I lay nestled on the trunk of a felled tree, one leg swinging lazily. The remains of cut-off branches pinched and poked my back. I ignored those. The infernal sun seared my face. I ignored that as well. Ten or so people stood around me, talking over me, about me. I ignored most of their chatter as well, only providing the bare minimum of commentary to remain a part of the conversation.

Despite Gery’s best attempts at speaking in my defense, not all of the talk was friendly. I should have probably helped him, defended myself even a little, but I really could not bring up the effort to care about what the antagonistic people thought anymore. Those that hated me, would keep doing so, no matter how I reacted. Those that wanted to kill me, either they would try, or they would not. It was as simple as that.

So ignoring the most spiteful remarks, I focused my efforts on those undecided. I probably was not doing a very good job at it. All my life had been spent pretending I was human. This required me to admit to people that I was not.

And once I had taken that first step, then I still had to convince them that I was no different than them. I did not even know where to start with that. I was different. I was dangerous. I just needed to stop bothering, stop caring, and then I could kill everyone here without batting an eye.

I had promised myself I never would. Harming people would go against everything I spent my life working towards. Not to mention that it was rarely the logical thing to do. I did not think I would ever understand how the slightest emotion got people so fascinated with violent solutions.

That difference between us is what made me so dangerous to them. They could only kill in anger. I could do it on a whim. If I wanted to, then I could, easy as killing rats.

Somehow knowing that about myself made all this feel like an even bigger lie than just pretending to be human. My little hunter-girl façade had been so easy. I had never needed to pretend to be cute and innocent, people just assumed. Now I could not leverage that assumption any longer. Now I needed to tell people that I was harmless, even though I knew I was not. It made me regret being pushed to undergo this torture already.

Around me, the conversation was slowly shifting away from all the terrifying things about me, and towards how awesome it was that I had claws that could slice through hardwood like it was butter, amongst various other idiocies.

“Nowhere near as awesome when you’re stuck with them all your life,” I commented in a bored attempt at remaining at least a small part of the conversation, instead of merely its subject. I did not even bother figuring out who had begun making these kinds of absurd statements.

‘s nothing cool about being me.

The worst of it was, all of these people commenting so openly about all of this, it was risky. The doctor was still there in the bunkhouse, barely a hundred paces from here. That man was not supposed to know what everyone else knew. Sure, all this talk had started out careful, everyone masking their words, only hinting at things in the vaguest of allusions, but as is usual with these things, the larger the crowd grew, the stupider it got.

Limn sat down on the tree trunk, right next to me.

His action elicited a gasp from some Chestnut-blood woman I did not know, and no longer cared to get to know after that startled outburst.

“You’ve been more quiet than usual.” Limn ignored the startled reaction as well. He leaned back a little, looking up at the sky.

“As if you would know what’s usual for me.” I shook my head, not bothering to look at the man’s face. It was not as if I could see his face properly anyway.

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“Point,” he conceded, shrugging off my barbed remark as if it had not been uttered at all. “Still, it looked like you could use someone that sat with you, instead of standing in a circle around you.”

“Thanks, I guess. Really is no fun having everyone talk about you as if you’re not present.”

Limn hummed in assent.

We sat in silence for a while after that. My perspective really had changed, if I considered Limn sitting with me a positive. The long-haired logger had been so easily swayed by Onar’s words. I had resented him for it, had only begrudgingly accepted his apology. Right now, he was the first besides Gery that so openly chose my side though, and I could not afford to be picky with my allies.

“Onar showed you some things, huh?” I repeated his words from days ago with a slight chuckle. That had been how he had explained his sudden fear of me in his apology. He had not elaborated then, and I had postponed prying out of fear of ruining the fragile truce. Now that I knew exactly how much damage I had done to Onar’s countertop I had a better understanding of how Shae’s dad had managed to turn so many people against me so quickly.

“Ah, someone told you then?” He fidgeted. “Was more impressive seeing it happen in person though.”

“Yes, Rafe did. And please don’t describe it like that.” I groaned. “Ruining furniture like that is embarrassing enough as it is without the commentary.”

“Embarrassing enough to repeat it with Rafe’s table?” he quipped.

Ugh.

Friendly people are the worst!

I tried to nudge him with an elbow but he twisted out of reach.

While we had been talking three more people had joined the throng. It clearly was not just Reya that was being kept from her farm work by my presence in this town. Apparently, everyone here had decided that there was no more work that needed doing. At all. By now I did not even know nearly half of the people standing here.

I let my nose make a mental tally. Limn’s group was four people. Moldy-leather Krav, Rue, and Gery were three more. The other seven I truly did not know. Wait. No. That Flint-lock-butterfly one was Nebby. And those other three people, those were the other ones I had fished out of the river last winter. There were only three people I did not recognize.

Scary.

I think I know half the people in town by now.

I twisted to look in the direction where I had smelled Nebby. She had burst in looking for me earlier at Rafe’s place, so I was confused as to why she had not yet sought me out now. She was standing in a group of five, two unknowns, Moldy-leather and Rue.

Ah, of course.

Krav, her dad, doesn’t like me.

’s why she’s hesitant.

As if she noticed me looking Nebby broke away and bounded over. With a leap she sat astride the trunk, at my feet. “Yo!” She scooted forward, pushing my legs aside as she went. “I heard you helped Eryn out in the kitchen. Does that mean you’re taking my job?”

What?

“I… What? I’m not–”

“Please tell me you are?” she pleaded, leaning forward and placing her hands on both sides of my torso. “It’s so, soooo, boring!”

What?

Every single kid in this town is utterly insane.

“I don’t even know what your job is.” I sighed and gave Limn a pleading look. “Help?”

“Against Nebby? Oh no, you’re all on your own there.” The traitor shook his head and walked away, leaving me with this new nuisance. I followed him with my eyes, begging him to come back.

That was how my attention turned towards two more newcomers, one of them hobbling over, supported by the other. The huge bulk of Uncle Tare, only barely being held up by his wife.

I swung a leg over Nebby’s head and rushed to their side, ignoring the startled reaction my sudden action caused.

Instead of helping I nearly crashed to the ground in front of Uncle Tare. Stupid sun. Stupid puppet body. Angry at the reminder of my uncoordinated weakness I yanked hard on the strings of Metzus animating my body, no longer caring to be conservative in the amount of energy I burned.

Soon another woman rushed to my aid as well, and between the three of us we carried Uncle Tare to where he could sit.

“Are you sure you should be up and about?” I asked the blacksmith after he had regained his breath.

“No,” he admitted. “But after I heard you were out here I couldn’t just leave you to fend for yourself now, could I. Had to make sure my boys treat my little guardian angel right.” He surveyed the crowd and raised his voice. “You hear that kids, any one of you talks bad about my sweet little guardian angel, you’re dealing with me.”

Then he patted my head for emphasis.

Aaaah… not a kid!

Stop treating me like one.

I smirked. He had only patted my head, that was implicit. But he had very explicitly called everyone else a kid. Oh, saving this guy was so worth it.

Forget all those other options. I could run or die for this.