Waking up… I wished I hadn’t.

Everything hurt. Terribly so.

I groaned, and even my voice sounded weird. As if my ears that were throbbing weren’t my own, or something. As if the sounds I was hearing weren’t right. They were distorted and weird… as if I was submerged or…

Moving, I felt something on top of me. Something heavy… but…

Soft…?

Opening my eyes, I coughed and regretted it. My throat hurt.

Ignoring the pain, since I hurt all over, I tried to sit up and look around. The world still sounded muddled and distant… but there was a distinct lack of a certain kind of sound that worried me.

I didn’t hear any roaring anymore.

As I sat up, a thick cloth fell off me. It fell to my lap, and I actually winced because it felt so heavy that it seemed to be crushing my lap.

It of course wasn’t. The cloth moved easily when I messed with it… I was just so…

“Huh…?” my eyes left the cloth as I noticed my arm.

Lifting both of my arms up, I frowned at the sight of fresh, unblemished, skin.

I turned and searched my arms in disbelief. There were no cuts. No bruises. No broken bones…

Yet I felt them. I still felt the burning tingling from the cuts. The aching throbs from the broken bones.

Ignoring the terrible pains and aches, I dragged myself out of from under the cloth and stood up. I scanned my body, and found only more of the same.

No wounds. No blood.

But…

Pulling on my shirt, I stared at a massive hole. A torn piece, frayed open by a tear. It wasn’t just a large hole; it was also crusty from blood.

Blood from a wound that wasn’t there anymore.

“How…?” I couldn’t believe it. I had been hurt. Without doubt. I still felt the pain from those injuries… even!

I gulped and wondered if maybe it had all been a dream. A weird, terrible dream…

But the truth was clear. As I looked around, I found that I had been lying not far from the house.

A house that was now completely destroyed. It was a pile of rubble. Pieces of wood, sticks, and bundles of the roof were scattered all over. Implying that not only had it been destroyed, but had been so violently.

Turning around, I searched for the source of such destruction.

Scanning the area, and the forest around me, I didn’t know if I should feel relieved or not at not finding either the white snake or my elder.

“Oh my…! You’re not as weak as you look, then.”

Spinning around, I stepped back and away from the voice. As I did, I nearly tripped on the blanket that had just been squishing me.

I found a person. A normal sized woman.

It was very relieving to not find a giant creature… or the snake… but…

Going still, I froze as I stared into her eyes.

They were white.

She blinked, making the discomforting white eyes disappear for a moment, and then she drew closer.

“Hm…? Do you not speak the language of this region? Maybe…” she wondered, and then began to babble with strange words. Similar to the ones those human’s had used before. The ones I had hunted.

“I understood you before,” I said before she continued talking in tongues.

The white-eyed woman perked up and smiled at me. “Oh! Good!”

Was it…?

“Who are you…?” I asked as I tried to tear my eyes away from hers. They were distracting.

I still didn’t even know if she was human, or one of us. Her eyes were just… that unsettling.

“I’m a hunter,” she said.

A hunter…

“Supposedly… my family is as well, but…” I looked away from her, to glance around at the chaos.

Some hunters we were.

“Hm… that I’ve no doubt. Some kind of big cats are you? My lands had them too… but they were brighter colors. Oranges and yellow,” she said as she crossed her arms.

Returning my focus to her, I felt a little pride at being able to ignore her eyes for the moment.

She was about my height. She wore very thick clothing, similar of the clothes those humans I’d seen. She had bags and items upon her, latched and secured by little ropes or… leather pieces…

As I studied her strange attire, I realized something important.

“Are… are you a human?” I asked. Other than her eyes she didn’t seem to have any other strange traits.

“Depends on who you ask,” she said as she blinked, and her eyes disappeared again for a moment. They re-appeared, and I gulped as I realized they… kind of glowed a little.

“Did… did you uh…” I glanced at the blanket at my feet. And that was definitely what it was. A blanket. One side was rough, and hard, but the other was soft.

“Help you? Yes. And speaking of that… I suggest you come with me,” she said.

Without waiting she turned and began to walk away. Heading north, towards the rubble.

Watching her go, I groaned at the sight of a bow on her back. It was huge, as big as her. How had I not noticed it earlier…? I must have been more bothered by her eyes than I had thought.

For a moment I hesitated, and debated running away. But…

Glancing around, I felt my aching body scream in protest. It didn’t want to move. It didn’t even want to be standing up… I wanted to lay back down and sleep.

But I couldn’t. Not yet…

Stepping forward, I went to follow the white-eyed woman.

She had declared herself a hunter… but she had somehow also helped me.

Plus… I’d been unconscious. If she had wanted to kill me, she could have done so rather easily.

Maybe she knew about the snake. Or was friends with it.

I was about to ask about the snake, and her relation to it, when she drew near someone else.

Someone writhing on the floor.

Someone mangled, and barely making noise. Someone that looked so hurt and broken, it was a miracle they were alive.

Walking up next to the white-eyed woman, I felt my own bodies aches increase in severity as I stared down at a dying man.

His arms were twisted every which way. His left leg gone. His right leg squished flat, somehow. He wasn’t making noise because half his face was missing, and his jaw was lying a few feet away.

A single eye danced around wildly, staring at nothing, and I tightened my tail around my thigh and leg as I stared down at him.

Grandfather.

“He’ll not survive. He won’t take my miracles,” she said with a small gesture down to him.

Shifting, I glanced at the woman. Miracles…?

“You mean what… you did to me…?” I asked, glancing at my arms.

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She nodded. “Yes. Some just don’t accept the help. He must have been a proud man,” she said with a frown.

I didn’t like how she seemed to be complimenting him.

The sound of metal drew my ears and eyes away from my dying grandfather as I watched the white-eyed woman pull out a knife.

The sharpest and shiniest knife I’d ever seen before.

She held it for a moment, and then sighed. She turned to me, and nodded as she held out the knife to me.

“I’m a hunter. We don’t allow needless pain. I’ll do it, but he’s your blood,” she said.

My blood…

I blinked as I looked away from the knife and her and back down to my grandfather.

Yes. He’d definitely not survive. He was even more hurt than uncle had been.

It was crazy he was still alive as he was…

Yet…

I gulped as I considered her words.

He was in pain. And that was wrong. It wasn’t right. So we should stop it.

“Mercy,” I whispered.

“Leaving him to suffer would be cruel. Would make us no better than the monsters who do this to us,” she said.

Blinking blurry eyes, I had no choice but to not and agree.

Yes. That was very true. I didn’t like my grandfather… but…

“Would you like me to do it…?” she then asked, likely because I was taking so long to make a decision.

Reaching over, I took the knife. It was surprisingly heavy, and with its weight I became a little scared of it.

I angled the knife’s point and edge away from me and took it in both hands. I didn’t yet know how sharp it was, but something told me I didn’t want it to even brush against me.

Stepping forward, I was slightly thankful for both his inability to talk… and his seemingly half-unconscious panic. His eye kept darting around, and his pupil was continuously going wide then small, over and over.

He couldn’t see me. He didn’t know it was me. He likely couldn’t hear anything…

Kneeling down, I grabbed my grandfather’s head and turned it. The man’s neck sounded wet. The neck was broken and mangled. It was far fatter than I remembered it, likely from the damage.

I placed the point of the blade at the base of the skull. The spot where he had long ago taught me to target on other animals. The spot that was fragile, and…

Without even thinking much about it, I plunged the knife in and turned it.

He made one final jolt, like an instinctive twitch, and then went still.

I left the knife in for a moment, to make sure he didn’t start to writhe again, and then pulled the knife out.

“Hm. Sad, but a necessary deed,” the woman said as I stood up.

The second member of my family I’ve ended with my own hands…

Glancing down at the knife, I grimaced at the weird stains upon it. It for some reason didn’t have much blood upon it… but the blood that was there was thick and black. Unnatural.

Stepping over, I handed the woman back the knife. I didn’t want it anymore. And not just because I had used to kill him.

It had been sharp beyond reason. It had slid into his neck with almost no resistance.

Scary.

She accepted the knife, and produced a stained black cloth from one of her pockets. She went to cleaning the knife as she stared down at him.

I didn’t look at him, and focused on her. On her hands, as she wiped the blade.

She did it without even looking at it… even though it was so sharp and pointy.

It meant she knew that blade well, and was very confident with it.

Hunter indeed.

“How do you feel?” she then asked.

“Sad,” I answered honestly. I wanted to cry. I wanted to do what little Fellisee had been doing earlier… I wanted to curl up in a ball in my room and…

Oh. Right.

She’s gone. Dead.

Eaten.

“I bet you are. But I meant physically. How does your body feel?” she asked.

“Oh… it hurts. I feel like I still have all those wounds,” I said as I glanced down at my arms again.

Once again I expected to see them. The cuts, the abrasions. The bruises.

Yet it was just my typical arms. Clean, even. As if I’d recently bathed in the river.

“Hm. So you do feel the aftereffects. Interesting,” she said as she slid the knife back where it had been, on her hip.

“Aftereffects?” I asked.

“My miracles heal. But they only heal the flesh. You’re feeling the wounds, and will for weeks. A price for the healing. You are free of the wound, but must endure the aches and pain that you’d have felt healing from them naturally. I had almost thought you hadn’t felt the pain, based on how you were acting… maybe you’re in shock,” the woman said.

I blinked a few times as I did my best to follow her. She spoke quickly, and I understood her, but…

“I uh… thank you. Thank you for helping me,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to think of some of the other things she had said or implied… but what was obvious was rather clear.

She had helped me. I might not understand how, but it was clear I was only okay thanks to her.

She blinked again, making her glowing eyes disappear for a moment. It unnerved me to see that.

“You’re welcome,” she said, and did so in a way that she actually sounded… surprised.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed as I looked around, and did my best to not look at my grandfather as I did. “Is the um… is that snake gone?” I asked.

“Regrettably, yes.”

“Regrettably…?” I asked. What was with that?

“That, my new friend, is what I’ve been hunting. And I’ve been hunting it for a long time indeed,” she said as she crossed her arms again.

Oh…?

“It had mentioned it was facing someone who slays them,” I said as I remembered what it had said.

The white-eyed hunter startled, and stepped towards me. “It spoke? You spoke to her?” she asked quickly.

Her…? “I uh… yes. Or well… it, or she, had spoken to me. I kind of just… panicked,” I admitted.

“What’d she say…?” she asked, focused entirely on me.

She was more seriously focused on me than any time before.

Hunter indeed.

“I uh…” I squinted as I tried to remember what had happened, and what had been said.

She went quiet, but I could see and feel the tension. She wasn’t quiet because she wanted to be… she was simply waiting. Waiting to hear what I’d say.

“The snake, it… She, had mentioned it was hungry. For power. It said it wants power to face the one that slays them?” I said as I tried to remember if I had missed anything else or not.

“Anything else?” she asked.

“Oh uh… Yes. She had been looking for the elder, I think. She called me thin-blooded, and then asked me if it made me scream if he’d show up or not. I think the snake was trying to lure the elder here… and well…” I gestured to the house, to imply that he hadn’t needed to. The elder had come anyway.

“Great… I’m finally catching up to the blasted creature and it’s still finding others to absorb…” the white-eyed hunter said with a sigh.

“Absorb…?”

“She called you thin-blooded? Really?” she then asked, ignoring me.

“Uh… yes,” I nodded, and hoped she wasn’t like my family.

“Really…? You…? Hm…” she studied me, and I noticed her eyes actually grew a little brighter.

Gulping, I held firm as I stared into her eyes.

I had held the gaze of that snake, yet for some reason she was harder to do so with. I wonder if it was because that snake had been… scary, but comprehendible. A giant monster, but still just a snake.

She however… was weird.

A person, yet with glowing eyes.

Though maybe there were many people who had such eyes, and I just…

“You’ve been hunting the snake…?” I asked her after a long moment. The silence was uncomfortable.

“Yes. I’d apologize, in the sense that I hadn’t caught it in time before this happened… but there’s little I can do about that. Actually I’m rather surprised it attacked all of you like this. She is powerful, but she’s an ambush hunter. She likes to stalk her prey, not outright destroy them. She must have been desperate,” she said.

Desperate…? That thing…?

Hardly…

Glancing around again, I wondered… “Did it uh…”

“Defeat your elder? I don’t know. I can’t tell such things. Not until I see a large enough piece of flesh to touch. But I’ve not found such things. There’re lots of scales and fur all over, from their likely battle, but nothing of note,” she said as she gestured around us.

Scales and fur…? Really…? I looked around for any and couldn’t find them. Maybe they were on the other side of the house or something.

Coughing, I half expected to taste blood. Yet I didn’t taste any as I shifted and glanced at my tail. Unwrapping it from around my leg, I sighed in relief at the sight of its fullness and length.

It was undamaged.

Reaching up, I touched and felt my ears as they fluttered and moved.

They were fine too.

“Those are interesting. Your kind usually doesn’t have such useful traits. Usually they get in the way, or cause complications. Those actually work; I’ve seen you move them to listen to me when I talk… I wonder if the tail helps you balance too,” the white-eyed hunter said as she watched me.

“Um…” I wasn’t sure what to say as she studied me.

My kind…? Did she mean those like me and my family, or our kind in general.

“You mean other servants,” I said.

“Servants…? Oh… right. Your elder. Yes, I mean you non-humans,” she said as she nodded.

What’d my elder have to do with that?

Still, it was interesting to hear confirmation that there were others out there in the world. Like me. Mother and grandmother had told stories that all of the gods had servants, but none had really explained how many or if they were even still around or not.

The white-eyed hunter then sighed. “Okay… well, my new friend? What will you do?” she asked.

“Do…?”

I stared into her glowing eyes for a moment, and then shivered in pain. As my whole body ached, I glanced around.

Death. Destruction.

As far as I was aware… the only other person who could possibly still be alive was my oldest brother… I’d not seen him yet. Though the snake had mentioned it had eaten three before it had fought grandfather and father. If Glennessa’s body was still near the river, then…

But honestly even if he was alive it didn’t matter.

Glennessa, Fellisee, mother and grandmother… they were all gone. As was uncle.

And if my eldest sister’s warning was correct…

Even if my eldest brother still lived, it was very likely I didn’t wish to encounter him.

She had said it. It had been obvious.

Without them, then I’d be the one to be targeted. I’d be the one abused.

All because I’d be the only one left.

A disgusting thought.

Almost as disgusting as my grandfather nearby.

Studying his corpse, I wondered if I should bury him. Or the others. I knew mother and sister had gotten eaten, but…

Then my attention returned to the woman next to me. Staring at me with those strange glowing eyes.

“We’re friends…?” I asked, realizing what she’s been saying all this time.

She smiled.