The only source of light that allowed Smoker to cut wood without cutting one of his legs was the thin flame which was burning his cigars. He was cutting the logs of wood with ease, even if his muscles were still sore because of his injury, which made him quit the Marine.

His new life wasn’t bothering him much, at least, Hina wasn’t underfoot every time they needed to work together. Not a lot of his ex-coworkers knew where he lived now, and that was for the better. The forest where he lived was peaceful with no one around to break the little paradise he had created by himself: his chalet, lost in the middle of a deep and dark forest which was also lost in the middle of an island.

Being left alone isn’t really practical everyday. Smoker couldn’t go to the grocery store to buy food, so he needed to get his food by himself and unfortunately, he’s not a great chef. And to heat his chalet, he needed to use the good ol’ method: make a fireplace fire. And it was the reason why he was outside in the middle of the night, cutting wood in pieces, because he didn’t know tonight would be a cold night.

Even if it’s already been a few months since he left the Marine Corps, his sharp senses haven't left him yet. It had been a few minutes since he was spied on. Something or someone was hiding in one of the bushes in his back. Slowly, he turned around, his rusty ax in his hand, ready to push away the intruder. But Smoker was surprised when he saw a demi-human wolf, showing menacingly her sharp fangs covered in blood to him, a low and deep grunt escaping her mouth. Smoker’s hands loosened around his ax’s handle.

“Go back to your hole, my silly ax is not made to cut wolf meat. And my arms are too sore after cutting that amount of wood.” Smoker took his cigars out of his mouth, freeing a cloud of smoke around him, without leaving the demi-human out of his sight.