Chapter 18

    A lone little girl was running through the deep forest. Her dark skin was mixing in the night while her hair reflected the light of a full moon. Her eyes were widened by both her fear and her efforts to see through her tears. Someone else’s blood was blending with her red tattoos.

    Suddenly, a firm hand full of scars grabbed her by her thin collar. “There there. What do we have?”

**

    Three dark elves were coming back to their small village after a fruitful day of hunt. A deer was hanging on the shoulders of the tallest of the group.

    “I will cook us some roasted deer this evening.” One of the elves spoke with a crystal-clear, undoubtedly feminine and beautiful voice.

    The one that was carrying the hunted game answered with a deep manly voice. “I’m looking forward to it. Right little one?”

    Their daughter replied. “Yes! I love mama’s roasted deer. So yummy~”

    Her father stroked her head. “You did well in today’s hunt. Your aim with the bow is becoming quite the thing, Eyrinn.”

    The lady elf scolded him. “Geez, try speaking of something else to our daughter, you battle freak.” Her gentle smile denied her words.

    “It’s because of my Gift that I can get papa’s praises. When I aim, it’s like I am two meters away from the game. I see all its detai...” She suddenly stopped and sniffed around.

    Wondering what his daughter’s remarkable senses noticed, the father sharpened his senses to the maximum and felt a faint smell of blood.

    “Let’s hurry to the village!” His wife and himself weren’t able to hide their concern. All three of them ran through the forest, Eyrinn slightly behind her parents, totally forsaking the deer.

    After a short but intense run through the wilderness, they caught sight of the village. The sun was starting to set, dying everything in a reddish orange. At first, they thought the village was totally fine and their bad omen nothing but a delusion on a tired spirit.

    But then, they noticed that some roofs were collapsed, that the rare dark elves still outside were running. And finally, a stench of fresh blood hurt their sensitives noses and they saw piles of cadavers. Their former kin, friends, brothers, parents. They were all now naught but bloodied corpses. Some of them were cleanly cut, with a surgical precision. The others carried odd traces.

    A black substance was sipping through complicated and thin wounds. With a closer look, Eyrinn realized that these were in fact words carved in the flesh of the cadavers. Some had unfamiliar meaning. Some even written in other languages. But the most shocking were the readable words. Scary words like “death”, “pain”, “devotion”, “sacrifice” were intertwining each other. But the most frightening ones were the following. Eyrinn spoke them with a trembling and childish voice.

    “W-Which one is stronger...”

    “The feather or the sword?”

    “The sword or the feather?”

    Two voices spoke simultaneously, finishing the sentence the little scared girl had begun. One of them was feminine, the other was masculine. They both had a strange vibe. As if mana was imbued with each word.

    Eyrinn’s parents turned their head, staring behind their back, frozen in chock.. There, stood a tall and lean woman who was pointing a sharp and thin sword at Eyrinn’s father. At the woman’s left stood an equally tall man. A white feather, whose length was about 30 centimeters was floating at his side. If one omitted their different gender, haircuts and weapons, they were strictly identical.

    The little girl’s mother turned her head back at her daughter and shouted in a hurry. “RUN!” Without a second thought, Eyrinn flew toward the edge of the forest, tears in her eyes.

    ““We want to know!”

    In the same instant, a sword pierced her fathers chest, straight through her heart and the word “Death” appeared on her mother’s neck.

    While running with all her might, she heard two weak cries. Tears overflowed from her large and purple eyes.

**

    She ran for several dozens of minutes. The moon now high in the sky was shooting enough light for Eyrinn’s eyes, helping her to know where to put her tiny feet. Her breath was ragged, short. She was near her breaking-point. It was a question of minutes before she would finally collapse, her dark elf’s stamina running out.

    Suddenly, a hand as large as her head grabbed Eyrinn by her collar. “There there. What do we have?” A hit at her temple made her loose consciousness.

*****

    When she finally woke up, she was in a little cell. Her hands and feet were shackled together, forbidding her to make any move too rash. She then heard heavy footsteps coming her way before a tall and bulky man looked at her through the bars of her cell as if he was looking at a pile of trash.

    “Not even 10 mana points. I thought the dark elves had knack with magic things.” She tilted her head, confused. The man, or more like the scumbag, resumed his speech. “I was hoping to catch some new “tanks” for Master but everything I got is a fucking useless crybaby.” He paused a second, acting the worrying man. “Well, at least I can get some gold coins from you. Until then, you will be my plaything.” He licked his lips. “Don’t worry brat, I’m not a lolicon.”

    This day, Eyrinn learned a lesson that she would never totally forget. Humans were total beasts even scarier than the most ferocious of the monster.

**

    She didn’t knew how many days of pain and suffering passed before the guy showed himself again. She wasn’t even trying to hide herself anymore. Her mind was blank. “Today I will sell you~~! I can’t wait to see my beautiful coins.”

    He took Eyrinn by the arm and dragged her like a bag of potatoes toward her destiny.

**

    While she was waiting her fate in the now almost empty cell that held the other slaves brought to the auction, she felt something.

    An unknown masked man was standing in the entrance door. His repulsion toward everything this place embodied was so strong, his anger and indignation so hot, that she finally felt something again. Even though it was a negative emotion, she was somewhat happy to feel fear.

    Soon after, the auctioneer, one of her kin, took her to her last stand. Eyrinn had regained a bit of life in her previously blank eyes.

    She was inwardly scoffing at the value she held for her purchaser -he bought her for more than ten thousands gold coins- when a bubble of mana surrounded her and elevated her from the floor. The blood-colored undulations inside the sphere made her recall that particular dawn that was also the sunset of her happy days. Tears that she didn’t knew being able to shed anymore started to flow slowly on her cheeks.

    Suddenly a myriad of red shards shattered everything around her and she stood awestruck for a few dozens of seconds before regaining her countenance.

    She then saw the same young man from earlier. His now gone mask was revealing a fierce face. His eyes were glowing with great will. Will to live. Will to protect those who he held dear. Will to cut down those that wanted to end his dreams.

    A door finally opened in her chest, letting out feelings that she didn’t knew having locked inside. Pain, rage, incomprehension, but also joy, desires, love filled her heart again. She was now complete.

    Using her sense enhanced by her Gift, she followed with her gaze the rather fast departure of the man that saved her, her Hero with all the meanings a child attached to it.

    “I want to follow him. If he was with my parents this day… Perhaps he could have cut down Sword and Feather. No he would have cut them down without a doubt.”

    She closed her eyes for an instant. “If I was strong like him, I would have been able to save papa and mama.”

    A clear voice rang softly at her ears. “That is a risky way of life.” A young lady with brown-reddish hair. She asked with a beautiful smile. “My name is Farah. Can you tell me your story?”

gwenis

Hi there! Gwenis, the lazy but optimized guy bringing you the 18th chappy. Here is some backstory for a side character as well as the introduction of a new bad guy. Well two new vilains.

I hope you  enjoyed it. If you feel like it, feel free to drop a coment. They warm my heart in this beginning of winter and i repply to every one of them ^3^