The Hunt Begins Again
The morning air carried a brittle chill, crisp enough to sting the lungs yet clear enough to promise a good hunting day. Darkness adjusted the strap of her armor, feeling the weight of the cheap, dented metal clink softly at her hip. The guild board had offered only minor jobs that paid poorly—extermination of weak goblins, collection of herbs from dangerous outskirts, scouting requests. Nothing glamorous, nothing heroic, but enough to keep her purse from running completely dry.
She wasn't alone at the guild's entrance.
Kara was there too—leaning against a wooden post, arms folded, as though waiting for the sun itself to rise before moving. The younger adventurer had a brightness in her eyes, the kind of eagerness that betrayed inexperience but also hinted at something else… something odd. Darkness had fought alongside Kara once before and knew her courage wasn't the ordinary sort. Courage mixed with a strange delight, a recklessness bordering on… indulgence.
"Kara," Darkness greeted, her tone polite but distant.
The girl straightened quickly, almost too quickly, as if she'd been caught in the middle of some secret thought. She smiled, but it wavered just a touch, nervous.
"Ah, Darkness. You're going out too?"
"Of course. A warrior who sits still with no coin to eat is no warrior at all." Darkness's smile was faint, wry.
The two of them walked together through the cobbled streets, boots clattering against stone, until the city gate stretched open before them and the wilds beckoned beyond.
For a time, neither spoke. Birds chirped overhead, the forest rustled awake, and the sun began to pour its pale gold into the earth. Then Kara broke the silence.
A Slip of the Tongue
"So then…" Kara took a breath, puffing her chest as though making some grand announcement. "I'll be going to wrestling again—!"
The words shot from her lips with too much energy, too little caution.
Her voice cut abruptly. Kara froze mid-step. Her face drained of color, then flooded with red so quickly Darkness almost mistook it for the flush of fever.
"Ah! I-I mean—!" Kara stammered, her hands flailing in front of her as though trying to swat the mistake out of the air. "I meant hunting! Hunting again! Of course hunting! Not— not wrestling! That was just… um…"
Her voice trailed, tangled in knots of panic.
Darkness stopped walking. Her golden hair swayed gently with the breeze as she tilted her head, observing Kara with the calm scrutiny of a predator watching prey entangle itself in its own trap.
"Wrestling, was it?" Darkness repeated, her voice a velvet murmur, smooth but edged with something playful.
Kara's eyes widened in horror. "N-no! Hunting, hunting! You misheard, really you did!" She waved her arms even more frantically, then clasped her hands together as if in desperate prayer. "I just… words slipped, that's all! I would never— I mean, I didn't— oh no…"
She bit her lip hard, nearly trembling. The more she tried to fix the slip, the worse it became, like quicksand dragging her deeper.
Darkness's lips curved slowly.
fufufu.
The sound leaked into the morning air, low and teasing, almost imperceptible but heavy enough to make Kara's face ignite all over again.
Kara's Flight
"I—I'll go ahead!" Kara blurted, voice cracking. Her feet shuffled back, then sprang forward with all the speed of a cornered rabbit. She nearly tripped over her own scabbard as she dashed down the dirt path, hair whipping wildly behind her.
"Wrest— I mean hunt! Hunting! That's what I said!" she shouted, her voice already fading into the trees.
Darkness stood where she was, watching the girl's retreating figure shrink with every frantic step.
For a moment, silence. Then she chuckled, covering her mouth delicately with a gloved hand.
"Fufufu… what a curious girl."
The sun caught her eyes, gleaming like molten gold. She could still hear Kara's slip echoing in her head—I'll be going to wrestling again—spoken with such enthusiasm, such unguarded longing, that the correction which followed only sharpened the truth.
It was not disgust in Kara's tone. Not shame alone. It was… desire. An admission she could not control, bubbling from beneath the surface where she had tried so hard to keep it hidden.
Darkness's Amusement
Darkness resumed walking, slower this time, savoring the scene that had just unfolded. Her steps sank lightly into the earth, the crunch of grass and soil rhythmic beneath her boots.
She could imagine the girl's thoughts even now—panic boiling, face buried in her hands, replaying the mistake over and over. Why did I say that? Why can't I control myself?
Darkness let another small laugh escape.
"Some people," she murmured to herself, "are far more honest when they stumble."
Her own chest tightened faintly at the thought, but not from embarrassment. No, Darkness was no stranger to desire dressed in the armor of battle. Pain and pleasure, struggle and surrender—the lines blurred easily when one's heart longed for both.
Perhaps Kara was not so different after all.
The road ahead stretched long, the forest whispering with hidden life. Somewhere beyond, goblins lurked. Somewhere else, perhaps, another kind of wrestling waited—one Kara's tongue had betrayed she secretly yearned for.
And Darkness… Darkness found that amusing.
"Fufufu…"
Her laugh followed her into the wild.