“How does it float?” Lomi asked, studying the far off boat.

It was still an hour or so away. Rather annoyingly, honestly. There was a cold wind in the air, and although it didn't bother me it was bad enough that it was strange that it didn't.

Only one other person was here on the dock after all, because of how cold it was. And I knew if Lomi and I didn't start shivering and complaining, he'd notice.

Humans always noticed the oddest things.

“It's because of what it's made of, and because of how it affects the water. The shape. There's...” I glanced at the older man. A fisherman, by the look of him. He had no fishing pole, nor carried fish, but the smell that permeated him was the stink of a man who spent long days, many long days, with fish. He was far enough down the dock, and the wind was strong enough, that he'd not be able to hear anything we said. “There's a science to it,” I finished.

Lomi glanced down the dock, to the man I had looked at.

“Is that a bad word?” she asked, wondering why I had paused like I had.

“To some. This town has a large abbey. A church. They're not always... discontent with teaching things, but sometimes they get uppity about it. Better safe than sorry,” I said.

“It's bad to teach things?” she asked, her childish innocence was painful.

“Sometimes.”

“Is he a churchman?” she asked.

“Doesn't look it. He smells like a fisherman,” I said.

She turned her head in thought, and I noticed the way she sniffed the air. “I don't smell him,” she said.

“I only smell him when the wind hits the right angle,” I gave her a tiny lie.

Lomi hummed as she glanced at the man again. “Why's he waiting so far away from us?” she asked.

Another part of innocence that was painful.

“Could be several reasons. He might not like waiting so close to the water. It might make the air colder, after all. Plus you're obviously a child. He probably doesn't want to seem odd by getting close to you,” I said.

“It'd be odd to get close to me?” she asked.

“Sometimes. In some situations,” I said. Humans were odd like that sometimes.

“He looks cold,” she noted.

“I'm sure he is,” I nodded.

Lomi quickly lost interest in the man, and returned to looking out towards the lake.

The lake was large... and I noticed that there was a severe lack of boats on the horizon. Either the weather was actually worse out there than it looked, or it was some holiday I didn't know about. I never paid attention to the time of the year. Unless it started snowing, or became blazingly hot, I'd rarely notice the change of the seasons.

“They live inside the town?” Lomi asked, changing topics.

“Yes. Near the market,” I said. Unless they had changed buildings for some reason. It wasn't often, but it did happen sometimes. Accidents. Fire. Re-building...

“Huh,” she found that odd, but I knew why.

She hadn't lived near a town. Neither had Elk's family. For an obvious reason.

The fewer humans around, the better.

“Lughes is odd. He likes humans,” I said.

“He does?” Lomi asked, turning toward me in worry.

I noted the way her eyes studied me. There was a hint of fear in them.

“To a degree. Humans can be... cruel,” I said, and was careful in how I said it.

After all, she now feared them. She was fine when I was next to her, but...

“You'll learn to hide amongst them, you've been doing well already,” I said to her, hoping a small compliment would change that look on her face.

Such looks hurt. Especially on someone so young.

Lomi smiled, but it was a sad one. Her eyebrows were knotted in grief, and I had to look away.

Despair like that was why I had become who I am. Yet... lately...

Lately it's felt like my efforts have been useless.

It was less than a year ago that another village had been burnt down. Granted, only one had died. The rest had ran and escaped... now living happily again in a thick forest up north, but the fact remained that they had lost their home. A place they had lived in for hundreds of years.

A better result than Lomi's village... but was it really?

“Look at that,” Lomi pointed downward, towards my feet.

Looking down, I found a small lizard. It had climbed up onto my shoe, maybe to get off the thin layer of ice on the ground we stood on.

“It shouldn't be awake right now,” I said. Why was it still awake? It was far too cold already. It should have long since...

But I knew the reason.

This was its last year. Age. Disease. Injury. It could be one of many things, but the animal probably sensed it. Sensed that if it hibernated, it'd die anyway.

Lomi knelt down, to study the small lizard. It had small horns on its head, and ignored her even as she drew close.

“Are... are there those like us? But like this? Not human-like?” she asked.

Although the question was odd... I knew why she had asked. She had met the family of deers, and had compared them to her own. They had not looked much different than humans. While she had ears, that were very obvious.

“There are. I've met a few animals that can talk, and reason. But most stay to themselves... and...” I didn't like to say it, but knew she could handle it. “And humans have hunted most of them, too,” I added.

Lomi looked up at me, and that sad look came back. I had expected it, but it bothered me all the same as if I hadn't.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Why?”

Such a simple word. Yet it was full of emotion. Layers upon layers of feelings, and thoughts.

If only I could show her face to the whole world. If only moments like this could be painted, and captured, for all to see.

Maybe then people wouldn't be so violent.

Maybe then they'd realize we were just as human.

“It's not simple, Lomi. Many... creatures, are violent by nature. And some are just doing what they must. Many of our kind were very cruel to humans in the past. Although that was a very, very long time ago the humans don't forget. Or rather, even if they forgot, their instincts didn't,” I said.

There was no point to go into detail into just how cruel our ancestors had been. Especially those who are considered predators. She'd not understand. She may not even care.

Lomi stood up, and I noticed the lizard remained seated. Was my foot that warm?

“So... because some of us killed humans, they all hunt us? How is that fair?” she asked.

“It's not. Nor is it an excuse. But... it is the reality,” I said.

She sighed, and I was glad that the boat was drawing closer. It was still a distance, probably so much that no one on the craft could see us on the dock waiting for them.

While I studied the wooden vehicle, I wondered how long it took to craft such a large thing. Humans could be quick, sometimes, and there were many of them... but did it take months? Years? Surely not days.

Feet crunched fresh snow, and then the tiny layer of ice beneath it. I didn't turn, since I figured that the fisherman had simply finally seen the boat on the horizon. Human eyesight was bad, especially as they grew older, so it'd make sense.

Yet he didn't just draw near, he actually came up closer. I listened intently to his footsteps, since I knew if I turned to address him too quickly he'd startle.

After all, no human should be able to hear someone walking up towards them in this loud wind. Even Lomi hadn't noticed his approach yet.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Lomi startled as I turned to look at the speaker.

It was the older man who had been standing farther away. He had an apologetic smile, and I wondered if he was going to ask me for the ferry fee. A beggar, possibly. He didn't look that poor, but...

But before he could say anything, his eyes left my own. They drifted downward, at an angle... and I watched a familiar face form upon him.

With a dry mouth, I glanced back towards my young companion... but I knew what I'd find.

His look had told me everything.

Sure enough, I found a young Lomi chasing a hat. One that had flown off... from either the wind or her brisk turn upon being startled by the man's voice.

It didn't land too far from her, and she was quick in putting it back on... but the deed was done.

I turned back towards the man, and watched the way his eyes lingered on her. The way the wide pupils had gone a little blank. The way his mind was turning wildly, to the point he had even forgotten to breathe.

While Lomi secured her hat, I spent the two seconds it took to decide. To see if there was any chance he'd chalk it up to a play of light. A delusion of tiredness and exhaustion.

Then his eyes looked at me, and the newfound fear in his expression decided my next move.

The man was old. Probably too old to be working. He may just be a traveler. Or fished for fun. Or maybe he oversaw, and gave orders, to the younger fisherman. But his frame wasn't small. He stood my height, and his shoulders were just as wide. His arms just as thick.

His body spoke of the years of hard labor. The years of hard work.

And men like him weren't cowards. Decades of hauling fish, and then drinking all night with their fellows made hardy men. At his age he might have even seen war.

The kind that didn't balk and cower and then flee at the mere sight of something impossible.

Yet it was precisely because he was that kind of a man, that he could tell what was about to happen.

“Wait,” he was only able to say one word. He raised his hands, as he took a single step back. His earlier look of fear now heightened, by something new.

The young girl had startled him. Her ears had shocked him.

Yet it was I he was terrified of.

I stepped towards him. A single, heavy foot. One that had landed so harshly onto the ground, the dock that floated only a few feet away rocked from the impact. I heard waves. I heard things fall into the water with little thunks, most likely little icicles breaking and falling off the edge of the dock. I heard Lomi startle again, this time with a yelp. I heard a far off cry of a gull. An odd echo of wind, through the forest of trees nearby.

I heard the gasp of shock, as he tried to raise his hands to block me. To stop me. To flee.

Then, finally, I heard the crunch of bone and meat, as I sent my other foot into his stomach.

For a mere moment, I watched my foot dig into the man. Heel first. I saw a glop of spit, and probably snot, fly from his face. Mouth or nose, I couldn't tell from the angle. I saw the tiny lizard fly off into the air, towards the lake. The poor thing had still been sitting on my foot.

Then the moment ended, and the man was sent flying.

It was a solid blow. It lifted him up off the ground, and sent him backward. The man had flown backward with such force, a worn down shoe had flung off one of his feet.

The man landed limply, and rolled for several feet. Luckily, although there was a layer of snow on the ground... there was no trail of blood, or entrails. And I knew soon the continuous fall of the snow would hide the strange drag marks left behind from his tumbling.

“Vim?” Lomi found her voice, and I ignored her. At least briefly.

Quickly glancing around, I made sure we were really alone. Luckily I didn't see, or smell, anyone else. Not even a deer.

Walking towards the man, I didn't rush. The man wasn't moving.

Even his earlier trembling from the cold had stopped.

Reaching the man, I stared down at my deed.

The man was dead.

He was on his side, sprawled a little haphazardly. His face was frozen in a terrified expression. There was a tiny splatter of blood near his head. Oddly the blood wasn't even from his mouth, or nose, but rather because his right eye had popped out. It still hung in the socket.

Bending down, I grabbed the man by his thick jacket. Hefting him up, I once again confirmed he was dead. There was a certain weight to men who died. They were a little heavier than when alive, yet at the same time lighter than they should be.

I scanned the nearby forest, and quickly found a suitable location. Walking towards the forest, I made sure to walk elsewhere first... then after walking far enough into the forest; I rounded a set of trees and walked a little more.

For a little while my footprints will leave a trail, but I didn't need to worry. I just needed to hide the body long enough that no one who gets off the boat will find it before the boat leaves again.

Finding a good spot, between some trees and rocks, I dumped the man's body. The way his head hit one of the rocks told me that the man wasn't faking it at all. He was dead.

“Sorry,” I said to him, and somewhat meant it.

The man hadn't been at fault after all.

Walking back towards the dock, I found Lomi still standing where I had left her.

She stood stiffly at my reemergence from the forest. And her eyes held my own as I walked back up to her.

“Vim...” she said my name, and I knew that it was more of an accusation than anything else.

“Lomi,” I said hers gently, and hoped she understood what I meant.

Her face scrunched up, and she looked away from me. To the ground. As if I was too scary to look at anymore.

With a small sigh, I nodded and glanced behind me. To the footprints, and the place that the man had fallen.

The snow wasn't falling too harshly, but it was still falling. It'd be a few hours, and most of the evidence would be long gone. Buried, like everything else.

In fact, if the weather got worse... it could be a very long time before the man ever gets found. Especially if a bear, or something like it, found him first.

A heavy sniff drew my eyes back to the young girl.

Little hands, firmly gripping the hat on her head, pulled it down harder. As if to secure it forever in place. As if to turn back time, and stop it from ever happening again.

She was finally shaking, like she should be in this cold weather... but the chill on the wind was far from the reason as to why she shook.

I reached out, but hesitated. My hand lingered a few moments above her head, and before I could find my nerve my hand fell back to my side.

Looking away from her, and to the boat that was still slowly approaching, I hoped she'd stop crying by the time they got here.

Though if she chose not to, I'd not fault her. I'd cover for her.

It was my job after all. My purpose.

To protect them.

From being found. From being caught. From being hunted.

From even themselves.

And protect them I would...

Even if I was so damn bad at it.