer. Of course she woke up this early. Now fully awake, Dante gave me a reproachful look and said sternly, "Magnus! She's not a pet! You can’t just pick some animal from the forest and decide it’s your pet without asking. She has feelings too! She's my friend, and she can do whatever she wants!" He pointed to the little fox. I doubted animals actually had feelings in the way he meant, and I really couldn't wrap my head around how Dante planned to ask an animal if it wanted to be his pet. As far as I knew, animals couldn’t talk. Still, I apologized to Dante, at least to keep him satisfied. But the boy wasn’t ready to let it go. "Don’t apologize to me, apologize to her!" That was a bit too absurd for me. Talk to animals? Yeah, right. Instead, I started packing all our things into the bags.

Now came the moment when I would have to explain to my cousin that we wouldn’t be hunting down the enemy, but heading home instead.
"Uh… hey, little one. I was thinking... your dad must be worried sick by now. We don’t want him to suffer, right?" Dante froze mid-movement and gave me a look that could kill. "Are you serious?! I came all this way just so you could take me back to Dad, then leave again to get yourself killed?" He looked furious, and that expression hit me almost harder than if he’d cried.

Why did it always have to be me who hurt his feelings?

"Dante, no—no, it’s not like that. I’ll come with you. If you want, your friend can come too.
And I’m not going anywhere again. I promise. I’ll stay with Uncle and you at least until my leg is healed, alright, little one?" Dante still wasn’t convinced. "Aha! Just like last time, you promise me now, and the next chance you get, you’re gone again." I placed my hands on his shoulders. "No, really! I’m not just promising, I swear to you, on everything I have, that I’ll stay. That I’ll spend time with you, and play with you as much as you want. I get it now. It was wrong to just leave like that, okay?" Finally, his expression softened and he nodded. His new companion trotted happily over to us, as if she understood we were about to set off. And so, we began our journey.