Characters: Retired Hunter Djura

Word Count: 1.559

Summary: Djura is hunting in Old Yharnam, getting doubts about if he is doing the right thing. The moment he dives in to save some beasts from being buried under a collapsed building, he gets into a dire situation himself.

The hunt had brought Djura once again to the remnants of Old Yharnam. The town had gotten it bad, the beastly scourge hit, hundreds of citizens turned and the Healing Church had ordered to burn the place to the ground before the infection could get out. Djura himself had helped with fulfilling the order. It had been before he had started to dream.

Djura was unsure what the dream wanted of him, he just knew that something in him drew him back to Old Yharnam again and again. There were still beasts left, not all of them had died in the fire. Maybe it was expected of him to hunt them, he was a hunter after all.

However, the more often Djura visited Old Yharnam, the harder it became for him to raise his weapon against the beasts still dwelling there.

These beasts... they once all had been human.

Further, when they attacked, it felt like it was out of fear and panic. Their bites never hurt much and when Djura brushed them aside, they normally would stay down. Also, they would be completely docile when confronted with fire. Judging by how Old Yharnam fell, it wasn't surprising.

Djura was asking himself more and more, if he was doing the right thing. The beasts never left Old Yharnam. Why hunt them down? The Church should just close the city down, nobody wanted to live there anymore anyway and leave the beasts alone.

As Djura was wandering through the city, lost in thoughts, he heard a sound to his right and when he looked up, he saw a few beasts huddled into a building, all of them looking scared and pitiful. He would need to go out of his way to hunt them down, they surely didn't mean any harm, they just tried to survive in a world that had given them up.

Who these beasts once had been, Djura asked himself. Maybe they were a family, maybe they were friends, maybe they were siblings. Questions he didn't had answers for, but it wasn't hard to imagine. Almost the whole town had turned. Eighty percent of the population if he had remembered correctly. He wondered if from the remaining twenty percent everyone had made it safe outside.

Djura stared at the beasts for a while longer. No, he wouldn't hunt them. They weren't a threat. If his presence in Old Yharnam meant, that he had to hunt something, it weren't them.

Djura turned his head to look at the path and lifted his foot to start walking again, when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes as well as heard a certain sound... debris crumbling on the ground.

He was in the building in an instant, practically shoving the beasts out of the way when the ailing house collapsed right on top of him.

When Djura opened his eyes, he wasn't back in the dream. In fact, he couldn't see anything, he was surrounded by darkness.

The embrace of death hadn't come to him, it appeared. That his body was stinging with pain was also proof. Djura didn't had to fear death once he had started dreaming. He didn't know just how it worked, but whenever he died, he would wake up as if everything had just been a bad dream. Just another nightmare to get through.

What he was concerned about was his current situation. He was trapped, buried in some rubble, apparently unable to move. This death would be slow and painful and could take a toll on his mind.

It would be better for him if he could escape his situation.

However, Djura had to quickly realize that there was no way out of his predicament. When the building collapsed at him, he must have broken a few bones. His body was not only flaring with pain, but he also seemed to be unable to move more than his right arm.

...Maybe he could manage to get to his blood vials. If he would be able to inject a few of them, his injuries should be numbed enough so that he could free himself.

Slowly, very slowly, Djura began the task of moving his right arm, the sound of more debris falling, muffled, as if he was hearing it through a filter. Of course, he was buried under a collapsed building, how should he hear any sounds from outside clearly?

His whole body ached. He didn't only break a few bones, he also must have suffered all kind of bruises, scraps and cut. He could taste a bit of blood on his tongue, but he knew that none of the injuries were worse enough to grant him a death of bleeding out.

Djura had great trouble even aligning the one arm he could still somewhat move so that he could start searching his pockets. Again and again he needed to stop and catch his breath, which was a problem by itself, because he was running out of air anyway. He needed to keep his breathing going steady, to save any air he still had while lying buried under debris.

Djura wondered if anyone would come into Old Yharnam, even though it was very unlikely, if they would check the rubble or if they would have just assume that nobody had been in here and only beasts had been buried by the collapsed building.

Djura clenched his teeth at this thought. They were more than just beasts. They were people. They were afraid, confused and …would need protection. Protection from hunters like him. However, as a hunter, Djura couldn't be the one who protected them, right? Even though he had done it only a few minutes ago, the reason why he was in his current predicament?

Djura took a few breathes, almost turning into a coughing fit because he seemed to have inhaled more dust than air, but he managed to calm his breathing down again. In the meantime, he had managed to align his arm from the former outstretched position into a position close to the right side of his body. Now he just needed to move his fingers and grab the blood vial from the pouch on his hip.

At first, Djura's fingers didn't want to move. His whole body seemed to shut down. He just laid there, his eyes getting droopy. No, he couldn't fall asleep. Djura opened his eyes wide, even though there wasn't much to see and worked on trying to get his fingers to work again. Finally he managed to brush against his hip, finding the pouch.

Djura groped into it for a bit, having to stop for a while once a wave of pain was washing over his body. He could feel that he was running out of air also, his body was desperately trying to get the last fresh breathes of air. He needed to be quick. Djura asked himself how long he already was buried under the rubble, it felt like it had been hours.

Finally his fingers cupped around the dearly needed vial. Now Djura only needed to get it close again to inject the blood vial into his blood stream, heal the worst injuries and gather the strength to free himself from the rubble. However, as soon as Djura had lifted the blood vial out of the pouch, another wave of pain hit him and he could hear the blood vial shattering on the ground, the healing blood moistening his hand and Djura knew he hadn't enough strength left to grab a second blood vial.

Injuries, blood loss and shortage of air, all aid to him getting more dizzy and as Djura accepted his fate that he would have to die another horrible death. Suddenly, there is light, so bright that Djura has to screw his eyes shut as his body takes a few desperate breathes of fresh air.

Once Djura opened his eyes, he saw a beast patient standing in front of him, excavating him from the debris. The beast growls when it notices that Djura stares at it, but relaxes when Djura doesn't make any hints at hunting it. How should he, he was barely able to move, but the more the beast put aside the debris, the more got a weight lifted of him and Djura was able to get another blood vial out of his pouch and finally heal the injuries he had suffered.

He stares at the beast patient next to him, which had stepped aside once it had finished excavating him, but hadn't left, staring back at him with big, fearful eyes.

"We gave up on you all once you became beasts.", Djura said. "But we were wrong. You aren't beasts, you are people. It doesn't matter how you look like."

Djura got up and inched closer to the beast, which took a step back and hissed and growled at him. "I won't hunt you anymore.", Djura said, crossing his arms. "You saved me. There is still some humanity left in you. I won't let anyone hunt you down anymore again."

The beast cocked its head. It didn't growl or hiss anymore. Did it understand Djura's words? That would strengthen his theory that they indeed were still people.

"From this day on, I quit being a Hunter.", Djura said. "I will protect you, no matter what."

(Author's note: I love Djura and I love that he is like "I'll adopt all of Old Yharnam's beasts and don't you dare touch them!"

He also has a line about "There aren't beasts but people." or something like that and when I look at the beast patients, they often just seem to be terrified of you and that is why they attack. You can easily fend them off by holding a torch and I like to think that some of them still remember bits and pieces of being human. Djura probably has been around so long in Old Yharnam once you meet him in game, that he can cuddle with them.

I hope you enjoyed this story and would love to see your thoughts in the comments.)