Page 19 of A Soul to Touch

“Ahhhhhhh!” he screamed, tossing her sword to the ground and sprinting for Colt’s Outpost.

Mayumi looked behind her but found nothing there.

She sprinted to her bow that rested on top of her satchel bags, slipped an arrow from her quiver, nocked it against her string, and pulled back as she aimed for the back of his leg.

Her chest heaved, her lungs compressing and expanding on heavy breaths. Mayumi considered it. She considered unleashing her arrow into the back of his thigh.

With a light gust of wind wrapping around her body, billowing her tied hair forward across her shoulder to tickle her cheek, she hesitated.

She didn’t truly want to hurt him. He’d been no fight at all, and she was sure his family would miss him terribly.Those people in the poor sector of Colt’s Outpost are suffering.He could have a wife, even children, who may be sick or starving.

To never see their father again would be even more devastating.

Mayumi loosened the tension she had on her bow string.

It wasn’t in the nature of a Demonslayer to kill anything other than monsters. Humans, although cruel and just as beastly at times, weren’t deserving of death unless they were truly vile.

They were told to incapacitate bandits rather than kill if they could. Humankind was a dying breed. They needed to keep their numbers if they didn’t want to go extinct.

With her decision made, Mayumi placed her arrow back in her quiver.

The sword wielder disappeared out of nowhere,she thought while she walked over to her sword. She picked it up as she looked around, scanning the forest warily.I doubt he would have run away. The one with the dagger was more afraid.

She shoved her sword into its scabbard and turned her gaze up to where dagger boy had been staring. She squinted her eyes at the disturbed snow.

Nothing was there now, butsomethinghad been.

Mayumi crouched down and leaned her forearm across one knee to balance herself. She lowered her hand to touch the footprint tracks she could see. The imprint was four times the size of her hand, which wasn’t hard to do considering hers were so tiny.

But the footprint was barely human shaped, massive, and didn’t belong to any normal creature she’d ever seen.

Two possibilities came to mind, Demon or Duskwalker, but she knew without needing to think about it.

A Demon would have made itself known by either the clicking sounds they made, or by hissing, snarling, or growling. This creature had been silent, hadn’t attacked her, and seemed to have gone out of its way to assist her.

The sword wielder didn’t just disappear into thin air, and dagger boy didn’t pee himself over nothing.

That’s who has been watching me.While still crouching, Mayumi let her eyes drift over the forest once more, this time searching for any sign of the feline-skulled Duskwalker.He never left. He’s protecting me.

Once more she asked herself,why?

It was a pointless question.

She stood and curled her bloodied hands into fists, ignoring the sting the back of her knuckles gave.

“Come out! I know you’re there!” she yelled, hearing her voice reverberate off the snow as an echo.

She got no response.

Maybe he ran after the man who fled?

“I hope you didn’t kill that man,” Mayumi yelled. “They didn’t deserve to die just because they were hungry. If you had leftthem to me, I would have knocked them out so they could return home to their loved ones.”

She only received more silence.

Even the wind was calm and barely moving. No sticks snapped, no snow crunched underneath footsteps. It was quiet,tooquiet.

Suddenly the area grew darker, telling her the sun had dropped past the trees and was beginning its final descent over the horizon.

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