So we meet again

Ismael barely heard the gunshot but eventually feel the pressure release from his throat and him falling to the ground with a thump. He felt the dust and dirt get all over his body and one side of his face that was resting on the ground. Panting deeply for air, he wanted to grit his teeth a little from the pain he was feeling after being strangled but it was like doing that only moved the pain to inside where his muscles were quite sore. He felt someone come over and check his pulse but he just wafted their hand away with an angry grunt.

A few weeks had passed since that incident, and the discussion between the daemon hunters were finding a new suitable partner for Ismael. But it seemed like everyone they asked, either turned it down or were not interested.
However behind the scenes, it seemed like some agreeable term had come to be fulfilled, and Thomaz was livid. "You can't pass her around like some mare in need of a breeding!" He yelled out in defiance as they were having a meeting between their families. Eliza was sitting next to her aunt and with Ismael on her other side. "The infrastructure of our society needs to be kept intact, " his aunt reminded him but he scoffed. He knew Eliza was seeing some guy, or at least tried to, but this wouldn't end well. He just knew it. "I'll be his partner then," he said, one of the leaders scoffing, "You are not done with your training ye-" - "if my sister is going to marry this guy, then I need to trust him; and with a partner you have to learn that, right?" He argued, looking at each face until he stopped and just looked at Ismael. What kind of daemon hunter weren't married yet anyways? And why didn't he speak of his former partner?

Still in healing from the fracture he had suffered on his throat, Ismael sat next to Eliza, whom he barely knew. Sure, he didnt like the ordeal either, but it seemed to be all that was necessary. With his current reputation, it seemed that all of his partners somehow met a likely demise. Then her brother seemed to volunteer himself, making Ismael raise an eyebrow as he looked the guy up and down. What did this guy had to offer? He looked far too young to be putting his life on the life like that. He was far younger than his brother would have been, had he still lived to this day. ".. You wouldnt be able to protect me or yourself, and you think that's a good idea" Ismael then said in a hoarse voice, looking a little defiantly at the other human. He couldnt help but imagine how he would look hanging from a tree, just like the last one.

"What do you know about my training?" - not even leaving enough room for the hunter to reply he continued - "Oh that's right, nothing! So why don't you just shut up and let me do the talking," he spat, getting a warning gaze from his aunt. "Look, she's my sister, she is all I have left, and I am not okay with this bullshit, so cut out your bad-boy attitude and stop acting all high on your horse or whatever the phrase is."
He looked to his sister, couldn't she see where he was trying to go at, but she seemed so complicit in all of this. Did she really want this? He had seen how the last guy had ended and he was not waiting around to see his sister at that low point again. "Besides, what makes you think you can protect her? Because looking at your track record you have more dead partners than alive ones," it was a low blow. He knew a lot of hunters were dying left and right these days, but Ismael always seemed to make it out like the miracle he was.

Eliza was sitting quietly. She had heard about this and she didn't like the idea of another engagement, but what choice did she really have? Besides, Xalvador was just some stupid dream she had made up in her head, and it would never amount to more. Her brother started acting out but as he went for the low blow she stood up. "Thomaz, que é o suficiente!" she hissed in her native tongue before looking at the hunter she had sat next to but not even spoken a word with. Then she looked at the elders, breathing out in a calming manner. She couldn't lose her cool now. "I apologize on my brother's behalf," she said, eyeing Thomaz who was already rolling his eyes into oblivion. "But perhaps a trial of his competence wouldn't be too bad; He had worked very well, and Is- Pardon, mister Reeves does not look capable of any great missions right now," she said. She spoke rather eloquently, her accent a little strong, but it only made her sound more poetic in a way. "Until mister Reeves has healed, would it not be wise that on smaller missions my brother could accompany him as a novice hunter?"