"There's something to be said about the wisdom of elders", I thought, as I was dangling upside down, constricted by the tail of a Chimera while it was slow-roasting me on one end and injecting me with enough poison to kill an entire herd of elephants on the other. I'll tell you something else about these bastards; their flames hurt like the fires of hell itself. And this particular fiend seemed particularly excited because I could literally feel the flesh melt off my face right then. Its tail wasn't much fun either; shaped like a snake and as thick as my wrist twice over, it had its fangs digging into my right thigh and I was slowly but surely getting lulled into the sweet embrace of the void from which I didn't think I'd ever wake up. "Master always did tell me that I'd die from overconfidence", I reflected. I imagined death by Chimera was going to be especially painful. "Dear huntress, please don't let my master find out I died like this", I prayed. Then I thought to scream at the Chimera to go fuck itself but remembered that it actually could do that and likely would do that after it ate me. "Couldn't even let me have the last word, you inconsiderate piece of shit!", I rued and just like that the Chimera's snake-tail loosened its grip on my leg and I was falling right into its gaping jaw. I could at least take it with me if this was my time to go, so, as I fell, I tried to focus through all the burning pain all over my face and torso and the paralysis that had taken over my body from the waist down. If this was the end, I was going to tear this motherfucker up from the inside out before passing through the veil.

I've read about how time slows down or how one sees a warm light while falling across the veil, but none of that happened and the next thing I knew, I hit the Chimera's snout and both the snout and my body fell to the ground. I hadn't been able to focus and my final, desperate suicide attack had failed, but miraculously, I was alive and the Chimera's head was now separated from its body and I'd hit its snout on the way down. "Not just the lion-head, but all three!", I mumbled with what was left of my liquefied mouth and a sudden urge to laugh came over me, but mercifully just as I was about to break into a bout of giggles, I fainted. "Fuck you, Chimera!", was my last thought before I fell unconscious.

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I swear by the Huntress that there was a loud and very angry growl right that very moment and then I came awake.

It was noon at least one day after my brush with death and I think my eyes were almost healed as I could blink properly and my vision wasn't hazy anymore, which had been the case when I was being slow roasted before getting dumped on my neck. I had survived, because apparently, the Huntress has a crooked sense of humour and a tireless obsession for seeing me suffer. I tried to move my neck sideways but the feeling of almost-but-not-quite healed flesh, starting to rip gave me pause. "Water", I called out, hoping that whoever had taken out the Chimera had been kind enough to still stick around. I could move my mouth and even make the right sounds, so it seemed I had been out for at least a day if not more. I had no reason to really believe that whoever had saved me would have stuck around for so long, but just as I was starting to feel disheartened, a hooded figure appeared over me. With a slightly hoarse voice they said, "Good! I was hoping you would be awake by nightfall" and they poured some water into my mouth ever so slowly. I closed my mouth after taking in a small amount and holding it I tasted it slowly and spat it out. "Wizi root, blackberry and a hint of monkey piss. No poison", I murmured and then realised I'd said that out loud. Damned Chimera poison! The hooded figure sighed loudly, almost comically and said, "Of course not, everyone knows you use gazelle piss to poison a hunter" and that made me laugh a little. "Damn you, don't make me laugh right now!", I said. The figure replied, "Don't make like a jackass then, Hunter." They had a point so I let it pass and asked them to pour some more water into my mouth. This time I drank it all. After drinking my fill, I tried to sit up and wonder of wonders, fainted again. Hunters are hardy, but even our bodies don't heal up instantly.

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Thankfully, this time I had a dreamless sleep and there were no voices in my head talking to me in a bloody condescending manner. Sometimes, you just have to be thankful for small mercies. I was alive, not getting slowly digested in the stomach acid of a Chimera and I had someone watching over me as I healed. It wouldn't last so I might as well make the most of it right now. Most hunters would frown upon that line of thinking, as we're not supposed to look weak in front of others. I agree with the concept of projecting strength but doing that all the time makes for a dour experience, not to mention an inconsiderate waste of my actual strength. What I mean, is that if the person who had saved me, had wanted me dead, they might have been served well by just leaving my corpse in the Chimera nest. They'd dragged me out and left me on the pristine forest floor to heal and even stuck around till I gained consciousness. If they were hired to kill me or any hunter for that matter, they were doing a laughably poor job of it. Not to mention the fact that I couldn't project strength worth piss and shite at the moment. Ergo, any other, more complex sinisterness - if any was aimed at me - would need to wait until I actually had the strength of more than a... pup. DAMN YOU, INCORPOREAL VOICE!

As you might imagine, even without the specter of madness haunting me, I still had a relatively poor sleep. My master used to say I was cursed with an overactive imagination and an underactive sense of self-preservation, so I'm guessing she was on to something. Anyway, the next time I woke up, it was morning again and I was starving like a bear just coming out of hibernation. I opened my eyes to see the hooded figure sitting in lotus position, snoring softly. That made me giggle for some reason. Damned Chimera poison, I tell you! That was definitely the reason. A hunter does NOT giggle under normal circumstances. My bout of poisoned laugh - damn me but I was going to call it that - was loud enough to wake the stranger. Their hood shifted slightly and I was able to make out a head of curly red hair, but the sun was in my eyes so I couldn't tell what they looked like. They covered up their head again before looking me in the eye - I assume - and asking, "You up to moving around? We need to get the bounty for this thing", they said while briefly pointing their thumb in the direction of the severed Chimera head that I could see even while on my back. I turned my neck both ways experimentally and it seemed like the skin there was almost completely healed and said, "Sure, but I need to eat something before I'm in any shape to accompany you back." Even I'm smart enough to know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The stranger inclined their head a little and took down their hood to reveal a slightly tan heart-shaped face with a sharp nose and almond shaped bright hazel eyes. She - for the hooded person was actually a young woman - had naturally thin lips and long, curly dark red hair that were bound at the nape of her neck with a stout white coloured leather cord. I also peeked a look at the lining on the inside of her light-grey cloak and my paranoia kicked in almost instantly before I calmed myself down with the fact that she had only helped me till now. "Right, first we try to get some food and only then do we decide on which foolhardy course of action we're going for here", I decided.

The woman was looking at me with a critical eye and said, "You look better, but I still wouldn't take you into town with me. Folks'll stone you on principle if they saw your half-melted face. But we can do something about it later. For now, I'll fix something up for the two of us." And just like that she turned her back to me and started working on breakfast. I sat up gingerly and although the skin on my back was tender and stretched uncomfortably, I knew it would be fine by morning tomorrow. The world however did spin a little and I almost hurled right then, but thank the Huntress' merciful sight, I didn't make a scene of myself and got it under control quickly. Ignoring the queasy feeling, I decided to ask the most pertinent question for the moment. "How long was I asleep?", I asked and I think my words were almost coherent. I could work with that. Without turning my way, the young woman said, "The first time you woke up the very next day and then you slept for another two, so a total of three days." I nodded and then it hit me that she was talking to me in her normal voice today. She had been purposefully using a hoarse voice the first time I woke up. If I'd been in any condition to, I'd have run for the hills just then. Her attire and her manipulation of her voice were like burrs under my saddle, though literally speaking, I wouldn't be caught dead riding a horse. Before I could say something foolish, I asked, "Why did you stick around?" She turned back towards me and said in a measured voice, "You did kill the other two. It didn't seem fair to just leave you in the Chimera nest to die while I took the entire bounty." That still didn't make any sense and so I continued, "You could have just dragged me out onto the forest floor and left. I wouldn't have died."

Her attitude seemed to change a little then and she replied, "It wouldn't have been honourable." That was the last straw and I fired back, quite idiotically I might add, "And the Crimson Cloud know a lot about honour, do they?" I looked at her face minutely to see any sign of shock but she just looked vexed. "You know, you're a very silly hunter", she said with a tone one might use with a petulant child and continued, "We can talk about it after we've had breakfast. And yes, you're right. Honour was only part of the reason. I have a job for you." And that just left me perplexed for all the wrong reasons. Mercenaries don't hand out jobs, they are the ones who take them. Unless... Damn me with faint praise and beat me with the betrayer's club, but I had a bad feeling about this chance encounter. A hunter and a mercenary, what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, a lot, and half a ladle of shit on top of that.