Rukia

As I go to leave the village the gatekeeper Toru calls out to me.

“Yo! Rukia! Are you headed out for your walk?” I show him a smile and reply.

“Yup! Heard anything from the forest?”

“Just the usual. Be careful of the Humans ok. The new girl and the scouts are cleaning them up but they can't catch everyone.” Huh?

“What new girl?”

“You haven't heard Rukia? The Child of the World the Elders have taken in? They are looking after her in town although she lives by herself West of them town.” I wonder why I haven’t heard anyone mention her? That’s pretty rare for gossip not to spread so quickly, especially in the southern village where I live. Nothing ever happens out in these woods.

“What’s she like?”

“Well she came about 3 weeks ago. She is a Beastkin of some kind. I haven’t met her yet but apparently she dropped off some Humans here a few days ago.” Huh. I wonder why the Elders are looking after a beastkin, maybe she's someone important, maybe I can get along with her, I am a female in the age range of other races.

“Oh well. I'm off. See you soon!”

“Be careful Rukia.”

I start my daily walk through the forest. All Elves have a connection with nature inherently but it seems for some reason my connection is stronger or weaker than everyone else is. I have to spend a few hours of time in the forest per day or else I feel uncomfortable to the point of shaking. I tried lowering the time spent out of the village when more humans started coming into our territory but it seems it is impossible. We also can’t let humans scare us out of our territory. I grip my staff with determination.

After having a quick break after a few hours of walking and gathering various bounties of the forest, I hear a whisper from among the trees. I can't make out what the trees are saying but the feeling gets across. Danger. I quickly gather my stuff and start jogging back to the village. Eventually I heard some shouting.

“There’s one!”

I sprint as fast as I can. I'm no good at hiding so I pour all my strength into my legs and go as fast as I can towards home.

“It’s a girl. Young one too! Get ‘er boys!!”

I hear a lot of yelling. The voices seem to be gaining on me. I am not exactly the physical type but I’ve been walking these woods all my life. How can they catch up to me! I fire a fireball into the sky to alert any patrolling Elves. They have already spotted me so there’s no point trying to hide. I can't see them yet so I sprint with all my might.

Looking back I finally see one of them. I fire a Root Bind spell at them and keep running before I can even see if the roots captured them or slowed them down. After a few more spells are fired eventually I’m hit by a rope of some kind and flung towards my right. I hit the ground hard while getting hit by metal balls. I look down to see I have been captured by a Bola. Oh no. Slave Hunters. I go to fire another spell but as I channel my Mana it dissipates and I see a magic circle glow on the balls of the Bola. Shit! I struggle to free myself but it's too late as the humans arrive and slowly surround me.

“Ooooh she looks like a young one. It's payday boys!!” All the humans cheer in response to his words. I go to scream but as I’m taking a deep breath the space starts to feel heavy. I-I’ve felt this before. Killing Intent. It's stronger than even the C-class monster I have seen. I’m just stunned at this feeling but when I fearfully look towards the Humans, they look worse then I do. All of them have stopped, a few have even dropped to their knees. Eventually the leader speaks up to motivate his men.

“Pay attention fuckers! Ditch the girl and run when we get visual confirmation.” I lose some of my tension at his words but I’m still scared at whatever can release such force of will. “Keep your eyes on the forest! Keep…” I hear a crunching sound as I see someone take the place of the leader. My eyes bulge out as I realize it didn't take his place. It crushed him. I go to say something but it disappears and reappears, Two heads fall to the ground and she disappears again. The slavers rush towards their headless friends but as they group up a thin line of water several meters long appears and separates the top of their bodies from the bottoms and eventually they fall apart.

I start to freak out. I don't know what kind of monster this is and I’m still tied up in the Magic Bola. I struggle against my bonds but eventually I hear a voice.

“Are you ok?” I let out a scared yelp and slowly turned to my left to see a Beastkin standing there. She is very pretty with black hair that has purple at the ends in a ponytail. She also has a pair of wings and Fox ears that follow the same color pattern. I can barely see a tail slowly moving from behind her. I go to talk thank her on instinct but she is still leaking Killing Intent.

“I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!” She tilts her head cutely. How can you be so cute while leaking such Killer Intent!!!

“I’m not gonna hurt you.” She leans forward and a dagger appears in her hand. Liar!! I close my eyes and pray to the Grand Spirit. I'm sorry Mum! I’m sorry Dad! I wish you all a happy life. I accept my death but as I feel her get closer eventually I don't feel my bonds anymore. Huh?

“You're free now. You don't need to be scared anymore.” I look down and see that the Bola is gone.

“You’re not going to kill me?”

“Why would I? Are you a bad guy as well?”

“Nonononononono! They were trying to capture me!!”

“Then why?”

“You're leaking such intense Killer Intent.” She holds up her arms and looks around her body before looking back at me.

“What's that?” I fall silent. I can’t tell if she is messing with me or if she is serious. I eye her for a little but she looks genuinely confused. “Ummm. Well it’s like what it says. You are physically manifesting your intentions to kill.” How did she get so powerful and not know.

“Oh. So… Hmmmm…” She makes a few funny faces before looking at me again. “How do I turn it off?” I froze again. She actually looks serious.

“Just calm your feelings I guess.” She makes a few more funny faces before mumbling ‘You can control feelings?’. Eventually the pressure lessens and I am able to move easier. I stand up and greet her. “Thank you for sorting that out. Also thanks for saving me!”

“Ah yea. Give me a second.” She walks over to the crumpled boss and when the bola that was on me appears in her hand she wraps it around the leader and throws him over her shoulder before going to each dead human and making their bodies disappear. She comes back over to me, I flinch for a second but she ignores it. “Do you want to walk or fly back?”

“Ummm. Fly-” I get cut off as she wraps her free arm around me. I am stunned still but she extends her wings and jumps upwards taking me with her. I almost pass out from losing the sensation of the ground and again when I see the tops of the trees flowing underneath us.

“Which village are you from?” her voice comes across clearly even though we are flying quite fast. I panic, gripping her as hard as possible and hugging my face into her breasts. I responded loudly.

“I didn't mean to say fly!!!” We suddenly decelerate and hang in the air. I'm way too scared right now and start repeating myself. “Down.down.down.down.down.down.down.please grandspiritletmelive.” We softly float to the ground and when I feel my feet hit dirt I collapse to the ground. Oh god. I'll never take dirt for granted again.

“Sorry. You said fly so I thought…” I look up and yell at her.

“You should let people finish their sentences! It's totally and utterly rude to cut people off like that! Especially without preparation! I could have died!!” She hangs her head down.

“I’m sorry.” After a big sigh, I see she looks so sad I almost forgot she was the person who just killed 10 people a few minutes ago. “I’ll just go. I'm sorry.” She extends her wings and goes to take off.

“Wait! Please escort me back to my village. I’m a little shaken up after that. I’ll lead the way.” I start walking and she follows a step behind me. I really didn't want her to leave me alone. I was shaken up after the humans attacked but even more after flying into the air. I didn't want to be alone right now.

After walking for a few minutes in silence I take a few peeks at her but she is just sadly following me. Even her slightly waving tail has stopped moving and is limply hanging towards the ground. Way to lay on the guilt trip after all you put me through. I sigh and start a conversation. “So? Who are you?”

“Yui.” I sigh again. Not much of an introduction.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was just flying back from hunting when I saw your fireball. When I went to investigate I saw the slavers so I killed them.” More silence. I guess that makes sense. I should probably introduce her to the Elder so he can tell her to keep out of our lands.

“Well you really should learn how to interact with people. Not to mention learn how to control your Killing Intent. I honestly thought you were a monster!” I ended up scolding her again and eventually it became too awkward to talk and we walked back in silence.

Once we came within sight of the village Toru ran up to us seeing my clothes disheveled and a stranger next to me carrying someone.

“Rukia! What happened? Are you ok? We got reports of a signal from Southwards.”

“Yea, that was me. I was attacked by Humans but this person saved me.”

Yui just says “Here.” in a funny voice before dumping the still unconscious man on the ground and flying off. I yell after her but she’s already gone.

I finally got home after informing the Guard Captain about the incident. I manage to relax for a few minutes before someone barges in the door. “Rukia! Get your ass out here now!!!” I panic hearing the Elder's voice. I quickly rush towards the door.

“What happened?” I’m hit in the head with the Elders cane. Owww! I go to protest but stop when I see the Elder looks unusually serious.

“What the hell happened out there today?!”

“What? I already told the Captain everything.”

“Bullshit you did! I just got told that the Child of the World came back from Hunting and she was in tears! What the hell did you do to her?”

“I haven't even met her!” I get hit again. Owwww…

“Moron! Who the hell saved you from Humans today!”

“Just some random Beastkin! I was going to get you to tell her to stay off our lands but she ran away.” Whack. Whack. Twice!!! I kneel down and hold my head.

“That was the Child of the World you broke twig! What did you do to make her cry!”

“Nothing! I just…” Oh no. I yelled at her quite a lot after saving me. “I might have yelled at her a little bit…” He takes a deep sigh and his face softens.

“I take it she did something out of common sense.” I nod quickly. “Listen Rukia. That girl may look like she is about your age but she is actually only a month or two old.” I tilt my head. “She has some special circumstances that we can't reveal to everyone but it’s the first time she has been visibly sad since she came here. The Central Elder is quite a bit furious since he has basically adopted her. It's probably the first time someone has ever yelled at her like that.” Oh... Shit... Central Elders adopted child. Important guest. Yelling at a child. Yelling at someone who just saved you. I fall to my knees in despair for the third time today. “I’m sending you to the town tomorrow.”