Mosaic Windows

Chapter 27: Wow Janus Actually Gets It

When he got home, Janus set his things down and tossed a treat to Saint for saving his life. He absentmindedly petted him as he walked by, heading straight for his bookshelf. The majority of the books on the wooden shelves were written by monster hunters, about monsters, their terrible history, and tips to hunt them.

He pulled a book at random and flipped through, scanning over the pages. He has read them so many times that you would think he could recite any page. These books and his parents taught him everything he knew, they told him how dangerous the monsters are. They kill humans and steal away children, they burn or drown homes for fun, they destroy families, all of them!

At least that's what the books say. They were written by experts after all. Janus has no real experience with actual monsters. This... dragon witch, the most dangerous and evil of all the monsters... Why didn't he kill him when he had the chance? Why did he pull him out of the hole instead of leaving him there to struggle? And did he really save Roman?

His parents' voices were shouting at him in his head that it was insane, that the dragon witch is an infection in the forest. But Remus was right, strange as it sounds. That dragon witch was completely harmless.

Well maybe not harmless, it's still a dragon witch, but he didn't try to hurt anyone. In fact it seems like he's been helping Roman and somehow even tolerating Remus. That takes great patience.

But if he's harmless, that means monster hunters were all wrong. Or maybe... they could be mostly right and this monster is just an outlier. If he really is, how many outliers were there? How many innocent monsters were hunted simply for possessing magic? Sure magic is dangerous and evil, but the creatures holding the magic aren't all automatically bad. There's just one too many... right?

Ugh, why is this so hard? It would be so much easier if he was taught that not all monsters are evil, surely there had to have been some cases in the past like this. Shouldn't every monster hunter know about this?

Janus grabbed the next book and looked for any evidence of these types of situation. Every monster, every species were marked dangerous or evil and that they all should be killed.

He grabbed another book. Even the smallest monsters with the smallest amount of magic were marked dangerous, mostly to small children and animals.

He grabbed another book. Even any monsters that were once human, they were marked evil since they had lost their humanity. But that can't be fair! It wasn't their fault they were turned into something other than human. Did every monster hunter think this way?

The book in his hands dropped to the floor and met with the others he held before. Saint looked up from where he was laying as book after book fell. Monsters are evil, monsters are dangerous, magic was bad, it corrupted humanity, it was unnatural, it needed to be eradicated from the world. Page after page, book after book, they all said the same thing.

His parents always told him that all monster sympathizers were either stupid, lied to, or were cursed and tainted. They taught him to find signs of bias and liars, but all of that was in their own home the whole time. There was not a damn book on the whole shelf that even implied that a magical creature may even be neutral. How did he not see it?

Janus fell onto the couch in shock and Saint came over to put his head on his lap. Remus was right the whole time? That had to be the biggest shock of all. Why didn't he ever stop to consider the twins' viewpoint? Shouldn't a smart man try to consider all sides of an argument? Even from an idiot's perspective?

The hunter scratched behind Saint's ears. He's worked his whole life to become a hunter and admired his parents for it. Hopefully it's not as black and white as he was taught. There have to be other hunters out there that feel the same way as he does now.

It would be best if he just left them alone. It's unlikely that they would appreciate any sort of apology from him. Roman and Remus have tried many times to get him to understand that the dragon witch is not a threat. But the longer he sat there, the heavier the guilt became.

He sighed, "What can I do, Saint?"

The giant dog stared back at him for a moment before his fluffy tail started to wag back and forth, practically sweeping the wooden floor.

Janus stood up. "Alright... maybe it wouldn't hurt to give the dragon witch an apology."

~~~

"Your traps suck," Remus told them as he set down a bag on the kitchen counter. It wasn't empty, but it was far from full.

Logan had returned not long before Remus and was in the kitchen with Patton. "Well, the forest doesn't have a lot of game during this time of year. I was only able to find one deer, thankfully it was a fully grown buck."

"Ooh, nice, they usually have a lot of meat. Well I'll go ahead and skin these rabbits for you." He opened the bag and reached inside.

Patton paled. "Uh, in that case I'm gonna go. I um... yeah." He stepped out of the kitchen.

"Is he okay?" Remus asked nonchalantly.

"He's vegetarian. A bit ironic since he's the one that cooks most of our meals, even the ones with meat," Logan explained. "I usually take care of skinning the animals."

"Got it. Well in that case, you should show me how it's done properly so I don't take off too much meat."

"You've never done it before? I suppose that makes sense, your father dating the mayor and all."

Remus pulled out a rabbit and pointed it at the medic menacingly. "Hey, just cause I live in a nice house now doesn't mean I don't work hard. I have a job at a bakery. I can make some nice pastries."

"I wouldn't have pegged you as the type." Logan grabbed a cutting board and knife.

"I wouldn't mind if you-"

He slammed the large knife against the cutting board. "In any case, I heard that hunter came back and you had a bit of a scuffle with him."

Remus shrugged and pulled out a rabbit. "Oh yeah, I dealt with him though."

"Yes, and I thank you, but his recurring presence concerns me. If he continues to go after Virgil, we'll have to do something about it."

"Like kill him?"

"What? No, I'd rather not do that. Something less serious, perhaps a conversation with the mayor to find a less violent solution."

Remus sighed. "I keep trying to tell him that Virgil isn't evil. That not all monsters are bad. He's not one for listening though."

Logan started to skin the rabbit. "Prejudice always blocks people's ears and clouds their minds."

"You can say that again. I'm openly gay and woo the dirty looks I get. The bakery I work at lost some customers ever since I started working there, but it gained some others because people just love my ideas."

"I'm sorry to hear."

"I don't care, people have always been like this and they aren't gonna change now. I'm not about to waste my energy trying to change their mind."

"That's a very mature way of looking at it."

"Please, I'm far from mature! I just don't give a shit."

"If you say so."