By the time Sasha had managed to steady her hands, the shadow was already gone; as usual, the effects of pulling the trigger was almost instantaneous, but Sasha wasn’t sure if it was because the Rue had been killed by whatever it was she had done or if it had simply fled. In the forest, when she was out hunting, the mere act of drawing her weapon was usually enough to send those creatures running; ever since she had demonstrated its abilities that first time at least. The Rue had never been willing to test their luck against her a second time, but truthfully, Sasha wasn’t sure why that was the case or what she would do if she ran into a Rue that wasn’t so easily dealt with.

Now that the tracks were clear, the train pulled up to the station and stopped in front of them. Surprisingly, Yiya didn’t seem to realise that the shadow had been there at all, didn’t understand why she and the other girls had reacted as they had; to her, they seemed like silly children scared of the approaching train. It made her feel chastised, embarrassed as she slipped her father’s gun back into its holster, even though she knew she had not been in the wrong. She kept her head down as she grabbed her belongings, throwing her backpack over her shoulder and hefting the rifle bag up into place, and quietly followed the old woman and her machine into the warded and protected train.

She barely noticed the man join their party, more focused on looking small and unnoticeable.

Once on board one of the other girls spoke to her, asking about her revolver. It was the other girl that had brought a gun with her, Toni; Sasha had wondered if hers was the same, if it could also scare off the shadows, but judging by their question it was not. [color=c4df9b]“No, it’s just my dad’s old gun… I’m… I guess… I’m the one that’s not normal.”[/color]

She’d never questioned it. Why could the revolver hurt them, or scare them? Her father couldn’t see the shadows. Or at least, when they were hunting together and she saw them and pointed towards them, he never looked their way and just told her to ignore them. Sasha never saw him acknowledge their presence, so she just assumed he couldn’t see them. He would carry the revolver with him on those hunts, but he kept it loaded and told her it was in case they ran into poachers. She never saw him use it, on the Rue, an animal or otherwise. It was just a normal gun.

The people who could see the Rue sometimes had special abilities, so she had heard. Sasha just figured that this was hers. It had nothing to do with the revolver. Maybe it didn’t have to be [i]this[/i] revolver and she could do the same with Toni’s. Maybe she didn’t need a gun at all. She didn’t know the answer to that.

To be honest, Sasha didn’t feel much like questioning it either. It worked; that was all she needed to know. Now was the time for different questions and Yiya would be the one answering them, but before that…

[color=c4df9b]“Um… Yiya? You can’t see the Rue, can you?”[/color] The answer to that seemed obvious, but it was surprising nonetheless. She had just assumed that the old lady seeking a cure to her villages plight, who had come all of this way to find a plant to get rid of the Rue, would have some way of avoiding them until now. But she didn’t, which just made their job as her guide more difficult. It would mean she was more defenceless against the shadows than Sasha had assumed and would need more protection, more guidance. And it meant that Sasha and the others needed to be taken seriously.

Being taken seriously was not something Sasha was good at.

The young and small girl just didn’t command any presence. Even as a guide to the woods, a service for which people knew she was an expert, a veteran, there would always be hunters who saw her and dismissed her. They would ignore her warnings and her advice and would come back from the woods empty handed, if lucky, or injured, if not.

Sasha placed a hand over the holster at her waist. [color=c4df9b]“When you see me draw this gun… it means there is a Rue nearby. That’s the only time… the only reason I’ll ever draw it.”[/color] She never kept it loaded. She had never pointed it at another person, or even at an animal, not even as a threat. It was a keepsake and nothing more. At least… at first it had been.

[color=c4df9b]“I… we… need you to trust us. If we say run… run. If we… say hide, then hide. If you see me… shooting at nothing… there was a reason for it.”[/color] Sasha’s voice faltered, suddenly realising how defensive she was sounding and feeling embarrassed. [color=c4df9b]“Just… you hired us because of the Rue. So… trust us.”[/color]