"Hey, you're a hunter, Kota." He soothes her, placing his hand firmly on her shoulder.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself. "I don't know if I can do this, dad." She whimpers, clutching onto his hand tightly.
"You're a hunter, aren't you?" He...
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"I sustain myself with
the love of family." -Maya Angelou
<< Bonding with Mary >>
Dakota leans against the side of Cas's truck, squinting from the harsh sunlight, she glances over at Mary. She chews on her bottom lip as she thinks about what to say, Mary watches her patiently as Dakota thinks over her words. Before Dakota could say a word, Mary decides to break the awkward silence for her.
"How old are you?"
"Uh, fifteen." Dakota answers, giving her a small smile. "My birthday is June 11th."
"You're a hunter?" Mary asks, her tone gives away her unease about the question.
"Not really, I mean I hunt, but I'm not a hunter." Dakota says, shrugging lightly. "Dad's been teachin' me a little, Sammy too, but I'm not much of a hunter. I'm scared of everything, I was so determined on being a hunter but now I'm scared." She admits shyly.
"You don't have to be a hunter, Dakota." Mary tells her gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. Dakota looks over at her with wide green eyes.
"I can't do anything else." Dakota looks away, her voice gains Cas's attention.
"What do you mean?" The two chorus, giving each other looks.
"When I was seven, I tried to get out of hunting. I wanted to go to school, so dad dropped me off at Bobby's. I kicked and screamed at him not to, because it meant he would have to leave me behind, I didn't like that. He left and I went to school for a couple months, I hated it. Nobody liked me because I didn't have parents, they said I wasn't loved and they teased me relentlessly." Dakota explains, her voice sounding small and sad. She doesn't meet their curious gazes, instead she keeps her eyes focused on her hands. "Uh, I made a friend named Isabella, she was my best friend, the only person who liked me."
"Dakota-"
"It's okay," Dakota cuts Cas off, giving him a smile. "Isabella made school better, I had someone to talk to and play with at recess." She chuckles at herself, memories springing up in her mind. "Everything was okay, until we had this school trip. We were learnin' about different trees and their leaves, dad about went ballistic when I told him it was in the woods. He said he had a bad feelin' about it, but I didn't listen and I went on the trip anyways. Our campsite was attacked by a wendigo, our teacher was the first one killed while most of my classmates were taken so it could feed on us slowly."
"Were you taken?" Mary questions softly, Dakota's glances at her before looking at Cas and nodding her head.
"Yeah, along with Isabella and a lot of other kids. It was the first time I would be with a monster without dad or Sammy, or even grandpa." She says before her eyes widen and dart over to Mary, the woman gives her a smile of reassurance, so Dakota continues. "I was alone and really scared, it was dark and everyone was crying, I wanted to but I remembered that dad told me to always be strong. I lost my knife when it grabbed me, not like it would've helped, fire is the only thing that kills it."
