Rika opened her eyes with a pounding head. Breathing was hard, and everything around her circled. Slowly she realised that the rain had stopped and the sun was going up again. A morning dew danced with the smoke and flames of her home. She saw a woman with ashen skin and adorned with silver chains, before it. Even though her back was turned to her, Rika knew that she cried.

Before she could see anything more a hand carefully moved her head forward and gave her water from a wooden bowl. She just realised that she was laying sideways and even though she didn’t see the orc who gave her water, she knew, maybe just hoped, it was Kazok.

She tried to sit up when his voice reached her “Easy easy..” It was good to hear him. “You lost a lot of blood. Your head might still spin..”

“Nothing water can’t handle..” she said and moved to sit anyway. As she almost fell he aided her to lean against a tree behind her. Now she saw him and knew something bad had happened. As he saw that she studied his face he turned away to get more water. She moved her arm and wanted to bring his face back to her eyes when she realised it was missing. “Oh..” she said. Not truly comprehending it now. He came back with more water he got from a puddle nearby. It was one of the few without blood.

She drank again before she used her other arm to lock his face with hers. “Where is the girl?” He sighed and closed his eyes. It took a moment too long until she tried to move him back again “Kazok, please. Tell me.”

He opened his eyes again but wasn’t able to look into hers as he spoke “The darklings took her body with them..” he nodded a few times. “It's better this way…she can be burned by their traditions..”

He moved next to her to get the leather from the stump that had been her arm. Beneath it, leaves that had turned red were pressed against it. Once she saw the red on them, it did reach her mind and started to hurt. He looked at her and waited a moment before she breathed a few times. Finally nodding at him that she was ready for the pain. He removed the leaves and gave her arm fresh ones. It burned once it pressed at her wound. She didn’t even know what kind of leave it was, but it was enough that he did.

He was about to sit next to her when she looked back at the crying darkling. “She needs someone.”

“So do you.” he stated like a simple fact.

She shook her head “It’s just..” she looked down at the stump and further down where his hand touched the ground. She never wanted to hold it more than now. “It’s just an arm..” she still said. “Help her.” With her last plea she looked into his eyes. Despite all the unspoken things they could read in each other, he just nodded and slowly walked towards the distant darkling.

She couldn’t hear what they said, only see that he carefully wrapped an arm around her and she fell into him with all the cries she was left with. It stung at Rika’s heart, far more than she wanted to admit to herself. Yet who was she to take his aid, when she only lost an arm? Her way to hold a weapon, her way to hunt, her way to protect her home, her hope to hold his hand.

Still she lived and so did Kazok. While the girl, Kara, was dead. Her body gone to the north to be burned in her ancestors tradition. Too young for that. Rika sighed and looked down her stump again. While the thought of losing it slowly conquered her mind she looked over the oak. Now she finally realised how much of it had burned. Over generations the druids watched it grow, and now it was almost burned away. At least much of its crown and parts of the spiralling roots upwards. Maybe they could save it. But she wasn’t sure.

She wasn’t a woman of tears and she didn’t want Kazok to worry for her. Still she felt how her eyes swelled up.

This was not how things should have gone. When they left to hunt for the Shore Wyvern just more than a week ago, they knew it would change their path. It was a hunt to honour the death of her father, who was still dry and waiting for his burial in the tribe. Hunts to honour a druid's death always changed the life of those that were left behind. Many in the tribe had whispered if the two would return as a couple, maybe even both of them did for a while. She wasn’t sure if that would have been the right way, yet the choice was taken from her when they had found the scarred girl, who pleaded with them to save her aunt. No clearer sign could have been given and nothing would have been more in line with her fathers dreams. Dreams that had started to haunt him in his last year.

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Now that girl was dead, and maybe the path of peace with the north was as well. “Let them come.” she thought for a second before she was reminded of her missing arm again. She wouldn’t be in the front anymore. Maybe her other arm could still swing a tomahawk, maybe she could train to throw spears instead of using a bow. Many maybe’s that tried to aid the warrior she was just a night before. But now? What would she be?

Before her thoughts could take any fruit she heard voices behind her. Bloodbeak and Chieftain Scale-Eye, maybe a few others, came to watch the oak. She used her one hand to quickly wash away any sign of tears her eyes could carry, just when Branak arrived next to her. The big wolf was happy, licking her face, making her smile for a second. He whimpered while he did and she ruffled his fur until he laid next to her. Resting his big head on her leg.

Bloodbeak quickly came by “You are awake!”

“I noticed.” She replied with a forced and hardened smile.

He chuckled “Tough es ever.”

Truly. She thought with a certain bitterness.

Scale-Eye came by and kneeled next to her. She knew he could look deeper than Bloodbeak ever could. Her eyes held against him, before he carefully took the stump that had been her arm and looked it over. He sighed. “They will pay for this.” He said while looking back at the oak.

Rika wanted to reply. Just anything that could bring them back on the path of peace they thought they had found on their hunt, but there was nothing. She noticed some of the hunters missing. “How many survived?”

Bloodbeak shook his head in sadness “Two died..”

“Not bad for a fight like this.” Scale-Eyed added while he continued to study the oak, before his eyes looked onto Kazok and Mara. “Why is he holding that thing instead of you?”

“Because I told him, chieftain.” She replied, making him turn to face her.

He thought for a moment, while his eyes went back to the two in front of the oak and back to Rika. “You are just as stubborn as your father.” He said, but got nothing but a forced smirk out of her.

Branak started to snort. The night was as hard for him as for anybody else and Rika wanted to make sure he would rest well. But the only thing she could do now, was to remain with him, and ruffle the fur of his neck while he drifted to a well deserved sleep.

Bloodbeak now stood next to the Chieftain. Both of them watching Kazok and Mara, hidden in the dance of nightly smoke and morning dew.

“What happens to her now?” Bloodbeak asked, making Rika’s hunter eyes stare at her Chieftain and his answer.

He sighed, “Kazok is right.” words that made Rika less tense for a moment until he continued “We need to inform the other tribes. If their Khan truly wants war, they won’t just send a couple of riders, but all of them.”

“Until every pine burns..” She added, watching her home in slowly dying flames.

He nodded a few times and looked around the trees as if he was checking if they were burned too. His eyes stayed locked on a nest of spiders. Rika followed his gaze and saw it too. A nest of spiders and birds. None of them moving, all of them starring in unison. “He is watching..” Scale-Eye whispered.

“That piece of wurmdung should be happy for once..” Rika said with anger making Branak glance up as well “When was the last time the forest’s thirst for blood was given this much?”

Bloodbeak watched it now as well. He breathed in as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t until a second attempt of words left his mouth “If it comes to war, some might see him as an answer…”

“Some might be stupid!” Rika replied, now starring at Bloodbeak. She felt a burning in her throat, but Branak growled for her.

Before any more words could be spoken the birds flew off again, leaving the spiders to flee from their invisible punisher.

Scale-Eye sighed “The seasons are moving.” He said and was about to walk to Kazok.

“Leave them be.” Rika said, making him stop “She will need time..” she gulped “And him.”

Clearly her Chieftain didn’t like her commands, but still this wasn’t the village, but her home. He nodded and got her another bowl of water instead. She nodded and used her one arm to hold it herself.

While she drank he looked over to Bloodbeak “Send your birds. We need to see the tribes.”

“Which?” Bloodbeak simply asked. His voice was cracking after the battle as well.

Rika looked up to her Chieftain. For a moment it seemed like he struggled to say it, but then stated clearly. “All of them.”