[i]Emma[/i]

It took another three hours. But it paid off. The door opened as she was begin to bring her hand down for another knock. This time it wasn’t the man who had hit her. It was a harried elderly man, handing her a sealed envelope and a map. “Enough. Take the envelope to the SOHNS headquarters. Give this to any hunter there and they should take you to someone who will test you to see if you’re competent enough to even begin training. That’s all I can promise you. Now, please, leave and never bother us again.” The door closed in her face before she could even say ‘took you stubborn bastards long enough’. Shrugging, Emma turned away from the door, examining the map (thankfully her mother had insisted she learn to read, and her father that she learned to read a map.). SOHNS headquarters seemed to be a couple of days travel from here. Emma began heading in that direction immediately, putting both the map and the envelope into her pocket. She didn’t have any money to buy supplies, and figured it would best just to get it over with as quickly as possible. Maybe they would give her some food there when she arrived, though she doubted it. If the reception she received here was bad, she almost shuddered to think what it would be like when she got to the headquarters. 

Trudging through the town, she knew people were glad to see her leave. She was a freak. Someone to make sure that their daughters stayed away from, lest they get into their heads whatever had gotten into her head. A woman dressing as a man and carrying weaponry. Scandalous, certainly. Insulting, likely. At least, that’s what she had gotten from people’s reactions to her. Some were polite enough to thinly veil their contempt and disgust. Others were not. But she didn’t care. Caring about what the rest of the world thought stopped when her parents died, her home was destroyed, and her sister missing. There was nothing left in this world but to find her. What happened after that would sort itself out in due time. So Emma ignored the relieved looks people exchanged as she headed out of the town, and the calls from some of the other townsfolk at her back. She just kept moving, one foot in front of the other, too her destination. Another stop before her goal.