I have a , audacity, and the initiative.

Ultimately, I needed two things.

If I had a pursuer, I needed to wiped my trail away and I also needed a chance.

Unfortunately I wasn't born in a hunting family, so I had no real idea how to erase the traces of my presence. Fortunately, I didn't actually need to.

I sat on the far side of the river, looking back at the column of smoke raising from the farmhold. It was building fast, and there wouldn't be anyone to fight it for ages; everyone inclined to was already dead. The cost had been my remaining 'humanity' and my knife.

I had no way of knowing if my plan had fully succeeded, but it seemed to be going well from where I sat.

In time the fire took to the fields, and the pillar of smoke became a veil that blotted out the dawn. As expected, people soon came running. There were going to be curious bystanders, and there were going to be concerned neighbors. There was going to be dozens of feet pounding upon the road, and they were all going to be late to quell the flames. The best they'd be able to do was contain them, and in that time my movements would be unnoticed and unknown.

I stood when I felt that the time had come, and started towards my next target. Anna had been quite forthright when questioned, and I'd learned of a likely woman. She had brothers, but none of them lived in the same house; they were hired hands in the area. If I played my cards right, they'd be excellent tools in expanding my reach.

I needed a 'castle' to shelter me, and 'blades' to strike my unseen and unknown foe. I couldn't have peace of mind, or safety, until I was too fucking strong for some hunter to kill. Until my influence and power was so large that they wouldn't and couldn't have me removed.

It was a great speech, it reeked of truth and it was. But there was something else, something I'd only admit to myself. I had felt a rush in seizing control, in following only my own riotous instincts. Even now, as I considered evil, it only made me hard.

This, I realized, was part of me. The hunt, the conquest, it was just as much me as the merchant.

It was in the blood, it seemed. A beast that only wanted more.

A tiger, finally free to prowl.