A Hunter's Journey

Chapter 1: The Outsider

The reply she received was totally unexpected. "And if I said I won't?"

The girl became angered. "Then you get your choice of how I knock you out. Either I strangle you or drag you to the ground. So, which is your fancy?"

"Neither appeal to me."

With his words as her signal to start, the girl concentrated all her might into her right hand. Her power cursed down the whip to the tips, trying to send the youth sailing through the air. But it didn't. In fact, all either loops passed through the youth's body without losing their circular form.

"What the---?"

More dumbfounded then surprised, the girl stood rooted and dazed. After all, here was an opponent who had beaten an attack that incorporated every bit of skill she possessed without so much as lifting a hand.

The youths mount started to walk away calmly.

Though she remained in her absent-minded stupor for a bit, the girl wrapped her fallen cape around herself and scrambled after the youth with speed that was hard to believe from such a body as hers. "Hold up. I apologize for that craziness just now. I'd like to you to hear me out. I just knew you were a hunter. But I'm guessing you are a Darkmoon."

The youth finally turned his eyes to the girl.

"I am right aren't I? You are a hunter and I wanna hire you!"

The horse stopped.

"That's nothing to joke about," the youth said softly.

"I know, I know. But I need some kind of hunter. And I'm well aware what fearsome opponents the Darkmoon fight . Even though one hunter out of a few thousand can be a Darkmoon, your chances of beating everything is still fifty fifty right? I know all that. My father was as hunter too.:

A slight emotion stirred in the youth's eyes. With one hand he pushed back the brim of his hat. Long and thin and cold, his dark eyes were quite clear.

"What kind?"

"Werewolf."

"I see, so that's where you get that trick with the whip," he murmured. "I'd heard all of the Hollowed in these parts were all killed off in during the Cleansing War. Of course, that was many years back, so we can't put much trust in that. So, you want to hire me? I take it someone in your family or one of your friends has been attacked. How many times have they been preyed upon?"

"Just once, so far anyway."

"Is the mark of a burn or a scar?"

The girl hesitated for an instant, then laid her hand on a glove covering her left hand. "See for yourself."

The wind cried of wild beasts streamed like banners across the darkening sky.

On her left hand right in the center of her palm was the changing burn mark that was switching shapes upon her hand.

The youth tugged down the scarf shielding his face. "Judging by that wound, it's of a Hollow of a strong power. It's surprising you are still sane." His last remark was a compliment to the girl. The reactions of people who had been trapped in a Hollows spell varied with the level of the attacker, but in most cases the victims became a crazed psychopath, with whatever sanity sucked out of them. Their skin lost its tone and begins to dust away, and the victim would lay in the dark day after day with a vacant but yet crazed look. To escape that fate , one needed extraordinary strength of spirit and body. And this girl was the very exception.

However, at the moment wore the dream like expression of the average victim.

She had lost herself in the beauty of the unmasked youth, with his thick masculine eyebrows, smooth bridge of a nose, and tightly drawn lips that manifested the iron strength of his will. Set amid stern features shared only by those who had come through the numerous battles of a grief ridden world, but his eyes harbored sorrow even as they sparkled. The final touch made this crystallized beauty the image of youth chiseled, as it were, by nature itself, perfect and complete. Nevertheless, the girl was shaken back to her senses by something vaguely ominous lurking in the depths of his gaze. It sent a chill creeping down her spine giving her a head a shake, the girl asked, "So how about it? Will you come with me?"