Hunt

Chapter 40: Transfer Orders

"Kyle Parker I swear to God!" Paul shouts. His voice rattling the windows of his house. "Do you have any idea what the hell you're doing here?!"

"S-sir..." Julie begins to interject, "I was the one—"

"Hold it!" He quickly interrupts, swiftly shutting her down before she could even get another word out. "This is quite possibly the stupidest thing you've ever done! You yourself preach that you never wanted anyone else learning about this life! Now what?! You're a goddamn teacher?! You're still a rookie yourself! You are in no position to be a mentor to anyone!" Paul rants. Each word digging further into my already rocky ego.

"Hey!" Julie shouts, "This isn't his fault!"

Julie somehow manages the impossible. Paul stops mid sentence, turning his full attention to Julie for the first time since we arrived.

"Missy, you know what happens to people like your brother and I right?" Paul says in a gentler
tone, seemingly dropping most of the anger from his voice.

Julie crosses her arms, "Yeah, I do. You either get old and fat or die saving people."

Paul shoots me a piercing glare, as if I was the one who said it, before turning his iron gaze back towards Julie. "Jesus... You two are almost identical... Look!" He raises his voice again. "Kyle royally fucked up by even allowing you to learn about this life. He double fucked up by even agreeing to teach you!"

"It's what I want!" Julie interrupts.

"No! It's what you think you want!" Paul cuts back over the top of her. "You have no idea what it's like out there!"

I think about stepping in but Julie was standing her ground decently enough. However, Paul is an immovable object. She'd waver eventually, and when she does he'd stomp her into paste. But I keep holding my tongue. She's already got him to listen to her once, maybe she'd do the impossible again and be the one to finally shake him up.

"I do know what it's like out there!" Julie shouts, "It's dangerous! And scary! And nothing makes sense! I don't want anyone else to feel like I did! I was the one who screwed up, not Kyle! All he did was protect me! That's not his fault! He saved my life and I want to be able to return the favor."

Paul grumbles something incoherent before taking a deep breath. "Damn Parker's... I guess being a martyr is genetic..." He points at Julie, "Okay! So you want to protect people? Fine! You'll get your wish. But you need proper training from someone who knows what they're talking about."

Julie passes me a side glance, somewhere between nervous and ecstatic. "K-Kyle is a fine teacher..." Julie begins to say.

"No. He's not." Paul quickly corrects her, "He's still new to this, barely a year in the field, and even so I only just gave him permission to work solo. He's got some practical skills I'll give him that, but he's nowhere experienced enough to teach someone anything."

I couldn't completely disagree with anything Paul says about me. It was true that I was nowhere close to being a proper teacher, and he was also correct in pointing out how new to this I still was. One year chasing monsters comes nowhere close to the lifetime that he's spent out in the field. It's good that Julie is hearing it from someone else other than me.

"So what? You're gonna be the one to teach me?" Julie questions.

"Yes. Yes I am." Paul nods. Shooting a glare my way.

Paul had claimed that he'd never teach another fledgling again after I had 'graduated' from his hunter course. He was on the fence about it before I had even graduated, but after the bravepelt disaster he officially stopped teaching. Claiming something about how this generation's youth don't 'appreciate the finer things or something along those lines. I really think his reasons are deeper than that, but he refuses to speak about it more. I didn't really want to push him on it either. Julie was gonna be in a world of pain if he really is dusting off his teaching gloves just for her.