She was expecting to have her neck sliced off at any moment as she was brought to the floor, but it never came, just footsteps as the human's talked amongst each other. She could understand them, but she wasn't listening, her hearing felt fuzzy, her body was numb.
Her arms were roughly pulled out from under her and held behind her.
They're gonna execute me. Chop my head off, slit my throat, run me through and leave my corpse here for my family to come across.
Something heavy pressed on her hands, then she felt them get lashed together, a long vine pulled taught around her wrists.
Making it so I can't struggle when they kill me. Maybe they want to make a show of it.
She felt the warmth of something press against her, an exhale beside her ear.
They're gonna taunt me before killing me. Fucking monsters.
The warmth of someone's breath ran across her ears as someone spoke in a deep, weighty and hollow voice.
"We're going west, back to Veera. Tell your people not to follow us. Or they will die."
Her thunderous heartbeat slowed as the warmth pulled away. Maybe they were giving her false hope, a cruel act of giving her hope before they disembowelled her.
She lay there, waiting for the sharp song of steel cutting through the air, then through her neck, or even the sound of her neck crunching as a great weight was brought down on it. Or even a heavy boot splitting her skull like a nut.
None of it ever came.
Just the sound of metal spurs clicking against the stones, of clawed feed tapping on cobbles, and of heavy, bare feet thudding against the ground. All of these sounds heading to the east.
MP Depleted.
She lay there, waiting for something to end her.
Nothing.
She wasn't sure how long she spent there, face pressed into a mixture of her tears, snot and blood; but she knew to stay still, too scared of what might happen if she moved.
She thought she was strong.
She was Kuun.
Her father was right, she was young, arrogant and quick-tempered.
Then she heard them uncountable footsteps, quick, light and with purpose. Though one moved with more purpose, with more quickness and a lot more weight than the rest.
"Aera! Daughter, are you okay?"
Large, hairy arms wrapped around her, pulled her up, span her around to face him.
Large green eyes, wide with the worry that danced across his normally hard and stony face as he took in her injuries.
Aera brought a hand up, wiping a fresh stream of blood from her nose before she spoke; though she could feel the copper-tasting liquid on her tongue and down her throat. "I'm okay. They said they'd kill everyone that followed them..."
A voice of one of the younger elves, a boy only a little older than Aera rose through the worried murmurs of the crowd around them. "Kill us? The pitiable humans couldn't lay a scratch on us!"
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Her father silenced him with an outstretched finger before speaking to her again, a rough hand wiping a stream of tears from her cheek. "Where did they go, dear girl? We'll find them..." He pulled her into a tight embrace, the feeling of arms, strong as rock wrapping around her back brought her some comfort.
But she still shook. "T-they said they'd kill everyone, didn't you hear me? Don't go after them, there's no point, they must already be far away..."
"I'll get them back for what they've done to you dear daughter, if you tell us where they've gone, we can find them."
Aera looked into her father's eyes, so wide, such a vibrant green reflected by her own eyes.
She was here. She wasn't dead. She wanted to know why that was. And she didn't want to chance losing the last of her family.
"They... They went west, I heard them talking about going to that human town near the forest... Veera."
Her father nodded, gestured to the west, through the forest; she felt his lips press against her blood-smeared forehead. "Kitt of Veera, look upon what they have done to my beloved daughter. They killed one of us and nearly killed the other. They have gone to the west, trying to scurry behind their walls, hide in their homes amongst each other. We will not allow that! My fellow Kitt, we shall find them!"
More roars, more angry, more furious, fires in their hearts and in there bodies stoked by the sight of the broken, pale elf held in her father's arms.
"KILL THEM. KILL THEM. KILL THEM."
And they broke off into the woods once more.
"I will go find them, daughter, they'll suffer for what they've done for you."
"Yes, chie-... Father... Be careful."
She felt the floor below her vanish as he lifted her up, set her to rest on a bed of straws and hides beneath the great stone sword in the middle of the plaza. "I will..."
He turned away from her, rising tall, ready to follow after his other hunters. "Headr, get her some water and take care of her, anything bad happens to her, you're responsible!"
The boy was one of the slowest Kitt in her tribe, it made sense that her father had managed to catch him to play nurse before he scurried off after the others.
And so, he called back to her father "Yes chief! I will care for her as best I can!"
Her father responded with nothing more than a gruff grunt of acknowledgement; he turned, one last glance at Aera before he started running; she couldn't hear him, but she saw his lips move. I love you.
And with that, he was gone, his green-painted pale frame vanishing amongst the trees.
Headr moved towards her and she sprang to her feet as she addressed him. "Headr, get some food and water for the both of us, enough for a few days."
"A few days? You can't be thinking of leaving, your hurt, and your father said you were my responsi-"
She pressed her blood-caked hand to his mouth. "Promise me you won't use your calling and rat me out. The humans didn't kill me, they could have, I want to know why. I'm going after them."
"Everyone else is faster than us and they're already moving, there's not a chance we can catch up to them, nevermind get to the human's first"
Aera grabbed one of the sections of hide used for the bed she lay on, wiping another flow of blood from her nose before smirking. "I said don't you dare use your calling, you better not, because I'm gonna tell you something you can't tell anyone else, got that?"
Headr paused for a moment, his eyes locking on hers, wide and curious.
She asked again. "Got that?"
He nodded.
"They went east."
His eyes went wider now. "You lied to your father?"
"I do it all the time, why stop now?"
She grinned at the long, weighty sigh that hissed from his mouth slowly. He took another breath, she watched his chest rise as he spoke. "Let me guess, you're going, either way, I can't stop you, and your father will kill me if I stay here and let you go alone?"
Aera nodded, a coy smile that she'd often used on Headr to get her own way when they were younger painted on her face.
Another sigh poured from his mouth. "Okay, okay, you get yourself cleaned up and I'll get some packs together."
Headr wandered off, his steps quick, she could tell he was nervous; he'd seen the same calling she had, perhaps he was worried about his death; though he also knew he'd be more likely to die if Aera snuck off before the chief got back and Headr was still here.
Aera sluggishly stomped off to one of the stone washbasins around the stone plaza.
The dwarves that built this place seemed to care about keeping clean; the Kitt that killed them and took this place as a new site for their tribe only ever used these to get rid of their Kuun body paints before they had their Nuka one's painted on.
Her hands dipped into the water, she raised them up, cupped together and splashed the water in her hands across her face a few times until she was satisfied; she'd dry herself off with someone's bed later.
Aera started rummaging through bows as Headr was off rummaging for supplies; eventually, she found one tuned how she liked, and she slung it over her back, along with grabbing a few more arrows for her quiver.
That part of her that wanted her to stay here, safe spoke again; and again, she squelched it out.
They hadn't killed her.
She was going to find out why.