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There once were two spirits, known as Kindred the twin embodiments of death. One, the gentle hunter, offered a swift and merciful end to those who accepted death. The other, the brutal devourer, chased down and inevitably consumed those who fought and ran from their final end.
All things must meet them and so all avoided them. All the two had were each other just as they always had and always would. As time passed the world began to forget them and the Eternal Hunters began to fade. The brutal devourer fought tooth and claw to make the living remember them. All this had done was make the gentle hunter fade quicker. For the first time she felt the sadness the brutal devourer described so long ago.
After all it was only a matter of time before she was gone and he was left alone once more.
---
Wolf had told her to stay put and save her strength as he went to hunt. He was never not by her side for long but Lamb still wandered. She felt something call to her and with what little strength she had, she followed it. She was led to a small house and went to an even smaller room. Even in the darkness she could tell it was a nursery by the painted walls, wooden crib, and toys. The pull strengthened as her eyes landed on a man holding a child (perhaps barely more than a week old) close to his chest. This was the source, Lamb knew it.
The man noticed the gentle hunter and grew pale.
---
Luz had always been considered strange. She was interested in things no others her age were, like The Good Witch Azura, and had been raised on tales of Kindred. She felt so drawn to Lamb that one day her father gave her a replica of her mask. It was a dark purplish-black mask in the shape of a wolf, that covered the entire face, made of wood. There was a touch of silver in the shape of a sickle on the forehead ending just between the eyes. A slash went through the right eye as if damaged in battle. It had become one of her favorite things in the world.
From a young age she didn't interact with many outside of her family and even then it seemed as though she had only her mother and father. According to her mother, to cope she created an imaginary friend named Wolf, which was normal for a child but apparently Luz didn't let them go until she had started middle school. She had no real memory of Wolf but her mother didn't have a reason to lie to her. At fourteen she found the Boiling Isles and everything began to change.
---
Luz dreamed of her fight against Adegast. Everything had happened the same but this time someone with a rough and gravelly voice fought with her. While she couldn't see the voice’s owner she knew they didn't hold back. This time when the last blow was landed it wasn't by Eda but the voice clawing at the puppeteer, laughing the most disturbing and familiar thing she ever heard.
When she woke up, she wasn't afraid, instead she felt calm. While the dream wasn't the most gruesome one she had, it was the first time she was Luz and not Lamb hunting alongside Wolf. Luz expected to find King sleeping at her feet, just as she did the morning before. In his place was what appeared to be a spectral wolf head with dark fur and a body made of wisps. He wore a white half mask shaped like a lamb with a black hook on the forehead.
Panic filled her body and mind as she recognized the being. She backed away until she was pressed against the storage room wall. Wolf, the brutal devourer, one half of Kindred, seemingly slept at her feet. The once dark eyes of the mask glowed blue as Wolf began to move. He faced her, floating there, seemingly happy to see her.
“I see you are up before me again, Little Lamb.” The same voice from her dream came from them.
“What?” She squeaked. Why had he called her by a name meant for Lamb? Was she nearby too?
“Can you see me?” He asked, something new in his voice (hope maybe?) as he stared. She nodded slowly, awaiting the painful death sure to follow, it never did. “You can see me! We can hunt once more, Little Lamb, give chase to all.”
Wolf circled above her in joy, talking about how long he had waited for her.
“I think there has been a mistake. I’m not Lamb.” she found the words to speak fearing he would be mad.
“Of course you are Lamb.” He laughed. “Who else could you be?”
---
No matter how hard she tried, Wolf refused to believe Luz wasn't his other half. As time went on, she stopped fighting and even began to wear her mask more often. It felt like the longer she stayed in the Boiling Isles the stronger of an urge to wear the mask came to her. At first, she only wore it for fights or as a disguise, but by the time she joined Hexside it felt wrong to be without the mask for longer than a few minutes (an hour at most).
Wolf did get his chases and hunts the more time passed. Many demons on the Isles refused death only to be met by his deadly teeth. Not many could see the brutal devourer without nearing their end but those who could knew who they were. The Bat Queen was one and (much like Wolf) referred to Luz using Lamb’s names. Willow and Gus were just as confused as Luz was but moved on, wanting to be as far away from the oldest demon as they could.
However, everything has one thing in common. They end.
---
Wolf tried to slam into the blue orb that trapped Luz only to pass through again. He growled in annoyance, this time trying to pierce it with his teeth. Luz watched as the battle between Eda and Lilith raged on. At this rate the Owl Lady would use up the last of her magic and succumb to her curse. The spike of the bridge caught Luz’s attention.
“I have a plan, Dear Wolf.” She said adjusting her mask.
“Of course you do, Little Lamb.” He smiled. Luz moved to begin ramming the orb into the spike.
“Never one…” She started.
“Without the other.” Wolf finished. She ran for the jagged point. Once, nothing. Twice, cracks. Three times and she is free. Her attention is quick to go to her mentor.
“Eda! Your magic!” She called out, having seen the darkening gem. She felt weightless as blue magic surrounded her.
“Human, that bubble was for your protection.” The voice that started this all said. With a single motion Luz was thrown from the bridge into a moat of spikes.
“Luz!”
“Lamb!”
Gold replaced blue, holding Luz up. Wolf bit at her cowl, trying to pull her back up to safety. A blue hand pushed her closer to death.
“Eda, stop! Your magic!” she cried. Red magic joined blue and then all she felt was a stabbing pain in her chest. The world faded to black.
---
Luz found herself deep in a forest, trees towered over her fading from view. She could no longer see the edges of her mask and yet she still felt the calm that came with it. She idly wondered how she got there when the last thing she remembered was the bridge. Humming seemed to echo from farther in, drawing the human in, beckoning her.
The hums led her to a clearing, sun filtered down upon a humanoid figure standing just beyond a pond in the center. She was covered in fur as white as snow and hooves that faded to black wearing a mask Luz knew well. It was Lamb, the gentle hunter, and the other half of Kindred. Luz hid herself just past the treeline.
“Come out, Little Light.” A sweet melodic voice called to her. She poked her head out, Lamb was staring right at her with those pale blue eyes. Luz approached, stopping just before the pond.
“Why are you here?” She questioned.
“For you.”
So Luz would die by Lamb. A stinging pain filled her chest and she looked down expecting an arrow. She found nothing there.
“Then you are here to hunt?”
“You ask many questions, Little Light. But I feel as though there is one that torments you.”
‘Little Lamb.’
‘Ina.’
The names she had been called during her time on the Isles filled her head.
“Who am I?”
“You are what was and what could have been.”
“What does that mean?”
“Let me tell you a story.”
---
Once there was a man and a baby.
The man held the baby closer to his chest. He knew of Lamb, maybe one of the last who did.
“It’s not her time. Not yet.” He said. Lamb neared them, eyes focused on the baby.
“Though she fades away.” Lamb told him. “Just as I do.”
The child was the source that drew her in, the one that called for her. The child opened their eyes, looking right at her and smiled.
“Please, spare her.” He begged.
The child seemed to face the same fate as the gentle hunter.
Lamb carefully offered her finger to the child. They grabbed it gently and giggled. They showed no fear looking death in the face like many did. No, they smiled even as they grew weaker. Lamb felt for the child.
“All life is temporary and yet fate wants this one early.”
“Can’t you do something? There is so much she has yet to experience.”
The man begged and pleaded to save the child but it was the child who influenced her.
Lamb felt her strength leave her, being forced to take a knee. The baby reached for her as though worried. Wolf was the only being to show such concern for her in a very long time.
In a moment of sympathy, the gentle hunter made her choice.
Lamb pressed their foreheads together.
“Fate has tried to remake the threads but this shall not be your end.”
“Thank you.” The man’s voice cracked.
“I do this not for you.” She told him.
The gentle hunter spoke so quietly so only she and the child knew what was said and left a gift to look after the child.
Lamb glowed as she muttered the words to the child. Once she was finished the hunter was gone, leaving nothing but her mask.
This way she would always be with them, even if they didn't know.
---
“You saved me?” Luz asked. She didn't know how but she could tell Lamb was smiling.
“But fate seems to try and take you early again.” Lamb said. “Now you must make a choice. To move on or to live.”
Suddenly Luz remembered how she got here. The fight on the bridge, Wolf trying to pop the bubble, Lilith sending her off the edge, a spike through her chest. The weight of what Lamb was implying sunk in.
Luz gasped, “Can you do that?”
“I've done it before.”
“What will happen if I decide to continue?”
“You shall take my place once I have truly gone. I shall guide you until then.”
“I won’t die?”
“All things fade to nothing but so long as those remember, you shall be there.”
“And my friends and family? I’ll outlive them all?”
“Most you will, yes, but you’ll be surprised what makes it way back to you.”
“And Wolf?”
“Will have you and you, him. So what will you do?”
Lamb was offering something not many get a chance to have. Not to mention this could be a way to save Eda and protect her family.
“What do I need to do?”
Lamb’s mask appeared before Luz.
“Simply wear the mask once again.”
---
Luz gasped for breath. Wolf laid on her chest around the spike protruding through her chest. He gave a whimper as she tried to get up.
“Wolf… Dear Wolf, take me to the bridge.” She spoke in labored breaths. Surprised, Wolf did as told.
When they reached the bridge a flash of light blinded all those. Her wounds healed and her clothes changed. In place of the Hexside uniform was a pair of white pants and jacket, the hood pulled up showed that it had lamb ears sewn in. She wore a pair of black hunting boots and grey fingerless gloves. On her back was a bow, hanging from her belt was a hunting knife, the one they dared to take from her, and on her face was her mask, eyes glowed blue. She turned, not to Lilith but to the tall masked man that stood on the castle’s wall.
“The Mask of The Kindred seeks you.” She and Wolf spoke in unison.