A small routine was starting to form in my life, some order to replace the vagabond I was since coming to this city. A lull to safety I hated for how much bullshit it presented. But I stuck to training. I kept on with my socializing. And I was starting to feel something resembling life in my heart.

  Routine and peace, something I hadn’t had since my village was flattened, something I silently never expected to experience once more, no matter how unrealistic that expectation was. Life was dictated through routine, something exciting can’t happen all the time. Even doing nothing would be considered routine. Technically so was my wandering, even though it didn’t feel like it.

  I even got to eat some food from a proper chef, much earlier than my mother implied, to celebrate carving through two dozen deer in a single day. The apprentices had a little competition, and I destroyed them so bad that I was no longer allowed to participate. Funny. The food was heavenly, and I had to hold back tears as I savoured the meal.

  Yormir would've beeen proud of my resilience, of my will to keep moving, but sometimes it got so hard. I leaned on routine as a crutch now that my roving had been put to an end, and it was a decent enough distraction.

  Riri and Gar were nice too, didn’t try to fleece me like the rest of the slum kids at least. They thought I was stupid just because I was some village bum, jokes on them! I’d dealt with proper merchants, likely more often than they had.

  But time passed, and in the second month since my arrival in the city, something different happened. A group of hunters returned from their hunt. Coming into the glorified tavern was a man of large antlers and equine features, eyes a vibrant yellow as he scanned the guild. He wore a full set of leather, large knives strapped to his person and a massive blade resting over his shoulder. So wide and long it could barely be called a sword at all.

  Behind him trotted a girl who looked remarkably ordinary, except for the smile cursing her face and the strange tattoo running down her eye. Brown hair and brown eyes graced the face of someone clearly bloodthirsty. Hanging from her ear was a two pointed star that I recognized as a mark of Yorokrom.

  Two others came from behind, dragging along a bag filled to the brim with something.

  Aira lit up at the sight of them, and waved them over to their table. The man with antlers looked over and a large smile revealed broad teeth, he strode towards us with supreme confidence, behind him was the girl as the other two headed for the bounty counter.

  The people parted for them as though it was a matter of course, showing a level of deference I wasn’t used to from the normally brash collection of hunters. It was as though royalty stepped down to grace them with his presence, and the beast-man wasn’t so much as fazed by the treatment. Taking it as his due. The girl seemed to find it amusing though.

  “Aira! My favourite slasher, how goes the break?” the man with antlers said as he reached our table. Stepping over the bench and sitting next to me for some reason. The girl seemed peeved at that, and reluctantly sat on the other side of the man. Aira seemed amused by the sight.

  “Loklan.” Aira smiled. “How dull life has been in your absence, I’ve been well. Got the opportunity to harry Halsin for being an idiot, which was mighty entertaining. Even picked up an apprentice, my own little rat slayer.”

  Loklan reared his head back and barked a laugh. “She must have killed plenty to get a moniker like that.”

  “Only one actually.” Aira gave a cheeky grin. “Brought the head of a Muri-Ursi with half her guts hanging from her belly. Ken had quite a few words with her about stupidity during her treatment”

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  Loklan’s smile turned quizzical as he scanned Aira’s expression. Then went flat entirely. “You’re serious?”

  “Dead serious.” Aira nodded.

  Yellow eyes turned to stare at my pair of purple, communicating something I couldn’t decipher. Then he let out a huff and shook his head.

  “Children these days truly are insane.”

  “I don’t like the implicatioooonnnnn!” The girl sitting on his other side said.

  “Hush now Xae, any word from your mouth will just prove my point.” Loklan chuckled.

  “Rude!”

  Loklan snorted at the girl, turning his antlered head towards me. “Tell me girl. Are you a prodigy or just suicidal?”

  “I’m gonna live forever,” I huffed. “So definitely a prodigy”

  Xae laughed hard at the statement, clutching her belly and slapping her knee. I scowled at the girl but that only made her laugh harder, much to my chagrin.

  “Don’t mind her, she has a tendency for poor manners,” Loklan said.

  “I can see that,” I replied.

  “Indeed.” He snorted. “But I have a feeling you two’ll get along just fine. Xae is…something of a prodigy herself.”

  “Hah! That’s an understatement!” Xae barked.

  “Don’t overestimate yourself girl, that has led to many hunters' deaths. Plenty of which I’ve been a witness to.” He took my spoon and flicked it at her forehead. “Besides, killing a Muri-Ursi is more impressive than a scale wolf.”

  “‘Killing a Muri-Ursi is more impressive than a scale wolf’” Xae copied with a deliberately nasally tone. “That’s what you sound like.”

  “My voice is too grand for anything of your capacity to pantomime.” Loklan puffed out his chest, and I couldn’t hold back a snicker. He turned to me with a smile on his face and I looked down in embarrassment.

  “So!” said the beast man. “I’d love to hear the story behind your conquest.”

  Telling the story of how I single handedly killed a Muri-Ursi without revealing that I used a spell was an interesting test in my capacity to lie. I didn’t flex that muscle much with my mother, considering the futility of it. I had to mention that my sword broke, but decided to have that be later in the fight, rather than so soon after the start. Imagining how I managed to murder such a beast with a broken blade? That’d be too obvious, so instead I painted a picture of a heavily injured beast before shit went south.

  They accept the story well enough, though I added some purposeful embellishments to the lie to make it seem like I was trying to boast, rather than give an accurate account. Which probably worked in my favour.

  Maintaining the lie was draining though. It’d be so much easier if I could just tell everyone here I could do magic, but…well. I didn’t want to start getting inquiries for why I didn't pursue the universities, that’d lean too hard into the presence of a demon in my soul.

  “Interesting,” Loklan rubbed at his chin. “Even a glorified rat possesses some intelligence? I’ve never had the pleasure of fighting one considering where they live but…that does bolster the sapient monster theory.”

  “The what now?” I blinked.

  “Ignore him, the man's obsessed with the idea that monsters are capable of understanding the self,” Aira said.

  Loklan sighed at the woman’s dismissive attitude. “It’s no mere idea, plenty of reputable philosophers and monster researchers lean towards the theory. And it would explain how they fight with more than just mindless abandon.”

  “Animals do the same, Loklan.” Aira shrugged.

  “Not to the same extent,” Loklan said with a glint in his eye. “They have actual technique, unique to each individual. That on its own shows a remarkable capacity to learn and adapt. Animals would just swipe, bite, or ram. Nothing so refined as what a monster is capable of presenting. Now, if we could just get one to do some form of communication…which is where your new apprentice might prove quite helpful.”

  “What?” All three of them said at once.

  Loklan smiled but didn’t elaborate, choosing to move the topic to their hunt instead. And potential training now that the entire group had returned.

  It didn’t sound like anything enjoyable.