I looked down at the three humans. They looked like hunters, dressed in leather and furs with bows and quivers on their backs along with some knives on their belts. One was a tall man, at least two metres tall, carrying a bow that was nearly as tall as he was. His short, unkempt black hair was pushed to the side a little by the wind as he looked up at me with his two brown eyes, which were filled with concern and alert. He had already grabbed onto his bow and a large, metallic arrow with a serrated tip. To his right stood another man, this one with a normal bow and of average height but with strange, blueish hair that went past his chin a little in terms of length. Two piercing green eyes were directed at me and one of his hands was already on the way to grab the bow on his back. In front of the two was a woman, with long auburn hair and blue eyes. Unlike the others, she seemed surprised and completely unprepared.

"Who are you?" the blue-haired man asked, pointing his bow with an arrow already nocked at me.

He's fast...

When I looked at the humans I felt anger boil up within me. Anger at what their race had done. I hated them, simply for being the same race as the ones who had taken everything from me. I grabbed my daggers and jumped down from the tree, activating my magic mark in the process, immediately using it to enhance my agility and strength.

"H-He... he's a mage," the woman said, stepping backwards.

"A wood elf huh? Didn't know there were any in the area. Don't worry, we mean you no harm," the tall man said, putting away his bow and holding his bare hands out.

My gaze wandered across them.

What should I do? Can I kill them? They might have food... but maybe it would be better to follow them to their camp...

I put away both my daggers, but still keeping both hands close to them, just in case they were with the knights. Or maybe Golbrant had betrayed me? Sent some assassins after me... No... he doesn't seem like that kind of guy, even if he left me just when all of it returned.

"Who... who are you?" I asked, carefully, still not deactivating my mark.

The woman smiled at me, catching me off guard.

"My name is Lara, this is Gert-" she pointed to the tall man, "-and this is Karn-" she pointed to the blue-haired man, "And who are you?" she asked.

...

...

...

My eyes narrowed slightly as I thought...

Should I tell them who I am? They don't look like the ones that attacked the village... maybe I can trust them.

"Altair," I said.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Well Altair, what are you doing out here, all alone?" the blue-haired man asked, sceptically.

"I..."

"Does it matter, he clearly needs help? Look at him, all dirty and roughed up," the woman said.

I looked down only to see that she was right, I hadn't noticed it but during my escape from the voices and from Terror I had become dirty and my skin was covered in scratches, mud and dried blood.

"We can't just take some random wood elf we find in the forest to the village," Karn said.

"We need to help him, look at him, he looks no older than your little brother, would you leave him alone in the forest while that beast is running around?" Lara responded.

"I... I guess you're right," Karn responded.

Are they ignoring me or something?

The woman, Lara, turned back to me.

"You're safe with us, so why don't you calm down and follow us to our village?"

Her request sounded logical, I could get food and such in the village, and I would also be able to rest a bit, get away from Terror.

At that moment my thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar.

"Terror," I whispered.

"Shit, he's back," Gert said.

Without wasting another second the three began running, Lara grabbed my hand in the process and dragged me with her. She was slow, all three of them felt slow, far slower than the attackers, far slower than Terror. I contemplated what the best option would be and I came up with one answer. We needed to be faster, way faster. And that one solution was supported by the fact that I could hear a second roar, much louder, much closer.

I deactivated the wood elven magic mark and activated my warp mark.

"Direction?" I asked.

"What?" Lara responded, confused.

"Which direction is the village?"

"Straight ahead, in the middle of a lake," Lara responded.

Straight ahead, huh? Alright then.

I channelled mana into my magic mark, grabbing onto Gert and Kern, both looked back at me in confusion. Confusion which grew into shock when they noticed the black-dark green energy surrounding us. I pushed more and more mana into the mark, generating more of the smoky energy until it surrounded all of us. Then I envisioned a spot far in front of us, the furthest one I could see.

"[Far Step]" I whispered.

The black-dark green energy engulfed the four of us and we reappeared at the spot about a hundred metres in front of us. Lara was about to say something but before she could I already used [Far Step] again and we reappeared even further away. I repeated this until we arrived at the edge of a lake, a large lake with a speck of land in the middle, build atop and around that land was a village, partially on land partially standing on thick wooden beams in the water.

I felt exhausted like I had at the edge of the forest, my body burned and I felt weak, nearly unable to move. What was this? Had I expended all my mana? Is that what it is... but how? I only used [Far Step] about twen... that's right, I don't even know the limits of my mana. I had never needed to exert it all, I had never pushed myself that much, not until the attack where that strange power made me feel powerful in exchange for mana... and now again, while I was running away, I had exerted a lot of mana trying to take them with me. Why did I take them, I could have warped alone, told the other villagers that they had died. I would have probably still gotten help from them... maybe I didn't hate humans as much as I thought.

My thoughts were interrupted by another, loud roar.

He's faster... faster than Grudon ever was...

"What are you waiting for, get us to the village," Kern said, nearly yelling.

I grit my teeth and focused, one last time I used [Far Step]. And I used it at the right moment. Terror jumped out of the bushes behind us the moment I warped away. I could hear the beast's breath, feel it on my neck as we disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the village. We reappeared in the middle of a gathering of humans. A few screamed when they saw four people appeared out of nowhere.

I heard Lara let out a sigh of relief but then I felt exhaustion win and take over my mind as I drifted off. My vision went dark as my eyelids became heavy and I fell asleep on the spot.