Page 70 of Solivagant

“Yeah, you’re very scary.” I rolled my eyes. “But despite all the…” I gestured to my nose and head. “I’m not actually fragile, you know. More than capable of hunting those bastards. Been doing so for years.”

He huffed again, still displeased.

I turned back to the mess. They weren’t that different from people, at least in the way they were made. He could do this to a human just as easily, I had no doubt of that.

I still wasn’t scared of him.

I weren’t especially scared of them either. As long as I was alert, and armed, they weren’t too difficult to kill.

The first one had been. I hadn’t known what I was facing. Hadn’t even known it was possible to kill it until I had while trying to protect myself. It took months after that to be able to sleep through the night. I’d had nightmares all my life, but the real bad ones started shortly afterward.

“One of them killed my brother.”

I’d never told anyone that, except Tash. Figured at best people would call me mad, just a conspiracy theorist like my dad, or at worst they’d suspect I was the one who’d done it to him and think I was making up some bullshit story to hide the truth.

“His name was Jacob. We never were too close. But we’d go for walks through the forest, ever since we were kids, and we’d go hunting… We were supposed to be hunting.” I sighed. “Didn’t realize something was hunting us back until it were too late to save him.”

His screams had echoed in my dreams for years. I’d had to tell someone. I told Tash. I thought she’d laugh at me, or be seriously concerned about my mental state, but she’d believed me. We’d gone back out into those woods when I was ready, and we’d hunted down those creatures ever since.

It was better to leave what happened to Jacob as a mystery. Mom could wonder whether he’d run away to something bigger and better than Hollow Creek and left us all behind. Dad could believe he’d been taken by aliens. Both were better than the truth, but it had meant I’d have to grieve him alone.

Tash had always been by my side, but she was the least emotional person I’d ever met, and while she understood it were significant to me, she didn’t truly understand. She didn’t have any family. Hadn’t since we were teens and her own parents had moved to the city and left her behind.

Tusks whined softly and broke my ruminating. A large, warm hand slipped into mine.

Did he feel bad for me?

Had he lost someone to them too?

Had it been me?

I shivered at the thought.

My fingers twitched before closing around his warmth, returning the hold on his hand.

“I’m Jo, by the way. Don’t think I told you… Tusks.” I huffed.

His eyes softened as I met them. It felt like too much. I pulled my hand free, cleared my throat, and continued walking.

He trailed behind me. As he relaxed and realized I weren’t about to spontaneously combust, he let the distance between us increase, until I could no longer hear him at all. I still felt him, though. His eyes. His presence. When I turned, I had to scan the trees and forest brush for a moment before I spotted the fluffy tip of his tail sticking out from behind a tree.

Back to his games, then.

Cute.

I continued onward, turning every so often to try to find where he’d be hiding next. It was always the tail that gave him away.

I’d watch until a glowing red eye would peek out to see if I’d continued moving or not. Then he’d dart quickly behind it again.

The trees in this part were thicker. Probably completely untouched by humans. They gave plenty of places for big creatures to hide, and the more we walked, the harder time I had trying to find him when I turned around.

The corner of my lip pulled up when I stared for a long moment, unable to notice which shadows he’d concealed himself in, because if I couldn’t see him, I was thinking that meant he couldn’t see me either.

Two silent steps, and I was behind a tree of my own. Silent. Waiting.

I barely breathed, aware that his sense of hearing far exceeded my own.

Seconds passed. I felt every one.