"The Demi-Human Territory is a giant steppe populated by beastmen who are most likely humans degenerated by elven witchery and sorcery, turn into a bloodthirsty beasts.

Beastmen of many kinds both "civil" and feral variety roam the great plains in their primitive tribes or infesting the ruins of human cities which they themselves sacked and burned, breathing in the holy temples and insulting the holy memory of the Human Empire!

But perhaps more intriguing is that humans are living deep inside the vile Territory. Nomads they are called in our lands for their name is unknown to us but their strange ways are known to us by trade with the more "civilised" beastmen, they ride an unknown variety Reiter and they wear masks of bone to protect their faces from demons far up north..."

-A lecture written down in Oriripol.

 

---

 

The dirt road meandered east along a river. Its crystal clear water tempting to seek refuge in it from the scorching summer sun. On both banks of the river, plants grew in abundance dominated by reeds with long stocks and a brown cob growing on top of it.

 

"Iris! Are those fish?" A melodic voice came from behind Iris. Upon turning she saw a girl bend over the river bank gazing at the flowing water, a heavy cloak hanging from her shoulders which did not match well with the current weather and a brown backpack slunged over all of that. Her long raven black hair caught by the breeze, fluttered behind her.

 

"I think so." Iris followed Kia's gaze to find a grey shadow below the water. The sun reflecting off the water made it hard to say what made the shadow.

 

"Can we eat it?" The pleading girl turned to the elf and brought her arm together in front of herself.

 

"No, I did not buy a fishing rod for us, so we can't catch it," Iris told the pious undead.

 

After a moment of silence, Kia's two colour eyes shoot towards the shadow. Her right hand was suddenly covered with a black and blue mist which shoot towards the shadow. The dark sphere was trailed by a long tail. When it entered the water without leaving a single ripple on the water surface. The water where the magic missile hit appeared to blacken only to return to normal before one second had even passed. The shadow got larger until a belly of a fish surfaced.

 

"Stop." Kia yelped as the fish's carcass drifted with the current.

 

Before Iris could process what happened Kia had discarded her backpack throwing it onto the ground and jumped into the river after her kill. She had drifted for a minute in the river but the fish had disappeared from her view. The elf could only exhale a loud sigh picking up Kia's backpack and following her along as she drifted in the river. When Kia finally stopped drifting at the first bend of the river, she swam or rather submerged herself under the water's surface and walked to an exposed part of the bank, finding Iris standing among the reeds.

 

"Nice catch but I don't know if we need water." The elf crossed her arms in front of her chest and frowned at Kia. She in turn submerged every part of her body below her nose and turn her eyes away from Iris. The elf closed her eyes shook her head and exhaled another sigh, she opened her eyes looking down on Kia who shamefully looked at the water beside her avoiding Iris's judging gaze.

 

"Come, we need you to dry yourself up." She bend over and extended her arm toward the lady of the river.

 

The girl accepted Iris's hand and was pulled from the muddy bank. Her dress was perfectly dry, unlike her woollen cloak which was dripping with water and her pearl white skin glistened in the sun. The elf used her finger to clear Kia's wet hair off her beautiful face and lead her to sit under a tree which grew nearby.

 

"Sit here and stay. I am going for firewood." Iris took the wet cloak off Kia and showed her a flat boulder which layed under the tree, the wet girl sat where she was shown, curling up her knees and hiding her face in her dress.

 

Iris rested her spear and Kia's backpack against the tree and went to the river. Upon reaching the river she started to collect the brown bulbs growing on the bank by twisting them from their long stocks and putting them in her backpack. She remembered doing this when she was a child. She felt bad for remembering this of all things over the face of her own mother but she bottled up these thoughts and casted them down distracting herself by focusing on her work. A sudden sound of water splashing came from the river. When she turned a sudden idea entered her mind.

 

"Hello." The elf said when she came back to Kia.

 

Her savour lifted her head slightly, her hair still glimmering wetly in the light and her gaze flickered unsurely between Iris and the ground below her. "A-are you angry with me?"

 

"Of course not, just say something before blasting something fishy with magic, okay?" The elf kneeled in front of the sitting Kia, levelling their eyes with each other and stroking her cheek with her hand. Kia worried half-smile turned into a smile exposing her pearly white teeth hidden inside her mouth. "Could you try to lit a fire and I go for more of them?" She unbuckled her backpack and showed its contents to Kia before leaving the camp with only her spear.

 

When the elf found herself at the river again. She found a spot where the sun did not reflect off the surface allowing the elf to see underwater without much issue. She lurked above her spot before spotting a silvery fish, her spear tip descended towards the fish entering the water without any difficulty but the fish happened to be faster, darting off before her spear had skewered it. "That's hard," Iris muttered, she waited for another fish to approach only for her to skim it with her spear finding two scales on the blade.

 

A heavy sigh ecaped her mouth after the sixth fish escaped her efforts only being grazed by the tip of her weapon.

 

Three fish enter her strike range, Iris was temped to strike right there and there but a thought entered her mind urging her to do otherwise. She looked at her left hand and lowered herself closer to the ground. She plunged her closed fist into the water, white light shining through gaps between her fingers. When she opened her hand the water violently rose, erupting in a fountain and ending up showering her and the surrounding area heavily but two of the fish where she had casted seemed to had been stunned. Iris rushed to stand and firmly grab her spear. The spear entered the water and impaled the unlucky fish. Iris threw the lifeless fish to the shore and managed to skewer the second fish before the first one hit the shore. The fish started to squirm and flap on the spear before freezing as it life ended.

The elf walked back grabbing her spear close to the tip using it as an unwieldy knife and opening both of the fish's bellies pulling out uneatable parts, draining the blood and lastly cleaning the fish in the river water.

 

"Hello, what happened?" Iris came back to the camp seeing Kia sitting on grass struggling to use the flint and steel to light a fire.

 

"Ek!" Kia jumped.

 

"Aspects, you could have asked me for help."

 

"I was curious about this, I-I can't find a way for it to work." A sad-looking girl with a defeated expression said.

 

"Well I will do it now, you just have to look." The elf said, leaving the fish on the flat boulder and taking from Kia their fire starter.

 

Kia's face made an "O" shape but the elf clicked her fingers and began to light the fire which did not take long. Then she used the tools in her backpack to roast the fish on the fire.

 

"I can't cook well but let's hope it's palatable," Iris said before giving a portion to Kia. "Careful I didn't remove bon- Never mind"

 

"Mmm," A happy sound came from Kia eating roast fish without a worry showing on her face.

 

"Happy you like it," Iris said with a small smile but was ignored by a girl ravenously devouring her portion.

 

She put Kia's wet cloak and backpack beside the fire to dry and sat down leaning on the tree behind her and opened her status and gazed at it. She abstained from eating after a bite seeing the speed the girl beside her made the food disappear into the bottomless void which had to be her stomach, maybe even is.

 

Status

 

Iris

Race: Risen {Undead}

Age: 1 month

Title: [Defiant]

Classes: [Risen Level 3 ] [ Hoplite Level 3]

Talents: [Masterful Translator] [Pure Mana Manipulation(awaken)]

HP 480/480

Strength 65

Constitution 61

Dexterity 71

Wisdom 63

Intelligence 63

Charisma 60

MP 479/485

 

Combat;

Active Abilities: Mana light, Mana Shockwave.

Passive Abilities: Combat Precognition (F), Regeneration (E), Nightvision, Enhance Vision (B), Enhance Hearing (B), Mental Resilience, Immunity to Magical Domination, Immunity to Magical Charm, Physical Resistance (F) Monster Experience Gain (B),

 

Basic;

Abilities: Cooking (Level 4), Survival (Level 5), Cleaning (Level 6), Maid (Level 6), Fishing (Level 1)...

 

Iris gazed at her stats, after she focused back on reality she felt Kia laying on her legs, the elf stroked the sleeping girl and watched as the dying flame cast a flickering light on Kia's smooth skin.