It was almost winter.
The air was cold, the animals were starting to hole up in their homes. Even the stars
seemed to shiver as they swayed in the sky. The moon was full, casting a dull glow on
everything it was keeping watch over.
A small camp laid within the gentle gaze of the moon, filled with tents holding all sorts
of things: food, tools, medicines - and most importantly, people. Peaceful silence reigned,
uninterrupted except for the occasional hoot of a distant owl and the pop of smoldering
coals in a glowing campfire... and the constant clatters and skittering that echoed
throughout the camp.
“Mnnh, what’s all that noise?” Inside one of the larger tents (it held a handful of beds,
a pair of trunks. All the beds were taken, some by more than one occupant), a figure swathed
in fur blankets woke. “...Better not be that darn raccoon again.” The figure - whose voice, still
slurred and raspy from sleep, sounded like that of a teenager’s - shuffled in her bed, hoping
to fall asleep once again, thinking that the nuisance would leave soon. Much to her displeasure,
whatever it was didn’t leave, and - if you were to ask her later on - seemed to go out of its way
to make even more noise than before.
Now thoroughly annoyed and fully awake, the girl moved to get out of bed to scare the
pest away, only to remember there was something keeping her firmly in place. “Ylva, c’mon,
we gotta get up and scare that darn raccoon off.” The weight keeping the girl pinned in place
was a great white wolf - far too large to fit practically onto the bed, yet it still managed to find
a way to doze there, right on top of the girl. There was no sign that Ylva had heard anything.
“Don’t tell me you’re still sleeping,” the girl quietly groused. Then, in a voice that
wasn’t meant to be heard by others: “For Pete’s sake, you’re a wolf, Ylva. You’re supposed
to have better hearing than me.”
Ylva just shuffled to get more comfortable.
“Ylva?”
Nothing.
“Ylva, don’t make me push you off again.”
A quiet snort.
“Alright, you lazy sack of fur, just know that you didn’t give me much of a choice.”
The girl squirmed out from under the wolf, successfully falling to the ground a few moments
later. Standing up, the girl turned towards her bed, a look of angry determination set across
her features. “I’ll give ya one more chance,” she whispered. “You wake up right now, or off
you go.” Hearing no response, the girl made good on her threat, and (with quite a bit of effort)
pushed the sleeping wolf off the bed. With a resounding “whump,” Ylva startled awake.
Ylva’s head shot up from behind the bed, turning to glare and give a stern bark to her assailant.
“Hush- shhh! Keep it down, everyone’s still asleep! And what do you mean, ‘How could
I do such a thing?’ You’re the one who wouldn’t get her lazy butt out of bed!”
Ylva huffed, standing up in the process.
Irritated, the girl half whispers, half yells, “No, Ylva, we can’t just go back to sleep!
There’s something out there - probably those pesky raccoons again - stealing all our food!”
A whine.
“‘Alina, what if it’s a monster,’” the girl - Alina - mocked, “‘Alina, why can’t we just
go back to sleep?’ Ylva, why would anything other than a raccoon sneak into camp to steal
food?” Alina forged on, not bothering to wait for a response, “and even if it were something big,
it’s not like we can’t handle it. We’ve tackled bears twice your size and won.”
Ylva stood in a way that thoroughly expressed her exasperation - both at being woken up
and for not being allowed to go back to sleep - almost barked back before stopping at the sound
of high-pitched chittering from just outside. The two shared a look, seeming to forget their
argument before they finally stepped outside to see what was making all the noise.
Alina and Ylva, expecting to see some sort of raccoon, stood dumbfounded
at what they saw - it looked just like an overgrown rabbit, but with a black flaming hide,
glowing white eyes, and sharp teeth. The pair, not quite knowing what to do, stared in
incredulity before the beast hissed at them, bolting from where it was sitting just a moment ago.
Snapping out of their surprise, Alina and Ylva quickly gave chase, managing to stop
the strange rabbit from escaping the camp, but not from evading capture. The three continued
this pattern - close enough to almost catch it, but not quite - seemingly for ages. Alina,
frustrated with their situation, decided to take initiative and stepped away to better catch the
pest, but it proved too nimble for Alina to grab hold of, and the chase continued.
Frustrated with what was happening, Ylva quickly looked to Alina and let out a sharp bark
before returning her attention to the chase.
“Huh? My bow -” Alina’s sentence is interrupted by her hand planting itself on her
face. “Why, did I not think of that earlier,” she grumbled, turning and running towards
one of the smaller tents in the camp and yelling “make sure that things doesn’t get away!
I’ll be back soon!” before disappearing from view. Ylva barked in response, redoubling
her efforts to catch the beast.
Now in a tent filled to the brim with swords, axes, bows and arrows, and an
assortment of other weapons and tools, Alina began sifting through the equipment,
muttering “My bow, where - no, that’s Zachary’s - agh, it’s got to be - hah!” before
grasping her bow and a quiver full of arrows and running off. However, just before
leaving the tent, Alina quickly stopped and whipped around. “Wait, I need to find
some of - there!” She quickly snatched two small bottles before running back out.
Ylva finally started to tire out and begun to slow down, nearly tripping over her own
feet at every turn. Seeing its opportunity, the rabbit prepared to make a clean getaway just
as an arrow sunk into the dirt directly in front of it, startling it to a stop. Tired and unable
to notice what just transpired, Ylva trips and rolls over the rabbit, and barely managed to clamp
down on the beast with her fangs, finally ending the chase. Holding her bow in one hand
and a few arrows in the other, Alina jogged over to Ylva before dropping her weapons,
leaving the quiver and bottles lying on the ground where she was previously standing.
“Good, good. Great job. Now we just need to figure out how to deal with this thing.”
Alina gestured to the rabbit, still struggling against Ylva’s tight hold. “Huh. Wonder how
it hasn’t died yet.” By some stroke of luck (or the lack thereof), the rabbit made a last-ditch
attempt to escape, and wreathed itself in the flames that were dancing off its hide,
igniting Ylva in the process.
Alina stood stunned before stuttering: “Y- uh -Ylva, just - just hold on, I’ve got
something! Just don’t let go, not yet!” Alina ran to where she left the two bottles,
taking both and uncorking one as she ran back. Alina let loose a panicked shout as
she threw the contents of the bottle - a clear liquid that seemed to shimmer with a
faint golden light - over Ylva’s face and onto the rabbit, dousing the flames. The rabbit,
whose hide had been put out and left to smolder, let loose a final, bloodcurdling shriek
before it fell slack. “So I was right… it really was a demon,” Alina muttered.
At the word “demon,” Ylva quickly dropped the rabbit - whose fur was now
fading to a dull grey, its eyes ceasing its glow - backed up a few paces, and whined at Alina.
“Yep. A demon. That’s why you biting its neck didn’t kill it, but the holy water -”
Alina shook the bottles, one now empty, in front of Ylva - “did.” Alina walked over
and hooked her arm over Ylva’s neck, slouching against the wolf and heaving a sigh.
Finally given a chance to rest, the two sat like that for a few blessedly quiet minutes,
listening to the call of owls in the distance. The two begun dozing off before Alina
broke the silence.
“Wait.”
Ylva flicked an ear, wondering at Alina’s sudden remark as the girl began
to stand up.
“Wait,” she exclaimed. “Ylva! Do you know what this means?”
Ylva looked at Alina, ears pointed forward in attention, head tilted in question.
“We just killed our first demon!”
“And that, little ones, is how we got started as demon hunters.”
The children - many of whom were nearly asleep - broke out into cheers, and
many were yelling for another story from Aunties Alina and Ylva.
“Oh no, ya little goblins, it’s getting far too late - look, the moon’s already out.
And if you listen real close, you can hear her tellin’ ya it’s time to go to bed.”
Any kids awake enough to listen quickly quieted, trying to listen to any whispers from
the moon. When they didn’t hear anything, they quickly started crying out again.
“Alright, alright, enough, let’s all get going.” Alina and Ylva began to pick up the kids
and pups that had fallen asleep, making sure the rest were following behind as they
walked back towards the tents.
The camp is quiet, and the moon and stars hang silently high overhead, as if to say
“you should be asleep right now.” Two figures, a human garbed in armors and furs,
laden with weapons and supplies, and a great white wolf, cloaked in coarse white fur
and scars, circle around the tents. With each footstep (each one careful, quiet, placed with
purpose, but not effort), the human sprinkles clear, glowing water into the dirt as the wolf
trails behind.
“We’re going to have to leave soon.”
The wolf, tired and worried, but ever alert, huffs.
“I wanted to stay too, but you know we can’t let these beasts stay near here any longer.”
The human sprinkles the last of the water before climbing onto her companion’s back,
pulling out a small black bell in the process.
“Are you ready?”
The wolf lowers her head and paces before letting out a low growl.
“Then let’s go.” The human leans forward and rests her free hand between the wolf’s
shoulders, and rings the bell - a low, solemn chime that is barely audible yet echoes
through the forest. Slowly, two, then ten, then hundreds of glowing eyes peer at them through
the dark, watching. The wolf tenses and bolts forward, and the eyes follow behind them,
an endless trail of seething, roiling shadows.
