Chapter Text
It’s been a slow week and Jeralt was getting bored. He quietly sharpened his knife as he looked out to the train dock. Almost none of his traps had caught anything as of late and the ones that did only caught small game. The whistle of the train coming in caught his attention. As it came down, Jeralt paused, there was an extra robot on the train. The train docked and Jane Doe was the first to get off.
“Hey! Guess who we found in the jungle?” Jane jabbed her thumb at the newcomer. They were an orange color with a short tan poncho draped over their shoulders and a beak-like helm. What stuck out most to Jeralt were the brown feathers adorning their head and waist, adding more onto their bird-like appearance. He stared at the newcomer, taking in their every detail. Something about them seemed different, whether it be their alert demeanor, their exposed wiring, or even the marks on their metal plating.
They suddenly swiveled their head towards Jeralt and the two locked eyes. They stared at each other for a moment before the hunter backed into his house, only turning around once the newcomer was out of sight. A few minutes later, Jeralt walked down to town to see if he could get any information on the stranger. He spotted them having a conversation with Sheriff.
They stopped talking upon seeing him again, Sheriff noticed and turned around, “Ah, that there’s Jeralt, our resident monster hunter. Don’t pay ‘im too much mind, he jus’ likes to be aware of everyone in town.” The newcomer hummed in acknowledgment before walking off to the saloon. Jeralt walked up to the sheriff, the latter already knowing what the hunter wants, “That’s Hooty. She’s a tomb raider, damn good one at that from what I’ve heard.”
Ah, so she was someone familiar with the wild (someone like him). He didn’t dwell on his thoughts for too long.
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There was a bestiary in Jeralt’s house, everyone in town knows that. He sets it on the counter and allows the others read it. What they aren’t allowed to do is take it out of his house. Suffice to say that Jeralt is pissed upon seeing that it’s gone from its usual spot and isn’t anywhere in the house. He walks outside to search for what idiot took it when he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Hooty, standing against a tree with the bestiary open in her hand.
She looked up at the sound of his footsteps and spoke, her voice having a worn edge to it, “I’m guessing you want this back.” She held the bestiary out to him, “Was planning on giving it back, just didn’t want to read in that hut of yours.” Jeralt snatched the bestiary from her hand with a grunt. He checked its pages to make sure it hadn’t been tampered with in any way, he still wasn’t too sure what to make of Hooty.
“You’ve got a nice collection of creatures in there,” Hooty waited for a response from the hunter. Jeralt just nodded in acknowledgment before heading back to his home. As he did, he was aware of Hooty tracking his movements the entire time. Was it out of curiosity? Fear? Jeralt couldn’t tell. He paused at his door and turned back to look at her for some unknown reason. She looked competent enough and the scars on her metal plates told the tale of a robot who lived their life in the rough, perhaps she was a hunter too.
The two stare at each other again for the second time this day before finally going their separate ways. Not like fate will force them together again.