To Hunt Monsters; But Who Is The Monster Here?

Trinity peered up at the sky warily from where she huddled under a wood awning that protected her from the sudden rain. It had been sunny only a few moments ago, not that anyone had taken notice during the attack. The monstrous, ape like creatures had broken up the daily minutiae of the village and brought a call to arms for all available residents to fight for their home.

The young woman had stayed behind for a number of reasons. The first of which was that this wasn’t her home. In fact, Trinity had no home. She was a wanderer, poor and usually confused due to great lapses in her memory. Often she woke up some place without knowing where she was or remembering how she’d gotten there, such as now. She also feared violence of any kind, and would not get involved with fighting unless she absolutely had to. Furthermore, many of the villagers here had taken pity on her enough to give her some food and show her kindness, and she knew that if she used some of her strange magic they would only shun her out of horror.

So she’d stayed back, a scared woman huddling in any spot that would provide her shelter and some semblance of safety while others fought. She had worried and fidgeted, barely resisting the urge to just flat out run away from the village entirely -- mostly because she wasn’t sure if she would run into more of those monsters once outside the village limits.

Unlike her, however, another mage had stepped up to protect the people here. He’d fought the creatures valiantly, much to the villager’s gratitude, but seemed to have taken a serious blow by the end of it. Something had happened, something magical that affected everything around them. Animals that weren’t tethered down bolted in fear, and faster than one could blink the temperature dropped so low that clouds formed and it started to pour rain.

Everyone had scrambled for shelter, trying to get out of the thunder and lightning, but eyes were still on the man laying in the mud outside the village, close enough to see but not so close that they could understand what was going on with him. Nearly everyone from the village was too spooked by the sudden change in the air to know what to do next.

Trinity was not. Recognizing that the man needed help, and knowing that he was in danger by being outside during a thunderstorm, she bolted into the rain and made her way out toward him as quickly as possible. Fighting she was terrified of, but she could and certainly would go out there to retrieve him and try to bring him back before more of those things came out, before he could get more hurt.

By the time she got to him, he was laying in the mud. There were bodies everywhere around him, as well as a pile of filth from his stomach rejecting its most recent contents. As she got close to him, she slowed from a run to a jog, and then to a cautious walk. The last thing she wanted was to spook him into attacking her while he was too battle worn to realize she wasn’t trying to hurt him.

Carefully, she came into his field of vision: a woman in her early twenties with long two toned hair and similarly mismatching eyes that currently held a great deal of concern in their gaze. The clothes she wore were hardly more than a step or two above rags, and clearly stolen as they were a couple sizes too big for her and smudged and wrinkled like she hadn’t cleaned them in a while.

Caring not for the garments she wore, Trinity knelt right down next to him in the mud and put a hand on his shoulder. If he could, she would help him sit up. She didn’t say anything to him. Instead, she took a look at his mud covered, wearied form and tore the oversized shirt off over her head, leaving her in a small black undershirt that did little more than cover up her chest. Trinity draped the shirt over his head and held it there in an attempt to keep the rain off his face at the very least, waiting for word or some sign from his as to whether he was going to need help getting up and getting back to the village.

Trinity had seen everything, of course. There was a reason none of the other villagers had dared to approach the man after all was said and done. It had all happened so fast. One minute he was helping to protect the people, and then another minute there was a black sludge-like mass protruding from his body and killing everything around him, even those he’d been trying to protect. The villagers were horrified.

But Trinity didn’t really seem to care. She had seen scary things before, and though something had clearly gone atrociously wrong, she had watched with her own eyes as the man had tried originally to protect these people, not hurt them. So when everything had gone silent, when the man had collapsed at the end of it all and no one immediately rushed forward to see what had happened, Trinity did.

Even before she was standing over him, she could see the regret in his face and the emotional turmoil in his posture. As she entered his vision he seemed to stir back to life a bit, like her very presence had shaken him from whatever mental struggle he’d been having. He sat up carefully with her help, needing to be tender toward his own injuries, and she had promptly tossed her shirt over his head to block out the rain.

There was a brief pause before he peeled the shirt up enough to look at her again. The remains of a smile were on his lips, but given the situation he was still overall a bit more sober in expression as he looked her over. He thanked her and stood up. She quickly got to her own feet and assisted him, or at least stood ready to catch him if he stumbled. His eyes turned toward the villagers in the distance, who watched the pair warily. With a small smile he gently insisted that she head back in, not wanting her to catch a cold.

Trinity frowned at him. He seemed intent on not going to the village, which was probably a wise a choice. Indeed, the kind villagers looked very much like they wanted nothing more than for him to just leave. She couldn’t just let him go out on his own like this, though. Not while he was injured and drained, not while there was this big storm and possibly more creatures out there.

Shifting a bit on her feet as she thought, Trinity held up a hand to silently ask him to stay put for a minute. Once she was sure he wouldn’t wander off, she hurried back over to the village and stopped in front of the man that was arguably considered the mayor or leader of the place. She gave him an expectant look. “No, girl! Are you crazy? He can’t come in here, he’s already done enough damage.” Trinity stomped her foot angrily, splashing mud all over herself and him. Though she didn’t say anything, he understood she was trying to argue. “Listen, you are more than welcome to stay. You’ve been nothing but helpful since you wandered into our town, but he is far too dangerous. I will not risk it!”

Trinity growled in frustration and then turned away from him and barged toward a building. She emerged a minute or so later with a worn looking pack slung over her shoulder. No one stopped her as she walked back over to the mage. They had no obligation to, as she wasn’t from the village. Instead all they did was shake their heads and mutter to themselves about the strange girl and the terrifying man she insisted on helping.

When she got back over to him, Trinity merely hooked her arm in his and lead him away from the village. Even if he protested, it seemed she had already made up her mind about sticking with him for a while. Reaching into her pack as they walked, she pulled out two bread rolls stuffed with meat, cheese, and vegetables and offered one to him with a bright smile.