The sun flared brightly above.

The grass wilted in the scathing heat.

Her lungs burned.

Her eyes were hazy.

And a trail of fresh blood dribbled from her mouth.

She let out a rattling breath.

The blade was buried deep in her chest.

And the poison burned through her veins.

Yet she pushed onwards.

A whirlwind given human form.

She tore through them like paper.

In a dance of death of which she was the master.

Their bestial howls dissipated upon her blade.

She culled them with an efficiency that sowed doubt in the fear they inspired.

Until finally, in the dead of night, she stood alone.

Her body was wracked with coughs.

Until the earth was painted as red as the blood smearing her blade.

A red darker than any rose.

She was, without a doubt, acutely aware that she was dying.

And yet she smiled.

For as she turned towards the horizon, she could see that the town walls still stood.

The distant lights a sign of fragile life.

Her charge was safe.

Her mission fulfilled.

She would receive no thanks.

She would receive no reward.

Yet, she had no hesitation in her satisfaction with the outcome.

An unenviable paragon of heroism.

Even as her legs failed her and she collapsed to the floor.

She felt no regret.

No fear.

No sadness.

An inhuman nobility.

A sickening self-sacrifice.

A creature playing at fairy tale.

Even as her vision darkened.

And the cold set in.

Even as her brilliant white cloak was dyed a color of death.

And her fingers lost their grip on her blade.

She continued to smile.

A horrifying sight.

Even I felt so.

Such a ghastly acceptance of death.

An emotion I was cursed never to comprehend.

Was she truly any different from the beasts she slew?

For as her last breath weakly escaped her cold lips.

She wished only that her daughter could be as wonderful a huntress as she.

Condemning the poor girl to her tragic fate.

I shivered and closed my eyes in disgust.

And so lied a monster in all but name.

Joyously scattering its petals in the wind.

A simple soul indeed.

How sincerely I pity thee.