and ambush have served me well

The merchant in me felt flashes of annoyance as I turned the corner and snuck towards the front of the house. No information, no investigation, no guile or negotiation; it felt wasteful and inefficient, and I couldn't deny that if I had more time or more resources then I could have found a better answer.

Unfortunately, I didn't have either of those things in my pockets. All I had in my pocket was mesmeric cum, magic I could barely use, and a killer's instinct. It wasn't much, but at least those things had saved me in the past.

Mind you, in the past I'd had more than metaphorical pockets.

I crossed into the front lawn, and found one worry assuaged. The sound had come a person, and that person was a woman. From a distance I could see that she was a small one, inches away from five-foot, with a slender and willowy frame. She didn't look childlike, or deformed, she just looked like a woman built on a smaller scale. She had silver hair, long and braided, that reached below her knees.

Her ears twitched, and I felt a chill as she turned to face me. Her ears sat atop her head, large and caniform, just as bright as her hair. Her skin was similarly pale, her toned arms poking out from a black vest. She was barefoot under a long dress, simple white, and she wore a kerchief around her nose and mouth. Most chilling was her golden eye, and three jagged scars across an empty socket.

She shouldered her wood axe and stared me down, the two of us repeating our performance from the night before. Save that she was no longer a titan and I was merely skin-and-malice.

"So, you've come." She said, her voice steady and fearless. "Cleaver of you to set the forest ablaze. Made tracking you impossible with the time I had."

"Well," I took a few steps closer. "I'll take the compliment."

If she detected the bullshit, she gave no sign of it. Her ears were twitching again, and she took a moment to look out towards the orange-tinted clouds. "I'll give you one chance to leave, for your courage last night and because Lochra doesn't like blood on the property."

"Might as well stick that axe in my throat and give me a quicker ****." I shrugged, taking a few steps closer. She noted the movement, her hand tightening on the haft of her ax. "I'm running out of options here."

She showed me sharp fangs, pulling the kerchief up and off. She held it loosely in her free hand, her braid blowing in a breeze. "What's your name, boy?"

"Does it matter?" I took a few steps, getting out from between her and the house. "You're a wolf, right? You understand?"

"I do." She cracked her neck and tossed the kerchief into the air. It swirled and fluttered and drew the eye. "I won't hold it against you, demon-boy. Some gotta die for a predator to eat, and some gotta die to keep a home safe. It's just the way of things."

I felt an odd thing bubble up, and inclined my head. She returned the nod, accepting and understanding, as the kerchief hit the ground.