Part I

Chapter Two

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Kaze dumped her pack at the foot of the single queen-sized bed, which rested against the wall in the center of the square room. The place was modest and small, but comfortably furnished. She turned to Izaak, who, after shutting and bolting the door, had set his pack on the small table near it and started shrugging off his cloak. "Mind telling me what's going on now?" She demanded. "No cocky assurances, no jokes…what is up with you?"

Izaak sighed. He unbuckled his sword and Divine Retribution, propping the blade against the wall behind the door and laying the gun on the floor beside it. Then he crossed the short distance to the bed and sat heavily on its edge. After a short silence he stated, quietly, "My home town was attacked by werewolves."

Kaze's eyes widened. She positioned herself cross-legged on the bed next to him, set her elbow on a knee and propped her chin on her fist, waiting patiently for him to continue.

"A lot of it was destroyed. A lot of people lost their homes and livelihood…a lot of people were killed."

"Your family…?" Kaze ventured.

Izaak shook his head and managed a small, reassuring grin. "My family was fine. Don't worry about that." The smile disappeared. "But others were killed…people I knew. Some I called friends." He glanced down at his hands. "We lost so much…the town was devastated. We rebuilt everything, sure…but it was never the same. I left, soon after, apprenticed myself to our master. It was that that made me decide to become a demon slayer. So that I could make sure nothin' like that ever happened again. I was fourteen at the time."

Kaze was silent for a few moments. Then, quietly, "I never knew."

Izaak snorted. "Of course not! I never felt the need to tell you, didn't want you involved in somethin' that you didn't need to worry about. Besides, it never really came up. We were busy training and fightin' demons, not werewolves. Haven't seen hide nor hair of one for years!"

It was Kaze's turn to sigh as she digested this new information about her friend. Then she frowned slightly. "So what we were told before about this mission…you knew…"

"Yeah. It was sorta similar to how things got started for us. I didn't actually think much of it, initially, but then I remembered how it was…" He shrugged. "Could have been anything, though, really. But I had done some research on my own about werewolves before you came. Learned a lot about them. Everything I could. Spoke to some experts, other hunters…and I came across this legend. It was a story tellin' how, occasionally, these small, isolated towns, here and there, would be attacked and destroyed by large numbers of werewolves. Not in the same area; it'd happened in places scattered all over. But that's really unusual. Werewolves just don't gather together like that. And definitely not for these seemingly random bouts of destruction."

"And that's what happened to your town."

"Yeah. It was really weird. And there's been a rough pattern, time-wise. I wouldn't have thought much about werewolves with the evidence we've got, but it seems to be occurring at just about the right length of time after the last episode…my home…"

Kaze shook her head. "Heh. Great. So we've got an army of werewolves on our hands?"

"Maybe. I don't know for sure yet, it may be somethin' completely different." Izaak shrugged again. "We won't know anything else until we investigate some more. I'm not a fan of digging around in the dark, but the villagers still may be hiding something, so I'd rather not have their interference tomorrow." He stood up and stretched, arms over his head. "Why don't we catch some shut-eye? It's only…" He glanced at his watch. "About eight, and we've had a long day. We'll get up just after midnight and take a look around." Turning, he roughly tousled his partner's hair. "Besides, I saw you spacing out at the table earlier!"

She ducked and batted his hands away. "So? That's what you do when you stare into fires!"

"Uh-huh." He smirked.

"Uh-huh is right." She yawned. "Now leave me alone and go to sleep."

* * * * *

The night was quiet and peaceful, wind breezing gently through the towering pines. Branches rustled softly, but were not loud enough to disturb the silence within the dark room. The curtains were drawn together, shutting out most of the outside moonlight, and the only sounds were the faint, regular breathing of the sleeping occupants.

After a while, a light, careful padding came from outside the door, stopping just beyond it. The doorknob was cautiously tried, but abandoned as the door was found to be locked. A moment later, small, metallic clicking noises preluded a quiet snik, and the deadbolt slid back. The door opened slowly inwards, letting out a short-lived creak before it came to a halt. A shadowy figure slid through the opening.

It surveyed the interior for a moment, and, finding nothing amiss, stole silently over to the bed. Withdrawing an object from somewhere inside its shirt, it hesitated, pondering the figures under the covers. Then it raised the object above its head. A shaft of moonlight caught the item, revealing it to be a simple, but wickedly sharp dagger. Suddenly, the figure plunged the blade into the nearest form.

Immediately, out of the darkness, a second figure whirled into motion, striking the first and sending it flying to the ground, where it landed with a cry. The tip of a broadsword was placed to its neck, and a voice growled, "Don't. Move."

A lantern flickered into existence, and Izaak shook the match out, setting the light on the table. He leaned back against the door, closing it and crossing his arms. "Well, what do we have here?"

Kaze stood above the intruder, holding him at sword point with Izaak's weapon, the first she had grabbed on her way up from her place at the foot of the bed. She had taken a less direct approach on her attack, wanting to circle around and send him to the floor where he couldn't use the blankets as a possible weapon. The path she had chosen took her to the broadsword, which she grabbed to use.

The intruder, however, turned out to be no more than a boy, now with disheveled brown hair, maybe twelve or thirteen at the most, dressed in simple jeans and a dark green sweater. "Hey, aren't you the serving boy from the tavern?" Izaak asked.

Sure enough. Kaze's eyes narrowed. "Explain yourself."

The boy stared with wide, frightened brown eyes. "Please don't kill me," he whispered.

"Answer the question."

He swallowed. "I just wanted to protect…just…don't kill my brother! Please!"

Huh? Kaze risked a quick, questioning glace back at Izaak, who looked just as bewildered. Strengthening her grip on the sword, she held it closer to the boy's neck. "What?" She demanded.

"It wasn't his fault!" He blurted. "He didn't do anything, not really…he couldn't help himself, mostly, and no one else died, he made sure of that! And everyone else…they don't believe, that's why they called you in…I'm sorry, I just didn't want anything to happen to him! I didn't mean to hurt anyone!" He seemed close to tears now.

"…" Kaze slowly lowered the sword. Izaak came over and helped the boy up. "It's okay, no harm done. We wouldn't be very good demon-hunters if we'd let ourselves be done in that easily, would we? Now why don't 'cha sit down and tell us what's going on? What's wrong with your brother?" Izaak reached the bed and shoved the covers out of the way, revealing pillows underneath. Kaze took a moment to mourn the mauling of the topmost quilt. It had been hand-made, a log cabin design with friendly looking teddy bears spaced over it. She fingered the jagged rip. Maybe it could be repaired…she sighed.

"They didn't tell you?" The boy questioned, as he sat on the bed. "My brother…he's the werewolf. He's the one that's been causing all the trouble, but you can't really blame him! He's just trying to get food to eat…just a few livestock. He doesn't want to kill anybody!"

"Your brother's the werewolf? How do you know?"

"He comes into town occasionally, at night, to visit me. He's hiding out, doesn't want to be caught. Do you know what they'd do to him? They'd kill 'im for sure! That's why you're here…isn't it?"

Kaze shook her head. "We're just here to figure out what's going on. If your brother hasn't done anything, we've no reason to hurt him. But what about the two people who were killed? If it wasn't your brother, than who?"

"I don't know about the first guy, but my brother didn't do it. My brother was the one who 'disappeared.'"

"So there's at least one other werewolf, then. The one who turned your brother," Izaak commented.

"Yeah. I guess so," the boy said sadly.

"Is there any way we could speak to him? Your brother, I mean?"

He hesitated, unsure. "I don't know…I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"We can't do anything to help if we can't find out more of what's going on," Kaze said.

"…I just…"

At that moment, the door banged open, startling the three. A man entered, gasping for breath. "We need your help…there's been…another death." The boy paled and took in a swift breath. The man glanced at him and frowned once before turning his attention back to the demon-hunters. "Come, quickly!"

* * * * *

The demon-hunters were rushed across town (not that it was very far), along a snow-covered dirt path to an old stone well just beyond the circle of light given off by the few lampposts dotting the streets. The graying wooden roof over the structure had fallen into disrepair and looked about to collapse at any moment. Newer, but still weathered, wooden beams supported the mechanism used for raising and lowering the bucket.

"You guys still use well water here?" Izaak asked as they approached.

"Some of us prefer it. But we've also got a water tower just inside the tree line back there that we pump water from," the man who had fetched them replied.

There was a commotion about the well. Kaze picked out Nathan, the mayor, and the local sheriff, who was trying to shoo off several scared villagers demanding answers. As they neared, the major took notice of them, and spoke a few words to the sheriff. Then he jogged up to meet them. Kaze heard the sheriff ordering the townspeople back to their homes.

"Thank you for coming so quickly!" exclaimed Nathan. "Come, the body's over here."

Kaze turned to the boy who had followed them down here. "Wait here." He nodded, eyes wide.

The mayor led them around the far side of the well, where they could see, now that the villagers were clearing out, what used to be a middle-aged woman, dressed warmly against the chill. It appeared that she had been mauled and then eaten by some type of clawed animal. There wasn't much left, but she was still identifiable. After taking a good look, Kaze began examining the perimeter of the site, while Izaak knelt to inspect the body and the surrounding tracks. He growled in annoyance.

"They've trampled everything!" he said angrily, referring to the villagers. "I can barely make heads or tails of this mess."

"Sorry sir," replied the sheriff. "I did the best I could; only just now got everyone to leave the evidence alone."

Izaak grunted, then muttered under his breath about the incompetence and lack of common sense of these idiots and people in general. He called over to Kaze. "You havin' any luck over there?"

"A little. They didn't get very far out," she said, referring to the villagers. "There're signs of something large moving through the brush and…ah! Looks like some footprints, too."

Izaak got up and walked over to Kaze. She knelt and pointed out the wolf-like prints. They were huge, as wide as both of Kaze's spread hands together, with deep gashes in the ground at the tip of each toe, marking the claws. Izaak studied them intently for a few moments.

"Hmmm. These look like the back feet. I don't see any hands…there!" Izaak shifted to the side. "Here you can see the impression of finger tips. And there's a full palm print over there." He stood up. "Looks like he's keepin' to his feet for the most part, but using his hands occasionally, for support. So…he must be in a gauru form. We'll have to be careful." His eyes narrowed as he considered the evidence more closely. "Wait a minute…" He stalked around in a circular path back towards the well, eyes on the ground. "If you ignore where the villagers came in…it looks like there was another scuffle here, not involving the victim. Yes! There're at least two sets of werewolf tracks, but it's really hard to make out." Kaze and Izaak conversed quietly for a short while longer, before Izaak approached the mayor and sheriff again. He explained their plan, while Kaze took the boy aside.

"Hey, kid…"

"Sean," he said, indignantly. "My name's Sean."

"Sean. Look…we don't know who did this. If it was your brother or…"

The boy quickly shook his head. "No! It's not him, it couldn't be…he wouldn't do something like this…" he trailed off, worried and unsure.

"No, no, of course not…" Jeez, dealing with kids was hard! How did Izaak make it look so easy? "Look, we've got to track down whoever it was, and your brother may be involved…he may be able to help us. But," she hesitated. "I don't know how he'll react if he sees us. I mean, he doesn't know us like he knows you or the other villagers, you understand?" Sean nodded. Kaze took a deep breath. "So…do you have anything, some object maybe, that would help us convince him that we're trying…to help you…or something?"

Sean dropped his eyes and thought for a moment. Then he rummaged around in his pocket. He withdrew an item and flipped open the cover. It was a brass compass attached to a matching chain. "I have this. He gave it to me last summer. I take it everywhere with me. It's got my name engraved on the lid, see?" He pointed.

"May we take it?"

The boy obviously didn't look too pleased at the idea, but he gingerly held it out for Kaze to take. She nodded once and pocketed the item. "Thank you. Now you'd best head back to your home. It's not safe out here anymore. We'll let you know if we learn anything."

He clearly wanted to stay, but turned and ran back into the village. Kaze signaled to Izaak that they were good to go. He bid their hosts farewell, then joined her at the pathway through the undergrowth that appeared to be the creature's means of departure. Then, after one last gaze around the small clearing, they stepped off into the darkness.

* * * * *

to be continued…