I left the mill house. One may argue that exploring the village by myself would not be such a good idea given my... Physical attributes. But the only person I could ask, Royce, was already disliked by the village. My arrival, however short I keep it, would already hurt his reputation, and walking with me to show the village would hurt it even further.
I could imagine even now how the village folk would spread rumors that I have ''enslaved'' him to do my evil biddings. Such was the stories mothers told their children about monsters.
The stories of fishermen and Hunters would hold closer to the truth than, the ridiculous tales that women tell to scare their children away from mischief.
They deal with monsters on a regular basis, Fishermen would have to deal with water gnomes, grotesque beings that drown people in the water before eating their viscera on the coast, and on the open sea, mermaids, pretty monsters that lure and drown men and drag them under the sea, what they do after, no one knows. And poachers, though they prefer to call themselves ''hunters'', they live by the game the forest provides, and the forest, is most treacherous. Home to many monsters each uglier than the other. And then there are fauns, they are known and feared by every hunter.
Half human half animal, bipedal, and pretty enough to the eye that you could think that they are human when you only see their head and torso. Their males are muscular, and the females have a healthy look to them. One thing that fisherman and hunters would never disagree on is the saying ''Fight the ugly ones, for they are faster than you are, and not as strong, and run away from the pretty ones, for you can't hope to win.
And it was true enough, in their minds I would be the latter, I wasn't expecting a fisherman or a hunter to like me, in fact, I wasn't expecting to find either in this small village, there were no lakes or oceans nearby, and the hunters wouldn't be known as hunters, they'd hide as poachers, unless the lord hired a professional to hunt for meat.
Again, in such a small village, it was unlikely.
But it wasn't only hunters and fisherman that knew of the saying, it was common sense, just better engrained in the minds of hunters and fishermen.
As I approached the gate of the fence, I noticed that the watcher had changed, today it was a fat woman in her 30s, dressed in rough tunic, which left lower part of her belly in the open when she was yawning.
It made me think whether she could run fast enough to warn the village should a monster threaten it.
She, like the watcher from yesterday, was carrying a wooden handle with an arrowhead on top of it, not a spear tip.
She had brown, medium length unkempt hair, that seemed greasy enough to cook meat with its oil.
She couldn't run half a meter... I thought to myself. This village wouldn't last until next year as things were.
''Good morning!'' I waved my hand flashing a smile, I did hide my canines this time, I didn't feel the need to scare anyone.
But she was terrified regardless, she raised her spear, and didn't reply.
Could it be that they didn't tell the villagers about my arrival? I'd think that they'd at least have the decency to tell about it to the day's watcher.
I kept moving towards the village, not that I wasn't scared of the spear, but the watcher didn't strike me as a person brave enough to attack me.
She warned me '' Back off!'' But I didn't listen, dismissively replying ''Yes, yes.''
I kept pushing on, opened the fence door and moved past her. I suddenly felt a sharp pain to the lower left side of my back.
I saw her running away from me, leaving the spear lodged in my back, I fell to my right, avoiding pushing the spear further by falling to my left.
I saw her figure running away from me. I concentrated on her, unbeknownst to her, her ''eye'' was in my left hand, one squeeze and she'd, she'd...
Images of Marisa came to my eye, her bright smile…
I let the eye dissolve, allowing her to escape, the pain was becoming too much. My vision faded, I heard shouting and footsteps, hurrying towards me.
I tasted iron and realized that I was gritting my teeth. When you grit hard enough with long and sharp canines like mine, you pierce your gums, I learnt that some odd 900 years ago.
I stopped gritting only to realize that the pain in my gums were the only thing that was keeping my attention away from the pain of my wound.
Soon the sounds and feelings also faded. I knew this feeling. I was going to faint. I simply let go, surely, I would feel no more pain after I fainted. It was welcome...
An: 1st fight scene will appear on the next chapter. If you like that kind of thing.