~In other words, the side he wanted you to see~ Rhianwen muttered cooly, finally coming to a pause in the memories, letting this one play out normally.
In a clearing in some woods just before the next town, Malchior and Rhianwen stopped for the night, setting up camp.
Rhianwen set up a small tarp over some branches to create a roof to sleep under, and then set up a fire as the male caught some fish and proceeded to roast them. Throughout the night, Malchior continued to give her lingering glances and strange looks. This night, he kept his weapons close at all times.

Lucian watched the scene play out in his head but said nothing just noticing on how his brothers demeanor had changed. He didn't move because he did not want to upset rhianwen anymore. Making mental notes of questions he would ask later including why he did not take off his weapons.

The scene continued, showing the halfbreed and the human eating in silence, before Malchior smiled, looking back to normal as he finished his food. "How is it?" "Very good, thank you Malchior." smiled the flame haired maiden. "Good, the last meal you're ever gonna have, so it would be a shame if it wasn't a decent meal." Blinking, Rhianwen looked up at the suddenly cold and sinister voice, and the words that made her stomach sink. "W-what?"
Gripped by the throat, the young woman found herself slammed against the nearest tree, barbed wires wrapped around her wrists and ankles tightly.

"M-Malchior..please....what are you doing? stop! Why are you being like this..please...I'm scared...We're friends!"

"Friends? Perhaps in your eyes, yes. We are not able to be friends. I'm a human, you are a hlf breed monster."

"No, we can be, you were by my side all this time, it's been two years since we started hanging out and-"

"Yes, two years. Two long, but well spent years. You were skittish at first. I'm a patient man, I can wait. I needed your full, unwavering trust, hense the long session of letting you relax and get close to me, but now, you are weakened enough."

"Malchior! Why?" she was crying, weeping now as she struggled, blood pooling from her wrists as the wires dug into her flesh.

"Why?" the pale haired male laughed, sitting up for a moment. "Because I'm a hunter. You are my prey. You are a halfling, a monster. Almost worse than a full blood in the fact that you can loose control of yourself if pushed to a certain limit or stressed. But you are a demon child. Demons are monsters. They rape, they kill, they slaughter, the feed on humans and animals, terrifying innoccent people and making them fear any bump in the night. If your kind had any moral conscious or decency, you'd kill yourselves or leave our world and existence."

"That's not true! I.m not..my mother wasn't..."

"Shut up."

Lucien watched as the scene played in his mind vividly. He watched as his brother played with her strings like a puppeteer and made his little speech. Shifting his weight when his brother had used such harsh words, he started to weep when he saw what he was doing to her. "please stop these memories i will trust your words, you don't have to show me anymore."

~Dammit boy, I told you in the beginning it is next to impossible to stop showing once I start!~ Rhianwen focused her remaining energy, the vission blurring, vague shapes moving and muffled or distorted sounds as she tried to break the connecting of their minds. Finally, after a good long, confusing 3 minutes, they were back in reality. Rhianwen was now even more weakened, slumped against a tent frame and sweating. A stray tear lingered in her eye, but she hurriedly wiped the offending thing away.

"I am sorry that i did not believe you," lucien was now kneeling in front of her "please forgive me." He was begging for her forgiveness as tears rolled down his face, he never looked her in the eyes. "I will go if you want me to and leave you alone, but you are in no condition to go anywhere for a few days."

"It's....fine.....please.....you're doing it again, stop bowing, I am not one to bow to." murmured the female, sighing as she leaned back, exhaughsted. "It's ok.....I forgive you...." Curling up, Rhianwen watched the hunter, feeling bad for causing him such distress. She shouldn't have shared with him. Rhianwen yawned, watching the man. He was...odd, sensitive, and not like the other hunters she had encountered.

Lucien knelt near her but never looked directly at her, after a while he walked out of the tent. He took care of the food that he had prepared and rekindled the fire till it grew large enough to catch a small log. Walking around he noticed a downed tree, taking out his sword he cut the tree up into small pieces and carried them back and laid a few into the fire. Looking up at the sky he had noticed that it was growing darker so he would either have to sleep near the fire or in the tent. "I have a fire going would you like to come sit by it," lucien asked as he got closer to the tent.

Rhianwen watched him with her teal eyes, keeping her face nuetral as possible and locking everything back inside where it belonged. The hunter seemed to be busying himself with the fire. As the flames rose and licked the locks thrown into the pile, she heard his voice questioning her to emerge. With a wince, she dragged herlelf over tepidly, still wary around strangers, especially hunters.

Lucien stood up and walked over to where he had stored the left overs offering rhianwen some "If we don't eat it tonight surely a wild animal or a passing traveler will find its way into it." He knew he had made a good point but hid it from his face, standing up he walked into the tent and returned without his weapons hoping that it would prove to her that he would not hurt her. "Does this make you feel more at ease, since you know that i have no weapons and i can not harm you?" he said lifting his pants to show that he didn't hide a knife.

Watching Lucian, Rhianwen found herself surprised, though she attempted to hide it. "Thank you..." was all she could think to answer, taking the food gingerly as she sniffed it once, then began to eat, her grumbling stomach easing down. He had removed his weapons, and genuinely seemed intent on proving he'd not harm her further and that he'd be kind to her. Almost about to fully let her guard down, the female felt her doubts swarm, making her muscles stiffen once more. "It does...make it better..." It was true, she felt better knowing he discarded his weapons, but still....

Walking over to his pack he grabbed his pack and pulled a new bandage for her leg, walking back over with the bandage he knelt down in front of her. "Here let me change the bandaging," he put his hand out gently untying the knot "i don't think that you would want it to get infected or anything." Slowly unwrapping the bandage he grabbed some of the water and cleaned the wound then poured some alcohol on it without saying anything he quickly wrapped the new bandage around the wound. "I am sorry it stung, i hope that you don't mind that i used alcohol to cleanse the wound."

Holding completely still, Rhianwen hissed and screwed up her face in discomfort as the alchohol stung as it cleaned and destroyed the foreign particles and germs, cleaning her wound out. She merely shrugged at Lucian's words. "It is fine..it needs to be done, you did what you had to...." After a few moments of akward silence, her soft voice filled the air. "Thank you."

Lucien sat down next to rhianwen just as he heard the thank you, this caused him to smile slightly and lean in as he whispered into her ear "im only cleaning up my mess, i always have and always will" he gently nipped at her ear then blushed when he realized what he had did. He immediately sat up straight and stared into the fire.

Feeling herself grow a bit antsy and tense as he approached, Rhianwen's spine shivered as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, gasping as the tickle of his breath on her ear making her squeek and shiver, his bite making a soft little whine come out, not like her at all. Dammit! Why did her ears have to be sensitive? Turning beet red, she looked away, curling up just slightly.

Lucien looked over at her and saw that his little show of affection had a similar effect on her. Deciding to push his luck he placed his arm around her and pulled her closer "you looked like you were shivering come closer to me and keep warm." He put a sincere look upon his face and he really meant it.

"I-I'm allright." Rhianwen muttered, tense in his hold, but she was tempted. He was warm, and the night air was a tad chilly. She hated the cold, hence her cloak, as well as disguise. Very very slowly, she leaned a bit closer, letting herself relax, just a bit. She was on edge, and ready to react at any sign of offense.

Lucien noticed that rhianwen was very tense even after she came in a little closer, taking the hand that was already around her he rubbed her shoulder very slowly. "I really do have no motive to harm you any more, what malchior did was deceitful and against the code of a hunter. If you chose to live with a demon you have fully renounced your title of hunter and are considered from then on to be just a skilled mercenary for hire. A mercenary can only claim human bounties not demon, they will feed you for a while but you have to do much more work if you want to become well off after you retire." During his talk his free hand reached under his shirt to a book, clearly stamped in the leather it says hunters code. "If you'd like to read it you may, in there you will find why i am being so nice to you clearly on the thirty fifth page." he got up and walked into the tent to get a carving knife and a block of a rare walnut that was in his pack.

Page 35 states that when a hunter loses his will to fight during a heated battle he must cause no more harm to his target. After he has shown this he must never harm that target again, but instead he must respect and care for the injuries that he has caused them, making sure that they can survive. If a hunter fails to follow this rule he must bare a mark of shame on his face, usually one of the tattoos on pages thirty nine to forty eight.

Rhianwen growled, not soothed by his words much at all. In fact, he seemed to set her off. Pullling away, she tried to walk off omly to hiss in pain, landing painfully of her broken ankle. Damn.

Glaring at the now calm, pleasant acting male, she shook her head furiously. "How can I trust you? Or anyone? Malchior was the man I considered my best friend, a person I trusted with my life, and look where that landed me! How can I trust his own brother any more? You dhare the same genes, same blood as him!"

As he spoke of honor, she shook her head, shaking. She looked like she was having a breakdown until a harsh bark of a laugh came from her. "Code? What code is that? The honor of a hunter?" she sneered. "No thank you!" No longer laughing, she clenched her fists, baring sharp incisors, like fangs as she glared venemously at the boy.

"Hunters are nothing but good for nothing murderers! You claim to have a code..a code of ethics...but to be a hunter is to have no honor! What do you hunt for? Money? Power? Respect? Fun? All useless and unexcusable reasons! There are only two reasons a person should hunt and kill an animal or another person. For food and supplies, like you use a deer, it's antlers, it's skin, it's meat, to live and provide for and make life better. And only kill what you need, nothing more."

Taking a breath, she held up a second finger. "Reason number two. To protect or defend against an enemy who has shown direct and distinct intent to harm or kill those who are innoccent and to hurt others, to stop those who have nothing but evil and maliciousness in therir hearts! To protect against those who attempt to cause pain or harm to others. Those are the only two reasons that are excusable for slaughtering! For taking a life!"

Quieting down, she looked with contempt at the text, shoving the item back. "If you do something out of obligation, because it is a chore or because you feel like it is an obligation, and not because you feel like doing it otherwise, it means nothing. Understand? Absolutely nothing! To do something out of obligation is useless and meaningless. So no thank you, I'll take care of myself." she sighed, trying to stand and walk away, but she had used too much energy up.

Lucien could do nothing but stare in awe at the half-ling the entire time of her speech. When she fell he wanted to go to her but knew better than not to when she was in this upset state. "I agree that you my think that hunters are foolish and most are. Though if you were to look at the hunters of old they only hunted to defend those that they loved or served. Their code that they developed is in this text that you shoved back into my hands, the one that for five years i spent memorizing before i could even dream of defending my loved ones." Dusting off the text he placed it back inside his shirt over his heart "You can say what you want about a hunter i will continue to be one long after you are gone." Standing up and walking back into the tent he grabbed his sword while looking up. Noticing another hunter in the trees he grabbed the staff as well, before he realized it there was a second hunter. "Get in the tent and stay there until i tell you its safe." Before rhianwen had a chance to respond he had jumped nearly twenty feet in the air and had hit the first hunter in the chest.

The half breed sighed, shaking her head as she sat on the ground, cursing her broken ankle. Great, she was dependant on this man until she healed enough. "What do you hunt for? What is the purpose? Do you care who it is you hunt?" Looking away, she shook her head, growing silent and reserved once more. "Nevermind....it matters not I guess."

About to curl up and grow silent again, she grew stiff and tense, hearing and sensing another presence. A second hunter..and a third! Dammit! Tonight was not her night.

Unfortunately, her drained state and her injured foot left her more than vulnerable. As Lucien attacked one, the other hunter aimed for Rhianwen, who barely dodged, ignoring the searing pain in her ankle. Soon, she was seized in a headlock, earning the hunter a bite in the arm, fangs sinking into his skin.

Lucien noticed the other hunter get his hands on rhianwen, quickly stabbing his current foe in the shoulder making it impossible for him to continue on fighting he threw his staff hitting the other hunter in the forhead. "Get away from her," jumping down at the other hunter lucien threw what looked like a dart but it really was a wire so he could pull down on it and pin the other hunter. Doing just that the other hunter was pinned. "Why did you attack us?" holding his sword above the hunters head but keeping him pinned.

Rhianwen snarled, shoving the man away from her as he cried out from the bite and was knocked off by the hit. As Lucien defended her, she found herself somewhat surprised in his determination. In seconds, the hunters were subdued, and Lucien began questioning them. One of them glared at the man, eyes darting from Lucien to Rhianwen. "We heard about the thief, and suspicions were it was demon, so we were sent to follow, and now since you are aiding it, you are our enemy as well!"

"Who said he was aiding me?" Rhianwen managed to drag herself over, holding a blade to Lucien's neck. In truth, she wa doing this for show. If he was a decent man, she would not let him get hunted too. "Leave, and I'll let him go when you are fr gone from this place!"

Lucien was shocked when he felt rhianwen touch a cold blade to his neck, it hadn't been the first time that he had felt this thanks to his master. Releasing the grip on the wire holding the hunter he looked at the one with a shoulder injury and shouted towards him "If you know what is good for you go see the doctor in the next town over, he will be able to repair that injury so that you may once again become a hunter." The man glared at lucien as they both left together, breathing very slowly he looked over at rhianwen "there might be more of them coming so we might want to put out the fire and change campsites for the night." Trying to smile he couldn't knowing that her blade was still at his neck "ummm, could you kindly sheath your blade?"

As soon as they were out of sight and out of her range of sensing them, Rhianwen pulled the blade away, sheathing it. With a huff, she sat where she stood, arms folded over her chest in annoyance. "You're troublesome, you and all those damn hunters. What do you hunt for anyway boy?"