Chapter Text
Gehrman's voice is smoke and ash and fire. It is a memory..an echo of a once strong man reduced to a husk. A remnant left over from when he was strong and the gardener had taken his scythe to the monsters that sprang from the deepest layers and stood where armoured knights had fallen. The flowers in the field are wilting and the moon above them shines but the light is dimmer than the Hunter had ever seen it. The Doll kneels next to Gehrman's wheelchair, her eyes half closed and blinking slowly as if trying to stay awake.
"It ends as last...there is little more left of this world that has not been consumed. And you...my last apprentice. I shall not condemn you to watch the seas boil and the lands become barren." The old man rose from his wheelchair, wooden leg thumping unsteadily, but the Hunter's mentor kept a firm grip on his scythe despite everything. With a snick the blade opened and the scythe was extended.
The Hunter looked up, tears streaking down her face and dripping to dampen the shirt she wore beneath the black canvas coat that had kept her warm in the chill of Yharnam's streets. "Teacher..."
Gehrman smiled down at the woman who knelt before him, his face seeming to crack slightly as he made any expression that was not a scowl. A shriek of rage came from the sky but before the Hunter could leap to her feet, Gehrman spoke again. "May you find your worth in the waking world." The scythe swung and the Hunter saw nought but a glint of moonlight from the sharp edge of steel before her world went dark.
It was the sun that woke the Hunter, at first she did not know what it was. Such was the length of time she had stood beneath only the fading light of the setting sun over a burning city and stood in the light of the moon, the light was almost blinding and tears sprang to her eyes as she sat up. Part of her wanted to get up and check her surroundings, look over her weapons, blood vials and other supplies.
But in this case, the larger part won. She sat in the light of the rising sun, warm sunlight sinking into her black canvas coat and melting away the cold that had clung to her bones for who knew how many lives. The cold had started when she began to die...each time she awoke in the Dream with fresh memories of blood and beasts and iron and claws flashing in the light of the moon. The Hunter shook her head, tilting her head back and basking in the rays that filled the clearing she woke up in. The snapping of a twig sent adrenaline surging through the Hunter as she launched herself to her feet.
Muscle memory took over and to her surprise, she found that her weapons had responded as they did in the Dream. The Hunter Axe held in one hand in it's standard form whilst in the other was clutched the long silver barrelled Evelyn pistol taken from the remains of Castle Cainhurst. From within the trees that edged one side of the clearing where the sound of a snapping twig had come from, a faint scream preceded a...woman. Well she had the form of a woman, long legs and shapely breasts clad in a well fitted outfit of different coloured panels sewn together to form the outfit, a lute strapped to her back. Of course the horns, purple skin and the tail somewhat threw the Hunter off.
But the more immediate threat came with a snapping and a snarling as two quadruped animals came barrelling into the clearing in hot pursuit of the woman who had drawn up short at the sight of the Hunter. Following the animals were three more creatures that looked disturbingly similar to the animals, ears and snouts the same but on two legs and clutching crude weapons. The leader..or so the Hunter assumed as it was the largest and had the most colourful outfit snarled. "Fresh meat...or fresh toys. The dead one can be meat..these two can be toys and then meat."
The purple skinned woman started sobbing, trying to back away but one of the four legged beasts had circled around and was now menacing her back towards the rest of the little group. The Hunter drew herself up, the motion only seeming to draw the humanoid beasts attenton to her large breasts clad as they were in her shirt and waistcoat, seeming to think nothing of the axe in her hands of the pistol she held loosely, ready to bring up in a moment's notice.
"Excuse me...but where the hell am I?"