Page 11 of A Soul to Touch

Damnit. I was going to go into town today.

Mayumi wasn’t a foolish person.

If someone orsomething– which was always a possibility since Demons lingered, even in the shade – was spying on her, leaving her safest environment would only serve to endanger herself.

She wouldn’t go waltzing through the forest to have something sneak up from behind. Here she had weapons. Here she had protection charms.

Her eyes lifted to look at the mostly cloudless sky.It doesn’t seem like there will be snowstorms any time soon.She could go another day without leaving.

There was also the possibility she was just making up excuses again.I guess its potatoes for dinner.She didn’t have much else.

It was quiet, other than her own grunting sounds, which made the sound of a large stick breaking in the distance even more discernible.

Sitting on the long length of a strong, sturdy branch, Kitty – his self-proclaimed name – watched the tiny Demonslayer woman go about her day. His yellow orbs followed her every movement, from swinging the axe high above her head to theway her shoulders heaved when she wiggled the blade up and down to free it. He even noticed her occasional little cold tremors.

She’d already cut a dozen sizeable logs, and once she was done, she took the larger ones to a tree stump where she cracked them in half with her axe.

It doesn’t appear that she saw me.

When Kitty had been crawling up the mountainside on all fours in his monstrous form last night, he hadn’t expected to be greeted by the scent of blood on the wind. Boar’s blood, to be exact.

As much as he’d tried to not fall into a craze and hunt for it, he’d eventually lost the battle the closer he travelled. It was always difficult to clearly remember his hazy, disconcerting memories whenever his mind switched over.

Blood-thirsty, mindless, and always hungry, he vaguely remembered destroying a Demon who had already fallen onto his prey, who he’d then consumed after eating the boar.

Once the threat and his meat were gone, it didn’t take long for Kitty to come to his senses – in front of the very house he’d been seeking. He’d never thought it would lead him here.

Worried about being seen by the female occupant and perhaps her family, his first thought had been to flee and hide within the shadows of the forest. He now realised he needn’t have worried.

I didn’t expect her to actually be here... or be alone.

The last time Kitty had felt... compelled to come to this very house, Mayumi, the human he was watching, hadn’t been here. Only her father had remained.

He’d been weathered by time and many years of hard work, supporting himself with a cane for some injury he’d received in the past.

Kitty had been disappointed to find Mayumi was absent.

She had occupied this house almost every other time Kitty had come to check on the little human he’d saved, and he’d witnessed her grow into the strong woman he saw now.

I don’t know how many years it’s been.Had it been twenty-three, perhaps even twenty-five years since he’d first seen her?

She had been horribly sick with a fever when he’d rescued her. He’d grown concerned for her life, but once she was better, Kitty remained until he knew for certain she was well.

He always came back.

He’d watched her as an older child being trained by her father to wield a wooden sword, while her mother taught her how to cook and clean.

He’d seen Mayumi as a teenager, training in the forest by herself. She’d often looked awkward, her body at an odd stage of growth with all these red dots on her face that he saw many other humans at similar ages possessed. Some were scolded for touching them, whereas Mayumi had always shown discipline.

He’d found her pretty then, but nothing had prepared Kitty for his breathtaking first glimpse of her as an adult. Even though he was a Duskwalker, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from thinking she looked beautiful.

Unfortunately, his visit had been brief since she’d been leaving.

He’d followed her and her father as they both made their way to the Demonslayer stronghold. He only knew they were headed that way because they’d been in their black uniforms. He’d stopped following part way, knowing the direction they were going wasn’t safe for him, but he’d stared at the space they disappeared into long after they were gone.

He hadn’t expected to see her the next time he’d felt compelled to come here, but she had shown up while he’d been watching her parents. From what he overheard, her mother had been dying. Kitty had witnessed this woman hold back heremotions, just like her father, until the frail woman passed, and she left proudly in her uniform – leaving her father by himself.

Nearly half a day’s walk from this house, Mayumi eventually let her emotions overtake her in the forest.