‘Crap like this is part of why I miss being a spirit. Didn’t have to deal with star-struck mortals all the damn time.’

‘Oh hush, we both know you like the attention, you just don’t want to admit it.’

The morning after the wɔahuruhuruw’s death finds the devil hunters in the home of the harpy’s grandmother. The lodge was thankfully only a few miles west of where they met the young man, who introduced himself as Hotah Chatan, in a small community at the edge of the forest called Sandy Butte. There, in a small soot-painted wooden lodge filled with the smell of roasting bison they meet with a small red-feathered aviad wizened with age.

“Ah, I had wondered if we would ever have the opportunity. I am Talutah Kimimela, a Wiyohipeyata medicine woman of the Wakinya. You and your companions honor us for granting my grandson’s request, Lady Ghost, for we both have much to thank you for.”

“The pleasure is mine, ma’am. My name is Rosaria Alsace, and my companions here are Fafnir Baldersen and Nyaméama Okese, and my familiar and friend Micaug. I must confess, I’m unaware of what exactly I have done to earn your thanks here.”

“Ah, it has been three years since, and you had left so soon after it you wouldn’t have known how important what you had done for us was. We wish to thank you for slaying Unktehi and Unkcekula several years ago.”

Nyaméama raises a brow while Fafnir whistles upon hearing those names. “Damn, you were the one to finally take those two out?”

A second after Rosaria and Micaug’s eyes light up in recognition. “Ooohhhhh, those two bastards. That was an aggravating pair to fight.”

“Who were they?”

Seeing Nyaméama’s confusion, Hotah pipes in, “Unktehi and Unkcekula were a pair of elder serpent devils that had plagued these lands for several generations. Several villages and towns had fallen to their venom and violence throughout the years, and while many had tried to slay them before, they only succeeded in driving them into hiding, often suffering grave casualties in the process. Part of why we are so thankful is because our family counts among that number, with my parents having fallen to them almost twenty years ago.”

“…Magaskawee Kimimela and Kohana Chayton.”

Almost everyone snap their gazes to Micaug, the familiar sporting a melancholic look in his eye as he recited those names. Hotah asks him in shock in bewilderment, “You… knew them?”

“Only in the barest sense. We had actually encountered their spirits on that day, unable to move on and trying to deter others from throwing their lives away against those serpent devils. They were why we were able to take those two down without much injury.”

“Although the method you came up with for them to help us was almost twice as risky.”

“Oh, not this again. You know damn well had we tried to learn what we needed the normal way the devils would’ve outright slaughtered everyone before we got there, you fat belt.”

Before the two pact partners could get really into their bickering, Fafnir loudly claps his hands. “Alright you two. As entertaining as it is to see you squabble, I think you have a story to tell our hosts first.”

Glancing up to see the expectant and hopeful looks on Talutah and Hotah’s faces respectively, Rosaria and Micaug shrug in apology.

“Fair enough. Let’s see, it was about a month after we arrived from the Osyeonseu Keulaun…”