Aera's day had started like any other, at least, any day that the young elf managed a chance to get away from her father.

The girl was always sick of being cooped up in their tribe's village, they called her 'Kuun', a word not dissimilar from 'child', except it referred to the soul, not the body. Her tribes Kuun were never allowed to go far away from Kitt territory, no raiding, no big-game hunting, nothing fun.

Nevertheless, here she was, body stooped low, hand on her bow as she followed eagerly after an unaware deer near the outskirts of her home-forest.

Father would be angry when she came back, though perhaps proof that she was a capable hunter and an amazing shot might lessen the blows she was going to receive, and perhaps, if she brought back something massive, they'd make an exception for her, letting a Kuun raid with the rest of the tribe.

It wasn't a hatred or desire to kill that drove the girl to want this, instead, she was merely curious. She'd never met a human, not a living one at least, on occasion, the raiders would bring back a few bodies to decorate the camp perimeters with, though usually, they left them behind in human water sources, poisoning them with rotting, bloated bodies and refuse. When the raiders filled the wells and dammed up the rivers with bodies, they merely left whatever corpses still remained.

The Nuka, the 'elders' always argued that humans were no more than monsters, so they never took prisoners, which meant that those that stayed within Kitt territory never met a human, yet the Nuka would always speak of them, tell the Kuun tales of the humans savagery, how they took Kitt lands, placed stone walls on grass fields and decided the land to be their own. How they bred like rabbits and hid behind walls, feeling safer against the Kitt merely because they could outnumber them.

Aera knew the tales were conflicting, they were odd, they called the humans a savage threat that had to be killed, but the elves were the ones that torched their homes and stole their food, they were taught that the humans were weak and pathetic, but also taught that the savage humans had killed and butchered their people for time immemorial.

Her train of thought was halted as her ears twitched, picking up a faint choir of cackles and screams that wound their way through the damp forest air. She'd heard such a cacophony a few times in the past two months, the sickly goblinoids were new to the forest, and on a number of occasions, had gotten over-confident and attacked a few of her tribe's people; hunters, raiders and gatherers alike.

One goblin's head would hardly be much of a trophy,

Twenty might be nice though.

Bare, dirty feet sprang off the grass, carrying Aera swiftly towards the source of the sound, her previous quarry now forgotten.

She could hear enraged howls and angry roars as she closed in on the howls, next came a different type of roar, human words, angry and boiling with desperation and hatred.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"CRYSTAL SPRAY!"

Those words were followed by a different noise, not words, but something unnatural that brought a brief moment of silence after it's passing, like glass shards scraping and scratching against one another.

Though that break in the howling cacophony was certainly just brief; it only took a few seconds after the sound of scraping glass faded for the silence to be broken by goblinoid shrieks.

The hunter was close now, Aera's breath slowed as her eyes ran over the tree beside her, divets, imperfections and knobs of twisted wood could make suitable footholds, and she was sure to make use of them. After sliding her bow back onto her back, she began her climb.

Her first leap was straight upwards, left-hand wrapping around a small tree burl, solid arms pulled herself up whilst she dragged her legs up, feet finding firm grip and holds on other small burls and holes that dotted the dark bark. A few seconds of climbing was all it took for her to find a good position, a thick branch that was high enough for her to see clearly down on the ensuing fight. A small goblin was trying to stand defiant, two wounded humans lay slumped to the ground behind it. The goblin was roaring and swinging his blade with a remarkable deftness, slaying one of the more disgusting, paler goblins with a swift strike. Though the creature was clearly outnumbered, it would certainly die, the humans along with it.

The humans.

They'd make far better trophies than a bunch of goblins. Father was certain to let her out on raids with the Nuka if she could prove herself by bringing back two human heads.

She drew her bow, knocked an arrow, and whispered to herself.

It always irritated her that most skills had to be spoken.

"Zone In, Deadeye, Multi-Shot"

The arrow hummed and glowed for a brief second as she pulled the bowstring back.

He grip loosened and the taught string snapped forwards, the arrow flew, then flashed as it split into three, the original stayed on its course, whilst the other two split off in either direction, all three found their target, halting the ugly goblin's as over a foot of wood sprouted from their necks.

She knocked another arrow, loosed in, slew a goblin.

A few more arrows, and less than a minute later, nothing remained alive, at least, nothing that would live much longer, spitting out their last dying gurgles and globs of blood.

Aera dropped down, yanking her blade from the tree trunk as she hit the ground and holding it at the ready as she pushed into the small, blood-drowned clearing.

The goblin froze as it saw her, unmoving, but wary. One glance over its frail body would show it was exhausted, the single creature wouldn't pose her much threat, and as she cast her eyes over the savage humans, all she saw was weakness, what little energy they had left was wasted by the pink-human, lay against a tree trunk.

"Fucking elf-" Though she cut him off with a barrage of fists.

The goblin snarled and started to shuffle, wearily forwards, almost stumbling as it looked like its legs might give way. Still, Aera gave the creature little mind as her blade pressed against the oddly-dressed human's throat. She felt skin part under the blade, then paused.

The humans could hardly fight back, and the goblin had no chance of besting her. Dead humans were certainly an impressive trophy. Although her father would likely argue with her over what she planned to do, Aera reasoned that alive humans would be even more impressive.

Sadly, she couldn't haul them back alone.

Something deep in her mind rumbled like an avalanche as her ears twitched. Images of the humans flashed through her mind, flickering sporadically. Her calling hadn't developed fully yet; she could only hope that the other Kitt of her tribe understood that she wanted people to be sent out to collect them.