Frances

Frances was at home, sewing a new gambeson for her father. It was her mother's suggestion, both were great artisans and her father would love a gift handmade by his daughter and disciple. On the chest of the piece, Frances etched a small gemstone which would allow her father to use a bit of magic. That was a lesson from her venatore master, Masashi. As she left her house to deliver the gambeson to her father, everything was on fire.

Frances now had her crescent scythe in hand and wielded it against a horde of shadowy monsters. One by one, she sliced them apart as she ran in the direction of her father. The more she advanced, however, the further her father seemed to be. In spite of that, she kept moving forward, relentless. Among the monsters, humans also showed up, with evil eyes and weapons, but she just kept slicing and slicing and slicing.

Suddenly, the world went black and she was alone. Frances knelt, looked down and all that remained was a burnt wilted flower.

Gasping, Frances opened her eyes after the third nightmare on that week. These dreams were becoming part of the routine since she left her master Masashi to live on her own. She waited for her breathing to return to normal, got up and left her tent.

The sunlight made her cover her pink and blue eyes. She had slept on a small field protected by a few dense trees colored by spring's bloom. From her pocket, she pulled out a hand-knitted purple dragon with a jewel etched on its eye. With a flick of her finger, her tent and other things flowed like water inside the yarn dragon, it was her cistella. She looked around and knelt to pick up a yellow flower with purple petals and placed it on her shoulder over her indigo tailcoat.

"Today I’d really like to find some meat, it's been days", Frances said to herself. She walked to a creek where she refilled her water. She strolled through the forest and fields, very attentive to her environment. The creek made its way through the trees and on its margin, were several flowers ranging from red, purple, blue, and yellow, all surrounded by small insects dancing, sometimes scared by joyful birds.

Seeing some colorful finches loudly chirping on a tree made Frances stop. She got some stripped seeds she always had in her pocket and gently set them on a round white rock. Then she retreated and kept her distance. One orange finch noticed the seeds and made its way close to the rock. Always looking around, it advanced step by step in small flights until it stopped on top of the rock. Finally, the bird started eating. By its side, Frances slowly advanced, taking turns.

“Hello bird, I hope you eat well", she said liltingly. When the bird looked at her, she stopped to keep it comfortable. The bird flew away, but others started going to the rock, “good morning birds, have a nice meal", she said that like a lullaby. After getting closer and enjoying her moments, she subtly moved away and resumed her stroll.

"No sign of mammals. Some monster might live close by... well, let's hope it is edible at least," Frances told herself as she kept walking near the water and the lush trees turned to drier, their flowers replaced in favor of brown, red and orange leaves.

Screesh. The creaking of leaves drew Frances’s attention. Immediately, her ring shone and from it flowed a pink liquid which turned into a crescent-shaped scythe which sported a purple gem on its bronze clamp. The liquid also turned into her armor, which reinforced her white blouse, indigo tail coat and yellow pants. Frances now followed the sounds silently like a vicious predator, her steps like feathers.

She stopped by a clearing where she saw a rajnam and two men fighting it. One was blue haired and fought with an axe and a shield, the other was a blonde man with a bow.

"Other venatore, how inconvenient." Frances got down and crawled to watch them silently.

"Amateurs... at least I can deal with them if they have any ill intent."  Frances continued as she watched the man with the axe clumsily killing the rajnam.

As a roar echoed in the forest, Frances kept still, effectively camouflaged. From the other side, a ligerus came and attacked the two.

"Oh no,"  the two men were separated by the ligerus, "already off to a terrible start"

"Look at that shot! They stand no chance."  The ligerus got rid of the blonde man's bow and jumped towards the other man.

"Maybe I should let them die and kill the ligerus. Venatore are usually trouble for other venatore, especially women."

However, as Frances saw the blue-haired man falling and losing his weapons, she could hear a voice echoing in her head:

"Catulatrix rosea, never forget." It was her master, Masashi’s voice. "The first priority of a venatore is always human life. Even when it is not fair, we need to protect other people. If we only hunt, scavenge, explore and plunder, we are no better than animals. I despise praedore, those hyenas that hijack our calling to exploit others, specially the poorest. My catulatrix, Frances, please become a true venatore. That is my only request."

Frances breathed in, then got up and threw rocks at the trees, to draw the monster's attention. Wielding her scythe, she took her fighting stance and rushed towards the ligerus.

“Your hunt is over,” she said to herself. With her scythe on the monster's head, it was now only the three of them: Frances herself and the amateur venatore.