“I wanted to become a Demonslayer if I ever got away from the village. They often hunt animals and cut them
open to bleed them in order to create traps to attract Demons so they can slay them. I knew they would draw their attention, and the more distance between me and them, the likelier I could get away. We know enough about Demons that they’d rather go after the smell of a dead human who is easy food, than to attack a human running away from it.”
“That was... intelligent of you.” He turned from her and started leading their path once more. He heard her footsteps follow before she came up beside him. “You wanted to become a Demonslayer?”
That was curious. None of his other offerings had wanted to become one of those hunters.
“They are supposed to be people with little fear,” she answered quietly. “The more a human smells of it, the more it attracts Demons. Some believe that if you do not hold any, you can’t be smelt by them at all and can remain hidden, even in the night. I’ve never been much of an afraid person, even when I was a child.”
That wasn’t true. Demons could smell a human regardless of if it was afraid or not, but yes, not having fear made it harder to.
“You smell of it,” he told her. He wasn’t sure if she was lying to herself, but he could tell she was afraid.
“I never said I couldn’t feel it!” she yelled, making his head rear back. Her eyes widened, and she quickly cleared her throat. “What I meant to say was, yes, I know I’m afraid, but not like everyone else. I was hoping if I trained with the guild that they’d help me erase it completely.”
Hmm. That is indeed an intriguing notion.
“Why did you want to become one? To protect people you care for?”
“No.” Her voice was quiet as she said, “There is no one left for me to care for.”
It was then that he noticed how much her teeth chattered from the cold. He looked to her bare feet to see her dress
was much shorter now and came to almost her knees.
“I just wanted to be able to travel the world freely. Killing loathsome Demons along the way would have been a bonus.” She looked to him for a moment. “I’m sure that might be the last thing you want to hear.”
“Not at all. I am not a Demon.”
She gave a short laugh as she looked away from him once more.
“I guess that’s true.” She pulled her hood more firmly over her head before she wrapped her arms around her centre and rubbed her arms as though for warmth. “What are you anyway? No one really knows.”
Orpheus wasn’t even sure what he was. There was some belief that he was part-Demon, part-human, part-other. Most just considered Duskwalkers as other, putting them in an unknown category. One of the many unanswered questions.
“Why do you keep looking away from me?” he asked instead of answering her. “Are you that disturbed by me now?”
He couldn’t hide the irritation in his voice. He didn’t like that she couldn’t even look upon him at all.
“With human blood on your face, making it obvious you’ve just eaten one? Well, yes. I find that rather creepy to look at.”
Hmm... He knew humans found the blood of their own kind disturbing. He reached down and dug his fingers into the snow to feel it munch around his glove.
“I did not finish eating him.” He started rubbing the wet powder on his face. The heat of his body melted it enough to wash the blood away. “I came to find you instead.”
“To eat me?”
“No, to find,” he corrected sharply. “It helped that I did not discover you running.”
He’d been hunting her, and he was unsure of how he would have acted if he’d had to continue chasing her. It would have made those cold numbing hands squeezing his
mind grip more forcibly. It had actually eased when he’d seen her standing there in his red hazed vision, almost as if she was waiting for him.
Part of him wanted to eat her, the desire to eat humans ever present inside him, but another part of him had wanted to find and protect her.
“Standing still had actually helped?”
“Yes.” He most likely would have clawed into her upon her capture and spilled her blood. Hunger and thirst would’ve pierced him, and he would have truly ended her.
He finally turned his head towards her when he was finished cleaning his skull. “There, is that better?”
She peeked at him slowly before she turned her face to him completely. “Much better.”
His eyes wandered over her shivering form as they continued to walk at the slowed pace he’d set.
“You are cold. I cannot carry you on my right arm currently, but I’m sure I could hold you with my left.”
He offered his arm out to her.
She scrunched her nose, making the bridge crinkle as her gaze took on a concerned hint. “But you’re hurt.”
“You weigh nothing to me. You will not tire me any quicker than my wounds.”
“Well... I guess it would be warmer.”
“Come, little human.” He gestured his hand out to present more of his left arm for her. “Let me melt your heart.”
His vision took on a purple hue, his eyes turning to that colour, when pink began to rise in the arch bones of her cheeks accompanied by the tiniest peek of a smile. It was the first one he’d seen from her soft looking lips, and it caused heat to swirl in his gut and steal his pain from him completely.
