Guardian Hunter
Cover photo is by this wonderful artist at DeviantArt, please check his page out: His name is Dangem (I can't put the link here, just search him in the site)
It has followed me for nearly an hour now. Watching from afar, when I try to scare it off with a round from my shotgun, it'll run away but after a few minutes, it's back again. It has always kept its distance, I couldn't bring myself to just kill it, it wasn't attacking me or anything, it was merely just watching, for me to do something.
It was on a slouched position, its hoodie covering much of its face, only his bloody jagged teeth shows through the light of the pale moon. I have travelled from the city mall to a large farmland before I noticed it was on my trail. I try to get closer to see if it was going to attack but it only growls and backs away from me. I let it be and just let it do what it wants. If it wanted to attack, the last two hours, would have been a perfect opening for it to do so, but it didn't. This particular hunter was… different.
I sat leaned against some hay inside a large barn I found after hours of wandering about the farmlands. I had just wasted four bullets on a freakin' jockey and was relatively running low on ammo. I make a mental note to find some tomorrow and start a small fire. The orange glow illuminated a small portion of the barn, I stare out into the doors of the barn and I see it on its four looking, watching me. Was it waiting for me to sleep and then attack? Probably, but why make its presence known to its target? It just didn't made sense. I make a spit roast of ducks I hunted earlier and decided to leave it on the fire as I check out the rest of the small home next to the barn. I turn to see the hunter approaching the duck but kept away because of the fire. If it just wanted something to eat then I'm fine with it taking the duck. Just as long as it leaves me alone.
The front door of the house swayed easily to my light push. I step inside and the only light that shone inside was from my flashlight. The place looks safe but seeing the blood trail leading up to the second floor made me think that making the barn as my stop for the night a good idea. I pump my shotgun and head upstairs. I slowly make way, making sure I didn't make a sound on the wooden stairs. At the top of the stairs, I hear something walk in from downstairs, a low growl follows and I know it's my stalker. I pay no attention, seeing that the hunter really meant no harm, and continued my search of the second floor.
I open the first door to my right just as a hand punches the air out of me. I hit against the walls, shaking the entire house in the process, and fall to the wooden floor. My sights began to spin as I stand up and see a large charger looking at me and readying itself for a mad dash to where I stood. I fired two rounds before it charged at me, I easily evade by rolling to the side and fired another shot to its side. It swings its arm and I get hit and am almost sent flying. I fall to the floor and see, just in time, it brings down its large arms towards me, I dodge and grab my shotgun that I accidentally let go when I got hit by his arm swing, and shot another round. I looked like it was unfazed by the bullets. It even had a smirk on its face. It charged at me and I thought it was about my last time, there was nowhere to run, I was cornered into a room. The windows were boarded, the space too small to dodge. I was done for.
I hear a loud growl just as something lands in front of the charger's face clawing away at it and making it blind. The charger stops midway and flails its arms in the mid-air trying to get the thing off of it. I shine my flashlight, which now had a crack on it, and saw that it was the hunter that was following me. It clawed away at the charger's face as the charger slammed itself to the walls trying to shake the hunter off.
I fire another round, my last one, to the charger's stomach and it wails out in pain. The hunter jumps off just as the charger falls, face first, to the wooden floorboards. I look at the hunter and it growls before making a distance between us. I hear thunder roar outside and the pitter-patter of heavy rain hitting against the roof of the house. I start to walk when I feel the sharp pain in just above my stomach, I must've broken a rib or two. I breathe slowly as I notice the pain that was brought every time I took one. The adrenaline was running out quickly and my entire body had started to succumb to the pain. I limp-walk downstairs and I see the hunter outside by the porch looking outwards to the darkness, it turns its head and sniffs the air. It slowly approaches me but before it gets halfway through the door before turning its head again and jumping off into the distance.
I limp back towards the barn and I'm soaking wet as I sat back down near the fire. I'm surprised it hasn't touched the duck and the bird had burnt into an almost black skin. I take it out and crack off the black stuff and start to eat when, again, I notice it sitting just outside the barn soaking in the rain.
"Why don't you get yourself in here and we'll share this treat?" I say. I half-expecting it to stand up and walk casually speaking normally saying thanks, instead I get a growl and a slow crawl until half-way and a firm stop. "Hey, you helped me out there earlier" I said throwing a piece of the duck to the ground in front of it.
It looks down, dipping its head low and sniffing the roasted duck. It takes it and jumps off into the second floor of the barn where it eats the entirety of the piece even the small bones. I let it be and it resumed its watch over me. I'm beginning to think that this guy's my guardian. I finish my piece of the duck and give the rest to the hunter, who happily accepts them, and limped back to the front door of the barn and locking it. If the hunter was to attack me when I sleep then I deserve it for being too careless about the situation but if it doesn't… then I'm not sure what to think of it.