Under the watchful eye of her dog, she sat up on her chair and stretched to relieve her back muscles. As she turned around she saw Kas''s bright eyes watching her intently, eyes that were identical to hers. It was at that moment that she looked around and realized that it had been dark for a while, and she hadn''t turned on the light. She didn''t need to, the light of the almost full moon streaming in through the window was all the brightness she needed. Again she bit her lip with her fang, a small but pointed fang. Many humans had them like that, that didn''t mean anything, but all cinanthropes had them like that. Yes, so did he, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t human. Her mother had taught her how to identify them, and she hadn''t seen his fangs grow larger during the night, or silver scars on his skin.


    “


    “


    Maybe she could ask him, let him know that she was his ally, but there was a very real risk that he had no idea about the supernatural world. If that was the case and she told him everything, it would destroy his life as they had done to her. He would never be able to sleep peacefully ever again, and he would always live in fear that the full moon would claim what was hers, something that didn''t necessarily have to happen. Besides, she would have to tell him the whole truth about what she was, about her supernatural nature and about her trade as a huntress, and all the victims she tracked down for her mother to finish them off. He would hate her, one only had to see how angry those three conspirator apprentices made him every time they talked about hunting the cinanthrope. If he found out about her past as a huntress of supernatural beings, she would lose him.


    “


    Followed by her dog, Sofia left the room and went to the kitchen to get a good drink of water. The lights were on, and her eyes completely dark-adapted, so the brightness momentarily blinded her. Normally her eyes changed to their human version when there was light, but that time it didn''t happen, probably because the moon was almost full and its influx was pulling hard on her energy. It was strange to see her house immersed in a pale clarity, all the colors dull and with no chromatism other than blue and yellow. The brown furniture looked pale and gray, because Sofia could no longer see red. It was what she sacrificed in order to see in the dark, full color vision.


    Whenshe entered the living room, she found her mother cleaning her work tools toget them ready for the following day. She didn''t even look up when Sofia and Kas walked past her. Their relationship had never been very good, but now it was simply nonexistent.


    “


    That question was enough for Helena to look up and fix those glacial gray eyes on Sofia. The girl immediately noticed that her mother was studying her, looking for some trait in her that would determine whether she had already changed or not. Uncomfortable, Sofia looked away and licked her lips. Yes, he also displayed the same body language as she did, as all weredogs dig. Shit!


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    “I pant because I don''t sweat! It''s the only way I can cool down! What do you want me to do, die of heat stroke?” Sofia exclaimed, noticing how the energy in her chest stirred uneasily. “And what''s wrong with my behavior? Just because we don''t behave like humans is no excuse for hunting us. You''re lying when you say we''re dangerous, we haven''t hurt anyone. Angel was a good man, a thousand times better than you, and he wasn''t human.”


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    “I don''t care about him. I could have hunted him down myself by now had I wanted. I''ve got him totally tracked down, but I''m not as much of a monster as you think I am.”


    After getting dressed, she smeared herself with a spray that hunters used to camouflage their scent. If he detected that it was her, he might not take her seriously. Then she hugged Kas and left the house. The tracksuit itself was not so conspicuous, but she waited until she reached the forest to put on the balaclava. The last thing she needed was to run into a neighbor and have the poor guy think there’s a bandit walking the quiet streets of El Cerro. She just wanted to scare a cinanthrope, not create a widespread alarm among the local population.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Indeed, she had gotten the wrong footprints, but what she saw was very interesting. Following the trail she reached the spring. Someone had removed the snow from an area around two square meter big, exposing the frozen ground just below. There they had drawn a pentagram using a white powder that, when she rubbed y against her fingers and smelled it, turned out to be only flour. If they had used salt they would have contaminated the earth, killing the vegetation, so those witches were concerned about the environment. Around the pentagram were a series of letters similar to runes, but this one was a language lost in time. In the center of the star were the burn remains of a campfire. The similarities to Sara''s sisters'' spectacle were undeniable, but there the large cast-iron cauldron had not been used. If anything a normal sized pot, in view of the size of the fire.


    “


    She wasn''t going to get anything else out of there, so Sofia kept walking, going deeper and deeper into the depths of the forest. There were far fewer tracks there, but she did find some evidence of the cinanthrope’s presence, his pads marked in the frozen snow. It was a very old trail, but at least that meant he was still in the area. After a good while moving through the trees she located another trail, that of bare but perfectly human feet. Sofia bent down and checked the snow’s consistency on the footprint, and she was able to sink her finger into it. If it wasn''t frozen that meant that he had recently walked through there. Stepping on them, she was able to move forward while minimizing the noise as much as possible. A cinanthrope''s hearing was very fine, but she hoped to be able to ambush him, or at least make him think that a hunter was after him.


    “Dave has proven more than enough times that his hearing is even better than mine..” again, she bit her lip, knowing what this implied.


    Her train of thought was interrupted by something resembling a strangled moan, a muffled sound that was halfway between human and dog. With the hair on the back of her neck bristled, Sofia crouched down and walked very carefully, using the frozen snow-covered vegetation as cover. Peeking out from behind a tree trunk she saw him, and for some reason felt sorry for that creature, and a little afraid for her future as well. He was too far away to see him clearly, and his back was turned to her, but she didn''t need to get any closer to see that he was suffering. He was kneeling on the floor, completely hunched in on himself, and Sofia was unclear whether he was trying to hold back the change or forcing it. His breathing was very fast and his muscles seemed to be spasming, as if they were being shaken by electrical currents. That looked like it was being very painful.


    For several minutes the canine simply laid on the snow, his eyes half-closed and his breathing increasingly slow and relaxed. When he seemed to have rested enough, the animal rolled around on the ground just as a dog would, his muzzle open and his tongue hanging out between his jaws. Sofia couldn''t help but smile. He seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Her mother''s words echoed in her mind, calling them beasts for their behavior. Yes, cinanthropes had to constantly fight against their own instincts, and it wasn''t always easy to mask their doglike behavior. However, if that display of absolute freedom and relaxation was beastly behavior, then Sofia would rather be a beast than a human limited by a stupid society.


    Before the girl could react, the cinanthrope turned tail and ran. His body moved gracefully through the snow, as if he had little trouble wading through it, and in a few seconds he had disappeared among the tree trunks. The crunching of his footsteps faded into the night, moving farther and farther away from her in a desperate flight. Suddenly she heard the metallic sound of a spring activating. The next thing was a sharp yelp of pain that made every hair on her body stand on end, and the energy in her chest flare up.


    “


    That wasn''t part of the plan. He didn''t have to get hurt, just scared, nothing more. Sofia broke into a run in the cinanthrope’s direction and soon found him. A foothold trap had caught one of his hind legs. It was not a razor trap, but the force of the impact had broken the bone. That wasn''t a problem as it would heal as soon as he got free. The problem was that he wasn''t doing it. He fumbled with his hands, as if trying to figure out how to open the mechanism, and when he found himself unable to do so, he began to bite it in desperation. During the whole process he kept crying and whimpering due to the pain.


    “Come on… I taught you how to open that… come on, you can do it…” Sofia, who was watching him from a distance to see if he was able to free himself, said to herself.


    “


    Time was up. Either she acted now, or she left the cinanthrope at the mercy of a common gunman, and that was not going to happen. Aware that she''d just blown her whole plan, Sofia ran towards the creature. Seeing her approaching, the cinanthrope panicked and began tugging at the trap, desperately trying to free himself. Sofia dropped to the ground and, with the dexterity she had acquired from years of handling such objects, pulled it open. His paw freed, the weredog fell face first to the ground, then turned to the girl with a look of confusion on his canine face. Indeed, the plan to scare him had not worked as she would have liked.


    The hunter’s footsteps were still approaching, and Sofia didn’t want to save his life a second time. Brusquely, she pointed at the forest depths, urging him to leave. Confused, the weredog tilted his head, but he understood her silent message. Still limping a little, despite his wound being already healed, he stood up and ran off towards the deepest part of the mountain. Relieved, Sofia did the same but in the opposite direction. When Rodrigo reached the place where the trap was set, the only thing he found was the empty foothold trap, and two pairs of footprints going in different directions; ones were human and the others of a canid.


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