The monster monkey roared, and the rest of the monkeys began hollering and screeching. The whole forest got into motion as they ran after a screaming Meera.

She did her best to keep her eyes on the ground as she ran for her life. One trip up, and she would be monkey dinner. If they were anything like the monkeys back home—these seemed worse than the monkeys back home—she would be ripped up and shared between the group of them. Thankfully, it was bright enough to see where she was going.

She ran with the monkey on her heels or on top of her, almost. She tried to find an exit from this place, but all she could see was a sea of trees. She groaned and kept running, swerving between the trees to avoid her pursuers.

She made the mistake of looking behind her, almost making her trip on a small root. The quick glance was enough to make her redouble her efforts, even though she was nearly out of breath. The monkeys were on top of her. Some as close as three feet behind. The worst part was that she didn't see them fully, just the glow of their pale blue eyes—like a sea of angry fluorescent bulbs coming after her.

A monkey screeched and jumped for her. She barely avoided him, but he still left a scratch on her arm as he fell. Meera cried out, clamped a hand on the red streak on her forearm and kept running.

Just as she was coming to the point where she was about to collapse from exhaustion, something went whizzing overhead.

Thwack.

A monkey cried out and fell dead to the forest floor. Another whizzing sound, this one closer to her cheek, had a similar result. Another monkey dropped out of the foliage above. Seeing their dead comrades only made their screeching and hollering worse.

Needless to say, Meera was on the verge of panicking.

"Duck!" someone yelled.

Meera ducked. Actually, she tumbled to the floor as she tripped on something. The fall was short, but the best part was that she didn't land on roots, rocks, or stones. Only her knees and wrists took the brunt of the fall. Something told her she would have to get used to the pain.

Overhead, more wheezing sounds, which she now figured to be arrows, and more monkeys dropped dead from the branches. These were too fast to be arrows, which made her frown. She got her answer a moment later as two men, holding big long bows, stepped out from behind the trees.

Meera watched with wide eyes at the speed at which their arms moved and arrows flew from their bows. One after another, nightcrawler monkeys fell dead. It was like a hail of arrows, and each found its mark. It wasn't long before the bodies of the monkeys began piling on the forest floor. There was a loud roar, silencing the chittering. Meera's hand shook as she knew it was from the leader monkey, the Level 20 monster.

Instead of being scared, the two bowmen chuckled, took aim, and let their arrows fly. The roar of the leader was cut short, and a monstrous monkey crashed to the ground. Two arrows were sticking in his mouth, and one was coming out the back of his head.

Meera stared as the two men high-fived each other, laughing as they stepped out to inspect their kill. One of them had long, blonde hair that went a little past his shoulders, and the others were cut short. They wore a little leather armor on top of their dark clothing, which made them blend in quite nicely with their surroundings.

The short hair fellow sat on his haunches and looked at the arrow that went through the beast's head. "Tch, you punctured the head again, Silas."

The long-haired fellow, the one called Silas, groaned and kicked dirt at his partner. "That was you. You always do this and blame it on me."

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"Now, this fine specimen just lost half its value," the short-haired fellow said, ignoring his partner.

"But we can just plug the hole with dirt or something," Silas said. "Maybe we can pass it off as a previous wound."

"Mum should have plugged the holes in your nostrils when you were born and saved me the trouble of having to deal with you."

"And she should have left you in the gutter where she found you."

Meera watched their exchange, unmoving and unsure of what to do. They hadn't noticed her lying there yet, and she wasn't sure whether they were friendly or not. But they seemed like nice people, even though they were dressed like medieval hunters.

Meera started. What if this is like a fantasy world…

However, this made her twitch, and she broke the twig under her hand. Both archers snapped to her, arrows notched in their bows.

Meera held up her hands. "Please don't shoot me! I'm harmless."

The short-haired fellow scoffed. "Clearly, you are if you couldn't deal with a bunch of monkeys."

"Cossus!" Silas hit his friend, or rather brother, as they pretty much had the same faces. If it weren't for the hair difference, it would have been hard to tell them apart.

Meera would have frowned at the odd names if not for the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Silas put his bow over his arm. "Hey, you have nothing to worry about with us. We're just a couple of hunters out here on a job. It's a good thing we ran into you."

"Understatement of the century," Cossus grumbled.

Silas shot his brother another look before continuing. "Don't mind my brother. He's an asshole and doesn't know how to talk to ladies."

"And yet, I still have more game than you."

Silas rolled his eyes and offered his hand to her. "My name is Silas, and this is my brother, Cossus."

Meera stared at his hand for a long moment.

"It's okay. I don't bite, I promise."

She took his rough, calloused hand and stood. "T-Thank you."

"No problem, miss…Your name?" Silas asked.

Meera opened her mouth to answer but paused. These two were clearly strong if they could bring down that monster with just two arrows. They could do just about anything with her, especially given her lack of how the system worked and what all those stats and skills meant. Asterion had hardly explained anything to her. She could get all the information she needed if she played this right.

"I… I'm—" Meera put on her best act of looking confused. She rubbed her temples and did her best to bring tears to her eyes, which given her recent brush with death, was not hard. "I can't remember."

They both frowned and exchanged glances.

"What do you mean?" Cossus asked. "Are you saying you lost your memory?"

"I-I don't know…I don't remember anything." Meera gripped Silas's arm. "You have to help me. Please help me. I don't know who I am."

Silas frowned and looked at her hands first and then back to her. His eyes held a flicker of disbelief. His brother, Cossus, looked like he was buying none of it. So, Meera amped up the tears and went into full-out bawling. She fell to the ground again and sobbed with her head in her hands. Again, another thing that came easily because it was a good outlet for the stress she had been feeling.

"Okay, okay, don't cry," Silas said, "We believe you. It's okay. Calm down, miss."

"You do?" Meera asked, controlling herself and wiping her tears.

"Yes, miss. Now, please…just… don't cry," Silas got out. Meera nodded and composed herself. "Our camp is not far from here. We'll take you there, get you some food, and we can talk."

"O-Okay."

"Just wait here, please, while we go secure the kill," Silas said and walked off toward the big monkey.

Cossus, however, walked towards her, face impassive. Meera shirked away, and he continued to walk on, eyes directly aimed at her. She had the strong urge to scream and run away once more, but Cossus picked up a bag, pulled some rope out of it, and started walking back.

Meera's eyes widened at the rope. Is that for me?

She was just about ready to run when Silas called. "Stop trying to scare her and toss me the rope already."

"Yeah. Yeah." Cossus tossed his brother the rope and walked by Meera, whistling a tune.

When he had walked off and was helping his brother, Meera used Identify on them both.

First was Cossus, as he scared her and seemed less trustworthy of the two.

[Hunter - Level ??]

Meera breathed a silent sigh of relief as they were telling the truth, and then she scanned Silas just to be sure and almost pissed her pants.

[Assassin - Level ??]

She stood there frozen on the spot until the brothers finished their business of trussing up the big monkey. Then, for some strange reason, they also went to all the other monkeys they had killed, cut off the ends of their tails, and stored them in their bags. Once they finished with that gruesome task, Cossus lifted the big monkey with one hand and rested it on his shoulder as if he weighed nothing.

Silas dusted off his hands and smiled. "Let's go back to camp."

Meera felt much like the monkey, all trussed and being taken for slaughter.