A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed/favorited/alerted so far! I try really hard to be able to update everyday, and most of the time I overlook errors and such. If anyone is interested in becoming my Beta, please feel free to PM me.

And P.S.: Fondue for anyone who guesses where Balverine is from.

CHAPTER FOUR

Santana had accompanied her father on hunting trips to the forest ever since she could remember. Her mother left them when she was just three, so it was basically her and her father against the world. And when she was seventeen, there was one time she couldn't go with him because she'd been burning up with fever, he failed to return.

When she was strong enough, she searched the forest high and low for him, putting her tracking skills to good use—to no avail. It wasn't until a fortnight since his disappearance that she was able to find his rotten, gutted corpse.

Days before, there was a rumour going around the town of Lima that a Balverine is roaming the woods, sometimes even bravely venturing out into the farms and feeding on cattle. Neither she nor her father believed it at first, since they only knew the Balverine to be the stuff of legends and tales meant to scare children from staying out late. But her father's mangled body proved its existence. She'd heard about the ghastly details of how people usually find corpses after being attacked by a Balverine.

She buried her father in a clearing they used to frequent, swallowed up her tears and swore that she'll find that beast and kill it.

She never returned to Lima until a year after, when she was able to track the beast in its lair and managed to kill it in its wretched slumber.

This experience—living in the forest for a year—made Santana highly-attuned to her surroundings. She instantly knew where the screams were coming from. She quelled the rising panic in her chest and limped towards the direction of the scream.

She found Brittany hanging upside-down from her ankles and, she couldn't help it, she breathed a sigh of relief. She only got caught in one of Puckerman's traps. She knows because she'd suffered the misfortune of being caught in one herself a really long time ago. This relief was quickly replaced with rage. She's going to kill him when she finds him.

"S-santana, help me!" Brittany was struggling to cover herself up, which was incredibly difficult since she's working against gravity.

"Hang on, I'll figure something out."

She heard twigs snapping and whirled to her left. She saw Puck coming towards her, in his pine-green buckskin shirt and grey trousers.

"Lopez!" Puck said, looking her up and down and smirking at the bruises on her face. He was completely oblivious to Brittany struggling against her bindings. "What happened to you? You look like you've gone to the nine hells and were sent back. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Yeah you shouldn't be surprised. Even the Lords of Hell are going to fear my wrath if you don't release her!"

"Release her...wha-what? Oh my, I got something good, didn't I?" His jaw dropped at the sight before him, and Santana didn't like the way his eyes travelled all over the stretch of fair skin on Brittany's stomach. She only noticed it now, but boy, was the girl toned.

"Help me, please!"

Without missing a beat, she strode towards him, ignoring the pain shooting up her side with every step she took. She smacked him hard in the head and he yelped.

"Ow! You didn't have to do that!"

Within seconds, Brittany was freed and Puck couldn't keep his eyes off her. Santana had the urge to hit him again but she remembered how Brittany hated violence.

"Santana I'm so sorry, I had you worried," she said, nearly-crushing Santana's ribs with her embrace. Santana could only squeak in reply since the pain ratcheted up at least five notches. Brittany released her with an apologetic smile.

"I thought, Will's men got you again," Santana answered breathlessly.

"I'm sorry, I was just... I wanted to surprise you with breakfast, is all. For once I wanted to do things for you."

"No need to apologize, Britt. It's fine... everybody's fine, though a bit shaken up."

Brittany chuckled. "Yeah," she hugged Santana again, much more carefully this time, and Santana could feel her heart racing in tandem with Brittany's. Just as she was beginning to get comfortable in the embrace, Puck wolf-whistled.

She glared at him and let go of Brittany.

"What's up with you two, huh?" he whispered with a jerk of his head in Brittany's direction. "You don't want to tap this no more?" He pointed to himself.

"Gross, Puckerman! That was one time." She said to him in a low voice, "Hmm, how about you be a gentleman and give her your shirt. I don't want you ogling her goodies like what you've been doing the second you spotted her."

"What, like you haven't been doing since you found her?" he retorted. "How did you meet her anyway?"

Santana rolled her eyes in reply and chose not to answer.

Seeing that she won't budge, he reluctantly took off his shirt and handed it to her. "You owe me for that one, Lopez. That's genuine buckskin!"

Ignoring him, she handed the shirt to Brittany.

"Here, have this. It smells like a boar but that's Puckerman for you, so it can't be helped."

Brittany snorted and took the shirt gratefully nonetheless. Puck then took the opportunity to show off his defined physique.

"Ugh, Puckerman, leave her alone," she snapped, noticing the pink flush on Brittany's cheeks and the tips of her ears. "And go make a fire and die in it. Nah, kidding. Make some breakfast. You got to make it up to her somehow after she got caught in your trap."

They parted ways with a shirtless Puckerman after enjoying a breakfast of roast pigeons.

Santana decided to make rounds with the snares she had set up before they continued on their way to Lima. One contained a weakly-struggling hare, and another a squirrel. Brittany turned away mournfully as she slit the hare's throat to put it out of its misery.

"All these times, how did you manage to survive in the forest if you don't like killing things?" Santana asked as she strapped the carcasses into her belt.

"I lived off on berries mostly. And sometimes, I caught fish with my bare hands. I learned how to do that back in Will's estate. He himself taught me."Brittany sighed. "He taught me a lot. Survival skills and whatnot. I bet he regrets that now."

For some reason, Santana could feel resentment brewing in her chest with how intimately Brittany addressed the Baron of Thornville; not Lord, nor Master, but by his first name.

"If you were treated so well there, then why did you leave?"

"I don't want to talk about that, Santana," she said evasively, not meeting Santana's eyes.

It's the first time Brittany had shied away from conversation and so Santana did not press it.

TBC.

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