Vegetarian for a little bit

Samantha takes hesitating steps through the darkening forest. I am on her right side to give me space with my left handed bow. Ready with an arrow knocked. Samantha has her spear in both hands and is a bit jumpy when the snow crunches. I feel a pulse of Samantha's barrier mana go through me.

"It's alright. I won't let anything happen to you." I tell her.

"Kay." She whispers.

In an instant I catch a shadow move and release my arrow into it. A shadow figure cries out as it tries to limp away. I loose another arrow into the large raccoon sized black scaly half fish half mammal shaped figure. It's red eyes fade as it's body disintegrates into the snow leaving dust that blows in the wind.

"What. Was. That." Samantha is now visibly on high alert.

"Shadow figures. Some people call them devils or demons but they are not the same. Like demons they crawl up from hell some times. Other times people summon them. Sometimes there is a rift in the parallel world. But if you ever see them, strike them down. And if you can't, get to safety and call for back up." I tell her.

"I've seen something similar to that in the middle of the night when I was on earth. They were human shaped though."

"Those ones are strong. I remember seeing a few the night we got you."

"Should we go back to the village? It's getting dark." Samantha is scanning the area.

Then we hear the groan of the last zombie.

"We will be fine. Let's get this zombie so they don't suffer all night." I start walking toward the groans.

"But what if there are more of those shadow figures?" Samantha catches up searching frantically.

"They are usually too scared to get near a hunter. Unless..." I trail off into a whisper.

The groan just got quieter. Meaning we passed it, dang it.

"UNLESS WHAT?!" Samantha whispers loudly looking every where.

"Unless there are a few of them or it's young and never encountered or heard of a hunter." I turn walking back the way we came.

"So there could be more?" Fear is taking hold of the young girl.

"Calm down so you can think clearly. Shadow figures feed off fear and become stronger so you need to control your emotions. Fear does not control us. Breath, in out, in out...." I trail off again as Samantha breathes.

Those groans are getting quieter again. What is going on?

A rotted arm falls beside Samantha. She squeaks and starts whacking the arm and ground around it with her spear a few times. After a few whacks she calms down. Looking up we see a zombie dangling in a hog snar trap.

"Well we found him." I state knocking an arrow. "Ice." I whisper the mana into the arrow.

The zombie freezes before breaking into hundreds of pieces that fall scattering onto the snow covered ground. 

Our translators ding and Samantha about jumps out of her skin.

"Take it easy. That noise is telling us the job is done. Ready to go home?" I ask.

Samantha nods quick short bobs then she follows close beside my left side. We leave the forest with no more interactions. Back at the village a few people give us dirty looks while most thank us for helping put their family members to rest. Soon we make it to the waypoint.

"Why are some of these people mad?" Samantha whispers.

"I will tell you later." I whisper back.

"Bellamy." I command over the waypoint. Fire engulfs the intricate cement carvings. Then we appear in the middle of the town square.

"Let's get cleaned up and go to Rosie's for dinner." I tell Samantha.

She nods and follows me to the house. Once home she grabs a few clothes from her room and goes to the bathroom. I head to my room. While fumbling through my clothes I hear Samantha puking and gagging. Running from my room I stop infront of the bathroom door and knock gently.

"Hey, you alright?" I ask quietly.

"I-I think so?" Samantha weakly replies before gagging some more.

"Can I come in?" 

There is no reply from the girl. Slowly I open the door and see Samantha shaking while hugging the toilet wrapped in the bathmat. Her wavy dirty blonde hair is down and she is down to her underwear. A small piece if flesh from a zombie is on the floor by the sink.

That's what did it. Must have been caught in her hair.

I kneel beside Samantha rubbing her back.

"I'll take care of it." I say grabbing some toilet paper. After picking it up I flush it down the toilet. I look through her thick hair for any more pieces and get side tracked.

This is so fluffy! Mine is silky so some hair styles I can't make hold for more than an hour but the possibilities with her hair... Wait. Samantha just got done being sick, I can't sit here fantasizing about this!

"You good now? Do you need any help?" I ask gently.

"I'm alright." Samantha replies while shaking a little. I nod back and leave the room. After she cleans up, I clean myself up. Walking into the livingroom I find Samantha curled up on the couch. Her hand is twitching bad.

"Ready to go?" I ask.

"Yea." She says stumbling to the entryway. 

"You're not fine. What's wrong." I say grabbing her arm and feeling her body shake.

"My sugar is low. I'm fine. Really." She weakly replies.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner or get some food?" I demand. Running to my bag I pull out the jerky and biscuits the lady gave me earlier today.

Samantha gags at the sight of the jerky so I hide it behind me and hand her the biscuit. Watching the girl scarf down the food like a wild animal breaks my heart. Once she shows signs of struggling to swallow I get a glass of water for her. 

"Thank you." She whispers.

"You diabetic?"

"No just sensitive to low blood sugar. My grandpa gets like this too."

"Alright. You scared me there for a minute. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen. If there is anything in there." I look over at my not loved or really stocked kitchen. "We will go shopping first thing tomorrow."

"Okay." Samantha replies.

I should get some shelf stable food for this girl so we don't have another one of these episodes.

After Samantha is no longer shaking we head to Rosie's dinner for some food. I order some squash soup and a large filet of the in season river fish. Samantha ordered some spaghetti and garlic bread.

Our server came back with our steaming and wonderful smelling food. The rich orange color of the squash soup has some green garnish floating ontop. The fish is perfectly cooked and flakes with no effort on the fork. The melting butter tries taking the the herbs and spices with it. Samantha's garlic bread is very pungent too. She stares at the meat sauce on the pasta for a minute before collecting herself and starts eating. Her eyes light up on the first bite so it must taste good.

"Feeling better?" I ask.

"Yes. I still can't shake the looks those people gave us though." She scarfs some more of her food down.

"They looked at us that way because they think we do what we do for sport. That we take pleasure in hunting their loved ones. Even though we did kinda place a bet on who would get more... Which looking back wasn't the best idea... Anyways some extremist believe that it's a blessing to be brought back to life. Even though they have witnessed someone that has never hurt anyone maul their family after turning." I explain.

"Oh. That's messed up."

"Yup."

"So those... shadow figures?" Samantha whispers. She then glances around at the darker spots in the restaurant.

"That's right, no one else has told you. They can't be in this town. There is a special barrier up that keeps rogue people and supernatural things out. Meaning everyone is safe here even in a bar fight."

"Bar fight?" Samantha asks with a confused look.

"Maybe I should show you it since words can never do it justice."

"I'm not twenty-one. How can I go to a bar?" She whispers.

"I have my ways." I feel a smirk tugging on the corner of my lips.

"Um. Alright." Samantha agrees hesitantly.

We finish our food and head to the alley behind the bar in town. There we see a few drunk men stumbling and laughing at each other.

"Oooo look at the big bad hunter." One sneers.

Another one clamps his hand over the first ones mouth. "Shhhhh! That's Hazel of hellfire!" He obviously tries whispering but didn't.

"Run along." I firmly say stepping past them.

They duck back into the bar. And Samantha sighs an audible sigh.

"I could have taken them." I say jumping onto a few crates then shimmying along the brick edge of the second story holding onto a pipe. 

After a second Samantha follows me. Then we come to a small window that looks into the bar below. With the other building so close we can lean back onto it to get a better view inside.

It doesn't take long but the men we ran into earlier end up fighting. Well the fighting that happens in this town anyway. They try raising their fists but can't so they try throwing their bodies at each other to get their point across. Only to be bounced around each other almost like rag dolls. Both Samantha and I are stifling snickers or the occasional gasp when it looks like something hurt.

The regulars of the bar will raise a hand or foot up to keep the incoming collision from hitting their table and messing up a game or their food and drinks. With the fighters bouncing off the regular bar goers the bartender yells at someone in the corner to get the riff raff out of there. Low and behold the town's poster child James steps in with his smile.

"Time to go." I say with a bit of hostility in my voice.

"Oh. Alright." Samantha snaps from being happy to nervous.

"I just saw someone I didn't want to see. Nothing more." I sigh.