The Order of Huntsmen

In the Beginning

I was fifteen when I met my first monster.

My parents had spent the better part of the year before griping about how I "should have already had my first kill if it wasn't for those damn Councillors meddling in the natural order of things." Now, I'd never met the Councillors, but they didn't sound too bad to me. Keep the hunters from hunting things they are not supposed to, keep the "monsters", not that they like to be called that, from hurting the Shielded.

"C'mon," I had said to my mother over my shoulder as I scrubbed the dishes that fateful day. "They can't be that bad. We should give them a chance!"

"Well, Darling," my mother huffed, sounding quite annoyed, "when you've seen one of those... things rip a neighborhood dog to pieces, maybe you'll understand that they are not meant to be trusted."

I grimaced at that. I really didn't want to think about the mental image that formed in my head.

In all my years of living, which admittedly weren't very many, I had one thing ground into my skull. "Monsters are not people. Don't pretend that they are." I can still clearly recall the day my grandfather had told me that for the first time. Sitting on his knee beside the fire, the metallic wrapping of Christmas presents flickering in the firelight. I remember the snarl on his face and the rage in his eyes. I'd tried to ask more, but he hushed me then and told me that I was far too young to know the rest.

The next morning, I unwrapped the biggest of my presents to find a brand new bow. I unwrapped the next to find a set of metallic arrows, the ends dangerously pointed. I had tried to touch the tip of one before my grandfather had laughed and told me I really shouldn't do that. They told me that everything would be different now. Now I would be a real Holt.

I'd trained with everything I had after that, for eleven years.

Which brings us to the start of this.

It had started a few weeks before, when I woke up one night to my parents whispering fervently to themselves a few doors down. I was ashamed of it at the time, but I eavesdropped.

I crept down the hall and leaned against the wall, keeping my breathing quiet, even though I doubted my parents could hear me through a closed door. I only was able to catch the tail end of the conversation.

"And they allowed this?" My mother hissed as I could hear her pacing about the room.

"Unfortunately," my father said.

"What about the treaty lines?" My mother snapped. My father hushed her, mumbling about waking me up.

My father took a deep breath. "They said that since the population is expanding, we can't expect them to be kept out of civilization just to maintain lines set a few hundred years ago. They made it clear that they were to keep to the properties on the opposite end of town. We have our side, and they have theirs."

My mother sighed heavily and I heard her sit down on the bed. "What about Orion?"

It took my father a few moments to respond, and I stopped breathing. I waited a few moments, heartbeat pounding in my ears, expecting the door to swing open and for me to receive the scolding of a lifetime. Relief flooded through me as he started speaking. "I was told that the Alphas have a son. A year older than him. They'll be going to the same school." The hair on the back of my neck raised as he spoke again. My father was not quick to anger, and he sounded murderous. "They said they hoped that Orion and the other one could be... Friends." He spat the last word with so much venom, I wonder if it tasted like poison on his tongue.

I scrunched my brow in thought, ignoring whatever they said next. My parents were never so angry about new neighbors before, what had changed? Once the truth hit me, I wanted to slap myself for not seeing it sooner.