Huntress (Steve Rogers AU) 18+

2

"Do you think he knows what you are?" Mother questions me as I pace the floor of the hut that I guess you could call our home. I've only been back for a mere half hour, and after telling her about by encounter in the forests, she is livid.  "Answer me Hale!"

"No!" I now turn to her, eyes turning pure white as for the first time I am unable to control my annoyance. With a blink they return to their normal violet hue. Now calm and collected once more - the doubt over my identity fades slowly. "I wasn't going to give him my name, but I needed to get out of there, he had no more time to question me further".

Mother states hard at me. "Now he has your name he will come looking! You were created to entice men! Draw them in! We still have that advantage even though we do not realise it!"

A blessing and a curse at the same time. I have no idea which one I see it as more.

"He will not look for me". I say but even that comes out not very confidently. "He said that he wouldn't". Now sitting down at the table, I use my hand to move and manipulate the water that is in my cup, levitating it up and out of it, before letting it fall with a small 'splosh' back into it at just the flick of my hand.

"He is a man! You are a siren! He is drawn to you even without your calling! Without the water!"

"That's not true! No other man I've met has responded in this way!" I tell her, and it really is the truth. I encounter men everyday in town, out of it. None of them have fallen like the ones we used to lure in.

But there was something about Steve. Something in his eyes that told me this wasn't a response to a silent call or any 'allure' that I may still possess.

I don't know what it was.

I now glance over to mother who is silent angry cutting at her food. "You need to be careful..." Is all she says.

I continue to toy around with the water, using my hand. "You've been telling me that for years and yet I am - you know that I am". I state to her. "I'm not the child that the water called to".

"No but it's clear that you still have a lot to learn! I thought that we taught you right?"

I don't even remember that innocent girl anymore...as far as I'm concerned, she is gone. Now it appears mother has so very little faith in me being able to try and live a relatively normal life.

Gently guiding the water back down into the cup from mid air once more, I sit back and cross my arms. "You did".

"So why is it that you rarely listen?" She sighs, a little defeated by the whole conversation. "All your other sisters, they do not go out like you do, do not put themselves in danger..."

"How do you know when they are not here?" I point out, "We scattered, they could be anywhere, doing anything right now. They have to survive too, and that's what we're doing isn't it? Surviving".

"Well we won't be for much longer if you continue to throw yourself in harms way".

I smirk at her. "So we will simply starve to death then. No hunting for me means no food for us. But then again I suppose that is what they wanted when they tried to hunt us all down in the first place? To die? Now we'll just be doing the humans a favour".

"Don't get smart with me girl" Mother threatens with her fork, "Now eat up - regardless of what happened today you still brought back a good kill".

I made sure to find another deer while I was out, and with keen eyes it wasn't long before I managed to succeed. We do have enough food to last, but sometimes a fresher kill is better. We've found that it does satisfy our hunger a lot more.

I pick at the food, mainly the bread more than anything before mother looks up and disapprovingly at me. "Can you promise me something Hale?"

"Depends what it is". I tell her honestly. I'm making no promises if I cannot keep them.

"Promise you won't go back there, that you'll hunt in a different area". On this she takes my silence that follows as something that I can't promise. "Hale..."

I roll my eyes, "I can't promise that I won't go back, but I'll try to avoid the area for a while, but he's the High Lord's son - he's allowed to hunt anywhere he chooses, I can't garuntee anything, but as I said, I will try to avoid another meeting all the same".

"Then I suppose that's good enough for me". She gets up and pushes my plate back towards me. "Eat. Bread is not enough".

"At the moment it is for me. I'm fine".

She mutters something inaudible but instead chooses to clean up while I go outside to get some more wood for the fire. The nights are becoming colder now that the summer solstice has ended.

Back in the water we never used to notice such things, and I don't know about mother, but I'm feeling it more than I used to. It's more noticeable this winter than it was the last. Mother simply blames the temperatures that are forever changing, however we will not. It's only noticed because we've been on land for so long.

"Do you miss them?" I ask her later on that evening as we sit pondering by the hearth. I hate silences like this, and I'm fully aware that she's still angry at me for earlier.

"You know that I do. They are our family. Our sisters, mothers...I have no idea whether they even have made it as far as we have". She says, taking the poker and pushing the wood on the fire around a little more.

If I'm honest I don't think about them often, I can't afford distractions and there's no point in getting upset about what happened in the past. Now as mother heads to bed, I stay by the fire - wondering whether Steve will keep true to his word and not look for me.

If he doesn't? That is when I know that Mother is right. I shouldn't trust him or anyone.