The Hunter

A Little Backstory

Finn stared at the canopy of leaves above the cemetery and Gloria took in her surroundings while she waited. Her eyes were drawn to the stones themselves, each carved with the standard name, date and short epitaph, and all in various states of care. The ones closest to her were painted and the lettering was easy to read, although her eyes wouldn't translate the words and dates. She had a feeling there was a spell preventing that, somewhat surprised that she would just accept that thought, and moved her eyes to another stone.

"Magic comes at different ages. Some of us have it from birth, and you can imagine how much fun it has to be for a parent when the infant can throw fireballs or summon animals from birth. Some of us it takes time to grow into." Finn paused. "It doesn't matter when it comes to you either for how powerful you are. I suppose that makes it strange to someone like you?"

Gloria shrugged. "I don't know."

Finn nodded and got lost in her thoughts again. Giving voice to them slowly. "My father was the Hunter before me. My uncle was the Chronicler. My moms brother, not my dads. I have always had a knack for hunting." Finn frowned. "Have I made it seem like Hunting is just Killing?" She turned her head to Gloria, concern bringing her eyebrows together and creasing her face.

"A little?"

"It's not. I'm sorry that I made it seem like that." Finn frowned at the canopy. "It's everything. It's tracking the target. Identifying the target first I suppose. Making sure that they are actually worth the Hunt, because sometimes people do things that trigger the Council to send the Hunter and it was just an accident." Finn grinned. "Like the last one my dad took me on. It was to kill a feral shifter, except it doesn't matter what the council says we do our own thing, so we had to track him down. Find out if he'd broken any laws." Finn chuckled. "The guy had an elk farm, and no matter what he posted these one set of neighbours kept on cutting his fence to free the animals. He was a cougar shifter, so finally he attacked them when they cut the fence, then used the hole they'd cut to get in and chase the elk." Finn paused. "The neighbours turned themselves in the next day. Paid huge fines for all the fences he'd had to replace over the three years they'd been living there, all the animals he'd lost over the same time." Finn grinned at Gloria. "Best part was they had to pay animal control to relocate the cat."

"What happened to him?" Gloria asked.

"Dad gave him his phone number. Told him to call us first if people were messing with his fences again. Warnings on showing yourself to people that aren't aware of our world. The standard stuff, but he showed us proof that he had approached the council for help and the local governing people."

"What would you do if you got a call like that?"

"Well, now I would set up camera's. A bit of magic to make the camouflage harder to detect and a spell to keep the animals in regardless of how wide open the fence gets."

"Now?"

"Yeah. Camera's back then weren't exactly hard to spot. The spells I could still cask of course, but without proof for the government all they do is tell you to play nice with your neighbours."

"Back then?" Gloria scoffed. "You say that like you're ancient."

"In computer years I am I suppose." Finn became thoughtful a moment. "My dad passed on the role of Hunter to me when I beat him at one of his training games. I was 13. He died three years later." She pointed to one of the larger stones. "Put him beside my mom." Gloria stood to examine the dates on the stone. 

Michael Conner            Anne Conner
        1953                                  1951
Beloved Father        Beloved Mother

"Put my brother and sister in the ground the same day, two years later." Finn said without emotion as she waved at the stones that Gloria had been unable to read before. "Don't know why I left that spell on them. Don't remember why I put it there. By that time everyone else had died, and I'm not a stone carver so I painted on the-" Finn stopped and when Gloria looked there were tears sliding down her temple. Gloria studied the stones instead.

Liza Conner           David Conner
      1955                           1955

Gloria blinked as recognition hit. These were the two names above Finn's in the demonic book. She looked at Finn again as Finn sat up.

"The point of all this wasn't to mope." She scolded herself as she wiped her face and stood. "It was to explain why I don't know how to teach you the Chronicler job." She sniffed and frowned.

"You said everyone else had died? Your uncle was the Chronicler, why didn't he pass it on?"

"Oh, sorry. Liza took that job two years before I took Hunter. She was always a bit of an overachiever." Finn grinned at the jab.

"So you've been doing both jobs for-" Gloria paused for the math.

"Don't." Finn said. "I hate people reminding me how old I am in a negative light." She grinned at Gloria. "And after a certain number it's always a negative light."

Gloria didn't notice the grin, distracted now by the dates on the stones. There were over twenty in the two year span between 1953 and 1955. Finally her eyes, watering to near blindness, flew to Finn's face. "You've been alone this whole time?"

Finn's eyes grew hard. "By choice as much as by circumstance. Family feuds are never pretty, and this one was no exception. When it was done I made it a point to keep anyone that had been in a position to prevent the deaths as far from me as I could, and I have a long fucking reach."

Finn stalked back into the house, the door standing alone in the gate of the cemetery where they had entered, and Gloria followed slowly.