It was a rainy day. huge grey clouds covered the sky and water fell like curtain on the lands below.
Within the watery curtain stood a village, located on a deforested area on the edge of an ocean of greenery that seemed to swallow the horizon, it was the very definition of bleak.
A chaotic arrangement of wooden shacks intertwined by battered dirt roads, already turning into mud with the heavy downpour.
Entirely surrounded by a defensive wall made from the corpses of the surrounding trees, the whole structure was built besides a river that ran from the depths of the forest.
Grey figures could be seen moving along the damp scenery. Hurriedly in their steps in a feeble attempt to avoid the rain sapping the little warmth their ragged clothes could muster. Apathic in their movements to finish whichever tasks they were assigned and retreat to warmth of their houses.
Among the grin figures that were unlucky enough to leave the shelter of their homes, one outlier stood out from the others.
A little girl, seemingly not older than 10 winters, skipped happily in the muddy streets. Humming a song only she could hear, while her rough patch-worked dress was left clinging tightly to her skin.
The muddy floor stained her ivory white barefoot legs up to her shins, but none of that seemed to faze her, as she continued in her happy demeanor. Earning her quite a few strange looks from the most recent inhabitants of the village, while all the ones who were there for a more considerable amount of time simply ignored her.
It was unusual to see someone so happy when going out in this weather. Strange enough to pull them out of the apathy caused by their fate, as the falling temperatures coupled with the humidity made it for the prime time for diseases to attack, and they all knew an unlucky case of the flu could spell their end in this place. Hence, the ones closest to the girl shot her curious looks.
Their curiosity turned to shock, then some became hateful glares as they acknowledged the silvery hair running down to her shoulders and features angular as if sculpted in marble. Earning her quite a few less than friendly mutters and whispers.
“what’s a halfling doin ere?”
“Damn xeno”
“I thought this was a village for human folk, what’s that thing doing here?”
Ignoring all the hostility with a trained indifference she continued humming her song. Heading for the outskirts of the village.
But she knew some of them might become a nuisance later due clear hatred some of the glares conveyed.
‘Ah damn, forgot this was the district where they put all the fresh ones… it’s no trouble though, if they do become a problem, Raz will just beat some sense into them’ She thought with indifference.
These were refugees, humans from the border towns forced to flee to the interior of the kingdom due to the war. Unwanted in the bigger inward cities, they were sent to villages like this; their demeanor was hardly new to the girl, there were many that came before and couldn’t survive winter, and there will be more after them. There’s always more.
‘Better expanding the northern border than enslaved by xenos, or some crap like that, poor sods.’ she thought grimly. Memories of a happier time surfacing soon replaced by the pain and apathy of losing it all a years ago.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault they were stripped of their homes. That was something every last person here could relate with all the other inhabitants
‘But that doesn’t give anyone the right to be rude.’ Cayleth thought.
Unlikely as it may seem, the girl had lived on this village for far longer than most, she arrived a few years prior, and successfully survived several winters within the inhospitable environment.
She knew by experience that many of these poor souls wouldn’t resist the harsh cold, weakened by the lack of food.
She continued on through the rain, the village was hardly large, the infertile land which could barely grow the bare minimum for survival, and fierce beasts in the surrounding forests where humans were at the bottom of the food chain would’ve long turned this place and many other expeditionary villages in the Great Forest to an abandoned ruin reclaimed by nature if not for the war that plagued the eastern borders of the kingdom. And the endless waves of refugees that came with that.
‘Raz should be on gate duty, I should drop by and warn him that I’m going to the forest, there’s a ton of new blood around, and I don’t need that jackass threatening every last one of them just because he can’t find me.’ Thinking of the antics of her companion, the girl let out a sigh. More for the possible headache of having to deal with more hostility directed at her, than the possibility they actually posed a threat to her.
She finally arrived at her destination, in the border of the village stood a crude wooden palisade, made from tree trunks with pointed ends, partially buried into the ground, becoming a rather sturdy wall.
A gap in the defenses gave way to a thick wooden gate reinforced with iron. Immediately outside the gates stood a crude wooden structure that held a small straw roof. Barely giving shelter to the sentries that would close the gates whenever the denizens of the surrounding forest threatened the inhabitants.
Manning the gates were two men, both dressed in thick clothes and a ragged leather cuirasses; One seemed alert and on edge, eyes darting around the granary fields and forest outside in search for beasts, hands clutching a cheap spear firmly; while the other laid his back on the wooden wall and held his spear lazily.
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The guard that looked like he was dozing off was a tall and skinny man, the upper half of his face hidden behind an old looking metal helmet that he slanted forward to cover his green cat-like eyes.
The other one lacked a helmet and had a common face only barely memorable by the multitude of scars that it held, and the wild hair and beard surrounding it, he possessed a bulkier constitution, and seemed like someone who knew his way around a blade a bit too well.
As she approached the gates one of the figures hearing her footsteps amidst the falling rain turned back and greeted her. Surprisingly it was the laid back one that seemed to be dozing off just a few moments prior.
“So, you’re up princess?” he said, suddenly coming right out of his near dozing off state to one of alertness in barely a second, betraying that he was ever asleep at all.
“Have you finally realized how much your big brother sacrifices himself for you while you just laze around all day; so, you came to apologize and promise you won’t be such a useless brat from now on?” Said Raz, putting up his best impersonation of a weary demeanor and slumping his shoulders, but unable to hide the shit-eating grin plastered across his face.
Keeping a blank expression, Cayleth retorted with a trained cold voice on their familiar back and forth “Says the lazy bum who can fall asleep just about anywhere. At any time.”
The man put up an offended expression and puffed up his chest. “How dare you! I’m the damn best guardsman this village has, they should be glad I’m willing to waste MY TIME sleeping during duty!”
Noticing the unfamiliar face and the side eyed glimpses the other sentry was shooting them, not daring to turn his head towards the man still putting up an offended demeanor and listing very good reasons why sleeping during duty was his right.
“Riiight… so new guy huh?” She said directing her eyes at the other guard.
The man was clearly a greenhorn now that the girl took a closer loot at him. He held his spear firmly, but his posture told of someone that was more used to shady dealings in the shadows of buildings than fighting off beasts in the wild.
Stopping his rambles, Raz looked at the confused expression the other guard was bearing.
“Yeah, this fresh beast bait came with the last batch of them, but differently from the other more useless beast baits, this one can actually hold a pointy stick and not stab himself in the ass with it. So they told me to babysit him and prevent the Innards Worms from getting to him too early. It seems old Jonah is tired of opening up people’s bellies to remove them”
The other man became a little flustered and paled a little but didn’t say anything, still keeping his eyes in the distance.
It seemed he was already used to the antics of the lazy man and had already learned the hard way that he was much more dangerous than his carefree demeanor suggested.
‘Already so obedient Raz, you’re getting good taming these city folk’ She thought; Since Raz had left early in the day, even before the sun rose, it was clear that they had been together for at least the entire morning, and she dreaded just how much the thuggish looking man had to put up with so far.
Redirecting her gaze at him she noticed that his posture was unusually tense, leg muscles flexed.
‘So he did fall for the Innard Worms… ah you never cease to surprise me Raz’ She thought.
“You’ve been terrorizing the poor sod! …sigh” she turned to the bulky man firmly clenching his butt cheeks. “Don’t worry, there’s no such thing as a beast that enters through your bum and eats your intestines, it’s all horseshite you shouldn’t believe everything this jackass says”
Surprised that the girl was talking to him, the man’s expression was a bit startled. Becoming almost relieved he had a reason to stop looking at the distance, not daring to look back at Raz, but his expression turned ugly when he was able to take a good look at Cayleth and recognized her racial traits.
Clenching his teeth and was about to retort when he felt a chill running down his spine and realized Raz was glaring at him.
Not missing the changes occurring in his expression, ‘he’s just like all the others… sigh’ the girl turned to the lazy excuse for a guardsman and continued as if nothing had happened.
“Well I’m heading off to gather some stuff in the forest. Don’t doze off too much Raz, you never know when something might sneak up on you and turn you into the boniest meal it ever had”
The man disregarded her comments and retorted. “Says the brat who has so little meat on her body that the beasts mistake you for a withered tree.” putting up a more serious worried expression Raz continued “take care kiddo.”
Noticing his genuine worry she answered firmly. “You know I will.”
Putting his best shit-eating grin Raz retorted. “Just as I know that flatlands will never become mounta…”
The girl suddenly punched her reliable yet annoying friend in the stomach.
Her body was small, shoulders barely reaching above his waist, but her punch resounded loudly when it hit the crude leather. The man stumbled and folded forward, falling on all fours.
Raz was bent over with his hands on the ground gasping for air, this startled the other guard which was just staring blankly at their familial back and forth after Raz had directed his killing intent at him.
But he didn’t have a chance to act, as the girl had already walked out of the gates and was on her way through the road that led to the forest.
‘You should get your acting skills together idiot!’ She hadn’t missed the idiotic grin Raz had on his face even while he pretended to gasp for air.
“Dammit Cayleth!!! Was that really necessary?! I swear you punches hit harder than a damn Grinder Bear! You sure you don’t have a bit of Ogre blood in you? Seriously ouch!” Them every last strand of pretended pain faded from his voice, turning back into his usual mocking tone “You know you’ll never find a husband if you keep acting like that you shitty brat!”
Cayleth ignored the all too familiar mocks, Raz was a good man, reliable when push came to shove, and took care of her for most of time they knew each other. But if not for how capable he was, his personality coupled with a mouth that was a bit too loose, he’d likely have found himself in the wrong end of a blade long ago.
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The thuggish guard looked dumbfoundedly the man who was still on his fours, he had struck him as someone dangerous, and he was folded by the punch of young girl? He knew his way around a fight and that punch was a clear hit, and the way it resounded gave away the considerable power that backed it up, ‘who the hell was that half-breed?’ he thought
He was lost in thought until he felt a chill running down his spine and noticed his ‘superior officer’ was looking sinisterly at him.
“So tell me beast bait. Ya got sumethin gainst elves?” Said Raz as his pupils straightened like that of a feline and a dangerous glint shone through them.
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Once she was sufficiently away from the gates so that the granary fields hid her short figure from the idiot that was likely terrorizing the rookie that looked ugly at her, she allowed a sigh to escape her mouth. ‘Just hope he doesn’t go too overboard, we don’t need another situation in our hands…’
Discontinuing her train of thought Cayleth peeked under the hem of her dress, letting another deep sigh escape her throat. ‘I know elves are supposed to age slower, but this is too much…’ Remembering the mocking face of a certain bum she forcibly cut off the darkening thoughts cursing her heritage.
The girl that looked no older than 10, resumed humming her song; Walking a winding path among fields of granary, thinking of what boons the forest in the distance could offer her.