Hunger (KNY X HxH)

3

Maigo Ran'yo wasn't your average 12 year old girl. Sure her plain brown hair looked normal, so did her freckles and her deep blue eyes. But she didn't have normal loving parents, or a normal school she went to. Her parents were lazy, and made her do all the work. She swept the floors, cooked dinner, fetched the water, went hunting because they were broke, all of it. The only time her parents cared what she did, was when he screwed up. And when she screwed up, she got beat with a whip. She had been doing this for two and a half years, so there was a plethora of scars on her back and arms. There were about twenty large ones, plenty more than anyone her age should have even seen. Life was hell, a hell that she had given up trying to escape. Maigo had ran away twice, each time she got caught and beaten harshly when she returned. She had a bow and some arrows that she used for hunting, they were her most prized possession. She wasn't allowed to talk to the other kids that lived around here either, out of fear she might run away again. In the small lot of free time she had, she worked on her strength and endurance. If Maigo got stronger, she could avoid mistakes from fatigue and lack of sleep.

"Maigo!" her father yelled from the couch downstairs. "Go get me some deer!" she gritted her teeth. Not food, deer. You want a fucking deer. Deer were one of the most difficult things to stalk, and if she didn't bring back a deer it would be counted as a failure. "Alright!" she yelled back down, then scowled as she grabbed her bow and five arrows. Maigo opened her bedroom window and slipped out onto a tree, she didn't want to pass mother and father on the way out the door. She closed the window and slid down, then landed with a thump in the grass next to her house. Her village was located next to a very populated forest, which was perfect for hunting. Their village centered more around mining and fishing so very few people hunted there. Maigo had noticed that deer tended to graze a specific patch of grass in a clearing on the other side of the forest, so she set out in that direction. As she walked, she made sure to step lightly and quietly, a skill she had perfected about a year ago. When she got to the clearing she scaled a tree, then drew an arrow and rested it on the string of the bow. Time to wait. Her favorite thing about the mahogany bow was the red mark near where the arrow rested. It was a scope more or less, at least all the scope she needed. Ten minutes later she heard a noise.

Maigo's eyes narrowed and she kept her breathing low and quiet, matching the sighing of the wind through the leaves around her. Thankfully the shadow of the tree was directly below so her shadow didn't stand out, there was a number of things that animals could use to detect danger. A furry brown figure crept into the clearing, and she grinned. Score. The deer was small, but it was still pretty massive. She waited, angling the red line to be against the head. She kept moving it as the deer got closer and closer, then right within range. Draw, fire. She rapidly drew and fired the arrow, then held her breath. Thunk. The arrow hit square in the chest and the deer squealed, staggering. "Yes!" she swung down from the tree, then ran over. The deer had collapsed, although it was still breathing. Maigo dug the arrow into its windpipe and it wheezed, then went limp. A perfect hunt. Maigo glanced up at the sky, the sun was almost directly overhead. Just in time for lunch! She removed and cleaned her arrow, then grabbed the legs and started dragging. The large animal strained her muscles, but she didn't give up. Her house was a five minute walk from there and she had nobody to call on for help. Something she had learned from a young age, nobody will help you except yourself. As she reached the village, there was a boy walking by. He passed her, then tossed her a paper. "notices go out to the whole village, read it" she paused, then picked up the paper with a curious expression. White animals? Maigo shoved the paper into her pocket and kept going, she could read it later.

Maigo was lying in her bed, starving. Despite the large meal, she'd only gotten a small portion. But I'm the one who caught it. The amount of energy she had to expend to get the damn thing wasn't worth it, her shoulders were sore as well as her back. Then she remembered something. The paper. Maigo slipped the paper that the boy had given him out of her pocket, then smoothed it out and started reading. 'white animals mean danger' the title read. She kept going, and her eyes widened. 'there have been a series of disappearances throughout multiple villages. There will be sightings of a white feline or canine-like figure called Nai Shiroi at the doors of most houses at night. The most notable disappearances were of eight children-' Maigo stopped reading. Kids are going missing? White animals? She thought about this for a while when a thought entered her mind. I wish I could disappear. She froze, eyes going wide. Wait...what if I...look for this creature? This animal could be what saved her from this awful life. Nai Shiroi, are you the answer? Gears in her brain started to turn. How did one track down an elusive creature that nobody was able to catch? She didn't feel hungry anymore, she felt excited.