Maka Albarn held her breath, eyeing the trees around her warily.

"It's close," she muttered.

She could hear the soft growls emanating from the surrounding foliage, the kind of snarls that did not come from any normal human or beast. The cold air made her breath visible and she placed a hand on the iron stake strapped to her waist. The leather soles of her boots crunched against the snow as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"I can hear it too."

The blonde girl turned to her dark haired counterpart who had a hand on each flare gun, his eyes shifting in apprehension.

Another rustle and a growl and Maka was glad for the Anasazi symbol she wore around her neck for protection.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," she said softly as she inched towards the noise cautiously.

The dark haired boy shivered a bit. "Don't taunt it, Maka, you're just going to piss it off."

She sent him a hard stare. "Kid, do you want this thing to come out so we can kill it, or would you prefer we go to it's lair first?"

Kid Death sent her a withering stare back. "I just don't want you taunting it. This thing could kill you, it's not messing around. Wendigos are dangerous."

"I know," she said, turning her attention back towards the growls.

Suddenly, a large, pale form rushed out from between the trees and into the clearing, swinging wildly at Maka, which she barely dodged, before crossing back to the clearing. The wendigo moved so quickly that Maka was barely able to perceive it before it disappeared.

There was a flash of movement and Maka pivoted, trying to find the creature, but it was too fast. She saw only a blur before she was knocked to the ground, sharp claws raking across her chest and shoulder.

"Maka!" Kid shouted next to her, trying to aim at the beast.

"I'm okay," she shouted back through gritted teeth, pulling herself up to her knees. She grabbed the iron stake from her waist and held it in front of her. "The bastard just scratched me."

The wendigo stood before them, pale skin, a tall and thin frame, with sunken eyelids that showed how far the human had fallen to become this creature that preyed on human flesh.

Another growl sounded and the creature rushed forward, narrowly missing Kid, who shot one of his flares at it.

The beast snarled, snaking out one of it's long arms towards the girl who was still trying to stand shakily.

Kid rushed in front of her, firing his second flare straight into the wendigo's chest, the fire spreading across it's pale skin.

There was a hiss and a crackle and the creature stopped and began to scream in agony. It then began to walk toward them slowly, pain slowing it's usually fast movements. The creature's bones almost protruded against it skin, in obvious torment from the heat.

Maka leapt forward, her left hand across her shoulder and her right hand held outward with the iron stake. She kicked the wendigo, sending it sprawling backward, before shoving the stake into it's heart.

Another yowl and the creature began to dissolve into smoke as the skin hissed sickenly.

After a moment, all was quiet.

Maka exhaled deeply and sank into the ground, her hand clutching the soaking fabric against her chest, the tip of her blonde pigtail soaked in blood.

Her partner fell to the ground next to her, checking the wounds and trying to stay calm. "We need to get you to a hospital, this doesn't look good."

He reached out his hand as he stood up, gesturing for her to take it with her good arm. She did so, standing up shakily as he put her arm over his shoulder so he could support her weight.

The girl shivered in the cold air. The claw marks had cut through her coat, leaving the skin exposed to the open air.

She could feel her vision become a little blurry while blood pounded in her head. She was lucky to have survived the attack, and she knew that. Wendigo's were rare, and that's why they had been sent on this mission together.

The cannibalistic creatures were once humans, that when under duress due to famine or other reasons, ate others of their species. In some cultures, it is believed that eating the flesh of another human will give you special powers.

In a way, it was true. Wendigo's are incredibly strong; they can imitate the calls of human and they possessed a surreal amount of strength and speed, powered by bloodlust. They were found most commonly in Canada and a few of the northern states in the United States, which is why the hunters found themselves in the backwoods of Ontario at the end of winter.

They had been training their whole lives for missions like these, following the trails of beasts, demons, and spirits, that attacked humans.

Kid Death and Maka Albarn worked within a small network of other hunters, hunting and destroying the abnormal.

As they made the trek back to the village where they were staying, Maka felt exhaustion come over her and she nearly stumbled a few times. She knew there was a blood trail behind her, but she didn't care. They would tell the locals they had escaped a moose attack or something of the like.

They couldn't tell people what they really did.

For starters, most people wouldn't believe them.

It's hard to believe things that aren't easy to explain, things that aren't taught in secondary education.

It's even harder to believe something you don't want to be true.

Living with the knowledge they had could weigh a person down and make it hard to see the good in the world. Not only that, but it would cause widespread panic and fear.

And second of all, it would be selfish to weigh down other people. This was a hunter's burden to bear, not something every schoolteacher should worry about.

Days like this were why hunters even existed.

"We're almost there, Maka, don't worry," Kid said as he saw the tops of houses in the distance. Little stacks of smoke came from some of the chimneys at the edge of the town, but that wasn't where they were headed.

At the center of the town was a hospital. It was small, but it would be able to serve their immediate needs, and since it looked like the Wendigo missed any vital organs, all she would need were stitches, some disinfectant, and a few bandages so her wound could heal. And probably some rest too.

Kid looked at her flushed face in worry. Maka's breathing had been irregular and she had been wheezing for the last twenty minutes and he could feel her tiring out. "We're so close, Maka, don't worry, everything is going to be fine," he said comfortingly, shouldering her weight again.

Her emerald eyes were dull but she nodded slightly as she plodded along. She could feel a pang on her shoulder, but the cold was beginning to number her body.

"Can we please take a break?" she wheezed out after she stumbled again.

Kid shook his head no. "We have to keep moving, Maka, you'll freeze out here, or bleed out," he warned, dragging her across the snow.

Stubbornly, the girl sat down, a pout on her weary features. "I can't go any further yet, I need to rest."

The boy looked over her for a minute before his expression changed. As much as he wanted to let her rest, he knew that would kill her.

Instead, he picked her up, throwing her small body over his shoulder, much to her protest. Even in her exhausted state, she still managed to mumble a few profanities at the situation.

Kid smirked, one arm wrapped around her legs to hold her in place while he trudged through the village to the hospital.

What an entrance the pair made as they stepped across the clean mats on the other side of the automatic doors.

Kid, carrying a pouting nineteen year old girl over his shoulder that was bleeding profusely and looked ready to fall over at any moment. The dark haired boy had blood all over the front and back of his coat and his usually meticulously combed hair was disheveled. They were both flushed from the cold and weary to the bone, but they were alive.

"I need some help," he said calmly as two nurses rushed over to take Maka from him, but he held on firmly. "I'm staying with her," he said dangerously.

The nurses exchanged glances and then nodded, while a third nurse rushed a bed over to them.

Kid placed Maka gently on the bed as the nurses hooked up and IV and checked her vitals.

"Kid, it's going to be fine," Maka said weakly, reaching out a hand to him, which he took. He followed alongside when the nurses pushed her bed into an examination room, hooking her up to a morphine drip in the process.

"She's going to be out for awhile, with the pain and all," one of the nurses warned as the girl's eyes began to close from exhaustion. They had disinfected the wound and cleaned it quickly, giving them time to stitch up the deepest parts and bandage the more shallow areas.

The blonde girl lay curled up on her uninjured side, drips hooked up to her arm to administer pain medication. There was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead and she shivered occasionally under the thick white hospital blanket, but her heartbeat was steady.

"You can stay if you want, but I'm going to get some anti-bacterial for her to take when she wakes up," the kind nurse said. She had rosy cheeks and dark hair, with a soft smile that comforted her patients. "I'll send the doctor to check on her when he can," she said as she left the room.

"Thank you," Kid called after her as he sank into one of the seats by his partner's bedside. There was no way he was going to leave her like this, so he might as well make himself comfortable.

They had changed her out of her hunting attire, leaving the leather jacket and red skirt discarded on the counter, folded next to the shredded white sweater and her muddy boots. The tights were balled up in the sink, dirt and leaves caught in the fabric.

The boy fished out the phone from his pocket, flipping through his contacts quickly. He pressed call when he found the one he was looking for, leaning back into his chair while he placed the call.

It rang a few times before the line was picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Soul, listen - "

"What did you do?"

Kid hung his head slightly, knowing that his friend could hear the pain in his voice. "We're going to be back late, Maka got hurt."

"You let her get hurt? Are you kidding me?" Soul shouted back.

Golden eyes hardened and Kid struggled to control himself. "What was I supposed to do, Soul? Tell her she couldn't come? This is her job and she signed up for this kind of shit."

"You're her partner, you're supposed to protect her," came Soul's dangerously calm reply.

Kid exhaled, knowing that the injury of their small blonde partner would worry every member of the group.

To say that Maka was an important member of the group would be an understatement. Maka was beloved, adored, and borderline feared as a member of their team. She was knowledgable and a damn good fighter, with determination and wit to match. The blonde girl was also the smallest and youngest member, resulting in a fierce protectiveness from the other members.

"Just don't tell Black Star, or he'll try to kick my ass," Kid said, causing Soul to chuckle on the other end of the line.

"You got that right. So how's our girl doing?"

"We're in the hospital. The Wendigo caught her shoulder, but the nurses stitched her up, so she'll be fine, just some scarring."

"Make sure you don't look at it," Soul warned.

Kid's brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"It'll offset her symmetry," the other boy said simply.

While the dark haired hunter had outgrown the worst of his symmetry obsession, due in part to extreme medications and years of group and individual psychotherapy as well as cognitive therapy, Kid still deeply admired equality and precision and their hunting team teased him mercilessly for it.

"I doubt I'll ever see her scars, Soul, they'll be covered," Kid said with a bored expression.

"You're damn right you won't, or big brother Black Star will kick your ass," Soul responded with a snicker. "When do you think you guys will be home? And did you kill that bastard?"

"Yes, Maka drove an iron stake into it's heart and then I burnt it to a crisp. No way she'd let an injury stop her from doing her job. And probably in a few days, she just needs to rest up," Kid said.

"Alright, tell her to give me a call when she wakes up, Tsubaki is worried about why she hasn't checked in and you know how she gets," Soul said before hanging up.

With a flick of his finger Kid locked his phone, setting it down beside him.

A rustle of bedsheets called his attention to the once sleeping form across the hospital room.

"Was that Soul?" a bleary voice asked from beneath the thick white blanket that covered her shivering form.

Kid nodded. "Your pretty little boyfriend was worried about you," he teased, seeing the color rise in her cheeks.

"He is not," she snarled adamantly, "my boyfriend." Her emerald eyes glared at him and he knew that if she had a book she would have cracked the volume over his head.

"How are you feeling?" he asked evenly when she put her head back on the pillow.

"Tired," she answered. "Like I got attacked by a wendigo."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"I thought so."

A/N: Okay, so new story I guess. It's inspired by the show Supernatural, but with a nice soul eater twist! It's not going to follow the Supernatural storyline, but it's in a similar, if not the same, universe. I don't know what the pairings are going to be yet, I just want to see where the story goes first. Reviews are my inspiration to write (hint, hint) I intend for it to be discontinuous, where each chapter captures it's own events. It will be roughly sequential, but the order of events won't be to pertinent for the most part.

-Wri