Nanashi kept training with Saif, wanting to learn more about how to channel her spirit energy. She could do only conjure up a few bursts of wind, wishing it was more. Saif did say it was harder for the human blooded to conjure energy attacks, but that she should keep trying.
One evening, after an easy day of training because Saif wanted her to rest up a little bit after all the training she had been doing, they went to Haruto's tavern for dinner. Since her uncle had been claiming all her wages for himself, Saif was paying for their meal that was given the 'protectors' discount' by Haruto. Nanashi felt a twinge of jealousy when she saw Haruto had hired a new worker, a young woman she had known from school. At least she was respectful and courteous when she served them.
The meal was stilted as they ate, which made Nanashi feel awkward as other people in the tavern watched the two of them, but Saif hardly seemed to notice. Haruto did take the opportunity to have a cup of tea with them after their meal.
It was midway through Nanashi drinking her tea when she heard the town's church bell ringing out in panic. She tensed up at the sound of it. The bell should not be ringing right now. It only rang for scheduled things, like the birth of a new noble, or a wedding, or the death of the king. Ringing right now, unplanned, meant one thing.
"Demons," Haruto breathed, standing up.
Saif rose up, telling Nanashi, "let's go." He was already running out the door.
She froze for a second. Haruto pulled her in for a quick hug before shoving her forward. "Go," he shouted after her.
Saif was impossibly fast. Even though he had trained her to run faster in the woods by chasing her around with his sword, but he still out ran her. She ran in what she hoped was the direction he had.
When she was running past the church, Saif suddenly appeared by her side, taking her by the wrist and yanking her to run faster towards the north of the town. "This way," he called behind himself.
"What... is... it...?" she panted out her question.
"Doxies," he swore under his breath.
Nanashi wished they could have been running the other way in that moment. She had learned about doxies in school. Tiny, hairy, black little demon animals who walked upright. They could fly. They would travel in packs of three. They also had razor like teeth and front claws that contained neural toxins that were poisonous to demons or part demons. One bite or scratch would be a death sentence. Now she and Saif, two demon blooded town protectors, were heading straight for them.
'Keep your eyes open,' she heard Saif say, but not aloud, rather in her mind. It was completely unexpected. 'You know what they are, good,' he continued. 'Keep your head on a swivel. Sometimes one of the three of them will sneak up behind you or come from your blind side. With your dagger, go for the wrists first. Slice them off, but avoid the blood. It's also toxic. Go for the neck after that, to decapitate a doxy.'
She nodded, more like bobbing her head up and down as they continued to sprint. She felt like they could hardly breathe by the time they reach the pasture that was usually full of sheep on the outskirts of the town.
They stopped abruptly at the gate. There were very few sheep left, and some of them were dead. Freshly dead. Like still warm and disemboweled dead. Nanashi tried not to panic as she scouted the area with her eyes.
"Where are they?" Saif asked aloud. He was scanning the area, too. "There!" he hissed, looking towards the left.
He drew his sword and charged toward a fresh sheep carcass. He had his sword out in a flash, cutting the hands off and then beheading a doxy she had not even seen before he attacked it.
"There's still two more, get your knife out and stay alert," Saif yelled.
Nanashi did as she was told, trying not to breathe too loudly so she could hear them.
To her right she heard a shrill screech and the sound of small feet pounding the ground. She screamed in panic when it sucker punched in the chest with its head, knocking her down to the ground. She dropped her knife to bring her hands up to the doxy's wrists. She held its wrists tightly. Her elbows were locked out in the air to keep its bloodied mouth away from her. She was close enough to its mouth to see the raw strips of sheep meat snuck in its teeth. It snapped its jaw at her over and over, trying to lunge down at her. It kicked at her torso. She felt so thankful that it did not have claws on its feet like it did on its hands.
Trying not to panic or get bit, she boldly rolled herself and the doxy so it was beneath her. She held its wrists fast to the ground as far away from its head as possible. It screeched and spat up at her viciously. Her arms were shaking, but she dare not relax for even a second. Squirming, she brought her knee up and shoved her lower leg down on its torso. She dug her knee between its rib cage, trying to choke it. Her only semblance of a plan was to make it pass out and then slice its head and hands off.
Much to her surprise, Saif appeared in front of her. He rammed his sword straight down into the doxy's skull, killing it instantly. She look up at him, seeing a faded purple light glowing underneath his white head band.
'There's still one more, somewhere,' he warned her. 'Get up.'
She nodded, trying to still her desire to retch. She rolled up to stand, picking up her knife on the way to a standing position. She held it ready in her right hand, looking around to see if she could spot the last doxy.
'There,' Saif said, turning to his right and sprinting towards the last one. It was standing up behind the body of a freshly killed sheep. It screeched at him. Saif ran at it and it ran at him. He sliced at it, cutting off only one of its hands. He swore in frustration. He had missed its other hand and head.
Both of them kept running the same direction they were headed though. Saif was still running away from her while the wounded doxy was running towards her. Nanashi steeled her herself and ran towards it. When she got close enough, she aimed her knife and sliced it across the doxy's throat. It collapsed before her, but had fallen slow enough that it manage rake its remaining claws over down the length of her inner calf.
She stared at her lower leg in disbelief as she backed away from the dying doxy. Her eyes watered, clouding her vision into a watery haze. She collapsed to the ground, feeling both cold and numb. This could not possibly be the way she died, so soon, so young, so suddenly. She buried her head in her hands, crying freely at the realization she was going to die within hours.
She felt someone come up behind her, pulling her into their arms comfortingly. "Sh," a gruff man's voice hushed her. "It's just a scratch." It was not Saif's voice, but she could not place it beyond that fact.
She shook her head, unable to speak. Whoever he was had to have known she was part demon, so now she was dead.
"Let her go, Mitsunari," Saif voice said on her other side.
Mistunari... She placed him now. He was the sheppard out in this flock. In his mid-twenties now. He had a wife, but she had passed away two years from illness. He mostly kept to himself nowadays. He must have been quick to sound the alarm when he saw the doxies in his pastor.
She yelped as she felt Saif pick her up. "Where's your home? She can rest there and I can look at her wound."
Saif followed after Sheppard Mistunari as he led them to his home. Sheppard Mistunari had a bigger home, two stories. It seemed so empty for just one man. Saif sat her down on the couch in Sheppard Mistunari's front room.
"Get me a rag and clean water," Saif ordered him as he pulled Nanashi wounded leg towards him. He shoved the sticky pant leg up to just above her knee. She looked down at the wound one more time and started to cry anew. "Why are you crying?" Saif asked her harshly.
Sheppard Mistunari had come back with a hand towel and a basin of water. He also brought a bar of soap He set the soap, water and hand towel down next to Saif. Then he sat down next to Nanashi on the couch. He looked so worried. She felt a wave of guilt wash over her, knowing she was going to die on his couch, in his house. "Hey, don't yell at her like that," Sheppard Mistunari told him. "She's just scared and hurt is all."
"That's not it," Saif retorted. "She thinks she's dying, when clearly she's not." He started to clean the wound. "It's shallow, so you won't need a healer. Not that this town has any of those either. Prejudice and all that of the demon blooded and talented."
She felt like she went sober all at once. She blinked to clear her vision. "What?" she murmured out thickly.
"If you were truly part demon, you would be writhing in pain or unconscious by now. Doxy toxin is said to feel like acid searing through your veins. Everywhere would hurt and unimaginably," Saif explained as he washed her wound.
"What are you saying?" she asked dumbly.
"You're not part demon," he dead panned.
She gasped at his words, not sure how to reply.
Sheppard Mistunari did though. "But her uncle told everyone she was half demon. That her mother was a wh- had slept with demons. That Nanashi was demon spawn."
Saif shook his head knowingly. "He was wrong."