The Prospector's Daughter

He's a What...??

I spent the next several months returning to Nicholas's house daily, as Father left to go to the mines, and often not even returning home. Nicholas had taught me quite a few valuable things. I was gaining muscle from the various physical exercises I was ordered to do. I was now able to easily read and write, perform various basic hand to hand combat attacks, and defend against some attacks. I could hike 5 miles without needing a break, and I was beginning to learn about some of the unique "tools" Nicholas kept hidden in his room. I was on the right track to becoming a decent hunter in no time. There was only one problem. Creede had become overly populated with people flooding in to get in on the mining business. Word had spread of the silver mine outside of town and everybody seemed to want to get in on it. Our population had doubled in just months.

Nicholas had been growing more and more irritable the more the people came. He had become much more strict with me, pushing me to my limits, until I finally confronted him about it one day, after being pushed so hard in our fighting routine that I nearly blacked out at one point.

"Nicholas! What the heck is wrong with you lately? I don't understand it. Everything was fine for months, why are you getting so much more rough with me? I can only take so much. You have to remember, I'm only eleven years old." Nicholas sighed and the tension in his shoulders visibly relaxed as he came to sit next to me. He ran his fingers through my hair as I looked up at him waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry, Pup. I've been under quite a bit of stress as of late. I'm sure that's not much of an excuse, but there has been a lot more going on than you can see. You see all those people moving in, Sylvia?" I nodded my head, noting that I'd seen at least 15 strange faces in the market today alone. "They aren't all good people who are just here for mining. Do you remember when I explained that I had a keen sense for the otherworldly? It's easy for me to see, my dear. Many of the ones coming in are of absolutely no use in Creede. They've done no wrong yet, but with this high of a population of them, it could potentially cause big problems down the road. We need to be very careful. More specifically, you need to be careful, young one. You'd be a target of theirs before I would."

"But what kind of the otherworldly are you speaking of? The dangerous ones that can transform into beasts? The ones that lurk at night and drink blood? I'm not sure I understand. How are there that many?"

"Mostly the beasts, a few sons of night here and there. Just know that they are most definitely aware of our presence here as well. They can sniff me out, just as I can with them."

"What? How? Aren't you just human, like me?"

"My dear, I think it's time for us to have a very serious talk. Come with me." Nicholas grabbed me by the hand and led me back to his study where we sat in chairs across from each other so we were sitting face to face. "I am one of them, Sylvia." My jaw dropped and I was about to speak, before he cut me off once again. "Before you work yourself up, just hear me out, child." I sat patiently, waiting for what he had to say next. There was no real reason I shouldn't have trusted him. He has ,after all, been honest with me up to this point. "I may be one of them, but I am not like them in any way. Becoming this way was never my choice, and rather than letting it get the best of me, I decided to get the best of it. I've been hunting my own kind for longer than I'd like to admit. I couldn't let myself turn into a monster and do the unspeakable things that they do. I'm a sort of good monster I suppose."

I didn't know what to say. Everything I thought I had known about Nicholas for the past year was basically all bullshit. I knew he would never do a thing to hurt me or upset me, but I was concerned nonetheless. What if just being around him put me in more danger? I found myself unable to speak. I just got up and walked to the other room to think for a while. I needed to know what I should do.

Nicholas got up and followed me, and I snapped at him. "What are you doing? I need my space okay? Just leave me alone!" I walked out the door and headed through the crowds of people in the town square back to my house. I arrived and saw that Father had still been out managing the mines and went to sit in my room. I soon found myself letting tears fall from my eyes once again as I thought over what I'd just done. I still had no clue what I should do, so I did what any kid would do when they were overwhelmed. I got right into my bed and used my blanket to hide from the world until I was able to fall asleep.

***

I spent the next several years caring for the house, and doing what Father had intended for me to do. I often thought of what would have happened if I'd stuck around with Nicholas and continued on with my training, but how could I ever work like that with a monster? What if he decided he was sick of me, or got too angry at me for not doing exercises properly. I didn't want to be in that kind of danger. It wouldn't have been difficult for Nicholas to retaliate, but he spent those years avoiding me, and I avoided him as well. There wasn't so much as a simple "hello" in passing. Nothing at all. We had both moved on, and that was that. It wasn't until later on that I would meet back up with him again, this time under much different circumstances.