"-You know that you can't just go wandering off out there! You are no Nuka! The outskirts of our forest are a dangerous place; what if the humans you claim to have captured had caught you instead!? WHAT THEN!?"
The girl should have expected this, her father was protective, more so than any of the other parents in her tribe, and now that she was sat here, legs crossed on the earthen floor of the chief's tent, she knew he was right, atleast partly. If one of the men wasn't unconscious and the other hadn't been so wounded and exhausted, they probably could have killed her.
But she'd made a good decision, she knew it, they were weak, so she took advantage of that situation.
So she didn't merely nod in reply, her response came through after a low growl on a sharp tongue. "Well I wasn't going to get captured was I? They were weak, easy prey. I took advantage of them being weak and got them all!"
"What if there were more? What if the unconscious one had woken up? What if they had a way of healing themselves?"
"-I" Aera caught herself before she spoke. She knew she was in the right, she did the right thing; she did well. "Well they didn't did they!? Or else I wouldn't be here right now would I! Why are you giving me shit for a great hunt!"
Her father sighed, the mixture of white and black feathers in his messy black mane swayed with the chilly breeze that drifted into the tent. His chest rose as he took a deep breath, ready to bellow out again.
Her ears twitched, so did her father's. A stream of images ran rampant through her mind. Though the two that brought her the most worry were image of pale, green-painted hands bound in vines and the blurry image of a blonde-haired human in a black waistcoat darting off through the forest, a spray of purple crystal erupting from behind him.
The pale one that she had beaten to a pulp.
She felt a pain that burned in her chest, like a blade had been lodged in it, then the images cut away, leaving her with an empty, hazy feeling in her brain that made her feel numb and dizzy.
Her father sighed again.
His large, green eyes meeting hers.
His voice was softer now, though she could feel the flashes of rage, seething red in his calling.
"We have lost a Nuka today. At the hands of your... trophy. I hope you feel happy." Her father was both a chief and Nuka, and although many of her tribes Nuka were young in body and old in soul, he was old in body too. Yet his frame still towered over her as he groaned, bones creaked as he rose. The earth felt like it might shake beneath his first, weighty step.
Aera looked up at him as he moved towards her, her mouth opened to speak, to apologise, to beg for forgiveness.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
He spoke first.
"Do not waste your breath Kuun" His body moved past her, more of his bones creaked and his legs shook now, yet he pressed forwards, lifting the leather drape that covered the entrance to the tent open and moving out into the square.
She should follow, go with him, talk to him. She tried to lift her body up, to stand up, but her legs felt weak, frail and numb, she rose, she fell, then she sat. Ears twitching as sad blues painted her mind, mournful cries erupted from outside the tent, she pressed her hands to her ears, to deafen the sound. It didn't matter, those same sad blues and cries bounced through her mind. Images she couldn't blind herself from. Cries she couldn't deafen herself to.
----------------------------------------
Steal woke screaming, his body burned with pain and he shook violently, if his arms weren't bound above him and his feet weren't dangling a foot off the ground, he might have collapsed to the floor.
MP Depleted.
The goblin was silenced by screams that weren't his own, cries caused by a pain not physical. Each new voice added to the other, each howl a new part of a shrill, violent chorus.
He could hear them scream amongst each other outside. Though one voice rose above them all. The powerful, booming roar that had made the pointy-eared female to cringe and leave him.
"Kitt of Veera! Grab your bows, knives and spears! One of our own has been slain; they shall be avenged!"
The cries slowed, silenced, then they morphed, transformed into angry, raging, defiant roars.
"Kill the human!"
"End him!"
"Find him!"
Countless footsteps, the sound of bare feet hurriedly slapping on stone, metal scraped metal, more footsteps, the creak of a bowstring being pulled backwards, then the sound of a thin wood shaft clattering against the stone.
More footsteps, more angry roars. They seemed to fade away, footsteps getting further and further away.
It was silent for a good few minutes, nothing but the sound of birds chirping away and the wind rustling the leaves of trees, and Steal just hung there, he could feel the muscles in his arms scream in protest, he wasn't sure how long he had been dangling here, but he knew he hated it, and so did his body. The goblin ached all over, pain fading to an uncomforting numbness that seemed to seep into his body. Slowly, ever so slowly the goblin's eyes began to droop; until a familiar voice startled him awake.
It was deep, gruff, hard and comforting. It brought memories of battling with giant flame-breathing lizards and pus-covered goblins.
"Little green one! Are you okay?"
Of course, he couldn't understand a word of what the voice was saying, it was comforting nonetheless, to know he was here with him. Kor'Ak. But his voice was faint, it felt so distant, far away.
Another voice, still familiar. Just a lot less comforting.
Smoother, colder, more shrill. The drape that covered the stone doorway into the goblin's room parted, vibrant green eyes looked at him, narrowing as she hissed through fanged teeth.
"He won't be okay if I don't find out where the other shit-eating human is!"
A thin grey blade pressed against thick green skin, parting like it was beneath a scalpel, trickles of blood rand down along his chest, dripping onto the grimy tiles below him.
Naturally, Steal shrieked and flailed, kicking in a desperate, and ultimately pointless attempt at getting away from her blade; the goblin swung back, and if the elf hadn't pulled her blade back away from him, he likely would have skewered himself on it accidentally.
His deep voice felt a little less soothing now, alot sharper, angry. "What are doing to him!"
"Like I said, if I don't find out where your friend is, I'm going to make him not okay!"
The blade pressed a little deeper against his flesh.
Steal screamed.
Kor'Ak roared.
And yet, the rather dull sound of a wooden club striking hard against the head of a pale-skinned, pointy-eared woman seemed so much louder.
Another familiar voice.
"Ello greenie!"