[RPG • 100] Greenstone, 1633 | Speeltopic - Speeltopics

      Reed had been restless all week. At first, he thought his uncle’s death was the main focus. That seemed the most obvious reason since it disrupted the entire hunter community to lose one of their own.
      But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it wasn’t just that. His dreams were still haunted by his latest hunt. Not the one he did with Misha, but the one he had done with Farah. They had killed not one, but two vampires. Reed was pretty sure they had been sent by Vanparys too, since they weren’t right on top of their business. He beat himself up for not noticing the shadow that had been stalking around them. Not that it mattered now. It was handled. They were dead. Count Cuntula would probably be pissed to high hells that his informants hadn’t returned, but in the end he wasn’t the only hunter prowling these woods.

      Reed dumped some of his weapons at home after switching with the next people who would be on patrol. He had already helped Finn get out of the house already, as usual. The patrol had yet again been boring and he had just mulled over the situation again and again. There weren’t any new leads or Juni didn’t want to share it with him anyway. He couldn’t seem to let it go anyway.
      To his own surprise the thing that haunted him the most was Farah’s pained expression after his massive bluff with the vampires. She was either a very good actress or had thought he had meant the words. He cared a bit more for her than he’d like to admit out loud. Even to himself. But regardless of the situation, he needed to smooth that over.

      Reed hurried to the festival. He was about to look for fun people to grab a drink with. Be it his sister, Misha or one of the older hunters that he could outdrink. The festival usually was the year’s highlight and he wanted to enjoy himself. He casually strolled around on the square that was already packed with people. The lanterns cast a shadow over people’s laughing faces. Like the surroundings wanted to show that the mood shouldn’t be as light with all that happened in the last week.
      On a whim, he bought a wooden dagger. It was supposed to be a toy, but it made for good practice while he was in his room. Or he would just give it to one of the smaller children in the hunter community.
      He started to play around with the knife, wondering why he even bought it when he could actually make it himself. He guessed he just had money to spare, and he could admire good craftsmanship when he saw it.
      Suddenly he felt a presence at his back. It wasn’t really threatening, and it felt familiar but at the same time wrong. Farah. She grabbed his attention by telling him she wanted to talk. Reed couldn’t suppress a frown from marring his face. She sounded distant to him. This wasn’t safe in the least either.
      Prudently and alert he slid behind the same cart as she had chosen. He tried to keep his attitude casual.
      She looked at him, fear but at the same time determination shone in her eyes as they locked with his own.
      She started talking rapidly about how she had thought about it and how she wanted out, how she couldn’t handle the lies and the danger… In the end she thrusted out Reed’s dagger to him.
      He was too stunned to speak for a moment. Then his anger flared, and his first instinct was to curse her out, but for once in his life, he stopped himself. A lot of emotions coursed through the man's head, but panic was the one that came out strongest.
      “You can’t just drop me just like that,” he said, grasping at better words to tell her. His voice was breathy, like he didn’t want to speak too loud. Like it would make his words into existence.
      The image of her hurt face flashed in his mind’s eye again while he took his dagger and slotted it back into its place.
      “Is this about what I said?” he ended up whispering in the end.
      There were so many feelings coursing through the man. His heart wanted to grab her face, and comfort her, but his brain stopped him. His brain wanted to continue this pact as much as his heart, but for different reasons. Reed ended up just listening to his brain, because that made sense.
      “You can’t back out, Fah,” Reed paused for a second and he wanted to slap himself so badly for dropping the nickname he had given her. He tried to cover up his mistake: “I mean Farah. We worked so hard already. Both of us. Hell, we killed two vampires. Together. I think that’s a first,” Reed rattled. He didn’t want to stop talking, because she would go away, and it would be over. It was the last thing the hunter wanted.

      Red quickly made its way to Farah’s cheeks. He couldn’t ignore this telltale sign of her words being lies.
      “Liar,” he accused the girl while he whirled her back towards himself with a soft pull at the wrist. He was careful not to hurt her and push her away even more.
      He’d let her do her talking, and he’d honestly and quietly waited his turn. Farah just turning away from him pissed him off a little, but most of what he was feeling was panic right now.
      He swallowed and didn’t let go of her wrist just yet, fearing that she might run if he did so. “You’re a liar,” he said again. “You’re blushing like there’s no tomorrow, and your eyes are telling a whole other story,” he said, his tone slightly challenging her to defy his words.
      His steady gaze trained on her, and he held eye-contact for way longer than necessary, but Reed Ackerman wouldn’t back down. His decision was made. He would do this with her or not at all. Hunter traditions be damned. Reed had someone to watch his back, it just wasn’t his partner, and it happened to be a trusted werewolf.
      “I won’t do it without you,” Reed says, voice soft but steady. He gently let go of her wrist, quite sure he had her attention.
      Before he knew it, he scoffed, reacting to her words about someone who could keep up.
      “You kept up nice enough when it was needed,” he refuted her logic. “I don’t need another killer, I’m more than enough killer on my own,” he tried to keep those words airy, like he was joking. He was, partly, but he was sure that out of the both of them, he had killed the most.
      Such admissions never would have even come up in Reed’s brain in the past. He had believed killing was a werewolf’s nature. But he had seen how Farah had held the dagger like it was some piece of trash to be tossed away. How she had waited for Reed to deal the killing blow, despite the creature being a vampire.
      “I’ll be careful if you stay on board.” Reed knew what he was saying right now wasn’t fair to her, but he’d do whatever needed to keep her on his team of two.
      The soft plea, he refused to say please, resonated in his words.
      “I-if you really want me to be careful,” he started but paused to rearrange the words floating around in his head, “don’t lie to me like that. Tell me what you really want.”
      It wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t exactly a demand either. He just wanted to know what she wanted for herself.

She lied to his face a second time and another wave of red graced her features. Reed said nothing and just raised one brow to rebuke her words yet again. He didn’t even need words to catch her on her lie this time.
      Farah tried to object and threw out a small ‘but’ but his words waltzed right over that. Her face turned an even deeper shade of red, and this time Reed didn’t know why this was. She averted her eyes and another frown found its way onto Reed’s face. She seemed to be thinking to herself. Trying to make up her mind, and in the end she relented.
      "Fine then. Fine. I want the same thing I did a few months ago. I want my pack to be rid of Felipe and his toxic ways." Reed gave a firm nod of approval. She was obviously mulling on some other reason as to why they should end this. Reed wanted to know why though.
      "I- I want a partner I can count on, who sees me as an equal. You're saying I kept up nice, but I want to do more than that. If you really want to be partners again, I want you to teach me. How to... handle myself out there, when I'm not in my werewolf-form."
      Reed couldn’t hide the surprise on his face as she said this. “You want to learn close-combat? Hunter stuff? You are aware you’ll need to stab people with that, right?” Reed was a bit baffled if he was really honest, but he tried to hide his speechlessness by just spewing out dumb stuff. She just nodded to herself.
"And I want you."
      If Reed thought he was baffled before. He sure was daunted now. “Me?” he choked out. Not sure what to do with his own giddy feelings betraying him where he stood. He tried to sift through words in his head, but Farah started speaking again.
      "As - as my partner, you know. We had a good thing going on, before. That's what I meant. As a partner. You know, a team of some sorts. A collaboration, if you will."
      “A collaboration,” Reed parroted back to her. “Yes, yes. Sure. A partnership,” Reed stuttered. “I think I can teach you a thing or two. If you’re willing to have me as a teacher,” he trailed off.
      “Look. I’m sorry I dragged you so hard in the fight. I suspect that had something to do with all of this,” he made a gesturing movement with his hands between them. “It was a strategic choice of me to pretend I didn’t care so their attention would shift to me,” Reed said in a kind of bashful tone. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he muttered.
      Reed realized that the damage he had done wasn’t irreversible, but he would have to watch his words to keep situations like this from happening again.