By The Moon's Blade

3. Grasshaven, Two Weeks Ago

I pace around the small confines of our home, waiting for my father to return from this morning's hunting expedition. I can only hope that he was able to take down a duskdeer to soften the blow of what I plan on telling him.

I want to catch a Demonclaw, that I already know. But it's time that he's brought into the fray. I can't keep him in the dark any longer, especially if things go astray. I need to tell him before it's too late, while these deep breaths continue to keep the whispers at bay.

My heart skips a beat when the door squeaks open and my father comes in, about as glad as I've seen him in the past few months. Which, isn't saying much, but it's as much as I can ask for right now.

"Hey Rozi, how's your morning going?" he asks as he peels off his coat and throws it on his bed. He opens a basket on the floor and pulls out an apple. He shines it on his tunic before taking a big bite.

"Going okay, I was actually hoping I could talk to you..." I say hesitantly. He stops any movement as his eyes meet mine.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Let's sit, might take a while to explain."

He nods briefly before pulling out both of our chairs and sitting on his side of the table, apple now placed on the wood, not an additional bite taken.

I spend a while explaining the situation to my father — the existence of the Demonclaws, my mother's erratic behavior, umbramancy, everything that he might need to know. And as I explain everything to him, he keeps his face perfectly solemn. I have no idea what he's thinking, nor do I want to in this very moment.

After all is laid out on the table, I hit him with the biggest news of all, "So, all of that to say, I know my next move. I need to catch a Demonclaw."

I'm met with more silence and just as I feel like my insides are about to combust, he finally speaks.

"Rozi, I don't understand. You're not making any sense."

Not a surprising response.

"Dad, we need to leave. We need to find a Demonclaw and we need to leave this village. We're putting everyone here in danger. We have to go to the tomb and capture a Demonclaw. It's the only chance we have to figuring out what to do next. They're plotting something, I just don't know what."

My father places his fingers on the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath in, summoning every bit of patience within his being.

"Rozi, there's nothing there. You're imagining some sort of enemy, likely as a way of coping with the enormous burden placed on your shoulders. You've been gone every hour of the day, you spend no time here, you've skirted your hunting duties. And you're starting to sound just like your mother too. I'm scared to death here."

Of course he doesn't believe me. Of course he doesn't fucking believe me. After everything I've done, researched, stuck my neck out for. This is bullshit. And this is exactly why I never wanted to bring this up in the first place. I finally opened up. I finally did it and he doesn't believe me. I want to cry, not out of sorrow, but out of pure frustration.

"Typical. You won't even listen. You've been discounting it the minute I started talking."

He props his elbows on the table and interlaces his fingers, leaning his forehead on his hands, long hair draping over his face. The tension is making me physically sick, only slightly relieved the minute he begins speaking again.

"I'm sorry, Rozi. I want to believe you. I love you and I care about you immensely. But this just sounds like the same problem that dragged us here. I've had half a mind to take us back to Cloudridge but with all of the memories that linger there, I don't even know how we'd begin to go back. So I've been trying to take it slow with you, maybe get back there eventually. But now, with this... you're just going to go off and get yourself killed just the way she did. Gutted by some wild animal."