Hunting a Predator
Melva had her eyes fixated on Vance's chest where her dagger had slashed him. His expensive shirt was ripped and blood seeped into the cloth. The tear of the clothing revealed the nasty slash wound on his pale chest.
However, the longer she stared at the wound, the more it healed over time. She had been concerned about the injury, thinking about tearing the hem of her hunting dress and wrapping it around his chest. Before she could treat his wound, it was already healing itself.
"You are already healed," whispered Melva, so shocked at the speed of Vance's healing progress that she made no comment on his teasing remark.
On his pale chest where there had been a long slash wound, there was nothing now, not even a scar or a trace of the wound. It had completely healed and restored his skin, like it had never been injured before. How could that be possible? It had barely been minutes since she had put the wound on his skin.
Demons could do a lot of impossible things. Perhaps, this was only one of their talents. Being able to heal themselves would make them a lot stronger and harder to kill. This was unfair for the humans who lived in this world, side by side with them.
Humans would not hold a candle against them. If humans were to fight them, they would be fighting a losing battle. Was that why the humans in this kingdom chose to work for the demons instead of declaring a war against them?
"You do not know that?" Vance raised his eyebrow in genuine surprise. "You seem to be familiar with werewolves. I thought you at least knew what we could do."
"I heard rumours in my town," explained Melva. "The townspeople have created folklore about the demon races and spread it amongst the humans. I do not know where they found out about the demons in the first place to make up the stories that hold a little bit of truth in them."
Vance shrugged. "I am not sure. Some of them probably met some of us before. I visited your town when we formed the contract. I can assure you that they were not very hospitable."
"Are you saying it is their fault, Your Grace?" Melva was offended, because he was bad mouthing about the townspeople in Ichorhold, the people whom she knew personally. "Perhaps, you were the one who attacked them first, thus they denied you from their lands. They let me, an unknown girl from nowhere who lost her memory, to live amongst them. They even gave me a house to stay in. Is it not hospitable? I think it depends on whom they deal with."
"Then why are you here?" demanded Vance. "If they are hospitable, they will not send you here. Or am I wrong?"
Melva gritted her teeth in irritation. While she knew how to get on his nerves, he also knew what could irk her. They were good at annoying each other, which would not help them at all to be hospitable towards one another. Not that they had that kind of intention in the first place.
Vance hated her guts for making him appear weak from needing her touch to survive. Melva hated hia guts for caging her inside her manor and taking the townspeople of Ichorhold as hostages to threaten her. They both despised each other, but at the same time he needed her and she needed him, thus they had no choice but to tolerate each other's presence.
She had no answer to his question, because he was right, even if she hated to admit it. The townspeople had sent her to Nightwind as a bargain. They saw her as a means to protect their town. She was nothing but a tool to them.
"You ruined my clothes. This is my favourite shirt," whined Vance as he examined the damage she had done to his expensive looking shirt. "Wait here while I go back inside and get a new shirt."
He then left the practice field and headed back towards the manor. Wilber, who had followed the Duke outside and had been standing by the sidelines, was quick to assist him, leaving her alone at the field. This was an opportunity for her to grasp.
Vance should have known better than to order Melva to do anything. She would never willingly follow his command. Abandoning the order given to her, she left the practice field and walked with only one destination in sight: the forest.
She had sheathed her daggers and readied her bow and arrow, preferring archery than blade combat at the moment, because she was better in archery, more than anything. She had memorised the path going there when she had gone in the morning with Corbett, therefore it was easy for her to find her way even if the sky was darkening.
The sun had started setting as she left for the woods. But hunting at night was when the fun began. The night creatures were all out in the open, hunting for prey. She would surprise them by hunting the predators instead of the preys.
She had been itching to hunt since she had been given a taste of the woods earlier this morning but had to be interrupted before she had done anything. She was unable to keep her heart from beating excitedly at the thought of hunting again. This time, she was determined that she would come out of the forest bringing game with her, preferably a wolf to intimidate Vance so that she could make it clear to him that she was not afraid of him.
The forest was eerily silent as though there were no animals habitating there, but she knew it was not true because she could spot the traces of the animals that they had left behind. Claw marks on the barks of the trees, holes on the ground that they had dug, different kinds of animal footprints. She recognised all of them and she could more or less guess what they had been doing.
She kept walking stealthily as she searched for a river. Animals needed drinks. The predators knew that and of course, she knew that, too. The night creatures would wait by the river, hiding somewhere nearby and concealing their presence. They would wait until a prey came to drink and then they pounced on them all of sudden, catching their prey off guard and easily winning the fight.
Surely, she would not let that happen. She came here to prevent the predators from winning their fights. She came here to hunt the predators while they were hunting their prey.
When a river came into her sight, Melva searched for the nearest and the tallest tree, yet the easiest to climb. After deciding which tree to climb, she did so and waited on top of the tree, watching from above. She would get the greatest view from up there without obstacles.
She waited and waited, lifting her bow and readying her arrow. She was prepared to shoot at any moment from now. An aim was all she needed.
After what seemed like an hour, an innocent deer approached the river to drink. It was alone and defenceless. She almost felt bad for the deer, knowing that a predator was probably waiting in hiding to pounce on it.
She searched its surroundings and she found a grey coloured wolf lurking behind the bushes, keeping its body low to the ground, ready to attack. She quickly aimed her arrow at the wolf that was hiding and waited until the chance appeared to shoot at it. She tried to find other wolves, but she couldn't find any. It was weird, though, to find the wolf was alone during hunting.
Wolves always hunted in packs. She wondered what had happened to this one. Was it separated from its pack? Or did its pack operate differently than what wolves normally did?
Whatever the reason was, it was an advantage for her. There were no other wolves which would save it from her and no other wolves which would hunt her either from harming their pack member. The situation was almost perfect for her and she found it difficult to believe.
With a precise aim, Melva shot her arrow towards the wolf and the arrow planted itself on the wolf's leg, making it lose its balance. The moment the arrow was shot, the deer fled in fear, leaving her alone with the wolf.
The wolf angrily searched for its attacker and it found her on the tree. It limped towards her, but she was quick to pierce an arrow through its other leg, dropping it to the ground. The wolf was very strong as it determinedly dragged its legs to approach the tree she was hiding at.
Melva shot another arrow through its stomach to immobilise it completely, finding herself rather anxious to see how the wolf was not intending to give up in retaliating. She could only breathe easily when the wolf collapsed on the ground after the third arrow hit it.
However, when she was about to climb down the tree to claim her game, the wolf stirred and she gasped as she watched it slowly change its form, turning into a young woman with grey hair that was completely naked, covered in blood from the wounds Melva had inflicted on her.
She had hunted a werewolf.