Even before he was trained as a hunter Lapin enjoyed his hikes in the forst , there was something peaceful about the emptyness of the wilderness that had always drawn him in, .
He sighed quietly remembering the long hours of physical and mental training he had been forced to take by his father or rather mentor as far as Lapin cared.
A few decades ago, he had thought his training and family's fixation on were-creatures was laughable if not delusional. That had changed with his first encounter with a were-creature in Iraq. Had his father not been so damn stubborn he would have been dead like the rest of his squad. That time in his life had changed him in more ways than he ever cared to admit, but i had solidified one fact for him, were-creatures were dangerous and needed to be slain.
A mixture of emotions crossed the old hunter's mind as he reviewed other bits of his life, it left him with an empty pit in his stomach.
At the end of the day, they were people and that's why he hadn't hunted them like animals, they were far more dangerous than any animal.
He inhaled as he neared the kill, clearing his mind to center him self. He'd mull over the morality of what he was doing later, as always.
The hair on the back of his neck bristled as he drew near the elk's dead body, something was off.
He froze , scanning the treeline around him, only slowly moving his head as needed.
He had learned to trust his instincts , it had saved him more times than once.
That's when he noticed the girl curled up by the elk.
' What in the world?' He almost said aloud from confusion. She hadn't been there when he had shoot the elk.
Tentatively he crept closer to the sleeping were , muzzle raised.
The girl was lovely, no denying about it, even being a were. He debated killing her on the spot or using her to his advantage.
Moments ticked by,he took up the slack on the old trigger.
On one hand she was the enemy.. On the other hand she might have information about the area Lapin need.
. Lapin's mind tried to race back to the interrogation of the tiger-were.He shoved the thought away avoiding the fact
he had done terrible things to the man to gain names and information but the tiger had held out on descriptions and locations, or rather that information couldn't be trusted because of the means of which it had been extracted.
After what seemed like an eternity, Lapin lowered the rifle , he wasn't going to kill her...yet.
He set his rifle and backpack down at a nearby tree but kept his sidearm and knife handy. He'd be kind to this girl, odds were he'd get more information out of kindness than a gun pointed to her head.
He worked quietly, gathering bits of wood and kindling for a cook fire, after all he had just killed dinner.
As he worked he couldn't help but glance over at the contrasting white skin of the human like were, the contrast alone kept catching the corner of his eye.
The forth time he had done this he had gotten sick of looking at her and went to a his bag and took his poncho out to offer it as a blanket to cover her self.
He cleared his throat standing a little ways off , looking away to be polite.
" 'Excuse me Ma'am." He said allowed in a stern , but deep and pleasant voice. He waited for her to wake a little before he went on.
" Hope you don't mind my intrusion, but you've curled up by my meal." He explained still averting his eyes, or seemingly to anyways.