Enfys stood beside a dark, raw timber table that had seen better days. It used to belong to a swamp witch, but thay were dead now. In front of Enfys was a magic circle carved into a round of wood from a grandfather tree cut down for this sole purpose. In the middle of the circle on the round was a bear's heart, the corpse off to one side.

She had obtained the table on her first Hunt, when she had only been fourteen. They had captured the old witch and bound it, gave Enfys the gun and let her pull the trigger. After killing the swamp witch they had combed through it's belongings to make certain that they weren't going to set something loose on Humanity. So while the others had been going through whatever was downstairs Enfys had chosen to go look up in the attic.

Eventually, she had found an overly sturdy trunk with a suspiciously complex lock. It had taken her about half an hour to pick it and get the trunk open. It was within that trunk that she found an abundance of what she later learned were anti-evil warding circles and a grimoire wrapped in chains. Realizing that what it contained was obviously dangerous she had decided that instead of destroying it she would read it; if there was one grimoire that so much of a threat that even witches fear it than there was going to be others. Better to know what you're dealing with than to blindly try and counter it and hope for the best. So Enfys went through it, making good use of her eidetic memory and then went down to show them the grimoire. At the time they had asked her if she had read it.

Enfys had lied and told them “I know the rules; I haven't opened the thing.”

Afterwards she had spotted the table and a thought had occurred to her; wood can absorb magic (along with some natural fibres) and she could use this to her advantage. Thinking quickly she had asked to keep the table as a trophy to commemorate her first successful Hunt. It took a little convincing, but they had agreed, mostly amused by her wanting to keep trophies and not understanding it's potential. It didn't really matter because the table had soaked up a lot of the witch's magic and power.

The other Hunter's ignorance was to her advantage and so she never enlightened them, the table staying in her possession for years. On occasion, she would use the table to power a spell. Such as the one she was performing to summon a powerful being in order to destroy the witches and those despised werewolves.

Enfys finished the spell by stabbing the heart – and found herself some place else drowning in darkness.

Red fire lit atop malformed torches, casting twisting shadows across a melted room of vitrified stone.

Her shadow stretched out in front of Enfys as something large began glowing behind her. Slowly turning, terrified, Enfys looked up to find a giant, organic sack in which a figure moved, leisurely turning to face her, sharp-ended appendages, horns upon their head and their lower half attached to the root of the sack.

She had no way of knowing it, but Enfys was staring up at a Vos Queen. They were a quasi-insectoid species that didn't quite come out right, killing off all other sentient species in their sector of space. In order to continue their annihilation and conquest of all others species not them they sent out small groups hurtling through space to colonize whatever planet they happened to find themselves on. Earth, unfortunately, was in this Queen's path. Having mated with all of the males sent with her she was now making the planet her colony.

Luckily for everyone else, there were those who made it their business to get in the way of the Vos.

Unfortunately, Naran Humans were not among those anyone was interested in helping and people like the Hunters were the reason why.

“What is it that you want, Human?” The figure asked languidly.

“I need your help to kill the Witches and Werewolves.” She answered the Queen bluntly.

“I see...” The Queen answered, still at a leisurely pace, “And what is in it for me?”

“Your freedom; I'll free you from this place.”

“And why would you do that? Are you not afraid of what I might do?”

“No. I'll just kill you later. For now, though, I can be your agent out there.”

I moment of silence, then, “Very well, but to help you... You will have to bring me a living sacrifice. Take this one with you; he is the most Human looking. He will also make certain that you keep your end of the bargain.”

“Who-?”

Out from between two torches came a boy that didn't quite look right. He looked approximately to be in his teens and had a seem bisecting his lower jaw, eyes that weren't quite Human and a too-narrow face.

“This is Tiken. In your language 'first blood'. He will stay with you until you have completed your end of the bargain.”

A beat of silence, then Enfys answered with a simple, “Fine.”

The boy came over and – with a distasteful look on his face – took her hand. The next thing she knew Enfys was staring up at the ceiling. When she moved everything hurt as though she had been laying there for hours. Picking herself up off of the floor with difficulty she stood woozily with the help of the table. Dizzy, she found Tiken staring at her from across the table and covered in blood.

Concerned, she looked over at where the bear carcass was and found nothing but blood.

She looked at him again and saw that there was blood, notably, around his mouth.

Right. She thought, Carnivores. That explains the offering.

“So what does she want as her living offering?” Enfys asked.

“A child.”

Oh, Hell. What have I gotten myself into?