“Shhh… Sylvie you are making too much noise” her father chastised.

“That’s not possible I haven’t even said a word!!!” Sylvie complained.

“See you made another noise.” again in a haughty voice

“But you were the one who started it.” She was getting irritated now.

Her father looked at her straight in the face. She looked exactly like her mother. Those

graceful features slanted thin eyebrows (that were frowning at the moment), large eyes

(that were staring at him in anger), lips curled in anger and thin cheeks bones with

cheeks in perfect proportion to the face. All of this was her mother’s contribution only

feature she had from her father was his hair. Unlike her mother’s blonde hair she had

black hair with and unnatural boyish cut.

*Why doesn’t she keep her hair long? She would be a beauty that even the Angels will be jealous of.*

He thought that maybe she would get some proposals from high class nobles not that he

would let them come even close to her. Whenever he had seen any boys make a move on

her he had stared them with blood chilling stares, shooting down any possible

approaches.

*I am not a doting Dad but I am not going to give my daughter to some guy not until she

is 40.*

Unknown to the father, Sylvie didn’t have any interested in any guys. She loved her parents. They were her role model. She

couldn’t compare herself to her mother in beauty and her father in his charisma. Her mother was a high elf with so much grace and

beauty that people kneeled before her unknowingly showing respect on their own. Her father had been a ranger for the King until

he met her mother. She didn’t know his exploits but the way town people showed respect to him and were friendly with him she

knew he was a man of dignity. She wanted to make her parents proud that was why when she reached 5 years of age and gained

consciousness of her world, she had been really studious. Copying her mother’s every act so that she can be graceful as her and

pushing her father to teach her techniques of a ranger. In fact she cut her hair after her father told her, two weeks ago, on her

8th birthday that he would teach her few techniques. She knew it would get in the way of her training.

The silence of the forest was back after the short exchange of words. It was as if the dense foliage of fauna has absorbed every

noise to prevent the Mother Nature from being disturbed. Heavy fog covered the parts where trees didn’t grow as if to prevent

people from noticing more than they should. The pair of father and daughter were here to see how much the latter has grown in

the last 2 weeks of training.

The first thing the father gave her was knowledge about the surroundings, what to eat, and what not to, where to get water,

what to do when lost. In short it was about survival and she understood the meaning. She was blessed with good brains (from both

father and mothers side) hence she absorbed all the knowledge in a short time of a week (much to the surprise of her father). The

last two weeks had been about tracking and archery.

“Tracking is mainly an observational skill. You need to keep all your senses to the peek to get a good understanding of where your

target is moving and in what conditions. Some great hunters can track the target so well that they know where the beast will be

before the beast knows itself. Instincts and experience also make a hefty contribution for such precise tracking.” Her father had

explained to her. He taught her how to distinguish between different tracks, the situation of the beast “deeper irregular tracks

means it’s in haste, whereas normal regular occurring tracks means otherwise”. He also taught her how to ambush, how to

distinguish fake tracks and a bunch of other things that didn’t make sense to her currently.

Right now they were in the forest searching for their hunt that they had been tracking for past few days. It was a family of deer

that was probably separated from the herd. The winter was near and it was a nice opportunity to increase the food and clothing

for the village.

Sylvie’s mark was the fawn. She wanted her first kill to make her father proud and show him that she had been sincere with her

studies. She was leading while following the tracks whereas her father was behind her monitoring her and noting the mistakes she

had committed to teach tease her later. So far he had only found few that’s why he irritated her by telling that she was making

too much noise.

They had been following the trail for about an hour now it was leading towards the clear stream that flowed through the forest.

Sylvie was sure she would find the family there. Her archery was not up to the mark to kill the stag but a fawn was small and weak

she could easily take it out with few shots.  As they came closer to the stream the fog and trees thinned out a bit for them to

have a clear look of the deer. There were 2 foals and a doe (female deer) not that it was unknown to her. One of the foals was

quenching its thirst while the other was rubbing against his bothers body. The doe was on high alert and keeping an eye all around.

Rigg (introducing “Father”) was proud of her, she had perfectly tracked a family of deer, found the no. of deer and even their

gender right. He was surprised to see her progress so fast, or maybe not since she had his talents. So far it had been good but this

was where it became tough, she was good at tracking but her aiming was at best mediocre. She needed to get at least as close as

25 metre to get a good aim and maybe a one shot kill, but the doe was on alert and deer were good at sensing presence especially

of predators so getting that close was going to be really tough. So she had to gamble now either take a shot from far with less

probability of kill or expose herself and get close to get a better aim.

This was when the lady luck took her side (or maybe in her case it would be Gentleman Luck). The foal itself moved towards her. It

was going for the tree near the shrubs to scratch itself his brother’s body not being enough to remove the itch. The parent child

duo sat still as a rock and Sylvie took an arrow from quiver as silent as possible. The deer was now probably 12 metre from her and

she was confident that she would get her first kill today. She aimed her bow perfectly, calmed her breathing set the arrow and

pulled back the bow string till it stretched no further, waited for the pattern of the foal to set in her mind and with perfectly

practiced form she efficiently let the arrow go.

‘TWANG’

‘DHUBB’

‘THUKK’

Rang through the forest. The Doe was first to move she carried her remaining child and ran for their lives so fast that Sylvie didn’t

even notice the movement before they were far off. Well she might have noticed them if her eyes were not preoccupied with

something else. Even her father had a perplexed emotion on his face.

He had seen her beautifully draw the bow and position herself. He had seen her take in the motions of the fawn. He had seen her

let go of the arrow in a perfect motion and he knew the foal was about to be dead by an arrow in the heart.

And there was an arrow stuck but it wasn’t in the heart of the fawn but the trunk of the tree and there was a fawn lying dead

under the tree but not from his daughter’s arrow.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He started following them when they entered his territory. They were different, he understood it from the moment he noticed

them. But they were in his part of the forest which was wrong. He needed to determine who they were? Were they preys? Or were

they predators? What were they after?

He quietly watched that’s what his plan of action was. Too less information to do anything otherwise. He noticed the details, the

finer complexities of their motions, the patterns.

He understood they were following trails. Trails of the family he had separated from the herd. It was his nutrition for the winter. He

couldn’t allow others to take from him. They were his. That’s when the mind kicked in, processing every detail and how to stop

them from taking what was his.

The thin small one was easy. He could take care of that one in a breath and she won’t even see it coming. Her movements were

forced, lacked the proper experience, and were hasty. It was easy when the prey was hasty, they make mistakes, and they don’t

see him coming. Haste was his friend.

But the one behind was the problem. He could sense that this one was different. He (the one behind the girl) had seen and done

things that set him apart. That second one looked flippant but he knew from the fluid motion, the alertness and the relaxed

attitude that the one following was no pushover. The man behind was probably confident that nothing in this forest could harm

both of them till he was there. He instinctively knew that there must be a reason behind that confidence but that confidence could

also be his doom. The second one hadn’t sensed him from so close hence he knew that they were lax with security.

But he couldn’t do anything till the second one was there. He can’t fight them he wasn’t a fighter he was a hunter. Long time in

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wilderness had taught him not to mess with what you couldn’t take down. So the plan began to formulate. He had only one way to

not let them have his prey. It was to kill them himself. If he killed one of them the rest would be alert and harder to hunt for. But

he can’t run ahead of them. He was worried that getting any close would bring him in the radar of the second person. He couldn’t

take the other way because it would be too long and they would have his prey by then. He can’t think of stealing back because it

will again involve one on one confrontation with the man.

So he followed them silently. Maybe he just needed to make a sound to alert the family to make their hunt harder.

*But that would get you noticed genius*

He can’t think he didn’t have time. No way out of this mess. Maybe he could just let them have one. How greedy could they be?

But that wasn’t the point if he let them have one they will come back again. No, he can’t have that. He needed to kill the deers

himself before they got it.

They had already reached the river by then. But they didn’t go after their prey. Something was wrong. Why were they waiting they

could easily kill them right now? The deer were in sight and easy targets. Maybe they were only following them. But then the most

tender meat started to make its way towards him. He was almost relieved that they weren’t after his prey when the hasty one

took out an arrow. He had less time now and no plan of action. So he did what he could. He fell from the tree and twisted the neck

of the beast. They were dazed by this sudden appearance. He took this chance and started to run with the corpse but it was

heavy and he was no longer in the comfort of his shadows.

Then came a ‘swoosh’ and something hit his shoulders and he could feel the hot fluid trickling down his arms and smearing on the

fur of his future clothing. Then came the pain and the corpse suddenly gained weight and fell. This wasn’t what he had expected.

This was going wrong. The pain was getting worse. He could run but he would either end up getting pin-cushioned in the back or

would have to leave his kill behind. Then he could hear arguing. What were they doing now? They could easily take him down. They

weren’t far now. The girl was running towards him while she let out another arrow. This one he tried dodging and there was a

second arrow in his arms.

*She is going for the kill* that was the only thought in his mind. If he hadn’t tried to dodge that the arrow would have been in his

heart. That was when it broke, the patience to listen to his brain was now gone. It was good to listen to the brain but not when

you are facing death. It’s no good if your brain freezes up thinking of what’s going to happen next. Now it was all instinct. He broke

up on of the arrow heads from the damaged arm and clamped it between the teeth. He bent down picked up the corpse with the

only good arm he had. She was close enough he wouldn’t be able to dodge another shot with such small distance. This was it. Just

like last time and the time before and countless other times when he was in mortal peril in this home of god forsaken deadly beasts.

It was time to go for the last battle. Either his or hers.

He ran towards her, not fast just enough speed. Running fast wouldn’t do any good for his bleeding arm. Also he needed her to use

her arrow before he reached her. She saw him coming the expression changed from frustration to anger and she let go the arrow

aimed to kill. He knew she would do that, she was hasty. If it was him, he would have taken the legs first. Just as the arrow left

the string he lifted the fawn to cover his torso. He kept it there until he heard the sweet sound of bow entering the flesh of the

dead, and then he let go of the corpse. It had served its purpose now it was only extra weight she saw what he had done and

before the arrow had entered the flesh she was already nocking another one in the bow. But the moment the fawn left his hands

his speed shifted and so did his trajectory. She thought he would come straight but he knew better. He jumped towards the right

to her used the recoil to jump again this time behind her and raised his hand for the kill. The arrow head had at some moment in his

run had changed positions from his mouth to his hands. This was it, the sweet spot on the neck was where he had to hit. She

wouldn’t die fast bit she would die certain. He had done it many times with sharp rocks and beasts.

But the hand didn’t budge and that was when he knew he had made mistake. Maybe he should have ran. He had forgotten about

the man with the girl. He hadn’t even seen him for the whole process so he thought he had gone after the rest of the family for

meat. He hadn’t even felt him coming and his hand were stopped in mid-air. He had stopped him from delivering his saving blow

(saving him). She would have been down with the puncture in her neck and killing would have been easy. He could have left her or

given her a short death.  But he knew what was next to come. The girl had her bow aimed on him and he waited patiently for the

countdown to finish and then the man knockd the bow out of her hands and the girl was down on the ground shaking. He couldn’t

hear anything now , the vision was getting darker. The loss of blood was playing its part now. The running and jumping had

quickened his heart beat and the blood was overflowing. Before he knew it he had fainted.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rigg couldn’t believe his eyes. He hadn’t sensed this child’s presence until he fell down from the tree and killed the fawn. The boy

lifted his head and stared at both of them. He had brownish red hair long untied dirty. There were bits and pieces of branches and

leaves stuck here and there. He had a tanned face and arms but the portion of neck revealed that his original colour was light. He

was short, a little shorter than Sylvie probably, long legs, thin waist. Nothing really stood out about him until he looked up. That

was what shocked the most. He had a claw mark running vertical from his forehead to his cheeks. It was healed but the skin still

showed redness around it meaning it was recent. But the most distinguishing part were the eyes. He had eyes of the colour of pure

gold and they were slit in the middle. He could see those eyes looking at him and at the same time looking through him. He was

piecing the situation together and then he ran. Like a nimble squirrel that charges away when it feels anything nearby.

Sylvie couldn’t believe what she saw. She had a sure shot of the fawn and then some random person just fell off a tree, broke its

neck and ran while taking ‘her’ fawn. She was angry. Not only had he taken her first kill he didn’t even have the decency to say

sorry for it. She didn’t even notice when her hand drew the arrow and when she placed the shot. But she saw the fawn fall from

his hands. ‘Good’ she thought ‘she was going to make him pay’.

That’s when her father interrupted

“What are you doing Sylvie?”

“What does it look like? I am taking back my kill and teaching that guy some manners!”

“Stop it. It wasn’t your kill. He killed it and it’s his spoil”

“No its not. It would have been mine if he hadn’t fallen of the tree and killed it by mistake.”

It seems she still hadn’t figured out that he had killed it and not by mistake.

“And what are you going to do about it? Kill him?”

“If I have to I will do it.”

This was the first time he had seen Sylvie like this. She had always been well mannered around the house. He didn’t know what

had gotten into her.

She was already running after him. He was down with the arrow in his hand and the kill was lying near him. She didn’t know what

drove her so mad. Maybe it was because her father was siding with some no name kid who just stole her kill. ‘Why couldn’t father

understand that I am doing all this just to make him proud? I will just scare this kid a little and let him give me the fawn.’

She nocked another arrow and let it fly. The kid moved and it hit his arm again. That was when the situation changed. She could

now feel a different pressure than she felt earlier from him. She was suffocating, it was like she had fear etched into her brain. But

she stopped moving. She saw his eyes, they were stained in red around the pupil and that’s when she knew he was coming for a

kill. She had to defend herself. He started running towards her and she aimed for the heart. But he blocked it with the carcass of

the fawn. And she knew from his movement he was going to do that so she drew another arrow but when he let the carcass fall he

became a blur, and he was behind her. She felt the chill and was waiting for the blow but it never came and she turned around

aiming the bow towards him and in fear she was about to let the arrow pierce through him, but her father shouted ‘NO’ and

knocked the bow out of her hands. In a moment she was down on all fours trying to calm her heart from the encounter she had

just faced that almost got her killed.