The Beast Within': Into Darkness

Ch. 8 The Hunter Finds His Prey

Everyone is irritated at me for waking them up. They all groan and mumble, while still looking half-asleep.

Nanu) What in the world is your problem? I don’t know about you, but the rest of us are trying to get some rest after yesterday.

Lukeon) Yeah, last night was the best sleep I had in years. This better be something important.

Ally) What are all of you shouting about? I am trying to sleep…

Me) Something was staring at me in the tree over there.

I point over to where I saw the eyes were, but now they're gone. Of course, they are, I just screamed like a lunatic. Everyone else just looks over to the spot and then glares at me. Nanu just closes her eyes and lays back down, covering her ears. Everyone just sits there as if they are waiting for an explanation.

I see the purple eyes once again behind the two of them, I yell at them again and catch a glimpse of it before it can disappear. They open up as they jump around leaving a streak of purple in the air for a second. They both flinch at first, we all shout at Nanu to get her up.

Nanu) I do not know why you are bothering me, I can’t help you, I can’t see what you are talking about.

Me) Ok, lazy. I remember you saying you could tell that I am not a normal person by the way I moved and the air moving around me. So you are just choosing not to help.

Nanu) I have to be close enough to feel the air move around the person, things that are far away like this thing I can not feel, genius.

The purple eyes appear once again.

???) I have a name you know. It’s Akriel.

I turn around in the direction of the voice but it is different than that of the eyes, I turn to where the eyes were and they are gone, I turn back towards the voice, and they are there.

Akriel) Confused? Not many people get to see something like this…

I stare right into the eyes and reply.

Me) Are you here because of me? Because I am a Kemonomimi?

Akriel) Yes, and no. I am here because I am looking for something. A demi-human, yes, you specifically, not originally. 

Me) You’re a Kemonomimi hunter, aren’t you?

Akriel) Not the kind of hunter you are thinking of. I track down Kemonomimis, but not for the reason you think I am.

Me) I don’t care about your reason, I have done nothing wrong, so leave me alone.

    The eyes disappear, and from behind me, I hear his voice.

Akriel) I know you have done nothing wrong.

Just like at the temple, I stand as fast as possible pivoting on my heels and turning. I put as much force as I can behind me. He is dangling from his feet off of a branch, I punch him and send him flying at least six meters. He lands on his stomach and just starts laughing. 

Akriel) Wow, that was pretty hard! Do you train or something? A normal person wouldn’t be able to do that to me.

Me) That doesn’t matter, leave us alone.

Akriel) You are completely misunderstanding me. I am not here to bother you, or hurt you. I am just here to observe.

Me) I don’t care what you are doing! You’re a hunter, your kind and my kind don't exactly mix well.

Akriel) That is not necessarily true, but that is what popular belief seems to be.  

Me) Stop trying to mess with us, and just let us be.

Akriel) I am not going to harm you, I was born and raised an assassin, if I wanted to kill you I would have already.

Me) Ally you watch him, I want to go back to sleep, we can rotate people every hour or two.

Ally) Why me?

Me) Because you fell asleep first, Lukeon actually slept well for once, Nanu can’t really keep an eye on him, and I just don’t want to.

Ally) Well I am a kemonomimi too, maybe he’ll get me.

Akriel) Like I said I am not going to attack any of you. Here, I will just sit on this log the whole night, I won’t move from this spot at all.

He pulls one of the logs we were using before we fell asleep and set it up next to a tree and just sits down. I lay down a face away from him, but I can’t fall back asleep. I just lie there for what seems like forever. Everything is as silent and has been this whole time. Eventually, Akriel talks to Ally.

Akriel) I shouldn't be speaking, but she should be sleeping now I can so I will. And I'll tell you the truth I may have said the wrong things while speaking to the other Kemonomimi girl. The things she brought up have been in my mind, and it's impossible to sleep. I know I said I was a hunter and assassin, but that is just the way I was raised, not the way I want to be. But she won’t listen. 

I can feel him staring at me…

Akriel) To my left is a beauty… a sleeping beauty, yeah she's pretty… But now I have learned that looks can be deceiving and if I said that to her face, I don’t know if she’d attack me or at least treat me like a human. You seem like the nicest one of the bunch here, so you are the only one I can trust. Those other elf people would have told me to just shut up probably, thanks for at least listening to me. It has been two hours, and your time to watch me is up.

I hear him and his armor and all of that hit the ground. Ally walks over to me and shakes me, I pretend like I was sleeping. I speak up in a tired-sounding voice.

Me) Yeah?

Ally) Your turn to watch that hunter guy. He isn’t as bad as you thi-

I cut her off. My tone goes from tired to something more threatening.

Me) That is just what he wants you to think, don’t trust anything he tells you. It is all lies.

She goes back to the lean-to and falls asleep pretty fast, I take the log that Akriel was originally sitting on, and just sit there glaring at him until my turn to keep an eye on him is over, I then go and wake up Nanu, and head to sleep myself eventually falling asleep. I end up back in the dream world from before. I see Em and walk over to her, I was about to speak up and she turns to me with a smug look on her face.

əƜ) So? What happened out there?

She lets out a chuckle, I just ignore her and explore the small circle of land I can until I wake up.