After a bit of discussion and some food, Niv had eventually decided that she wanted to go hunting. The idea had clearly been on her mind for a while, and the way her tail had started swishing back and forth when she talked about it made it obvious that it was something she was very much looking forward to.
Juno didn’t mind in the slightest.
While Niv was off doing that, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for her to head into town and take care of a few errands that had been sitting on the back of her mind for a while. There were always little things that needed doing, and since she had the day free it made sense to get them out of the way now.
She also figured it might be a good idea to check in on Barry while she was there.
The poor guy had clearly been a little shaken up after his unexpected encounter with Niv the day before, and knowing Barry he was probably still worrying himself silly over it. Juno knew him well enough by now to recognize that particular brand of nervous energy.
He was a good man, dependable and friendly, but he could be a complete worrywort when something strange happened nearby. It would probably put his mind at ease if she stopped by and reassured him that the giant wolf lady living nearby was actually very nice and not something he needed to panic about.
Juno found herself smiling a little at the thought.
Maybe it would also be worth bringing him a small peace offering while she was at it. A pack of decent beer would probably go over well, and maybe a bottle of wine for Louise while she was at it.
Barry and Louise had been her closest neighbours ever since she moved out here, and they had both done their best to make her feel welcome in this quiet little stretch of woods. It was the kind of place where people looked out for each other, and the two of them had always been quick to help when she needed it.
Dropping off a gift every now and then just felt like the right thing to do.
So after making a quick stop at the supermarket to pick up a few groceries and the promised alcohol, Juno also swung by the small government office in town to hand in a tax form she had been putting off for longer than she probably should have. The whole process took longer than she would have liked, but eventually she managed to finish everything she needed to do.
By the time she was done running around town she had a couple bags of groceries in the back of her car along with the beer and wine for her neighbours.
Satisfied that her errands were complete, Juno finally headed back out of town. The road gradually grew quieter as the buildings thinned out and the forest started to close in again on either side. After a while she reached the familiar turnoff and guided her vehicle onto the long gravel driveway that led onto Barry’s farm.
She pulled the vehicle up beside the house and turned the engine off, the quiet of the surrounding farmland settling back in almost immediately after the rumble faded away. For a moment she just sat there, stretching her arms over her head and rolling her shoulders to work out the stiffness from the drive. Then she grabbed the small bag with the beer and wine from the passenger seat and stepped out onto the gravel. Juno shut the door behind her and glanced out toward the fields that stretched off past Barry and Louise’s property.
Barry would probably be out there somewhere at this time of day.
The man had a habit of losing track of time once he got started working on something, especially when it involved machinery or fencing or one of the dozen little projects he always seemed to have going. Juno figured she would likely find him out there eventually, but for now it made more sense to greet Lou first.
She walked up the short path to the front door and gave it a firm knock.
After a moment the door opened to reveal a portly woman with sun-kissed skin and a thick curly bob of brown hair framing her face. Louise looked exactly the same as she always did, sturdy and solid, with an expression that most people would probably describe as mildly irritated even when she was perfectly calm.
“Juno. Good to see you,” she said abruptly.
Her tone was flat, almost blunt, but Juno had known her long enough to recognize that this was actually her version of a warm greeting.
“Yeah, good to see you too,” Juno replied with an easy smile. She lifted the items she was carrying so Lou could see them. “Brought a gift for you both.”
Lou’s eyes flicked down to the bottle of wine and the pack of beer.
“Mm. Hubby will appreciate it,” she said with a short nod.
Then she stepped aside and gestured inward with one hand.
“Well, come in.”
She turned and walked back into the house without waiting to see if Juno followed, which of course she did.
Juno had to admit that Lou had terrified her the first few times they met.
The woman had a way of speaking that came across as downright hostile if you didn’t know her well enough yet. Her tone was blunt, her expressions sharp, and she had absolutely no patience for nonsense.
But that was simply how she was.
Once Juno had spent enough time around her she realized that Lou was actually perfectly kind in her own way, just very direct and not particularly interested in sugarcoating things.
Still, Juno had also seen what happened when Louise actually got angry.
Now that was terrifying.
Needless to say, Frank had never come anywhere near Juno’s property again after that little incident. Fucking stalker.
“I’ll put the beer and bubbly in the fridge,” Lou said as she took the items from Juno’s hands and turned toward the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Tea, please,” Juno replied.
Lou gave a small acknowledging hum. “Mhm.”
She disappeared into the kitchen without another word, leaving Juno standing in the entryway for a moment before she wandered over to the living room. The house had the same comfortable, lived-in feeling it always did. Barry and Lou had been here for years, and it showed in the little details. Framed photos covered the walls, most of them showing family gatherings, fishing trips, and the occasional awkward holiday picture where someone clearly blinked at the wrong moment. The furniture was sturdy and well-used, and the whole place smelled faintly of coffee, wood polish, and whatever Lou had cooked earlier that morning.
Juno lowered herself onto the couch, which gave a familiar creak under her weight. She leaned back and glanced around while she waited, listening to the quiet clatter of cups and the soft hum of the kettle in the other room.
It didn’t take long before Lou returned, carrying a mug in each hand.
She handed one over to Juno before settling into the armchair across from her. The woman sat down heavily, adjusting herself until she was comfortable before lifting her own mug and taking a slow sip.
For a moment the two of them sat there quietly.
Then Lou looked over the rim of her cup at Juno.
“So,” she said bluntly, “Barry says you had one of those cryptids in your house.”
Juno nearly choked on her tea.
“Uh, yeah,” Juno admitted after a moment, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly as she took a careful sip of her tea.
Lou did not react with any kind of dramatic shock or disbelief. She simply watched Juno for a moment, her expression as flat and unreadable as ever.
“Is she dangerous?” Lou asked.
Juno snorted quietly at that.
“Not as much as you or I,” she said.
Lou raised one eyebrow slightly at that answer.
“I heard she has big claws,” Lou continued.
“More like what you’d see on a wolf or a dog,” Juno explained, gesturing vaguely with one hand. “They aren’t really that sharp. Not like a cat or anything.”
Lou’s eyes drifted downward slightly, and Juno realized a little too late what she was looking at.
“You’ve got bite marks on your neck,” Lou said matter-of-factly. “Did you already do the deed?”
Juno nearly inhaled her tea.
Her face flushed a deep red almost immediately.
Lou watched the reaction with quiet interest.
“Was she good in bed?” Lou asked bluntly.
Juno burst out laughing despite herself.
“Fuck off,” she said, shaking her head.
Lou shrugged calmly and took another sip of her coffee.
“Not a problem then?” she asked.
Juno leaned back into the couch with a small sigh.
“She’s very sweet,” she said after a moment. “And gentle. Very considerate too.”
“Huh,” she said. “Okay. Have fun.”
Juno blinked at her.
“That’s it?” she asked.
Lou took another slow sip of her coffee before answering.
“Yes.”
She set the mug down on the arm of the chair and shrugged again.
“I’ll get Barry off your ass,” she added. “You know what he’s like. Especially after that incident thirty years ago.”
Juno nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve heard both sides of that one. Well… snippets anyway.”
Lou’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“She knows?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Juno replied. “Apparently it was her cousin. They thought he was a fool from what I understand, but as far as I know Niv and her mother both kept away from humans even more than usual after that.”
Lou tilted her head slightly.
“Niv,” she repeated.
“Yeah.”
Lou considered that quietly for a moment.
“Well,” she finally said, picking up her mug again, “send her my way if she doesn’t treat you right.”
Juno snorted. “Oh yeah?”
Lou took another sip of her coffee and gave a small, satisfied nod. “I’ll give her a talking to.”
“She’s going to be terrified if she meets you,” Juno said with a crooked grin. “More than she was Barry.”
Lou let out a short bark of laughter at that, the sound rough and sudden in the quiet living room.
“Oh please,” she began, clearly about to make some comment about that.
Before she could finish the thought, the back door of the house slammed open somewhere behind them with a loud bang that made both women glance toward the hallway. A second later there were rapid, heavy footsteps pounding across the kitchen floor.
“Darl! Are you there?”
Barry’s voice carried through the house, loud and a little breathless.
Lou leaned back slightly in her chair.
“Barry?” she called back. “What’s wrong?”
A moment later the man himself came barreling into the living room. He looked like he had run the entire way from the fields. His face was flushed, his hair a little wild, and he was clutching at his chest while trying to catch his breath.
He stopped abruptly the moment he saw Juno sitting on the couch.
Barry came barreling into the living room without slowing down, his boots thudding heavily against the floor as he rushed in. His face was flushed and he was clutching at his chest as he tried to catch his breath.
“The giant woman I was—”
He stopped abruptly in the middle of the sentence.
His eyes had finally landed on Juno sitting on the couch.
For a brief moment he just stared at her, clearly not expecting to see her there at all. The panic in his expression faltered slightly as his brain tried to catch up with the situation.
“Uh… Hey Juno.”
Juno sighed. “Hello Barry.”
Barry shifted his weight from one foot to the other, still breathing a little heavily.
“She’s outside,” he said.
“Niv?” Juno asked.
Barry blinked.
“The giant naked cryptid woman that I saw inside your home?” he clarified.
“Yeah,” Juno replied flatly.
Barry pointed vaguely toward the back of the house.
“She’s outside,” he repeated. “With a deer.”
Juno frowned slightly.
“That sounds about right.”
Barry swallowed.
“And she’s… c-covered in blood.”
“Ooookaayyy yeah I got this,” Juno said, standing up from the couch and setting her mug down on the table. She rubbed her face briefly with one hand, already bracing herself for whatever scene she was about to walk into. “Be right back.”
Barry nodded quickly, still looking a little rattled, while Lou simply raised one eyebrow and leaned back in her chair as if she had just been handed a very interesting bit of afternoon entertainment. If Juno was right, she very much had.
Juno stepped out through the back door and onto the yard behind the house. The mid afternoon air was warm and carried the faint smells of grass and soil and distant livestock. She glanced around the property, expecting to immediately see a very tall cryptid woman standing somewhere awkwardly in the open.
But there was nothing.
She walked a few steps further out, scanning the yard and the edge of the nearby trees, but still couldn’t see Niv anywhere. For a brief moment she wondered if Barry had somehow panicked himself into imagining things.
Then she sighed and headed around the side of the house toward the front. As she rounded the corner her gaze immediately landed on something sticking up over the hood of her ute. There. She spotted a pair of antlers that bobbed slightly as if someone was crouched behind the vehicle.
Juno pinched the bridge of her nose for a second.
“Niv?” she called.
The antlers dipped out of sight for a moment, then the woman in question suddenly popped up from behind the ute.
Her golden eyes lit up the moment she saw Juno.
“Juno! Found you!”
She stood up fully then, rising to her full impressive height, and Juno quickly realized that Barry might have exaggerated just a little about the “covered in blood” part. There was definitely blood present, but not nearly as dramatic as his panicked description had implied.
Niv had some smeared across the front of her chest and a bit around her mouth, along with dark streaks along her claws where she had clearly been handling her kill.
Still, it was enough to look… concerning if someone wasn’t used to that sort of thing, and Juno wasn't either. She was a carnivore… so this would be to be expected.
Juno crossed her arms and gave her a long look.
“Soooooo,” she said slowly, “why are you here?”
Niv brightened immediately.
“Because you said come here for processing meat,” she explained proudly. “And I hunted big antler-prey!” New chapters come out on g.com first.
She gestured enthusiastically behind the vehicle.
“Though… maybe make antler-prey into hot meat?” she added hopefully.
Juno blinked.
“How’d you even find this place?” she asked. “I never told you where it was.”
“Human flat rock trails only place loud travel thing can work on,” Niv explained confidently. “Followed it. Caught Juno scent on the way!”
Juno stared at her for a moment. That was… honestly pretty impressive tracking. Before she could say anything else, Niv crouched down behind the ute again and lifted something heavy from the ground.
When she stood back up she was holding an enormous stag.
The deer was huge, its antlers wide and branching, easily the largest Juno had seen in years. Niv held it up proudly as if she was presenting a trophy.
“Antler-prey to share!” she announced happily.
Juno felt something warm and stupidly affectionate twist in her chest.
Ah, fuck.
She was falling hard for this woman.
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
“Just didn’t expect you to show up here,” she admitted. “Since… you know. Other humans live here.”
Niv looked down at the deer for a moment and nodded thoughtfully.
“Humans scary,” she said simply. Then she looked back up at Juno. “But Juno’s friends probably fine.”
She lifted the stag slightly again.
“So maybe… I bring antler-prey,” she continued. “Share with your friends. Then all friends?”
“I think Barry is still terrified of you,” Juno admitted as she rubbed the back of her neck and glanced toward the house. “Lou will probably not be obvious about it, but she’s… observant. Want me to introduce them to you?”
“O-okay,” Niv said after a moment, giving a hesitant nod.
Juno had already begun to notice that strange contrast in her personality. Sometimes Niv carried herself with a kind of fearless confidence that made it easy to forget how new all of this was for her, but then other times she would suddenly become shy and uncertain in a way that made her seem almost timid.
It was honestly kind of adorable.
“Alright,” Juno said. “Just wait here for a minute.”
Niv nodded again, clutching the large stag in both hands like some kind of offering as she stood beside the ute.
Juno turned and headed back into the house.
Inside, Barry was still hovering near the kitchen doorway while Lou remained seated in the living room chair with her coffee. Juno quickly explained what was going on outside, including the part about the deer.
Barry’s reaction was immediate.
“I am not going out there,” he said firmly, shaking his head.
Lou looked at him with open irritation.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” she muttered, pushing herself up from her chair. “Fine. I’ll go.”
Juno suppressed a smile as the two of them headed back outside together.
The moment Lou stepped out into the yard and her eyes landed on Niv, she stopped walking.
She didn’t panic or shout or reach for anything, but she did freeze in place for a moment as she took in the sight of the very tall cryptid woman standing there beside the vehicle with a dead stag in her hands.
Juno cleared her throat gently.
“Lou, this is Niv,” she said. “Niv, this is Louise. I call her Lou.”
Niv looked like she might bolt at any moment. Her body had gone stiff and her ears were angled back slightly as she watched Lou carefully, but she stayed where she was.
Lou folded her arms and studied her for a few seconds.
“So,” she said, “you’re the one Barry saw in Juno’s house?”
Niv nodded quickly.
“Y-yes,” she said. “That is me.”
Lou continued staring at her for another moment.
“Okay,” she said simply. “Nice to meet you.”
Niv seemed visibly relieved.
“Yes!” she said eagerly. “It is good to meet Juno friend.”
Lou’s gaze moved slowly from Niv’s face down to the rest of her.
“You’re naked,” she said bluntly.
Niv blinked.
“I do not have the decoration skins that humans wear,” she explained.
Lou nodded as if that was a perfectly reasonable answer.
“And you’ve got a stag.”
Niv lifted the large deer slightly as if to present it properly.
“It is gift for everyone to share,” she said proudly.
Lou let out a thoughtful grunt and then glanced over at Juno.
“I like her,” she said.
Juno blinked. Lou jerked her thumb toward the stag.
“I’ll rope Barry into processing the deer,” she continued. “Half to you two and half to us.”
“Yes!” Niv said immediately, clearly pleased. “Good trade.”
Juno rubbed the back of her neck again and laughed softly.
“Well this is going better than I expected.”
Lou gave her a mildly offended look.
“What?” she said. “I’m not going to be rough on the woman you’re sweet on. Human or not.”
She turned toward the house again and started walking.
“Juno, take her to the shed,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll go get that scaredy pants out.”