Emerald Rain

The one-Eyed Beast:

Hilda:

Hilda felt someone shaking her shoulders, "Hey wake up" the person said. Hilda groaned in response; she was exhausted especially after that stunt Claude pulled by making them fight the second, they arrived at the monastery. Didn't Claude know she was a delicate flower after all! "Hilda, come on wake up" the person continued, it took Hilda a moment, but she realized that it was Byleth that was trying to wake her up.

"No, come back later" Hilda groaned and rolled over.

Byleth sighed, Hilda thought for sure that meant she was victorious and would be able to remain sleeping but Byleth was cunning. "I guess I'll just have to ask Lorenz for help with waking you up" Byleth said.

Hilda immediately shot up from her sleep, "What do you know, I'm not tired anymore" Hilda said to Byleth.

Byleth let out a small laugh, "I didn't think that would actually work.

"I would do anything to avoid having to be in Lorenz's presence" Hilda said, she looked at Byleth and admiring her handiwork. "You know Byleth, the short hair suits you" Hilda said, it was cut straight right at her shoulders, there were still pieces of uneven hair that had stuck out from places higher than Hilda had cut.

Byleth smiled, "Thank you Hilda" she said. "Come on, Claude came by earlier and said that he required our assistance today" Byleth added.

"Ugh, stupid Claude" Hilda sighed, "What does he even need our help with?" she asked.

"We need to start getting merchants to come back to Garreg Mach" Byleth stated "So You, Claude, and I are going to nearby towns to inform them that Garreg Mach is back and will be safe for them to conduct business again" she added.

"Ugh, that's not fair" Hilda whined.

"Hilda, Claude made the choices for you very clear" Byleth began "Either you join us to nearby towns or you stay here at Garreg Mach and help everyone else with cleaning and clearing up rubble" she added sternly.

"Damn, Claude thought this through" Hilda thought to herself, as she rose to her feet. Hilda stuck her tongue out at Byleth when she saw the smirk of victory she had plastered over her face.

Hilda was cursing Claude in her mind the whole trip that it had taken to get to a nearby town. Don't get her wrong, sure she understood the necessity of getting merchants to Garreg Mach, but she did not understand the necessity of why she needed to help. Why couldn't Byleth and Claude handled it themselves.

"Are we almost there" Hilda asked, interrupting whatever Claude had been saying.

"Well if you had been listening to what I was saying" Claude began "You would know that we need to take a slight detour" he added. "Before I reached the monastery, I had heard some talk about a one-eyed beast that was roaming the area" Claude said.

"A beast?" Byleth repeated.

"Yeah, supposedly it is a monster that has taken the form of man" Claude said, "The villagers were really spooked about it" he said "Although it seemed to be only targeting bandits" he added.

"That's odd behavior for a beast to be picky about who it kills" Byleth said.

"My thoughts exactly" Claude replied.

"How do you know that the villagers didn't just make this up?" Hilda said.

"I don't know that" Claude replied, "It's always a possibility" he said "Either way I don't want to risk us being killed by some feral man beast" Claude added.

"Fair point" Byleth said "Why do they think it's a beast, and not just a man?" she asked.

"I think it is from the depravity in which the beast kills" Claude said "And how it alone has killed herds of men" he added.