Chapter 11: Hunter.

I prowled across the grass, my eyes searching for tracks. My surroundings were entirely quiet, save for the snickering of my mom and Salaire in the background. And also the noise of the rowdy children around them. Not to mention the many people of differing species walking across the street…Okay, it wasn't quiet at all. But I ignored all of them and moved on with silent steps, closing in on the tree with a foot sticking out the back.

"T-there's no one here!" A girl whispered from behind the trunk.

"Ah gosh darnit!" I exclaimed. "I thought there was someone here, but it turns out I was wrong!"

I heard giggling as I pretended to turn around, but I only allowed my prey that small moment of hope before I ran towards her hiding place and burst into view.

"I found you!" I shouted menacingly, pointing at the ishkawtan girl.

"Nooooo!!!" She protested, falling to her knees. But the game of hide and seek was cruel, and it did not care for morals or honor.

I left my victim and searched around the front yard of the orphanage a little bit more, looking up at the same canopies and checking behind the same boulders. The playground was similarly unoccupied, same with the underside of the tables and the chairs. All those that I had caught were now licking their wounds under the belfegor Salaire, their caretaker.

Luine, her wife, a human woman, was out of town. Same with my dad. Their whole adventuring party had decided to take a break here in this town of Latarus, but they still went out to adventure and hunt in random pairs every so often. Nowhere far, only a short trip that would last for a week at most.

So my mom and Salaire were here to hang out, while their partners were away. I had come here too to play, and for something my mom had planned for later.

The both of them followed me inside when I entered the orphanage building, having nothing better to do. The children that I'd caught also followed, really making my arrival obvious and loud. But it shouldn't be a problem, because I'd definitely just catch the still-hiding kids if they tried to run and change their hiding places now.

I checked the corners and corridors as I walked, trying my hardest to ignore the peanut gallery behind me. I entered the kitchen, and immediately found my new victim.

"Aha! Found you!"

She gave me an uninterested look, a human girl with pale white skin contrasted with hair as dark as the abyss.

"Oh no. You found me," she deadpanned, barely even trying.

And then she went back to tinkering with the straw doll she was making.

Her name was Moonwash, a girl three or so years older than I. She typically just kept to herself and her own projects, largely uncaring of whatever went on around her. Frankly, I was surprised that she even made the effort to move at all for this game of hide and seek.

My search continued, and it didn't take long to find a young ogre sprawled out under the tables, hiding. Her name was Angerly, and she nearly cried.

I found more in the bedrooms and the classroom that they had, complete with a blackboard and chalk for writing. Salaire and Luine took the education of these children seriously. I sat in on their lessons pretty often, because I too required knowledge of the world.

The toilets and stalls were deemed as off-limits for this game, but there was still someone hiding there. I only found him because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, and laughed when we passed by, unaware that I had the adults following behind me. Salaire told him off, and it was funny to see how she sounded so uninterested.

Salaire and Luine's bedroom was even more off-limits, but I was sure there'd be someone so I checked. The centaur girl hiding there was told off far more harshly by Salaire as she all herded us out of the room, moving faster than she'd ever had.

There were two left missing, once I'd scoured the entirety of the place. There were steps built onto the tree piercing through the center of the building, and I climbed them to get to the rooftop. I scoured the ground, and then looked to the expansive canopy of the biggest tree I’d ever seen when that failed to turn up anything. There were platforms, hammocks, and a whole house up there. I squinted my eyes and found my prey just happily dozing off in one of the hammocks!

“AHA!”

The kobold boy nearly fell when I called out to him, having long fallen asleep in the middle of the game. I’d expected to find the missing belfegor boy here instead, but no such luck.

"Ahhh… did I win?"

"No." I said. "One more left. Tell me?"

He chuckled. "As much as I'd love to sell out my fellow orphan, I don't know where they are."

"Fair," I shrugged and kept on searching. I climbed the big tree and watched the branches, I checked on the treehouse within. None of them turned up my prey.

I eventually had to give up, and we went back down.

"Gerry!" Salaire shouted once we were back in the courtyard. "You win…!"

Gerry the belfegor slowly climbed his way down from the trees, his skin color set to completely blend into the wooden bark. It turned out that he'd been there from the beginning, but I somehow missed him even after extensively searching through the canopy.

"Hooray!" He cheered, once he was back on the ground. The boy slowly raised his arms, until they were spread wide and towards the sky.

"Hooray," I parroted and smiled.

We had a healthy lunch after that. The orphanage was well provided for, as the caretakers were once wealthy adventurers.

"What was your party name?" I asked Mom and Salaire innocently between bites of my stew. It was weird that it never came up in my four years of life here…

"Ahh… Well, you know…" Mom averted her gaze.

Salaire grabbed my shoulder and turned me around, chair and all, to face directly into her intense stare. Her voice was faster than any other time she'd ever spoken. "I just want you to know Haell… that whatever our adventuring party name is... It was the idea of your mother!"

"Wha– Hey Salaire! Don't sell me out like that! You guys agreed to it too!"

"No." she shook her head. "It was you. All you. Remember that Haell…"

"Okay!" I believed her!

"Nooo…! Haell, don't believe her!!" Mom pleaded.

I gave her a bright smile. "I'm sure you came up with a great name, Mom!"

She shrunk away from my positivity. "A-Ah. Yes… Of course… Let's just leave it at that…"

We continued to eat until Moonwash, the quiet and crafty girl, spoke up. "The Piss Hunters."

Half the table choked. The other half managed to bark out a proper wheezing laugh. I ended up engaging in both extremes, my eyes snapping over to Moonwash. She remained calm, eating like she had not just said something so random and absurd.

"Moonwash what the fuck!"

"We're eating!"

"Say it again!"

"Fish hunter!"

"I like fish…"

"The most you've spoken in days, and that's what you say!"

"It's in the toilets. Not hard to find."

The kids had their own opinions, but I understood what Moonwash meant in a sudden flash of inspiration.

The look of utter embarrassment on my mom's face when I turned to look at her confirmed my suspicions.

But I was a good daughter. I would not out her like that.

"Mom. What's a piss hunter?"

There was nothing wrong with an innocent question, however.

"A-ah… I'm not sure, Haell," she forced a smile. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Hm. Okay!" I decided to show her enough mercy and shelve the topic.

"No…" but Salaire was not willing to be quite so magnanimous. "It's not nothing. It's Mahka's party name… that she came up with!"

The kids all turned and laughed at her. Moonwash did not struggle to remain stoic in the consequences of her own words. Mom buried her face in her hands.

Of course, being the pious daughter that I was, I made sure to take my mother's side. "I think it's a cool name, Mom!"

"Yeah!" the kobold boy from earlier agreed. The other orphans followed suit.

"Nasty piss!"

"It smells bad… why look for it?"

"P-P-Piss Hunters! The Piss Hunters! Here to hunt the piss the piss!"

We eventually calmed down and returned to our meals. Mom felt the need to explain herself, so I got the backstory to the name.

Apparently, one of their first quests was to find and kill highrenas. They were known to mark their territory with urine, so part of the process was to look for those traces. And then Mom had the shining bright idea to name her party The Piss Hunters because of it.

"Don't use a joke. Think of the long-term consequences for a name," Mom gave us some very sage advice. One I intended to follow for sure. "You might come to regret it."

"I don't…" Salaire proudly declared. "I just tell everyone that you came up with it!"

"AAAAAHHHHH!!! You're equally guilty! You fucking idiots agreed!"