The Hunter

Can't See Me

Finn and Gloria followed the family.

"I'm still confused," said the boy. "How is not telling anyone going to save them and us?"

"If the government knew about them they would do all kinds of experiments on them. If they knew one had been here the whole time we could be charged with-" the older man trailed off and waved his hand vaguely as he tried to think up a charge for whatever they were talking abuot.

"There's a lot of things they could say we'd done, and really who would even think to look into it?" THe woman said.

"Mom, people would notice if a whole town went missing." The boy said.

"Eventually Kyle, but in the mean time what would happen to us? If people don't know about them then I can only imagine how easy it would be to make us disappear." The mom scolded in a hushed tone.

"A whole town mom."

"Fort MacMurray Kyle." The father stopped and turned to face the boy. "That's all it would take. A fire that got out of hand. Whole town, gone. We'd get a memorial and you may even live to see it in a couple decades."

The family stopped and stared at each other uncomfortably a moment before they carried on. Finn was beginning to wonder if this was just a family outing when they were joined by more people. Greetings were exchanged and the mood lifted. Eventually they made it to a large campfire circle with a lot of room for people to sit. Finn held Gloria back where the path became the circle, leaning against a tree to wait. As the light began to fade and someone lit a fire in the centre to cast some light on the people in the clearing a group of visibly malnourished boys came into the clearing, stopping nearly immediately and glancing around in obvious fear.

Two women, one of them their friend from the hotel, approached the boys and made soothing sounds, although what they said was too quiet for Finn to hear. She watched the exchange, the boys eventually joining the group and sandwiches being shared out from pockets and backpacks. Still the boys couldn't seem to settle, watching the shadows around the clearing and sniffling with cold.

Slowly more people joined the group, including an older man with a cane and a limp that paused on the outside of the circle and made small talk with the boys. Whatever he said seemed to calm them down and they crouched on the far side of the clearing to eat their sandwiches, keeping their eyes on the ground in front of them or each others faces. The older man made his way around the circle to stand with the real estate agent.

"Did anything come of the new people?" He asked.

"They were looking to move here, I'm pretty sure they'll be leaving tomorrow. I made sure there was nothing here for them, pulled up the post signs and hid them in my trunk." The real estate agent smiled gently. "Everything will be okay."

Finn leaned away from the tree she'd been leaning on. The man seemed ot be looking right at her, which shouldn't have been possible. He didn't have any of the magical signs of a caster and he sure as hell wasn't a dragon or a unicorn. She frowned and side stepped carefully to the left. It took him a moment but his eyes tracked to her a moment later. She stepped in front of her tree again, closer to Gloria who had stood up as well and was looking at her questioningly.

The man tracked her again, and this time Finn caught what he was doing. "Fuck." She said as she dropped her invisibility spell and threw up a shield. The man growled and his skin sluffed off him in fine ash as he shifted. The limp was real, that much Finn could tell as she threw herself in front of Gloria, who had jumped into a thorn bush. "They can smell us. They're werewolves!" She called to Gloria, unable in the moment to remember if they'd discussed shifters yet.

Then she couldn't think. The older wolf grabbed the real estate agent and threw her across the clearing to the younger wolves. She lunged out, throwing a spell to cushion the woman and scatter the wolves, but a shriek behind her had her spinning to wrap Gloria in the shield as well. The invisibility spell she had wrapped into Gloria's clothes held, but between the smell and her startled cry the new werewolves knew exactly where she was. Finn launched them, and accidentally the tree closest to them, across the clearing. She raised the earth into a half globe around Gloria with Finn standing in the entrance and growled back at the older man.

Being a werewolf didn't make you a good hunter, fighter, or even a carnivore if you were a vegetarian to begin with. So when the two she had sent flying recovered and came at her in tandem, one to each side, she knew she was in trouble. She sent a blast of sound at one, disorienting him enough that he missed his swipe, but not enough and she dodged, losing her chance to redirect the other's attack. His claws raked across her shoulder and she winced in reaction.

As she turned to recover the ground she'd given up a cane slammed across her face, breaking her nose and stunning her temporarily. Beyond camouflage her clothes had built in enchantments that had saved her life on more than one occasion, and today added to that tally. Finn blinked her vision clear and watched as the older shifter rolled away from her, his face black from her outer shirt exploding in his face. The other two seemed torn between helping him stand and attacking her, although there was a healthy amount of respect on their faces. Finn blocked the pain in her shoulder and face by shifting a spell.

She used the pause to draw her dagger and, with a whispered spell, she extended it to a bladed polearm. Not her favourite use of the weapon, but handy when she was out numbered. She spared a glance out of the corner of her eye to check on Gloria, who was huddled against the earth wall and staring in horror at Finn and the wolves.

"No more games. Back down or I end this." Finn said as she turned her attention back to the wolves. "You are all out of line."

"Jesus fuck would you all just listen to me?!" The scream pierced the fighting fugue Finn had been in and she realized that the clearing, although clear around the combatants, hadn't cleared out entirely. "Stan, you and the boys have to stand down. Now!"

The woman seemed to have some sway over the older man and the wolves, as they shared a glance between them and at Finn. As they settled back into slightly more relaxed stances the woman moved towards Finn. "Goddess I'm sorry Finn-"

"Finn?!" The old man barked and the two younger shifters blinked in surprise at the terror in his voice. Finn watched as he dragged his injured body to a fully prone position, palms up in suplication. "If you can't forgive me please forgive my boys, I've never mentioned you to them, they had no way of knowing what they were doing."