Page 13 of A Soul to Touch

A pleasant vibration began to rumble in his chest, one he only ever experienced when she was near. His long, thin tail swished under the branch he sat upon.

Hereeeee, Mayumi, Mayumi, Mayumi,he mentally called, just like how she’d once called for her precious kitty.

Mayumi knew exactly why she felt the urge to cover herself in a silk robe before she threw herself into the snow today. Either she was still being watched a day later, or she was growing paranoid.

The nagging grew worse as she laid belly up in the cold white powder. Stretching the long column of her throat, she leaned her head back to look behind her into the forest.

Shesworeshe saw a flicker of yellow between the trees, but when she turned her gaze there, it was no longer present.

A human would have made themselves known by now.She looked up to the blue sky, the snow finally ceasing its gentle, frozen tears for a short while.And a Demon would have attacked by now.

She knew a Duskwalker was no better than a Demon.

But this feeling just won’t go away.

With a sigh, she got to her feet and stared down at the metal bucket in the snow. Her life had become a boring, mundane cycle of the same habits.

It was the same each morning, tea, coffee, or a snow dip, then a body rinse before she decided on collecting firewood first or cleaning her already spotless house. What she discovered onher trip into the woods would determine if she would set up a Demon trap or not, often letting the bait come to her rather than the other way around.

And always constant, incessant thoughts.

Her mind was like a non-stop chatterbox. Which was often irritating as she liked complete and utter silence – only to be thwarted by herself.

Look, Mayumi. You’re either being watched or you’re not, but you need to go into town today regardless.With an aggressive hint to her jarring movements, she swiped up her bucket.No more excuses.

There were many more excuses she did come up with, but not an hour later Mayumi was geared up and deep within the forest.

She heard no traces of life as she travelled to Colt’s Outpost, one of the largest villages north of the Veil’s border canyon. Given its name because it'd been a military outpost before the scourge of Demons arrived on Earth in the early 1700s, it eventually turned into one of the most overpopulated, but safest, villages.

It was also relatively close to Hawthorne Keep, Mayumi’s Demonslayer sector head base.

She had to tread carefully as she wasn’t allowed within ten miles of Hawthorne Keep as a forcibly discharged guildmember, and Colt’s Outpost was just outside of this distance.

She wore a hunter’s outfit, the same one she’d been wearing the last few days, though she had washed it. She gripped the hilt of her sword tightly as she walked across the empty meadow that spanned in front of it.

In front of the wooden drawbridge, two soldiers stood guard. Their arms and legs were clad in leather armour, but their torsos were polished steel. She narrowed her eyes at them, knowing exactly who they were and that they would probably get on her nerves.

“Open the gate,” she demanded once she was standing before them.

“I’m sorry,” one of them said before eyeing the other through their metal helmet. “But we don’t allow forest trolls into our city.”

“Yoshida,” Mayumi grumbled as she rubbed her temples. “I swear if you give me trouble today, I’ll climb the tower wall and drop cow dung on you again.”

Henry, the dark-skinned soldier next to Yoshida, threw his head back and let out a bellowing laugh into his helmet.

“I told you not to do it. I could tell she was in a foul mood today by how she walked across the meadow!” Henry began stomping his legs with exaggerated movements, causing the armour he wore to click and chime. “You walk like you’re an angry bear when something’s got your back up.”

Yoshida, who had similar Asian features to her but of a different origin, narrowed his light brown eyes at her. “You wouldn’t.”

“I knew you two were going to give me issues just by seeing you across the meadow.” She pointed the way she just came. “I can tell it’s you two idiots because you’re always leaning against the wall rather than watching out for danger like you’re supposed to.”

“It’s daytime,” Yoshida quickly argued back. “There’s never been a Demon attack in the middle of the day.”

“I bet you guys messed up something to get this shiftagain.”

Being assigned to guard the gate during the day was considered a punishment. No matter if they were baking in the heat of the summer sun or freezing in the middle of a snowstorm, they couldn’t leave their post. It was always boring and uneventful, except for the odd traveller like herself.

“Oh, just go inside,” Yoshida sighed, bashing the bottom of his fist against the drawbridge so the soldiers on the other sidewould lower it. “I just wanted to have a little fun and you had to be in a shitty mood. Becoming a high-ranking Demonslayer made you a hard arse.”

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