By the time got back it was already sunset and I could see my father already prepping materials to barricade and fortify the house and brewery. Well, more like my father directing his monsters in preparing the materials necessary.
My mother and I wordlessly dismounted and recalled Rakka and Bola to their drajules. Father noticed the two of us, grimly nodded and pointed towards a nearby tree. It was covered in the same runic markings as the one my mother and I saw.
"How long until the full moon?", my mother asked as she walked over towards Father. "I'd say we have about a week, maybe less. The moon was waxing last night but it looked to be about...three-fifths full if I had to guess", he replied as he instructed Selena to move a stack of planks in front of the windows.
As my parents talked about preparations for Monster's Night, I looked over my newly bounded drajule and mulled over what my mother had explained to me on the way back.
It wasn't until half way back home that I finally worked up the nerve/thought of asking about why we hid away when Monster's Night came instead of participating in the fight. Both mother and father were pretty powerful binders and would definitely be able to hold off the attacking majimonsters for a while. Turns out there were two reasons that played into each other.
The first reason was that Monster's Night didn't affect just wild majimonsters but bounded ones as well. Binders would have a harder time than normal in controlling them in the heat of battle, so going alone in those situations would be suicidal at best. A partner or a team would be needed to get out of the Night alive if your monster got aethered mid-battle. I couldn't help but ask about why she and father couldn't just work with the other binders than if all they needed was a team. Without saying a word, she pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a bounty poster depicting younger versions of my parents.
As it turns out, both of my parents were wanted, not by the Empire, but by my father's ex-fiancée and her family. To quote my mother, "Your father's ex-fiancée and her family are about as vindictive as a jealous Mastyff. They once burned down a restaurant because their food wasn't cooked right...well that was the rumor as to why the restaurant burned down". Part of me was thinking that my mother was just blowing smoke to mess with me, until I noticed that the bounty poster she handed me was made recently.
I brought this up with her while we were riding, and she explained to me that these posters have been changed yearly with a slightly higher bounty than before, ever since she and father ran away together. This meant that this woman has been holding a grudge for at least nineteen years, give or take a year. I'm not sure who this woman was exactly, but I was sure I never wanted to meet this woman...or her family.
It was due to this bounty that both of my parents agreed to limit their interactions with other binders to an absolute minimum, preferably to not at all. It would just take one opportunistic binder who fancied themselves a bounty hunter to ruin everything they had built. If they lost, they'd be captured and turned over. If they won, they'd have to run or risk becoming actual criminals to cover their tracks or keep fighting more and more binders that would come their way.
If they did end up fighting Monster's Night, that would be even worst. It would just take one stupid and/or greedy binder to suddenly turn on them and lead to a major disaster for themselves and the town. Sometimes the most prudent and wise decision is to hide.
I was lost in thought until I heard my mother calling me over.
"Yes mother"?
"Silvia, can you summon the new majimonster you bounded? Your father and I want to take a look at what happened exactly".
[Oh boy, this is going to get weird], Voxea quipped.