"Over there!"
"No! That's a red-head berneck!"
"What the hell is a red-head berneck!"
"The bird that inhabits these woods! You should know that by now!"
"How am I supposed to know- You know what? Go kiss frogs."
Soul sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. No one, in all the Kingdom of Death, should part for a hunt and return empty-handed. He looked to the side and saw as the prince and one of his protégés bickered over nothing worth his time.
"Kid, sweetie, I'm a natural. I was tracking down kishin eggs while you were reading books about how to. Be it something edible or not, it would end up with an arrow through his heart."
"That's another reason for you to stop running off every time you hear the leaves stirring and pay attention!"
Patty sat beside him on the fallen tree trunk and giggled while playing with gooey moss. "Sissy said that she kissed one handsome frog when she met Kiddo." Liz and Kid looked at the youngest of the four and blushed heavily.
Soul took this as a sign for him to go.
"Look…" He started. "I'll go ahead and scan the South area. I'm sure I won't find anything worth my time, but you better head on to the West where the sun is setting. The creatures gather there, it should have plenty for you to train."
Kid cleared his throat. "Yes, we'll go then. Be careful out there." He turned to the other lady he was in charge of coaching. "Patty, come along now."
"Kaaaaaaay ~!"
The white haired man nodded and secured his bow over his shoulder. He concentrated on following the trail of markings that he spotted from the corner of his eye. With any luck, he would find dinner before sunset. If not, then he had to contempt himself with the carrots and pumpkins that the lads around the villa offered to him.
As he ventured further in the forest of the South Lands, he became more aware of the silence that engulfed him. Patty's laughter along with Kid's proud voice had vanished within the trees and the only thing he could hear were the irregular sounds of the wind dancing along with the grass.
He took his weapon briskly along with an arrow and pointed it at his left.
The wind greeted him once again; caressing his face and making his chaotic hair float about.
His mouth made a sound of disapproval when he saw a small shadow, probably a wild capon, run from behind a bush. He couldn't have that; his ego was too big to bring only a rooster from the hunt. Slowly, he dropped his shoulders and continued his way.
Hunting for a meal was taken more like a game nowadays, a way of passing time. People preferred raising their food rather than suffering the risks by walking in the woods. For nobles like him, people with knowledge, strolling around in dangerous places was easy. If an animal of any sort surprised him by jumping from behind a rock, he would know what to do.
And the task never ended in something pretty.
He understands the fear of the habitants. Lately there have been reports of kishin eggs going wild and daring. For them to assault villages in a raw daylight was a warning – the beasts were adventuring into new places, places they shouldn't be in the first place.
Strange beings, the kishin eggs. Whispers say that they were once human, with souls torn apart by a crazy witch using witchcraft that led people to insanity. Others say that a mad man once joined brains of men and women and attached them with body of animals. The result was a new breed, surviving only with their desire for power, mating with their kind so that they could gain power in number.
There were folks that even dared to spread the word that the beasts were normal humans – farmers, lords and fishers – succumbed to lust and driven by nothing else.
Until their bodies gained claws, and in their mouths grew large fangs.
Soul leaned down to inspect a husk on the muddy ground. He traced a mark with his calloused fingers near and oak tree and looked ahead. Whatever 'thing' was hiding in the vicinity, it was close.
Carefully, he took a wavelength-arrow from his sac and prepared his bow for an attack. He waited for a moment in an assault pose and then took three steps forward with care, as if to prove a point in his head. Then, he proceeded with caution.
It was official; he was hunting for monsters now.
A figure covered by the darkness skimmed from a flowering shrub and jumped in an open part, disappearing again behind the foliage.
"Oh no you don't." The huntsman didn't even think twice. Being too well hidden by the woods he ran after his current prey – parallel to the place where he last saw it disappear and keeping a special attention to the noise it was making.
Among his family, Soul Evans was one of the most determined. While the rest resided with art, he wasn't satisfied until he found some action. The hunt for kishin eggs is an opportunity for his true skills to wander, he was not made for a life stuck behind a panel with only brushes and paint on his hands.
The figure jumped once again in an open area and he caught a glimpse of his foot. It was human, but he was sure that the rest of it wasn't. It was just too fast. It was normal for him to run faster than most folks, because he had training, but his victim was abnormally fast.
He was ready for a clear shoot when something slippery suddenly appeared beneath him. His face met the ground in a few seconds. Troubled, he looked ahead at the noise that was gradually disappearing and cussed. He got up hurriedly and continued the marathon, but not before sparing a quick glance at the cause of his failure.
He was met with a scene that rivalled the colour of his blood-red eyes.
His hand came to clamp his mouth shut at the sight. He knewthat man, he knew him.
The creature was as good as dead now.
With newly found strength fuelled by rage, he leapt away from the view. The trees around him started to go down in number and he knew that somehow he was approaching some town. All the things around him passed in a blur, his eyes weren't seeing anything else then that gruesome image. The only thing working was his ears.
He spotted an opening.
His arms adopted instinct mode and raised themselves alone.
He shot.
The wavelength-arrow swept the falling leaves and landed on living flesh – he knew, he heard fleshy tissue being torn apart and the indistinguishable sound of a scream. He walked coolly to the place where his weapon had been aimed at and found a trail of blood. 'It' was still alive, and trying to run away.
He grinned at the perspective of a prey walking away from him in such a state. Preposterous to say the least. All this red? Not a chance. He reached his arm for the bush impossibility his sight while the other grabbed another arrow and the bow at the same time.
He ripped the plant to the side and grabbed the weapon with both his hands. "Come here you cute thing, it won't hurt-" His eyes met another pair. "-much."
Suddenly, his motivation was lost at the sight of a female wrapping her hands near the place where she had been struck. Her thigh was bleeding heavily and she looked at him with a mixture of anger and pain. Had he just shot an innocent?
Until he looked closely at her head and saw deer horns poking out.
He gripped the bow tighter and shoved it near her face. "You killed a man, are you happy?"
"I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE!" Her voice shrilled through his ears. He didn't know if it was the fact that her scream made something in his head 'click' or if she really looked like she was telling the truth – either way he lowered the dangerous thing from her face.
"You have ten seconds to explain yourself."
She looked like she was about to hit his head with a rock. "What the-"
"Nine…" He raised the bow again.
"I ran away from a very dark place and from a witch and then I noticed I had these things on my head, and then this huge guy with fingers shaped like knives appeared! I dashed from forest to forest but he was persistent and he kept following me so I decided to fight him at some point but it didn't end well and then I found this place and he kept following me and a man passed by and he caught him by surprise and they fell an- GAAAAHHH!"
Soul blinked. "I'm surprised you managed that much with a pole sticking out of your leg."
He looked down to where she was gripping and grimaced. The bruise looked rather ugly; all the blood was starting to form a red circle on her long, tattered, ripped and dirty shirt that reached her thighs – the only thing she was wearing.
She screamed again. He couldn't help it; he cautiously wrapped his own hands around hers and pulled them away ever so gently. She squirmed and yelped under his touch.
"Don't move." He tried to order her, but it came out more like a request for her not to get hurt anymore.
The arrow disappeared in a ray of light when he touched it but she still groaned from the pain. He ripped a part of his jacket and wrapped around her wound, with the rest he covered her form. She was so small under his arms, it seemed impossible that she had survived whatever strange thing that attacked old Alfred back there.
"Do you have any family here?"
Her voice came out off-tuned and weak; a huge contrast from the fearsome tone he heard a few seconds ago. "No"
A cold hand reached for his face; she cleaned a small trail of blood that was running down his cheek with her thumb and then rubbed it on her vest. Probably from when he fell back there, his hunting clothes are most likely filled with red marks from an innocent man; he can't be that good to look at now.
Beast or not, she was still a lady and he a gentleman. He took her hand and admired her smooth skin; even though it was dirty, it still shone below the setting sun. She was a freezing lad, cold as ice he even dares to say. "May I have your name then?"
"Maka."
"Pleasure, the name's Soul. So…" He deadpanned. "Does it hurt much?" Now he felt like an idiot. Of course it hurt! She was shot by his wavelength! He opened his mouth to erase the previous sentence but she caught him first.
"Can I ask you a favour?" He nodded. Really, he became captivated by her green eyes. "If I may ask, can you slay me with your weapon?"
"Slaying is made for demons. What makes you think that you deserve that end?"
Embarrassed by her thoughts, she answered him as clearly as she could. "Everyone who sees me tries to take my life. Be it a human or an animal. I've only had these…things" She touched her horns. "for a week, and I've never been through such a hell in my life. My family is gone, my friends the same. I've lost my sense of direction and God-knows where I'm at now."
His gaze softened at her words. She can't be lying; no one spits a lie and runs off from him. Her body had bruises everywhere; her story made sense.
"Take your bow and shot me in the head."
Taking care of her pleads, he took his weapon and touched her forehead with it. In a painful slow motion, his arm started retreating to get a better shot. The stretching noise reached his ears and he closed his eyes, not wanting to see how the evening would end.
Behind closed eyelids he had a vision of the future.
"Soul?" He opened his eyes. "Why do you lower your bow?"
"I know a doctor who can take care of your, problem. I also know a person who can heal your wounds faster and a man that will find whatever you have lost in the spam of ten days. Less if you pay the right price."
Indignant, she hissed from the pain but stubbornly crossed her arms in front of her small chest. "You will get in trouble if you bring me to your homeland."
"Take a look at my worried face." He brought her up in his arms.
"No! Put me down!"
She tried to leap from his grasps but whimpered when a sharp pain ran from her leg and through her spine. Her grip was directed to the cloth around her thigh that was starting to gain a scarlet colour. He saw the fear flashing on her features and clasped her clumsily from the side, the best he could arrange when carrying the girl.
"You don't understand!"
"Maybe not. But I'm not the one that's going to pierce your heart."
She replied with a tired voice. "Why?" He looked at her like she was crazy.
"Do you want to die that badly?"
"Yes!"
"Too bad, not happening." Maka sighed and looked away from him. "Just imagine my brother's face when I bring a lad to the palace instead of today's dinner."
He stared at the path in front of him and grinned while walking. She pinched his skin below his shirt playfully and sent a smile to nowhere in special. Her forehead came to rest on his shoulder while he carried her the best way he could, trying to make her comfortable.
The blond supported her cheek on his chest and looked directly at his face. Even covered in blood, he expelled a certain charm rightful of a lord. Soul? She heard the name somewhere… Maybe he was famous in these lands. Well, it didn't matter. He was helping her and she was letting that happen.
"Thank you." Her eyes fluttered closed.
She promised not to let herself trust another man, and this one shot an arrow at her! But he regretted the action, she could see it. Who knew if he was going to bring her to a horrible place?
She can turn the situation to best latter. Right now, she wants to sleep. And in his arms she found the comfort she needed to travel to dreamland.
And despite going back with his hands full with another problem to add to his life, he smiled at the darkness that was starting to envelop the area and at the shine of the cold body leaning against his chest.
_;;;;;;;
I have no idea where this came from. All I know is that I have another one shot prepared in my mind that has to do with hunting.
Hum… yeah…