𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 | 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐛 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

𝐯𝐢.

𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐛'𝐬 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤.

"Hello?"

He looked around behind her, hoping to see some sort of parental figure, but none came into his view. Unbeknownst to him, a woman stood behind the wall he sat, watching over Maisie as she heard the man reply.

"Me name's Maisie!" She smiled brightly before holding her hand out. "Maisie Brumble!"

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," Jacob replied, taking Maisie's hand before smiling.

Just as Jacob was about to take off for the alcohol again, Maisie began talking once more, his eyes darting back to hers as she grinned excitedly.

"And you're Jacob Holland," She said as he nodded. "Who once killed four of them beasts in a span of two days! Is it true you done that? Four in two days?"

Maisie leaned closer into the tavern, inching through the window that Lilia was worried that she would've had to pull the child back.

"Don't believe everything you hear lass," Jacob smiled, placing his forearm on his knee. "Four in two days?"

He scoffed, Lilia's eyebrows scrunching as she heard his reply, some part of her half-expecting a lower number since she knew that no human would kill four in two days.

"It was five," Jacob grinned, playfully winking at Maisie.

This man wasn't human.

Maisie smiled back in awe, Jacob walked off as he thought that the child had stopped talking to him, off to get his drink once more.

"I heard..." Maisie began but it dropped at was replaced with a frown once she saw that he was gone.

Lilia raised an eyebrow, almost giving Maisie a questioning look, wondering why the child had stopped talking mid-way. But before she could ask anything, Maisie had started to climb through the window, crawling onto the table that rested against it as her sight was pinpointed on Jacob.

"Maisie!" Lilia whisper-shouted in shock, her head darting to the window and back to the disappearing child before running towards the tavern door, edging it open as she pulled her hood to cover more of her face.

She heard the clattering of metal not too far from her, assuming that's where Maisie had gone as the girl ran after Jacob. But before she could even see the child, her arm was soon grabbed and she was pulled into a dance as her eyes widened, the woman let out a small noise of surprise.

Meanwhile, The hunter had begun squeezing through people to get his drink, but his eyes widened when he heard a child's voice speaking up from not too far behind him.

"I heard there was a time them beasts used to come right up to shore, pluck a lady right out of her veggie patch, and swallow her up!"

Maisie spoke over the noise, as Jacob looked back at her with a confused frown. Just as he was out of the crowd Maisie followed him through, jumping before him with a wide grin as she continued to speak.