I watched as my mother wrapped a woollen cloaks around my fathers shoulders, while he strapped weapons to his belt. I had watched this scene play a thousand times. I smiled; my father, the hunter.
Worry creased my mothers brow as she busied herself brushing fur and hair from my fathers cloak.
"Nina." My fathers voice was gruff and yet as soft as silk. "My daughter, come here." He smiled as he opened his arms. I ran into the embrace of my father, something I did not often get chance to do.
"Papa." I wound my arms around his waist and buried my face in his shoulder.
"Nina my girl, let your mother bind your hair, for when I return you are to be presented to the young Roan." I let go of my father and took a step back.
"Papa?"
"He has asked for your hand Nina, and I have not refused." I began to protest, to shake my head. "Nina, my child, your mother and I are not young anymore. We will not always be able to provide for you, but Roan is strong and he has land."
"And he is a beast of man. Papa please, I cannot."
"Godric, please, just come home. Then we will discuss Nina's future." My mothers voice was harsh as she reprimanded my father.
My father was a man of great stature and significance in our small village, for he was our chief protector. He was a solider, a true warrior if ever had seen one. His shoulders were broad like a oxen and his height towered over many. His hair had turned a silvery white and his big bushy beard matched. Tonight he went in search of a young girl, Althena, who had been snatched from her home in the dead of night three nights before the full moon.
My mother, in comparison, was a tiny woman who had only been blessed with the one child. Her corn yellow hair had started to turn silver, and yet still she toiled under the yoke of her tasks. Her pine green eyes always full of compassion towards to sick and afflicted that required her help. But as I watched her follow my father out of the door, I saw no light in her eyes, no peace in her face. I watched as she placed a single kiss on his brow, rising up on to the tips of her toes to do so, and tell him again to return.
"Mama, you worry too much." I spoke as she began to bustle about her work bench, clearing away the herbs and the concoctions. "Papa is safe. He always returns. Mama the gods will bless him with safety." She stopped her busy hands and turned to me, a sad smile on her face. She lifted her hands to my face and pushed my unbound hair out of the way.
"Oh Nina. My only child, you do not understand. Your father is not blessed. Your father is The Hunter." My mothers words confused me. I had always known my father was a hunter but the way my mother had spoken those words... Something was different something didn't quite fit.
She took my hands in hers and urged me to sit. She told me the stories I had feared as a child. The stories of men that became wolves when the moon was whole, stories of monsters who lived off the blood of others, women who held the power of the devil to unleash upon the world.
"Werewolves, vampires and witches Nina. These are the monsters your father hunts. Whatever took Althena is a creature that must be eliminated. I tell your father to come back because if he does not," She paused, one hand moving again to my face. "If he does not, that burden falls to you. You will take his place as Huntress."
"Papa is strong. He will return."
"Nina," my mother sounded subdued, almost broken, "your father... You're father gave up an immortal life to live with me, to have you. He won't last forever. The full moon rises tomorrow, and if Althena isn't found by then..." She trailed off. If Althena wasn't found by then, my father would face whatever monstrosity had taken her, and he would not survive.
