I took the time Shae’s emotional outbreak gave me to assess her home. I hadn’t actually been inside last time, so I was a little curious, especially when I noticed the hint of strawberries in between the homely, earthen fragrance. My nose traced the fruity whisper to a room to the right, where the aroma was joined by that of various spices, something smokey, and freshly slaughtered chicken.

The living area itself breathed a cozy mix of Shae’s breezy wildflowers and Onar’s crisp and nervous not-quite-yeast, with a large hearth, a hardwood table, and some chairs. There was another room through a door to the left, and a smaller second floor was accessible with a ladder.

Most importantly, there was no sight of Onar. That meant I might still get out of here without needing to confront her dad.

“Thank you,” Shae mumbled as she finally let go of me.

I had no idea what I needed to be thanked for so I countered with a question instead. “Where is your dad?”

“Oh Vale it’s been so... hard, harder than when mom died,” she nearly broke down crying again.

I grit my teeth, turned towards her, and hugged her once more, breaking my no initiating hugs rule for the second time in one day. I’d manage my urges somehow; she really looked like she could use a shoulder to lean on. Gently stroking her back, and pointedly not looking at her neck, I tried to think of something else, anything to distract me from the tantalizing closeness of those delicious arteries.

What happened to her father?
Is he dead?

Right. That thought definitely counted as something else. Yet despite its morbidity, it was an effective distraction. Trusting that I could now open my mouth without chomping down on her neck I mumbled “It’s okay” at her until her sobbing subsided.

Choking back a couple of sobs the girl loosened the grip she had on my back. Then, with frequent pauses, she began to explain. “Ever since the river there’s been so much work... rebuilding... everything. Daddy’s been helping out most days… so I’ve been doing all of the farm and stuff and... and...”

As this little girl poured out all her emotions on my shoulder I didn’t know what to think. No wonder she had seemed so much more mature at first. She’s had to grow up, basically overnight.  Meanwhile, I had done what I always did. I had saved a bunch of people from a raging river as it tore apart houses all around me. And in the early morning, before the people of this little village could even begin to comprehend the scope of what had happened to them, I had left.

Left them with all of the mess.

I hadn’t even thought of these things until now. I never did. These were people. They had lives. And that meant more than not treating them as food, more than treating them as income, or assets I could use. No matter how much I traveled, it was a thing I just kept on forgetting.

I had mostly tuned out Shae’s barely-coherent rambling as I thought back to all the other villages I’d stopped at, all the other lives I had never even considered when I heard her mutter something that brought me back to reality.

“Wait…” gripping her shoulders a little tighter I got her to break off her muttering. “What attack?”

There were several seconds of only her ragged breathing and the beating of her heart. I pushed her back a little so I could look her in the eyes once more. I deliberately studied her face to get her to focus on me. Her trembling wide lips, the set of her jaw as she tried to restrain her sobbing, the way her coppery hair was braided and knotted at the top of her head, all of it only made her look more vulnerable.

“Un…” she sobbed. “Uncle Tare… he was dragged away by some monster… and… and… now they need to guard everything until we can get a hunter and—”

“Where? What kind of monster? When was this?” I interrupted the girl with my own string of questions.

Shae froze up. These questions of mine came too fast, too abrupt. She couldn’t keep up with this sudden shift in gears. I could see it in her eyes, see her struggling to come to grips with my line of questioning. My dad had trained me well. Perhaps too well. I was a monster hunter, I knew all the right things to ask in order to get to the heart of the matter in the least amount of time. Only, now wasn’t the time for speed, but for compassion.

Gently squeezing her shoulders I gave her my best, most reassuring smile. Mouth closed. No fangs. Never fangs. Except for that one time six months ago. She was fine with them then, but I wasn’t so sure now, not when a monster attack had clearly happened not so long ago.

Really can’t have her thinking of me as a monster right now.

“By the river. Three days ago.” Shae nodded, finally catching up with the determination in my eyes. “I dunno what it looked like… maybe dad does. It... it came from the water they said, just grabbed onto his leg and...”

Now I knew what question I had missed. The one question I should have asked first. That any sensible person would have asked first. The question that would show compassion more than any facial expression ever could.

“Uncle Tare, is he...”

I choked on my own words. Spoken aloud what I had intended to ask sounded a lot less sensible. How was I even supposed to finish that sentence?

Dead?
Alright?

No possible ending seemed right. Were these even the kinds of questions one was supposed to ask? It pained me to be confronted like this with how little experience in interacting with people I really had.

“They pulled him out of the water,” Shae rescued me from needing to finish my question. “He... his leg...” she petered out. Then her face lit up. “You... you healed Miss Meg, right? Could you... you can right?”

Now here was a question I could answer without hesitation. This didn’t involve wondering about whether or not returning here was a good idea, didn’t require fretting about the suspicions Shae’s dad held about me. I wasn’t magically free of those worries, but I’d deal with them later, because above all I was a hunter, and this was the right thing to do.

I hugged Shae close again. “I can, and I will,” I reassured her while stroking her back, “and I can do more than that too. I am not just a crazy lady that jumps into rivers, Shae. I am a hunter, and I will take care of this monster for you.”