"Hello sir. Are you River?" asked the young hunter politely.
"Yes, I am," responded the man a bit on guard.
"We are here in response to the notice you sent to our organization," the young hunter stated the reason for their presence calmly.
"So, there's really a way to deal with inhuman anomalies?" asked the man with a low and cautious voice.
"Yes, we are demon hunters. If there any non-human activities in the works we can locate and eliminate the threat. We need to trouble you for more information to help resolve your problem," explained the young hunter with a confident smile.
"I'm not sure if you can eliminate the anomaly, but I know of its location," responded the man feeling a bit more relieved by their presence.
"Excellent! Point us in the right direction and we'll take care of this problem for you," concluded the young hunter ready for action.
The man nodded opening the front door to the cottage wider. "Please do come in. The anomaly is inside," responded the man holding the door while he ushered the group inside.
The three looked at each other a bit confused. 'Why would the demon be inside his home? Did he already capture it and had the creature tied up or something?' they all thought in unison.
The group nodded back at the man as they walked inside one by one. The furball of course was nowhere in sight. He stayed hidden among the trees to avoid from scaring the villagers.
The man locked the door behind the hunters once they enter the cottage. "Please have a seat. I'll be back," responded the man before disappearing into another room.
Once again, the trio was dumbfounded. Scanning the room that must be their living appeared to be normal and well organized. They all wondered if this meek young man actually had the creature tuck away in the next room. The three hunters sat down in the small living room, and waited patiently for their client's return.
Within a few minutes the room that their client had enter, the door finally open again and a young woman walked out with the support of their client.
He held the quiet woman's hand gently while the other was pressed against her back for support as he introduced the young woman to their guests "This is my sister, Madeline. She's not an outstanding beauty nor an exceptional person like the other woman in our village, so the man here has chosen to ignore her existence. She went missing one night and reappeared a week later. She has no memories of what happened to her during the time she was gone. Many villagers assumed she ran away to off herself in a fit of despair from being unwanted. I know my sister's personality very well. She loves her life, even if no one else will love her. A few months later she slowly started to gain more weight taking on the current appearance you see now. To avoid prying eyes we made the decision to become shut-ins."
The group observed the young woman from head to toe. The young woman had a plumb face cover in freckles that emanated a healthy glow, long and wavy black luscious hair traced down her back and she had deep blue eyes that shined brightly like the underwater sea. She was an average sized woman in weight and height. The most eye catching feature of the young woman was her belly. Her stomach was stretched outwards to a discerning length. For someone who did not have any suitors, how was it possible for this women to become pregnant?
"Your sis is with child!" one of the hunters said in shock.
"I'm not actually sure myself. No one has approached my sister before or after her disappearance and yet a few months later her eating habit changed, and she started eating a lot more than usual and she only gain weight around her torso. Do you think maybe my sister could be possessed by something, using her body as refuge?" asked the concern man with an uneasiness tone as he helped his sister to sit down in a chair nearby.
"Ummmm....that's hard to say. It can't be an apparition since the anomaly is station within her torso and not inside her body as a whole," the oldest hunter responded as he gently scratched at his beard looking at the sibling pair.
"Maybe it's similar to that case, sir," suggested the younger hunter sitting nearby on a wooden stool.
"What case?" inquired the lone female in their group, looking at her companions with curiosity.
"Ernest and I went on a mission to get rid of a demon that was killing the men and stockpiling the women. They needed the women to reproduce more offspring for them. Many women committed suicide at the thought of giving birth to a demon," explained the older hunter with disdain as he recalled the horrific scenes from that mission.
"If my sister is indeed with child by a monster, then what should we do. I don't want to lose my sister?" the man inquired with a sulky expression.
"First we need to figure out if this demon is hostile or not," suggested the older hunter.
"He did leave her somewhat physically unharmed, so maybe he's not that hostile," proposed the young hunter.
"Is it possible that maybe the demon is unaware that he impregnated her and was just having fun with her. He did wipe her memory of its identity," indicated the young female hunter.
"That's true. Most hostile demon loves having their prey live in fear of them coming back to bring despair upon them," elaborated the older hunter with his hands now resting in a clasped position across his legs.
"How about this....we do have other clients with the same problem. So, let's divide and conquer. Me and Artemis can go check out the other village and Bruce, you can stay here in case the demon does return to this village," suggested the young hunter standing up from the wooden stool.
"I'm completely fine with being a lookout, but are you sure you want to travel with the young Miss? That's a lot more walking you'll have to do," said the older hunter with a courteous smirk.
"Your right, hmmmm.... Okay fine, I'll stay here. Make sure that you protect my sister," responded the young hunter quickly.
"She doesn't need me for protecting. She's the leader's daughter and a top notch tamer. She'll probably be the one protecting this old man," said the older hunter in a confident and husky voice before releasing a light chuckle.
Ignoring the silly remarks of her comrades, the young girl turned to the elder hunter and asked, "How far is the other village Uncle?"
"Not far from here….just a few hours," he said then his glaze locked on the sibling pair. "Don't worry we'll get to the bottom of this. Until then stay inside and take good care of your sister. If you need anything, ask Travis. This young lad will help you with anything you need," Bruce said with a comforting tone.
"Yes sir! Thank you so much, sir for your assistance," said the brother with a relieved smiled than looked at his sister who was now looking a bit more at eased.
Bruce conversed with Travis about the location of the next village for a couple minutes, outside the little cottage before him and Artemis departed for the next village. It took them four hours to get to the next village, which would have been three hours if they did not stop to grill some fish that they caught for lunch.
This time they were able to find their next client quite quickly, since he was the elder of Rhodochrosite Village. Within this village none of the women were pregnant, although it seemed that the same demon probably had attack this village seeing how many of the missing women had either lost their purity, sanity or both.
The missing women count was a total of nine women and three of the women were married. Embarrassingly those married women were found back inside their homes, after a whole day had passed. Each women were covered in a substance that had already dried, leaving a sticky residue all over the women's skin. The other six women, however, was not as lucky and remained missing for weeks at a time. The only similar information the hunter duo had gather was that each woman suffers from temporary amnesia upon returning to the village.