He once had a name. A name worthy of respect and might. But that past was gone. And his name, long forgotten. No, he abandoned it.

“I have no name. Feel free to call me whatever,” he’d said.

“Well, nice meeting you Mr. Whatever,” the girl said.

He smiled. “Likewise, miss. And farewell,” He tipped his hat walking away.

“Hey, hey! Sorry. I won’t call you that!”

“Wise choice miss.” He snorted, having too much fun.

And the girl? She had no choice but to comply. She’d lost everything and that meant he could now take advantage of her. But- he didn’t. He offered her his help instead. Why? That was the question.

But that was in the past, right now, he had only one thing to worry about. Slaying the damn purple things in front of him.

HAH! He swung his dagger like a maniac, lips curling up, tongue hanging like a dog, eyes squinted as though he was in euphoria.

GRR!! The things screeched as they fell on by one, and then ran away like their lives depended on it. And for better or worse, it did.

The man was alone, he liked being alone, and he liked having fun. Murderous fun.

But wait, what was that in the distance? A human? A HUMAN!? His eyes almost leaked tears of delight. Humans, had soft flesh and could last a long time while being butchered alive. More fun!

“Hey! I thought you said we were going to run but they’re running from you instead,” instead of running away, the human actually closed in on him all ecstatic.

“Run? Yes, run!” He smiled. “Run for your life!” so he could have some fun!

After all, it was hardly fun if the prey just… gave up!

She chuckled. “But they all ran away. Good job old man, I knew you had it in you!” She slapped his back, laughing.

The man stared, almost dumbfounded. What was wrong with this human? How could she… wait- was he alone this time?

Didn’t he come with a girl?

And wasn’t this human… a girl?

The same… girl?

“Argh…” grabbing his head he fell on his knees. The dagger slipping into the grass.

“Wh-what’s wrong! Did they get you?”

“I’m… I’m fine… miss…” Panting, sweating, he stared at the grass at the left-over bodies and all the blood spread like fertilizer. He grabbed the dagger, put it back in place and looked around. “You alright, miss?”

Entrails. Blood, guts and organs, sprayed around like a butcher house just much messier. Not a sight for the faint of heart.

“I’m fine. My spell misfired and I somehow survived.”

“Good. Now let’s quickly get out of here. With those critters something lager might come for us.”

“Won’t this place stink up or these things turn into walking coprses?” She asked.

“That should be the least of our worries,” he let out a minor groan and started walking.

“But seriously, how much of a monster are you? They were afraid of you, and ran from you,” She snickered.

“Monster… huh?” The man laughed. “You flatter me, lady,” he tipped his hat, smiled faintly and took the lead. Monster… huh….

Eyes ahead, the smile nowhere to be seen.

***

Night came early in these parts. And with it came the express cold. But since a lot of monsters out here were nocturnal, they couldn’t really start a fire either, at least not near the camp.

“I’ll set up our tents,” the girl, Jane said.

They found a large Cedar and started setting camp.

There weren’t many trees around, just grass and flat lands. No ponds or rivers or any settlements either.

“I’ll go start a fire over there and roast our meat.”

“You mean those goblin things?”

“No, are you crazy? You know you can catch a lot of disease from them, right?” He visibly gagged.

Jane couldn’t help but turn a little red at the thought of how wrong she was… “No- no that’s not wh…” She didn’t finish. Yeah, she should have read more about monster biology.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m talking about that bird we caught. Or would you like me to cook them with the sunflower seeds?”

“What sunflower seeds?” Jane wondered.

“These,” the man showed her a pouch. A pouch full of large black seeds.

“When in the hell did you…” A faint mumble. Her eyes lit up for a second. “Give em to me!” she snatched the pouch away.

“Or you could eat them raw, I guess. Good snack for the road.”

“Are you crazy, I’m going to grow them! And get rich!”

An awkward chuckle. “Sure…” he went away.

Meanwhile, Jane started building the tent and kept a close eye behind her. The man was collecting firewood and dry leaves….

The hell was that…. She could have sworn something wasn’t right this noon. She didn’t act any different the whole time to gauge more about the man and to test her hypothesis. But so far, she couldn’t piece anything. And the man didn’t tell her anything either.

Jane’s knowledge about monsters wasn’t necessarily perfect. But she knew a group of hundred goblins was a death sentence even for experienced hunter parties. And yet, those things just ran away from a single hunter? And that look on his face… that look of delight and excitement; that whole bloody mess. What was that?

“Hey, once you’re done, come over there!” The man yelled from a distance.

He’d already lit the fire and set up some things.

Quick.

“Alright!”

Jane knew he was different, strong and efficient. And although she did appreciate that for the whole of last week. For the second time, she was starting to doubt the man and his intentions….

But for now, she didn’t have time to worry about that. she didn’t want to give him the impression that she suspected something. She didn’t want to … give him that edge.

Jane went over to the fire in the distance, and slouched down; her thin silver necklace dangled in front of her but she didn’t care. “Do we have any spices?”

Sizzle… crackle…. Somewhat fragrant smell. Somewhat spicey.

“Just Salt and red chili paste.”

Jane bit her teeth- “I would like just salted, please,” she said.

They were roasting the bird over the fire. The whole bird, gutted. It didn’t have much flesh but the breast did seem succulent at the very least.

“Too late now,” the man shrugged.

Too late. After all, the bird was lathered with red stuff. And although that did make her mouth water… she wasn’t looking forward to it. She never really liked spice after all.

“It’ll be night soon,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Considering those things are out there, we should keep watch tonight.”

The man stared, almost surprised. “Wow, I thought you’d never understand that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean, all this time, I’d been keeping watch myself while you slept like a log. You didn’t think you could just not keep watch out here, right?”

Jane opened her mouth, but the words got stuck so she closed it back. Not a single word.

She just watched the fire burn, and wood crackle. The meat- sizzle. A wonderful aroma. Rather spicy but wonderful regardless.

Jane quickly readied a plate and some water. She knew she couldn’t handle spice very well and there wasn’t anything here to help her in case the food turned out to be too spicy. This whole thing wouldn’t have been an issue to begin with if their food hadn’t run out yesterday. Although Jane was carrying enough for two weeks, she was only carrying food for herself which the kind lady at the Inn had given her as a farewell gift. The man didn’t really carry anything as he foraged for his food on his own. But Jane didn’t want to eat her stuff alone and selfishly so she shared.

Which brought her to the current situation as she stared at the chicken breast and the chicken thigh that was now on her plate. Roasted over a fire, layered with salt and chili- it looked and smelled wonderful… at least to her hungry nose.

Breath slightly unstable, Jane slowly but surely bit into the food.

Warm…no- hot! She almost spat it out but forced herself to chew on the torn portion. It hurt, it really did but her mouth watered some more and the heat went away. “It’s delicious,” she said, burning her tongue a little. Cough* Cough*

It was salty, it was spicy but not overwhelming. The bird was lean and the meat, tender yet somewhat chewy. Similar to chicken.

She cried a little. Not from the good taste of the food but because… her tongue was really hurting and the food was indeed still spicy which only kicked in from the third bite and up. The more she ate and chewed, the less she focused on the spice, which prompted her to keep eating. Eventually the food ran out and she drowsed everything with water. But water wasn’t enough. The heat wasn’t really going away. She needed more.

“Here,” the man said, throwing something at her. She caught it.

Brown cube. Somewhat soft but it held its shape well. “This?”

“Sugar candy. I think it was called, Cara-something.”

She started sucking on it. And then chewing. It was sweet, it was great and it was helping fight the burning sensation in her mouth. But it wasn’t keeping it completely at bay which was kind of making her shed some more tears.

“I didn’t know you couldn’t handle your spice,” the man said. “I didn’t even use that much.”

“I never really ate spice,” Jane reluctantly admitted. “Our chefs stopped using chilli altogether for that.”

“Quite the fancy lady, I suppose. So, what did you eat? Lots of deserts?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t look that fat tho,” he said, checking her out.

“Hey!” Jane yelled. “What do you mean fat?”

“I mean, you don’t look fat. You look typical, just like any other magician I’ve seen.”

“Oh… uh- sorry for yelling…” She felt bad, quite bad in fact. She just assumed he was making fun of her weight or something. She wasn’t really fat or even that heavy. But she was quite conscious about it thanks to her mother constantly pestering her about going on a diet to look good in front of her potential husbands. For which she always had to limit sweets and deserts. Basically, the man had stepped on a nerve…. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize Miss. Everyone has a thing or two they don’t like being talked about.”

Jane crouched in a fetal position, head buries in her legs… ears slightly warm and red. No words.

Rustle… Suddenly her ears perked up and she jolted back, trying to find the source of the sound. A bush in the distant. More rustling…somewhat familiar.

Beads of sweat formed as she remembered the events of noon. Heart racing, breath erratic all of a sudden.

“Shh…” The man pressed a finger on his lips, dagger firmly in hand. He slowly tiptoed closer to the bush, ready to slice.

“No- stop!” Jane yelled.

“I wasn’t going to…” The man mumbled putting his dagger away.

A patch of white came out.

White Fluffball. Or so they had thought at first but upon closer inspection, they found it a little odd.

Red eyes, fuzzy peach white fur. Two cat like ears, and a round tail attached to the round fluff. No apparent nose or mouth.

A little rare but Peachfluff also existed in the wild. “We can sell it for at least ten gold coins,” the man said. “Should be enough to cover my whole expenses of the trip and also your monthly rent for half a year in Silverstar,” he said, grabbing the Fluff and looking back. “They’re said to be really delicious too… what a shame.” He chuckled.

Jane walked up to the man, took the Fluff in her arms. “I’ll hold on to him…” She paused, taking a look below the Fluff. “Her- till the end of the journey.”

“Please do so.” He went back to the fire to finish off the rest of the bird.

There were two things the man misunderstood about the girl. One, she hadn’t called out to her because she knew it was a Fluff. And two… she had no real intention of actually selling the fluff which he probably could have easily figured out if he’d just looked at her ecstatic face for once.