#daniel.

The woods felt still as Daniel followed an animal trail. Leaves already began falling from the trees and covered parts of the ground. His feet avoided the leaves and twigs that would crunch under his step. He learned at a young age how to move silently through the woods, how to sneak up on something without being heard. He wasn’t hunting right then though; he was taking just one day off from thinking about work and hunting. His “vacations” were doing the same thing he did every day, except without a mission or purpose. These “vacations” happened once a year. He couldn’t allow himself more time than that. 

As he walked along an animal trail, he looked up at the tall trees surrounding him. Daniel decided to climb up into one for a bit, and he scanned the area for the perfect tree. He spotted one a little farther ahead, and he walked over to it, still moving silently through the area. Reaching up to one of the branches, he hoisted himself up, careful to keep quiet. He wanted to see how long he could keep up this silent movement. It didn’t last long, of course, as he grunted while getting to a branch farther up and when he snapped a twig that fell to the ground. 

Settling onto a branch, Daniel scanned the area around him. He noticed movement not too far from him, and he also sensed something nearby. He hoped that he could ignore whatever it was. But luck had its own mind, and Daniel spotted someone moving on the ground below him. He recognized her from the 3 Daggers, but he needed a moment to remember her name—he was terrible with names. He figured he could stay in the tree, hidden away, but he was also nosy and wanted to know what she was doing. He climbed down and then sat down on one of the branches close to the ground. “Hey, you,” Daniel greeted, keeping his voice low in case she was hunting something. “What brings you around to these trees?” 

—

The woods were the best place to witness the changing of seasons. Fall had barely started but even so, Daiyu could sense the minute adjustments nature was making. A few crunchy leaves, some fungi starting to pop up and a colder breeze passing through high and low branches. If she were a romantic, she'd wax poetic about it. But even with her pragmatic nature, she was able to approach it all with a certain level of sentiment. There was no arguing the beauty of a Maine forest, after all.

Today she wasn't just there to appreciate the prettiness of leaves, twigs and earth, though. As was often the case, she was here for a hunt. A baukbear needed tracking. It would be good to find its hiding place before the sun went down and the creature could run loose another night, but Daiyu was not feeling too rushed, as a good sweep of the woods never hurt and she had time to fulfill this hunt. Even so, a bounty claimed was a payment received, so she hoped to hit some kind of jackpot today.

She walked with awareness, the sounds of the forest like a familiar beat that always held some kind of surprise. She was not alone, as she never was in the woods: there were creatures all around, squirrels and birds passing through the branches. Insects crawling under her feet. Bigger beasts, too — natural and supernatural alike. She hadn’t expected a human voice, though, and when it reached her ears she whipped around, looking up. There was Daniel, a fellow ranger she’d seen in the bar a few times. In a tree. Daiyu smirked. “Trying to find something. What brings you in these trees?” She could think of a few reasons why a ranger would climb a tree. “Just chilling or?”

—

A smirk came across Daniel’s face as Daiyu looked up at him. He prided himself in his stealth, and he delighted with the knowledge that he sneaked up on her. “Just chilling,” he answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “Decided to take a day off from …” He trailed off and gestured towards the woods around them. “Whatever it is we do.” He recognized how ridiculous he may sound as he spent almost every moment of his life in forests. His trips to the bar were one of the few moments when he went into town, and those visits weren’t for fun. He spent his time in the bar collecting information for his long hunt or learning about the supernatural happenings in town. 

He patted the tree limb that he sat on. “Whatever you’re trying to find, I bet you’ll get a better viewpoint up here.” A bird’s eye view of his surroundings often helped him on his hunts. If he had time to prepare, he preferred knowing as much as he could about a landscape before getting too deep into a hunt. He wanted to know if he needed to worry about a cliff’s edge so he wouldn’t fall off it. “What are you searching for, anyway?” Whatever brought her into the woods was probably much more interesting than him climbing trees out of boredom. Daniel could cancel his “vacation” for an interesting hunt. 

—

The concept of a day off was a foreign concept for their kind. Sure, there were days where Daiyu did nothing but bedrot or exercise, but it wasn’t as if she could hit pause on being a hunter. And when in the woods? There was no shutting off the ranger-isms. She tried to have chill walks in nature, but they often ended up with her noting all kinds of things indicating beasts or monsters hiding among the trees. It was hard not to take stock of all the droppings and tracks. She snorted. “You might wanna try a spa next time,” she said. Knowing Wicked’s Rest, though, the spa would have lamia languishing in the sauna now that the sun wasn’t out as much. 

She considered his veiled offer for a short moment before tightening her bag’s straps and moving towards the tree. Daniel made a good point, but she also just wanted to prove that she could totally climb a tree. “Solid idea,” she said, starting to scale the tree. The beginning was hardest, considering her height, but once she got a solid grip on one of the first branches she’d surely get there. “A baukbear.” She hoisted herself up with a grunt, steadying herself on the branch. “Should be sleeping now, so hoping to find its den.”

—

“Yeah, maybe.” A spa sounded like the least relaxing place to Daniel. He had never actually been to one, but he imagined that other people existing around him would be annoying. He preferred ignoring his senses and just spending time outside. Certainly not the smartest thing for a ranger, but he didn’t make the best decisions anyway. He joked that his childhood of spending time with his dad and non-powered human friends made it easier to ignore his senses until something got close enough that it couldn’t be ignored. But Wicked’s Rest made it a bit harder for him; there seemed to be a larger amount of supernatural beasts in the area than other places he had lived. 

“I’m full of them,” he responded as he watched her climb up to him. (He was, in fact, not full of solid ideas). He nodded his head at her answer. “Still got plenty of time to find it.” He noted the position of the sun in the sky, seeing how she still had plenty of daylight before the baukbear blended into the dark of night. He glanced over at Daiyu. “Clearly, I ain’t got nothing going on if you want a hunting partner.” Want, not need. He already knew that she didn’t need help on her hunt. Nowadays, Daniel preferred to hunt by himself. He used to hunt with others all the time—rangers, wardens, slayers, it didn’t matter much to him—but he’d grown accustomed to the solitary hunt. But he wanted to get accustomed to hunting with others again. He would need it for when he went after the berserker. “Might need a second set of ears for when it slips out of sight.”

—

She hadn’t expected Daniel to take up her idea of going to the spa in earnest, as she had hardly made the suggestion in earnest herself. The very idea made her skin crawl, what with all the massages and skin treatments that those kinds of places tended to offer. Daiyu didn’t mind (most of) her scars, but having people comment on it that had no clue about the things she did was always a grating experience. Her forms of relaxation looked more like lying on the couch with her pets or battling waves on a surfboard.

“Yeah, true. Days are getting shorter though,” she commented, glad that fall was rolling around. It was better to hunt when it wasn’t warm out, after all. She continued to climb up, considering Daniel’s offer. There were rare occasions where Daiyu took up hunting partners, of course, often out of necessity rather than want or enjoyment. Today was not one of the days where she really needed one. If she found the den, she could take the bear by surprise during daylight hours without needing back up. That was how she tended to approach most hunts, anyway — by exploiting the beasts’ weaknesses. Daniel had done nothing to gain her distrust, though, even if he had it (like everyone did), and he wasn’t half bad company. She shrugged. “If you don’t annoy me too much you can tag along.” She sat down on a branch, flipping her backpack to the front. “Want a snack?”

—

“So they are.” Daniel enjoyed fall days, with the change of leaves, cooler air, and longer nights. He didn’t necessarily think about it from a hunting perspective, especially over these last few years when he only cared about hunting one specific berserker. Hunting other shifters meant little to him now. He’d join in on hunts, but he wasn’t necessarily seeking them out. His focus was completely elsewhere. 

He watched as she settled onto her chosen branch. “I’ll do my best to not annoy you,” he responded. “Stay out of your way. Keep focused on the hunt. Speak whenever necessary. You let me know whatever you prefer.” Daniel adapted to other hunters’ expectations of him. He knew that he could hunt in total silence, relying on hand signals and quick statements from the other. In fact, it was not too long ago that he and Eve hunted in total silence, although that was a forced silence. “Ain’t gonna decline a snack,” he answered. “What you got?” 

As they sat there, Daniel felt a shiver run through his spine. Then another one. He focused on the sensation for a moment before looking towards Daiyu. “I’m assuming you sense that too?” he asked, keeping his voice low, almost at a whisper. 

—

“You a summer or winter person? Or like, any of the other two, ha.” Daiyu could handle some small talk. Especially with another hunter — there was no need to pretend like life was all about a nine to five or something of the sort. A fellow ranger should understand the importance of seasons, what with most of their work taking place outside.

She’d just made a jab at Daniel when telling him not to annoy her, but his retort wasn’t even one. It was something that could almost be considered a kindness. Consideration. “I hate sitting in silence, so just speak all you want,” she said. She liked talking, when it remained on the surface and was made to fill space. She didn’t know Daniel well enough to sit in silence with him, unless the hunt demanded it. “Hmm.” She flipped through her bag. “Chocolate pretzels. Dried apricot. Jerky.”

She was about to offer Daniel some jerky when something tugged at her stomach. So much for her appetite. She nodded, stuffing the food back in her bag and zipping it shut as quietly and fast as she could. “Definitely do,” she said, eyes scouring the woods below them. “Could be anything.”

—

“Definitely fall. I like summer, but I’m always busy dealing with tourists in the woods. Fall is when things start slowing down.” He paused for a moment. “But it also means I get paid less. So…” he trailed off and shrugged his shoulders. “How about you?” 

Daniel nodded at her response. He would be fine with silence. Usually preferred it over talking. He found it easier to exist without needing to speak. Uncomfortable silences didn’t really exist for him. But he could make himself chattier when the situation called for it. “You can speak however much you want too.” He had somewhat been hoping to have a day of not talking too much, but this was fine. He knew that he needed to get to know other rangers in town. 

He would have taken her up on the jerky if it wasn’t for the sensations running through his body. Daniel knew it couldn’t be the baukbear because the sun was still hanging in the sky. He nodded his head at her response before remembering that he should probably say something. “Yeah, not sure either.” As he scanned the area, he paid close attention to the sounds below them. The sound of feet crunching on leaves grabbed his attention. He motioned towards the direction of the footfalls. “Over there. Still have a bit of distance before it reaches us.”

—

“Ugh, I know right? I hate it when they all crowd the woods when I’m trying to track something. Especially when they go off trail… idiots with a deathwish, some of them.” Daiyu could not judge the ignorant humans for breaking rules, but that didn’t mean she didn’t. “I like the end of fall, beginning of winter best I guess. Luckily I don’t depend on tourists for my income.” It wasn’t said with empathy, but also not with an intention to be mean. 

She would have taken Daniel up on his offer and talked the day (and night) away if she could have. Of course, there was no chance at such simple enjoyment among rangers in a forest. Even if Daniel was here for leisure, the woods near Wicked’s Rest still teemed with creatures. She strapped her back to her stomach again, hating the feeling of her guts whooping with instinct.

She didn’t know Daniel well enough to know if he had any kind of affinity when it came to his senses. There was no need to ask, though, as she followed his gesture and squinted through the branches, watching a wolf pad through the woods. “Hm,” she whispered, “Strange.” Plenty of werewolves turned outside of the moon’s phases, but it wasn’t all too common to come across one during daytime. Daiyu took note of the creature’s coat, trying to remember if there was a bounty out for a werewolf with that kind of pattern. “What d’ya wanna do?” She looked up at Daniel. Some hunters had simple instincts. See a monster, cull it. Some had complicated codes. Daiyu followed the money, and it wasn’t like the werewolf was carrying a bag of cash (as far as she could tell). She was down for anything, though.

—

“Yeah, some really do seek out death in these woods,” Daniel agreed. “Try to do my part by keeping them safe. I haven’t had too many encounters on hikes out here, but I’ve sensed things quite a few times. Luckily nothing happened, but,” he shrugged, “good to have me around.” He could complain about work and talk about how annoying people were, but he did like what he did. He enjoyed spending his days outside in the wilderness. It was as if the outdoors called to him, not just for hunting. Guiding people around the woods was one way for him to have an excuse to be outside and earn money for it. Of course, he also wanted to ensure the safety of people, and he focused on hikes to listen for or sense anything supernatural. Protection of humans was always his main prerogative as a ranger. “Winter is nice too. I like watching the snow.” 

After noticing the sound, he whispered, “Be right back,” and climbed a little further up the tree where he was before Daiyu arrived. He moved silently, avoiding places where he knew his weight would cause a creaking in a branch. Daniel retrieved his hiking pack where he attached it to a branch. He climbed back down to her. He was surprised to see a werewolf wandering around during the late evening, but he had seen strange things plenty of times (plus, he’d also heard rumors about weird things happening with shifters in town). He didn’t technically specialize in werewolves, yet they were the beasts he most often hunted throughout his life. Perhaps it was something about being almost killed by one and somehow surviving a bite in his early twenties that led to his fascination and interest in them. Not that he ever talked about that with anyone. That incident would always remain top secret. 

“It ain’t doing nothing but walking,” he replied. He wasn’t really sure about her hunting style. He only went after those that were actual threats, and he didn’t know anything about the werewolf below them. He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “We could just watch it. See what it does. Might just be out for a lovely evening stroll, like myself.” He spoke in a joking tone, but part of him was a bit serious. 

—

The thrill-seeking and reckless humans were probably lucky to have someone like Daniel on their side. Daiyu wasn’t sure how to express that kind of sentiment without coming across as fawning or weak, so she didn’t say it. But she thought it all the same. Sometimes she managed to get some humans out of danger, though her tactics left much to be desired. The instinct to help humans had not been lit in her like it had in some hunters and while she tried to recreate it, it did not always come to fruition. “Yeah, good to have you around,” she said, and she hoped that sounded casual yet sincere. “Earlier this year I came across this dad and his kid, so close to these charming tree worms. Wanted to see them for themselves. Idiots.” 

As Daniel went up the tree to do whatever he had to do there (Daiyu didn’t bother questioning it), she stared at the wolf. Moments like these were rare. Moments where she was faced with her usual targets just padding around. Like any other animal. When those moments did occur, they were usually a calm before the storm. Usually, she’d be cocking her rifle by now to take a shot from a distance, or be loading her bow if it was a bow and arrow kind of day. Usually, this was where she laid in wait with the element of surprise on her side, but today she wasn’t reaching for a weapon just yet.

She ripped her gaze from the wolf to Daniel as he spoke, no judgement in her gaze. She didn’t tend to judge other people’s hunting styles unless they inconvenienced her, and even though Daniel’s statement was atypical it didn’t bother her per se. “Sure.” She was here for the baukbear, after all. To fill the woods with sounds of a hunt would be counterproductive. “Gotta point out that just being out for a walk doesn’t say a whole lot about … how non-threatening is.” She offered a half-grin. “Plenty of dangerous people go on lovely little strolls.”

—

“God, they really do like to poke their noses in things they shouldn’t,” Daniel commented. “They do that with non-supernatural animals too. Gotta always convince them to keep away from moose.” As much as he cared about protecting humans, he couldn’t help but complain about their antics. Work was work, right? So many of these people seemingly had a death wish. They thought they could get as close as possible to large bull moose, snap pictures on their phones, and walk away without injury. Many did, sure, but he knew that even moose were temperamental. He wondered if people had any common sense or self-preservation. 

But even as he thought about that, he couldn’t help but not care about his own self-preservation as the werewolf wandered around below them. Daniel knew what he was doing though, unlike all the people he protected. He understood how to handle a werewolf. “Fair point.” He smirked at Daiyu. “Dangerous people can do all sorts of things. Like sit in a tree.” He playfully shrugged his shoulders. His tone was joking even if he was serious about the two of them. “Those dangerous people in trees might even be covered in weapons.” He might sometimes go mess around in the woods without a specific goal in mind, but it wasn’t as if he ever went unarmed. Now that would just be stupid. 

Daniel may have known better, but he wasn’t really wanting to go after this werewolf. He found it interesting to simply watch from high above. He had other instances where he watched shifters without the goal of hunting them, and maybe, just maybe, he liked seeing what they were capable of and analyzing their movements. Perhaps even using that knowledge for future hunts as he memorized how they carried themselves and interacted with their environment. “If you ain’t fixing to kill it,” he shrugged, “we could just let it alone.” It seemed to be moving along, away from them. “Keep ourselves focused on your hunt.” 

—

“People get so stupid when it gets to moose,” she said, head shaking disapprovingly, as if she didn’t think she could fight a moose. The fact that she thought that wasn’t enough to actually make her disturb the animals, though. Daiyu hunted non-supernatural animals at times, mostly to use it as bait for her own hunts, but she mostly stayed away from them. She liked them. It was a weird life, to both feel such an affinity for most creatures and to hunt so many others. She had long ago stopped trying to make sense of it.

Still, she remained hard-wired to feel different about normal animals compared to supernatural beasts. She could appreciate wolves for all their grace and danger, but werewolves still struck something within her. Something that made her think them wrong. Not that it was enough reason to make her drop down from the tree and immediately kill it, but the distinction was there all the same. “Oh, what? You don’t say.” She smirked. Though they were playful, the comments were true to her vision on life. There could be a hidden danger in just about anyone. The person behind the till at the supermarket, a father walking his kid in the woods, a hunter across the bar. “Now why would anybody possibly be covered in weapons?”

Her eyes remained on the wolf, watching it move around peacefully. It was uncharacteristic, but then perhaps someone might say the same about herself and Daniel in that tree. They were at peace now too, despite their weapons, just as the wolf was at peace, despite its claws and teeth. Daiyu nodded. “Yeah, let’s not bother.” She felt a tug in her stomach, a hint of worry that this was a test. Maybe Daniel wanted to have some kind of leverage on her, and to some hunters this could easily be seen as a sign of weakness. “You don’t see ‘em calm like that often, do you?” Daiyu did not consider that most of her interactions with werewolves involved her maiming them as a reason for that.

—

“I caint begin to tell you all the things that people get stupid over. I swear, it’s like they do things that I never would have imagined.” Daniel shook his head. “And some of the questions they ask … It’s like they’ve never stepped outside before. Makes me wonder if they’re even human. Which …,” he trailed off because he disliked thinking about if the people were actually human. Over the years of doing this type of work, he encountered a few oddballs that made him wonder if they were fae. Of course, he wasn’t an expert in that line of work by any means, but he spent enough time in his youth with the Farran family that he picked up on enough to keep himself safe. Of course, there were also moments when a group arrived for a hike, and he sensed that one or two were some type of shifter. Those moments kept him even more on edge than usual as they hiked—especially on the overnight backpacking trips when he refused to sleep in case the shifter came after the whole group. 

“I have no idea,” he answered. “Probably some strange people who know too much about killing.” Far too much, Daniel sometimes thought. He spent so much of his youth memorizing different creatures. He needed to understand what they looked and sounded like, where they lived, and why they were dangerous. But most importantly: how to kill them. He stayed on high alert in everything he did, prepared to kill at a moment’s notice. Even when he tried to relax and enjoy himself, he couldn’t put down his guard. Even on dates or spending time with a friend. He couldn’t trust anyone and just exist. Sometimes he felt jealous of people who didn’t feel so on edge every second of their life, thinking about killing or being killed. What did it feel like to walk into a room and not scan every inch of the space, analyzing the space for threats? 

Daniel found it a strange feeling how he and Daiyu sat there merely observing the wolf. For a brief moment, he wondered if she judged him for suggesting that they not kill it. Perhaps that’s why she said what she did about dangerous things being everywhere. True, just because it wasn’t doing anything didn’t mean that it wasn’t a danger. Yet he couldn’t convince himself to kill for the sole reason of killing it. He pushed the concern of her judgment away though—he cared so little about what other hunters thought of him anymore (except Eve. In the back of his mind, he felt like he needed to prove to her that he was still the same hunter from nearly a decade ago). If another hunter thought of him as weak for not killing a werewolf, he really didn’t give a fuck. Daniel knew his own abilities and skills—knew that he could take down this werewolf with ease. It mattered little to him what another ranger thought about him as a hunter. 

Her question brought him back to the moment, away from thinking about how he could definitely take on this wolf. “No, you really don’t,” he replied. “Usually all teeth and claws.” Teeth and claws that tore apart rangers that he knew in the past. Teeth that he saw right in his face before they dug into his shoulder. The brief memory made him stretch his neck and roll his shoulder from the dull ache that never left him. “It’s … I don’t know.” 

—

Judging people for their stupidity was an act of blatant hypocrisy that even Daiyu was self aware to recognize. Still, she went at it with great fervour and little hesitation. “No common sense at all.” She snorted. “Hell, they might not be. I met this shifter the other day while getting tea, and they definitely didn’t have any. Probably grew up in some kinda colony or something. Makes you wonder how the hell they got out here…” She thought back to that Guillermo for a moment, wondering if a better hunter would have helped them or would have killed them. Opinions would probably be divided on that one.

She snorted. “Fuck, we best be careful then.” Daiyu considered Daniel’s words for a moment. “What’s the limit on how much stuff you can know about killing you can know before it becomes too much then?” They probably both had surpassed it, if there even was such a limit. She didn’t ask to get an actual answer to make inspire her life philosophies — she was just interested in what the other would say. Not that she expected a deep dive into all his troubles with murder or love for the game.

The wolf movements were similar to those of a solitary wolf. She continued to look at it, enjoying the moment of quiet observing. Usually these kinds of moments would lead to violence, which always laid around the corner like an inevitability, but for now it seemed they’d let the wolf go in peace. She didn’t think of it like they were saving it, though. She just thought she was saving herself the trouble of going through a fight and another body to deal with. She thought back to the werewolf she’d killed with that inexperienced ranger last full moon, frustrated with the memory. Then her mind jumped to another thought: could this be Talia?

She shook off the idea. “Guess the same goes for us. Plenty of shifters and stuff only see us with our weapons and shit, but we can hang out in a tree just as well.” Daiyu looked at Daniel. “And this shit is rare, anyway. Wolves this calm … must be a born one.” She needed no justification for all the creatures she killed, but she wondered if Daniel needed one. The wolf moved underneath their tree, trodding off into the opposite direction than it had come from. She looked at the sky. “I’m losing daylight.”

—

Daniel pondered on her question for a few moments, mulling it over in his head. When did one know too much about killing? He said the comment in a joking tone, but it was something he thought about sometimes. Hunting and killing were in his nature, a core part of his existence, so he always knew and understood it even as a child. But there had to be some switch in his life when it was all too much. Maybe when he realized that he knew every method of killing shifters and creatures, and he used each of those methods throughout his years of hunting. He knew what it was like to see into a shifter’s eyes right before killing them. To see the pain, terror, and anger as he slit their throat and watched those emotions slip away with their final exhale. He still hunted with his assortment of weapons, but he preferred his hunting rifle now. Aiming and firing gunshots meant that he didn’t (usually) have to see their life fade away—although he always checked that they were in fact dead. Perhaps some of the too much was understanding the impacts of killing and death too. He learned to keep his emotions shoved into the deepest, most unreachable corners of his existence, to avoid feeling and expressing certain emotions, and so much of that was to not feel when taking a life. 

But Daniel found it difficult to not feel anymore. Death impacted his every day existence as he thought about all the loss in his life—from his hunter friends to his sister. After they died, he was left to … exist. To continue killing. But he still knew their faces and mourned for them. He saw them everywhere in so many little things. Sometimes while driving his truck, a familiar song played on the radio that took him back to a memory with Robbie. A familiar scent in a restaurant left him recalling the laughs and jokes at a hunter bar with his friends who passed away later. His sister haunted him the most though. He saw her everywhere—in creeks, forests, lakes, yarn, bandanas, butterflies, and the list goes on and on. Maybe knowing too much about killing was understanding how the aftermath impacted those who knew them. Knowing that with each life killed by his hands, someone out there mourned as he did. 

“Ain’t got a clue,” Daniel finally answered with a shrug after they sat in silence for a long moment. He didn’t plan to discuss all the thoughts that came to his mind. Those were things he knew to not discuss with other hunters—how could he explain to them why he hated hunting when they existed to hunt. They didn’t have any other purpose (in his mind). He refused to talk about his feelings or whatever with Daiyu. He liked her as a fellow ranger, but he didn’t want to get too close to her. One of them could die tomorrow or in a month, and he couldn’t handle losing another friend. Easier to not get too close with her. “But I think I surpassed it when I was … oh, I dunno, maybe twenty-eight or something.” He was certain that it was when he was twenty-eight, but he preferred to act a little stupid and uncertain with her. 

“Fair point,” he agreed. They were probably viewed as brutal bloodthirsty creatures. Daniel felt like one too. Even if he sometimes disliked killing and avoided it, some sort of desire ran through him—a desire that urged him to kill. For a moment, Talia came to his mind (a frequent occurrence for him). He suspected she was a werewolf, and he worried about keeping his identity secret from her. If she ever learned that he was a ranger, would she see him as only a ruthless killer? No, he didn’t want to think about that. “Yeah, I’d guess so. Only explanation for it.” 

Daniel followed her gaze and nodded his head in agreement. Once he heard the wolf out of his range of hearing, he looked over to Daiyu. “Think it’s gone now. We should get a move on if we wanna get to some hunting.” He paused as he tried to recall if she ever explained to him why she was hunting it. He usually liked to have a good reason for a killing, but he probably already acted strangely enough to her with his lack of interest in killing the wolf. He could ignore his code for the benefit of seeming like a normal ranger. “Although if you wanna walk and snack while we find its cave, I ain’t gonna say no to that.” 

—

She pondered on it herself for a moment. That question of how much knowledge of killing was too much. Daiyu figured it was a simple answer: the first time you saw the life leave someone’s eyes at your hands was the place from which there was no return. That wasn’t to say it was the limit, though. There were stretches and stretches of knowledge beyond that. It would be easy if it was just the first kill that left someone with everything they needed to know, but it wasn’t. (Still — she thought maybe it was too much all the same.) The first time she’d killed something she’d been younger than ten, a child still. If hunters were ever permitted to be that in the first place.

Numerous kills had come after. Every one made the jagged edges of the pain that came with it a little smoother until there was nothing left of her objections but a tiny, smooth pebble. She could say it had been too much when she’d been thirteen, or sixteen, or twenty one. But it had been too much the first time, when her father had watched with silent force as he demanded she kill a snow wasset. She’d done it. Chubby fingers holding a custom made blade, sinking it where she knew it would be swift. She’d held the fluffy creature until it died and had cried.

She didn’t hold her hunts now. She did not cry. She’d learned how to aim from a distance, how to use stealth to her advantage, how to make it go quick. She had learned how to deal with that feeling in your gut that came from seeing a corpse not too unlike your own. To see a beast struck down. To deal with body parts, with drying blood, with the stench of death and bodily reactions. It was too much knowledge — it had been too much when she’d left home and had not been able to make a life without it. There was too much death clinging to her. The only thing she knew now was how to dole it out.

When Daniel finally answered she was glad that his answer was somewhat curt. To give her thoughts any more room would be best avoided. She wanted to say something ugly and mean, to tell Daniel that that was awful late — but she didn’t want to. She swallowed it, feeling it stick down her throat, get lodged there. “Don’t have a clue either, yeah. But passed it too.” She offered a sardonic smile.