After the excitement had died down, a kappa with a rope wrapped around its waist came up on a flat rock, just like the one we saw the other day.
　They stared at each other closely, then ran to each other and hugged.

"Ku-pa-pa!
"K-papa-papa!

　They look so much alike that they might be related to each other.

They're not too far apart in age. They're not really father and son, more like brother and sister.
"Oh, my God.
Yoo-hoo!
You know, Katja's a girl.
Seriously?

　The ladies looked at me accusingly, but how can you tell the s*x of a kappa?
　As an underwater creature, its genitals are not visible from the outside, so how do you tell the s*x of a kappa by its body or the length of its hair?

　I'm not sure what to make of this.
　One by one, his fellow kappa climbed up on the rocks and stared up at us.
　They seemed to understand that we were not harmful to them.

"Hey, all the little ones are here.
"Is that all of them?　There are fewer than I thought.

　There were about twenty of them in total.
　I looked around at the surface of the river, but didn't see anything else that looked like them.

　When I looked at the kappa again, they all looked back at me in silence.
　Their dull eyes aroused my desire to protect them.
　I felt as if I were in front of a bunch of newborn kittens.

　I froze, but Paula smiled and asked softly.

"How may I help you?　Sir?
"Well, yes. Now that the rain has stopped, ...... we'll have lunch.

　I looked up at the ceiling, which was beautifully clear, and from the strength of the sunlight, it seemed to be lunchtime.
　Nodding at my words, Gobbi slowly approaches the flat rock.

　Perhaps because they are of the same fairy species and are close in height, the kappa do not seem to be alarmed at all.
　As I watched with bated breath, Gobuchi strode to the center of the rock and settled down, lowering the basket on his back.
　He took the lid off the basket and pulled out some dried meat from inside.

"GEEHEEHEE!

　The goblin let out his usual high-pitched laugh, took a large bite of the dried meat, chewed it, and gulped it down.
　The goblin may think he's smiling broadly, but the way he's laughing with his fangs bared is as evil as ever.

　However, the kappa seemed to have seen through Gobbledygook's true nature, not its appearance.
　They approached me without any sign of fear and looked up at the dried meat and the basket with interest.

　Gobbledygook then offered him a thinly torn piece of meat.
　The kappa takes a bite and rolls its eyes as it wriggles its beak.


　It was delicious.

　At the sight of his friends, the other kappa flocked to the goblin.
　The goblins opened their beaks and began to hand out the dried meat, laughing out of their ear-splitting mouths.

　Around the goblins, a group of smaller kappa are chasing after a flying fairy, Yoh.
　Their steps were a little unsteady, so I guessed they were still young kappa.
　I thought it was a cute scene, but then I saw that Yoo was scattering blue grains and red mushrooms from her bag on her waist.
　They seemed to be following him around, looking for them.

　Apparently, the fairy duo had won over the kappa in an instant.

"Oh, they're so greedy.
"What can you say about them?　They didn't change much.

　Well, I guess the power of food is that great.
　We decided to sit on the shore and start eating to satisfy our hunger.

　As we were getting wet and cold, we heated up some barley rice porridge with crab meat and handed it to the two of them one by one.
　As I finished the meal, I shaved some black rock mushrooms and sprinkled them on top of the rice, creating a delicious aroma.

　I gave the slimes some frog meat that I had picked up along the way.
　As for the stone-faced frog, it's no use, I'll bring him back something to eat.

"Kupa!　Kupapa!

　Kacchan had learned his lesson in the village.
　When he saw that we had started to eat, he approached us, pulling my brother's hand.
　He must have known that the food was better than dried meat.

　When I offer him a plate, he happily takes it, and while showing my brother how to use the spoon, he takes a bite and laughs.
　The large kappa, who had been fed after Kacchan had cooled it down, also widened his round eyes.

　As the two siblings took turns feeding each other, we filled our stomachs at a leisurely pace.