The First Huntsman

Beloved Company

A/N: Howdy. Ready for another chapter?

The Hunter's Dream

A gentle voice hummed through the silence of the dream. Soft and gentle, a lullaby for the weary souls.

Karina, the Doll, slowly combed her dainty fingers through the hair of her beloved hunter whom she had lulled to sleep, a gentle smile quirking up at the sight of his serene face untouched by frowning creases and tensed cheeks.

As she stared at him, her thoughts lingered on the time when he had first found himself in the Dream, lost and alone but curious like a newborn child.

He could not see her yet but she had always been there, watching him in the Dream. And with the defeat of the cleric beast, the bane of young hunters, he had taken a peek into the abyss and slowly saw things for what they indeed were.

And there, he saw her standing before him.

He was quite shy at first, hesitant to speak with a doll come to life let alone talk to a woman after a long time. But he had slowly come to appreciate her company, conversing with her each time he had returned to the Dream, be it by death by horrors or choice, content knowing she would be waiting for him.

But in each return, his eyes slowly became jaded. She saw the same haunted look of the hunters that came before him. At the time, motions were foreign to her and could do little to ease his pain besides offering her company when he needed it. 

All she could do was empower him with the echoes of slain beasts and make him stronger to brave the horrors ahead.

And, to her pleasant surprise, he defeated them all and became so much more. 

He killed Rom, the spider that, with its existence, hid the true horrors from the eyes of mortals. Its death laid bare all the secrets that hid from plain sight.

He defeated Mergo's Wet Nurse and silenced the newborn Mergo, Queen Yharnam's only child, and halted the spread of the beast plague.

He silenced the cries of the Orphan of Kos, freeing it from the nightmare, appeasing Kos, and lifting the cursed unending hunt that plagued all the old and blood-drunk hunters.

He laid Gehrman to rest, the hunter that had granted passage to the Waking World to many hunters in the Dream but could never grant himself his well-deserved rest.

And he had slain the Moon Presence, transcending mortal bonds and ascended into an infant Great One whom she adopted and attended to.

All while never losing the same kindness that helped save those that mattered to him.

She relished in the small sensation of her hand caressing his rough cheek, still finding it disbelieving that he had given her mortal flesh out of her desire to feel him.

"You wish to feel, do you not? This will make it easier."