After killing the doxies with Saif, and then also helping him defeat a dozen of demon spiders that were being smuggled on a merchant ship, Nanashi felt different. In the village, almost everyone treated her different. Nanashi did have a nightmare or two about the doxies and demon spiders swarming her, but she was not afraid in her dreams. Rather she was determined to defeat them, even if she lost in her dreams.
In town, the people who used to shun her acknowledged her and engaged her in small talk. It was rather unexpected and she fumbled to remember names or for what to say. Kids danced around her now rather than running away. One even gave her a weedy flower snatched out of a garden. She kept it on her window sill in her bedroom.
Her uncle though... He was sulky about the fact that she was outed as a non-demon after the doxy attack. He looked like a liar or a know-nothing to the town. He got frustrated when a few townsfolk dropped off simple thank you gifts for her, baked goods mostly. Occasionally soap, lotion, and fresh fruits and vegetables. She knew Saif was receiving more.
When Saif received something, he would acknowledge it with a simple look and maybe a nod. When Nanashi got something, her uncle would shoo the givers away. It only led to the gifts being relocated to by the front door with thank you notes attached. Nanashi would get them and put them in the house. Her uncle still ate some of the baked goods, even though he tried to hide it.
One morning though, when Nanashi went to leave for training with Saif, her uncle stopped her, standing in front of the door so she could not get around him. "Where do you think you're going?" he growled down at her.
She looked up at him, perplexed. "Work. As the apprentice protector for the town," she said calmly.
"Not anymore," he informed her. "You never sought my permission for that job, so you're done with that nonsense."
Nanashi gasped slightly, not sure how to respond. "But- but- but my pay. You've been taking it. From the mayor-"
"I'm warning you," he interrupted her as he took a step towards her. "You are a minor yet. Under 17. You live under my roof. I make the decisions about what you can and cannot do for you."
She frowned up at him, not willing to back down from him. "If you don't want me being protector, then go tell the mayor and Saif that."
He backhanded her across the face for that insolent remark. "Demon bitch," he swore down at her. He reached down to her hips, yanking her knife off and its sheath from her. "I made this, and not for you," he growled.
"She's not demon, you fool," Saif's voice called from the doorway. Both Nanashi and her uncle watched him casually waltz through the front door. "She was scratched by a doxy and lived to tell the tale. No demon has ever done that." Saif stepped between them, yanking the sheathed knife from her uncle's hands with hardly any fight. He thrust it back to Nanashi. He walked away, towards the front door. "Let's go. One of you are going to train with me today as my apprentice. If you make me chose, you will not like who I choose."
"Hurry up," her uncle growled down at her. He tugged her turn shoved her towards the front door.
Saif was already on the move, so she had to rush to catch up to him. When she reached him, she walked in stride with him, putting her knife back on her belt.
"That was amazing," she huffed. "He was all like I can't be your apprentice anymore and you came it and spooked him into backtracking everything he said to me. Thank you." She smiled shyly at the thought that her uncle was scared of Saif.