"Any creature that hunts the darkness is fair game..." He repeated her words. Almost with a sadness in his voice. "Spirits, monsters, demons..." But when he looked in her eyes, after having trailed off there, she would see a lot of emotion there.

"I don't know if you were joking or not. But, if not... Please. Don't hunt the bigfoot. They aren't monsters. They just want to be left alone. They're actually very kind, and peaceful creatures. The only time you'll hear of them claiming a human life, is when they're forced to kill in self defense, or driven out of their minds when some asshole with a rifle murdered their family." He sat down across from her then, his voice calming down.

"I'm... sorry for the lecture there. I'm sure you were just joking. It just played into a stereotype I encounter too often. That 'human' inherently means 'good', and 'inhuman' inherently means 'monster'. And while that is a very convenient lie, it still couldn't be further from the truth." He reclined a little bit, and folded his hands together, interlocking his fingers behind his head. 

"Some of the most terrible monsters I've ever encountered, were human. And some of the gentlest beings I've ever encountered, were not. Which, I suppose goes to describe where I come in. I'm a bounty hunter by trade, but as a personal obligation, I protect those who need protecting, often in ways that are entirely fatal to those they need protection from. Whether my target is a monster, or a human. Hell, sometimes my client isn't even always human. Not that they can pay me for my work in that case. But, I've come to feel like I owe it to the world to balance the scales. I did a lot of damage when I was less experienced. You want to know when I first got smart to the things that bump in the night?" He sighed. Hard.

"Well... I guess I lived in denial for a while, but really, in the back of my mind, I knew since that night. Even if I pretended I didn't. We were sleeping peaceful one night, my whole family, in our beds. I was sixteen at the time. Heard noises in our barn one night, bud didn't pay it enough mind. Next morning, half our livestock was slain, chewed on... So the next night, my father decided he was gonna sit in the barn with a shotgun. Keep watch, kill what we all thought was coyotes or wolves or something. He never came back in. We found him dead too, the next morning. Along with the rest of our stock. So, my mother and I, after we'd buried him of course... we decided to follow the tracks. Hunt down whatever had killed him. I was always big and dangerous for my age anyway, and she was a ranch woman so she was tough stuff. We followed the tracks back to a cave. Thought it must be wolves in there... But it wasn't. It was a bear. But it was also a man. I've seen werewolves since, and this was similar, but he turned into a massive bear. Never had seen anything like it at the time. I managed to make it out of the cave alive, but my mother... not so lucky. He slaughtered her, and I hid and cried while he ate her. Had to listen to the sounds of it, because if I stood up to run away, he'd have seen me." He stopped talking then. For a long time.

"So, I decided from then forward I was going to kill every single 'monster' I came across. And, that's exactly what I did. Just killed every single thing that wasn't human. Even very many creatures which me, meant no one, any harm... It was years before I learned the difference....." His posture was sad. No longer the cocky, confident bad-ass. Just a man now. And one who seemed to feel much, much smaller than he looked.