The huge woman rushed towards Ian, raising her fist. Ian didn't even flinch as he saw her coming; even though she was taller than Ian's nearly 1.9 meters. At that instant, the shaman shouted. "Kalha!". To everyone's astonishment, the huge woman abruptly stopped and turned to the shaman in surprise. Some intuited that that simple shaman must have a very high status. The shaman motioned for her to come closer. When Kalha was close enough, the shaman gestured for her to leaned down, as the height difference was ridiculous. Kalha finally leaned and heard what the shaman had to whisper to her. No one heard anything but whispers.

Kalha stood up blushing, looked at Ian and added satisfied. "I long for that moment to come."

The guide, annoyed but comical, asked them. “Hey! What am I missing?”

Kalha saw the shaman motioned for her to be quiet. The huge woman laughed. "As you wish, mother Fae."

The chaman, who was surely called Fae, retreated into the hut saying. "See you tomorrow Ian. Don't let me down."

The huge woman looked at the guide and pointed at the gates of the settlement. "We've wasted too much time already, tell them whatever you want but make it quick.

The guide looked at Ian and greeted him showing off a disturbing smile. "Welcome Ian! With such big eggs, I think we'll be good friends."

Emily couldn't take her eyes off Ian. She didn't believe his terribly dire prediction could be true, but she shuddered to think that being as smart as she knew he was, he would give such a low number with such certainty. If he had said two, it meant he intended to save someone else. "I'm sure that someone isn't me. I wish I was wrong." She thought as Ian dodged her gaze. Emily felt her heart shrink as she walked. "I deserve it. For idiot."

The guide said goodbye to the shaman who was already inside the hut and continued. "If you hunt anything that can be eaten, bring it! If it can't be eaten or you don't think it can be eaten, like those fucking apes, you'd better cut off its left ear. Here, they recognize warriors for their worthiness. If you prove yourselves worthy, you will have a great future as mercenary adventurers." He turned around with a sadistic smile.

At that moment Emily was trembling, lost in thought. "Kill!? Oh shit! Why did I always find it such an appealing idea in video games?! Killing another being must be a horrible experience! It's going to resist! It's going to scream! And... It's going to...!" Fear gave her a big hug, ending up overwhelming her completely. "I'm not going to be able to do it!" She felt like she was about to cry, but she made a tremendous effort to hold back the tears.

Little by little, they reached the end of the road. A large door opened wide. There, a warrior was waiting to hand out to all the students a rather rudimentary spear. As soon as a student received his spear, he was invited to leave the settlement, nicely. Everything was going on in an orderly and calm way, but with a certain degree of tension. Perhaps it was Kalha's presence or perhaps the realization that they would have to survive out there, but no one wanted to be the first to find out what creatures were out there or how terrible those apes were. Nor did anyone want to be the lunch of the dogs that no one saw or heard.

As Emily's turn to pick up the spear approached, she felt more and more desperate. Her whole body was trembling, even her jaw. She felt shivers and a slight urge to urinate. She looked around, trying to find someone who wanted to group with her.

Her eyes searched for Ian again. But Ian still wasn’t looking at her, so she understood that the answer to the obvious question would be. "No. I'm not going to group with you, Emily." So, she didn't even go over to ask, even though Beth was no longer around. She couldn't help but wonder. "Who would be the lucky man or woman to have Ian's help?"

The more students had a spear, the more of them were outside the settlement, and therefore, the louder the murmur. Kalha hadn't interrupted them for a few minutes, so before long, they was almost shouting. "Shall we make a group?! Let's go together! Come with us! We can make bigger groups! Why don't we all go together?! What are you saying?! I'm not going with those!"

Emily couldn't believe that she was going to be alone in a situation like that. No one was watching her or inviting her. The only one who watching her was George, with his fake shy look. Before, behind some glasses that he didn't have here. Probably, for the same reason no one had their own clothes. However, he didn't seem to need them as much. He seemed changed, and it was strange to see him like that, without adjusting those glasses that, since always, were a bit big for him. Emily caught him leering at her. George had that nasty habit. That made Emily even more nervous and desperate. "I'm not teaming up with that bastard!"

Richard, who already had a spear and along with two friends, detected this and raised a hand shouting. "Emily! Come with us! Those words, which sounded almost like an order, seemed to her the most beautiful words she had ever heard. No one ever invited her to join a group in gym class or when it was mandatory to join a group for school work. She always had to be forcibly matched by the teacher with someone like her. A pariah. Oddly enough, it was almost always George. It wasn't because she had been in a group with him several times that they had a better relationship. Emily wouldn't even talk to him if she had the choice.

She looked at Richard as a smile appeared on her face, more and more noticeable. A smile she could hardly contain. She didn't notice that she almost began to cry of joy. In her head, echoed the old woman's words. "Several boys really like you, but only one is the source of your problems and only one is, and will be your soul mate forever." Emily wondered if it would be him. But it was a question to which she was forcibly adding an affirmative answer.

When the warrior handed her the spear, Emily felt something different than she had expected. Whenever she played video games where violence was a premise, she always looked forward to facing her first enemy. But this was real. She had never killed anything bigger than a spider. Anxiety made her tremble again as she approached Richard. Surprised, she discovered that Richard was trembling too. Emily noticed out of the corner of her eye that they weren't the only ones. That didn't relieve her. Quite the opposite. She felt it was obvious that this was too big for all of them.

When she was just steps away from Richard and had reduced his smile to the category of shyness, she received a strong push from behind. It wasn't the first time she had felt that and apparently it wouldn't be the last time. It was obvious that, wherever she went, she could not get rid of Beth and her henchmen.

With the spear in her hands, she barely had time to break her fall with one hand. Emily ended up with her face on the ground. There weren't many stones, but they were too noticeable under her bare feet. One of them was right where she landed with her hand, and another where she hit her face. She touched her sore skin, looking for blood. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't find it, though it hurt like hell, so she winced in pain.

An awkward silence allowed the author's pathetic apology to be heard by all. "Excuse me! I didn't see you, Red Cow. Ha ha ha!" That was not Beth's voice! It was her best friend, Rebecca. Whenever someone laid a hand on Emily, it was Rebecca's doing.

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Rebecca was a brunette girl with long hair and brown eyes. She wasn't particularly pretty, but she wasn't average either. She was almost as tall as Emily was, but stronger. Her body was well trained. She enjoyed exercising and taking care of herself with healthy food. She was the captain of the local volleyball team that had finished as regional runner-up. She was disciplined, selfish, bossy and feared by most of the girls.

At that moment, Emily wondered if her real enemy was her; and Richard, the boy she liked who no longer spoke to her. Emily, hunched against the ground, clenched her fist and gripped the spear tightly. She felt rage rushing through and fueling her young body. Hardening her. It had been too long since she had experienced that. But Fear, quelled that attempt of rebellion in mere seconds. She was likely to lose against four, so she tried to calm down and do what she always did. Let it go.

Rebecca bent over while Emily put her rage aside and covered her wounds. Silently enduring the pain now beginning to grow. Rebecca got close enough to whisper in her ear, displaying so much hatred she sounded like a demon. "If you ever come near him again, I swear I'll kill you "Red Cow." I can do it here. There are no cops or anything like that, and these savages won't lift a finger for you, now that you're out of their filthy settlement."

Emily froze. Fear stabbed its hand into her back, piercing her. She felt a horrible terror wash over her. This was far beyond anything she had experienced so far. She knew that as soon as she was outside alone, they would chase after her and try to kill her.

Rebecca stood up and pointed to Richard who was looking at her in stupefaction. "If you ever talk to this bitch again you'll have to beg me on your knees..."

Richard yelled, cutting her off. He seemed furious, almost hysterical. No one had ever seen him like this. "Are you fucking crazy?!" Richard reached over to help Emily, but Emily shrank back so Richard wouldn't even touch her. She didn't want to give Rebecca any more reason to go after her.

Richard enraged, realizing all this, yelled at Beth. "Do you see my father anywhere? Do you see him?! And yours? Look what a coincidence! You can't blackmail me now saying that your father will fire mine! You crazy bitch! You'll never tell me what I can or can't do again."

He pointed to some in the crowd and shouted. "Aren't you sick of these crazy bitches who think they own our lives? Let's go together! Let's see how long they survive alone with no one to be their lackey."

Emily listened to that with astonishment, realizing that she wasn't the only one suffering under the yoke of Beth and her four horsemen of the apocalypse. She didn't feel any better for it, but she drew some conclusions. "Is it possible that Richard would have always talked to me if Rebecca didn't stop him every day? Would I have a relationship with him?" She contemplated an imaginary timeline without Beth and Rebecca. A place where she was happy with an amazing boyfriend like Richard. Possibly, she wouldn't be so shy and indecisive. Although, she knew her mother would be adamantly against it. "No boyfriends, you hear me? Do you want everyone to think you're one of those bitches?" It seemed that she could hear her mother's irritating complaints. The pain and the eerie silence brought her back to the present.

Emily barely raised her head and saw how many were accusing them with their eyes. Some even teamed up with Richard. It seemed that a new leader was born with that public accusation towards Beth, Rebecca and the other three girls. Sick of them.

Emily tried to keep absolutely silent. She wasn't even breathing. She knew that if this didn't work in her favor, it would hurt her even more. The tension was palpable and ended up being cut off by the one who hadn't left the settlement yet. Ian. Someone who was very strange not to see putting everyone in their place. As judge and executioner.

Ian was a very handsome boy with honey-colored eyes and strange jet-black hair. Natural hair, of course. He was closer to eighteen than most, but looked much older. He was very smart, very tall and too muscular to have never stepped foot in a gym in his life. He would be any girl's dream if it wasn't for the fact that everyone was genuinely terrified of him when he was angry. No one dared to look him in the eye in that state. No one. Not even the teachers. Not even his father.

He had been orphaned at the age of thirteen. A bizarre accident that had involved his parents while his father was driving a bit drunk. Or so Ian had been told. But he soon learned that he had blamed his mother's death on his father, to no avail. It was his mother who was driving. She had tried to kill that bastard who beat her when he was completely drunk and didn't even remember it. She was fed up and completely martyred by him. A man weak to others and cruel to his family. A coward who had made her feel like she would never get rid of him. Ian was nothing like him.

Emily had been one of the few friends he'd had in his childhood. That's why, many years ago, when Ian had seen how some kids were beaten Emily in the park, he got into the fight. Many had ended up in the hospital. One of them almost died after many days in intensive care. For Ian there wasn't much gray. Things were either black or white of different intensities. Maybe that's why he felt his mother never loved him.

After that, Emily's parents had strictly forbidden any contact with him. They said he was also possessed by the Devil. They had even left the town for two years to treat Emily in a place where sanity, was nowhere to be seen.

Ian raised his voice loudly. A voice that was no longer that of a boy, but of a man. It was clear that he wanted to make his intentions clear right away. He asked Kalha and the guide who had not introduced himself yet. "You say you will pay us for any animal meat that can be eaten or for the ears of our prey, right?"

The woman didn't understand what he meant, but the guide did. He twisted his smile slightly. Ian finished. "I haven't seen or heard your famous dogs. It doesn't smell like dog either, so I don't know if that's an excuse for not acknowledging that you eat human flesh." The woman mouth twisted into a macabre smile full of sharp teeth. Everyone froze in their tracks.

The guide interceded nervously and perplexed. "What the hell are you suggesting boy? Nobody eats humans here, and yes, there are dogs, but they're in the other part of the settlement.

Ian smirk. "Sure! Whatever you say." He paused momentarily at the visible look of annoyance on several warriors' faces. "You have to excuse me for not recognizing the symbols on that crappy sign you showed us earlier. I'm curious to know if it's more profitable for me to hunt vermin, apes or motherfuckers!" Several students felt their blood run cold as Ian watched them. They looked like dogs about to be run over by a huge truck.

Ian was capable of a lot of things with the police involved. What would he do without them being involved? Unlimited? Emily didn't even want to imagine that. She'd heard rumors about Ian. Rumors that he belonged to a very dangerous criminal gang. Emily hadn't believed it when she heard it. It sounded like complete nonsense to her. The Ian she had grown up with was a good boy. Sensitive and adventurous as she was then. Not a crook. But Ian seemed dangerous now. Extremely dangerous.

More than one stepped back until they were hidden by the frames of the settlement's large entrance. Emily stood up quickly and turned so Ian couldn't see her face. Emily was trembling. She knew Ian got furious when facing abuse, and she wasn't about to watch him jump on them and beat them like an enraged beast. She'd seen him do it before. In high school. During a break, some boys had cornered her. Ian had interceded right after Hector touched one of Emily's breasts. That hadn't gone well for any of the braves. None of them were ever the same. Some even had to change high schools.

Back then, Emily had explained to Ian that her parents forbade her to have any contact with him. She had told him that she wanted to be his friend, but if he kept behaving like that, she couldn't. Her parents also believed that he had a demon inside him.

Ian hadn't said anything. He had simply turned away and gone back to his business. Emily supposed that he held a grudge again her, for not having the courage to remain her friend and disregard her parents. After all, Ian didn't obey his father. Emily supposed he would expect the same of her.

Her parents were not in this strange world. No one would force her to stay away from him any longer. Ian was the only person who had ever made her feel comfortable. Even if they were just kids. Even if it had been almost a decade ago. Emily treasured that memory. Emily came back to the present, leaving all of that behind.

Trembling and staring at the ground, Emily wondered if her former best friend was still her best friend. Although, she used to feel terrified around him, it wasn't so much because of the fear he provoked in her, but because of the violence that almost always erupted around him. He was like a mix between a justice hero and a brawler of an epic tale. Wherever he saw an injustice, trouble always followed. Emily was sure that now he was about to make a mess. But… Against how many? Ian had a grudge against many. Not that he had told her, since they didn't talk to each other, but she could tell just by looking at the way he looked at many of the students. What worried her the most was that she didn't want him to get hurt because of her.