11.20.2018

Judith Slays Holofernes, Pt XX

It is hard to believe that more than a year has passed since I first came to Bethulia, and yet I look around at the household preparing for the barley harvest, and I know it to be true.  Life has become very simple, in a way- we study, we train, and we hunt.

Not much comes of our hunts, however- the area around Bethulia remains strangely void of the supernatural, although once my ward did kill a wolf that had been stealing from the city’s flocks.  Knowing she had protected her people from an actual threat gave her a glow of satisfaction which lasted for days.

More recently an Alukah wandered into our territory, but it was young and stupid as bloodsuckers go, and she was able to dispatch it without much trouble.  I could have wished she’d left it alive a little longer, so that I might have questioned it regarding the whereabouts of its sire, but ah well.

I  have heard nothing from the Council in Exile for months, not since I received a tersely worded message thanking me for my information regarding the rising god, and bidding me continue in my duties.  No comment on the fact that I’d received a prophecy regarding my ward, no additional resources. It frustrates me that they give us no support, not even intel. You would think they’d at least send research to us, so that we could be better prepared for the trouble rising in the north.

But I must no dwell.  My energies are better spent working with my ward, who is becoming quite proficient in any number of weapons, to my pride.  She has a gift for the sword, and I think the time has come for me to start focusing more of our training on honing those particular skills.  After all, there are very few creatures- demon or otherwise- that cannot be dispatched via beheading, and it requires a great deal less accuracy than, say, a stake to the heart.

No comments:

Post a Comment