POV Eliza

I accompanied the woman to the village chief. There I told the story that would serve as my background. I came from a small village a few days east and did a craft apprenticeship there. Since our village only has 20 people, we didn't have many specialists and so I worked in almost all handicrafts. We were on our way to the nearby town to sell our produce and buy other goods in return. It was supposed to be my first trip to a big city and I was correspondingly excited. The trip was supposed to last 5 days and we had just set up our second night's camp. During the night we were attacked by bandits. I am not experienced in combat and our two combatants were quickly overwhelmed. Then they wanted to overpower the others too. I was seized by fear and ran away as fast as I can. I then wandered through the hills for three days until one night I saw lights in the distance. That's how I ended up here.

There were a few questions, such as whether there were survivors, whether I would find our village again or what I planned to do now. I had to say no to the first two and I had to think briefly about the last one. The people here didn't seem to be hostile towards me and it didn't seem like anyone had the skill appraisal. As a result, my transformation remained undetected. So I offered the village chief to work here to earn a living. I just needed a place to sleep and a place where I could offer my tailoring and other craft skills. I didn't know what would happen next and I wouldn't decide until I had fully recovered.  I was told that they would consider my offer and that I should calm down first.

I was led out of the village chief's house by the woman who introduced herself as Tremanda. Tremanda led me to a place where I could wash. There I also get something to eat and clean clothes. Meanwhile, she tried to cheer me up and told me that she could well imagine giving me shelter. Manual skills were rare in the village as they lived mainly from agriculture and any helping hand was welcome. That's how it happened that I was accepted into the village community. I was even provided with a small hut and furnishings. As I later found out, the cabin belonged to an old lady who had died of illness over the winter. Since she has no descendants who still live in the village, the hut has been empty for the last few months.

Over the next few months, I developed a daily routine that coordinated with each other. Since I could only transform for 5 hours at a time, I had to make sure that I wasn't observed when I transformed back. I had to activate my ability a total of 3-4 times a day, which was annoying but vital, otherwise my black skin would immediately give me away. I also made sure that I always wore a headscarf so that if I changed back at night, I wouldn't immediately be recognized as a non-human because of my ears. My daily routine meant that I took on all sorts of small jobs in the small workshop that I set up in the hut. At lunchtime I always pretended to take a nap because I couldn't sleep well at night due to recurring bad dreams. I also made sure that I was seen more often after dark.

So over time I managed to accumulate a small amount of wealth. I sewed a shoulder bag, new pants and belt as well as shoes out of leather. In the shoulder bag, as I learned in the community, I kept emergency equipment, provisions and water. I always expected my cover to be blown. I admit, I got a little paranoid during that time, but I didn't completely trust my luck even though I had the ability. I also didn't plan on staying here for too long. I learned that to the south there was a large city called Tyros, which also had an adventurers' guild. There was also a dungeon nearby. There I could and had to collect EXP to become stronger. I wanted to do anything to survive.

But not everything went smoothly in my life together in the village. My biggest problems were Elvin and Arinda. Elvin is a boy of 15 and the son of the village chief. At first he was very shy, but over time he became bolder and more aggressive. It started with flowers he picked for me, compliments he gave me while stuttering, and other little gifts he gave me. At first I was surprised, then flattered, but in the end I was visibly nervous. I hadn't even hit puberty yet, which was the first time I noticed it. Did it start later in elves than in humans? Not that I was complaining, I could do without the monthly problems. So I just smiled at the advances and refused on the grounds that I was still too young. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from continuing to try.

But my real problem was Arinda. Arinda was the daughter of a local farmer and 14. Not the she was ugly, but she was a typical countryside girl and rather brawny. Whenever she saw me, she stared at me. If looks could kill I would have died several times already. I often had the feeling that I was being watched and when I turned in that direction I would see another figure disappearing around a corner. I knew who was watching me, but at first I didn't know why. That changed one evening in the middle of summer. It was a full moon night and I looked at him dreamily, sitting in front of my hut. This sight always reminded me of Luna, the moon goddess. The fascination that the moon exerted on me was probably due to her and her blessing. Anyway, I was just in thought when I felt a presence approaching. I turned that way and saw Arinda. She seemed somehow different than usual, but still had the same hateful look. I had a bad feeling as she came closer.

"You are to blame. If only you had never come to our village.” <Arinda>

She immediately showered me with accusations, but I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Everything happened because of you. Because of you! Elvin doesn't even look at me anymore. Why, why, why did this have to happen to me?” <Arinda>

Oh, now I understand it. Now it all made sense. Arinda was jealous of me.

“Look, Arinda, I have nothing with Elvin. I'm not even interested in him." <Eliza>

“Do you think I believe you? You always make his eyes look good and you've definitely enchanted him. Why should he suddenly not be interested in me anymore?” <Arinda>

I tried to defend myself, but before I could say a word, Arinda lunged at me. Now up close, I could smell alcohol on her breath.

“Just get out of my life, you evil witch.” <Arinda>

Arinda tried to hit me, but I somehow managed to dodge the blows. Mostly because her movements were rather unstable.  Unfortunately, I fell off my bench and was buried under Arinda. I held her arms so she couldn't hit me, but that turned into us just rolling back and forth. Somehow I managed to push her away from me. Unfortunately, she grabbed my headscarf and tore it off my head. Since the time for the transformation had already expired, my long, pointed ears were clearly visible. Arinda stared at me in shock and I grabbed my head. This was when I realized that I had been exposed.

“A…a demon. A witch. I knew it, you really are a witch!” <Arinda>

I froze when I heard the words. After what felt like an eternity in which time stood still for me, I jumped up and ran into my hut. I threw my cloak around my shoulders, grabbed my blanket from the bed and my shoulder bag by the door. I quickly stuffed everything of value I could grab. Then I ran out, past Arinda and out of the village. Behind me I heard Arinda screaming loudly.

“Yeah, just get out of here, witch! And never let yourself be seen here again!” <Arinda>

I ran into the darkness. Because of the full moon you could see far away and a road led south-west. In this direction lay the main road that led from Lightburgh to Tyros. That was my next goal. I didn't have much money because there wasn't much cash in circulation in the village, but it should be enough to get by for a few days. I was then able to look for work in the city. I should come up with a new plan and create a new backstory accordingly.

POV Cornelius

Two more days had passed and we received the first information about our next destination. The dungeon had nature theme and was located just outside to the west. Amazingly, there was no one controlling access to the dungeon. The local adventurers guild was in charge and granted access to anyone who was at least F rank. It shouldn't be a problem for us heroes, after all, we were the hope of humanity. Turns out we only had to make a request. This was supposed to take 2-3 days and then we were finally allowed into our first dungeon raid.