Page 71 of A Soul to Touch

Shame took the place of his fading anxiety. He was a Duskwalker, a Mavka, something most considered a nightmare. The humans called him a grotesque monster. He shouldn’t need their help; he shouldn’tneedprotecting.

Everything else should need protection from him.

“Why not... stay?”one of them asked.

“Stay with us. We will protect you.”

“No,”he answered softly.“There is somewhere I wish to be.”

One gave a whimper, while the other said,“But if you die, you will never play with us again.”

For just a moment, white flashed in his orbs. Faunus looked up at the canopy above, wishing to see the sky rather than this foreboding, horrible, God-forsaken forest.

“I know,”he answered quietly, hating the way an iciness spread around his big heart.

Fogging breaths left Mayumi’s dry lips, accompanied by grunts, as she swung her axe to cut into the tree branch in front of her. Her foot was resting against the tree trunk, doing nothing but steadying her as she swung again.

Thuk. Thuk. Thuk.

Once she’d gotten the base detached from the trunk, she got to work on cutting the branch into neater, more manageable logs for her fireplace. She also collected the small branches as kindling.

Perspiration dotted her forehead, and she lifted her forearm so she could wipe it away with the sleeve of her jacket. Needing to catch her breath for a moment, she stared up at the mostly clear sky.

Shit. Faunus was able to do this with the bigger axe in a quarter of the time.

Considering the bastard had been gone for a week and a half, and Mayumi only needed to start cutting her own firewood three days ago, she was thankful he’d prepared so much for her.

But at least I don’t need to go wandering through the forest to get more.

Her eyes bowed in sympathy for herself when she inspected what remained.

This had been the last branch. After this, she would have to go through the gruelling task of cutting the trunk of both trees and then splitting their large sections into suitable pieces.

Mayumi creaked her neck to one side, then the other, before rolling her shoulders back.At least this is keeping me fit.

She’d spent much of the last week and a half training – whether that was running back and forth across her porch, using the doorway as a place to do chin-ups, or doing sit-ups or push-ups. Mostly because after the twelve-hour blizzard, she’d been kept inside for four days during the snowstorm that followed. It would weaken in intensity only to grow in strength a few hours later.

The snow was up to her thighs and chilling them despite her wearing her thickest leather pants.

Mayumi looked deeper within the forest.I should go hunting again.Fresh meat would be good for her, but she also needed it to create her Demon baits.

She figured Faunus wasn’t going to come back.

It’d been nearly a fortnight, after all.

At first, she’d been irritated. After the fourth day, she’d been pissed. On that night, she’d finally pulled out her Marianna’s Sleeper booze, drowned her sorrows, and then woke up groggy.

Mayumi had gotten over it.

Years of emotional discipline told her not to let her emotions linger or fester, and she just didn’t see the point of it. She was alone, didn’t care that she was, and she would just continue to live her life like she had done before.

A life of boring solitude.

At least I got to fulfill part of my deepest fantasies,she thought, as she started collecting her timber logs to take them inside.Can’t ask for more than that.

She also now had plenty of masturbating material, not that she’d used much of it in the past week. Whenever she tried, it left a burning sensation in her chest.

After placing the logs next to the dying fireplace, Mayumi collected her two travel satchels and strapped them over her torso. Then she strapped on her empty backpack.

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