A green-haired teen girl with tan skin sat on a tree branch, no shorter than 15 meters. Her gold eyes were focused on the setting sun and she had a calm expression on her face. She then talked to herself, or rather, someone inside her head “They deserved it.” She had a tribal-looking clothes, which consisted of a short brown leather skirt and a sleeveless jacket of the same material. There was a blunt dagger on her waist. There were 2 red lines on her face.

A majestic female voice resounded through her head (You’re really irrational, you know?)

“Thanks, that is my forte.” said the girl, with a smirk on her face.

(So, when are you leaving?)

“Maybe in a year, after I master [Shamanic] magic.” she said with her index finger on her chin.

A loud horn sounded from the far distance, as she quickly said her goodbyes to the one called Eris and ran towards the originating place of the sound.

She jumped down from the abnormally tall tree like it wasn’t a big deal, and she looked like she didn’t sustain any injuries, in fact, she didn’t.

(I’m in your head.) After being bluntly ignored, the goddess left her consciousness after sighing.

The girl navigated through the forest like it was her own bedroom, and in minutes, cut the distance of about 10km or so. This was all thanks to her speed that would shame the average horse. As a Woodkin, she would naturally be fast.

She was a human, but not a full one. The Woodkin race started with the alliance of Wood Elves, Tribal Humans and Satyrs. Countless years of inbreeding between Humans and Satyrs led to superior physical prowess. The Wood Elves sometimes breed with one of the other two races, but they were in the minority.

She reached her location, revealing countless yurts, most small and one big in the center. That was the yurt of The Chief. The tribesmen were all outside, flocked around that big one.

She pushed through the crowd, and was met by a brown-skinned man with a muscular build, his brown hair was in the style of a Mohawk and his green eyes glistened with life. This was the village Chief.

“Tika, you’re finally here.” said the man.

“Yeah, what’s wrong, Chief?” asked the girl, surprised that he actually used the horn used for emergency meetings.

“The outsiders are attacking. You need to run.” said the Chief with a serious face.

“But I can fight too, with my magic.” insisted the girl.

“Listen Tika, most of our fighters were sent to the frontlines, we would be lucky to drag them to hell with us, let alone survive it.”

“How many are there?” asked Tika.

“About 50 fighters and 15 archers, it’s said that there are 3 mages in their ranks.”

“I will help, even if I do, I won’t let our tribesmen come into harm.” she said as her head tilted to look at the countless women and the elderly. There were no children, as most of the males left for war and couldn’t do the reproductory ritual, aka sex. Although she was a female too, she would easily rival any talented male youth in terms of combat.

“You don’t understand it, if you live; our tribe will never truly be lost. We are entrusting the future of the tribe to you.” said the Chief as the tribesmen nodded their heads in approval, encouraging her to run.

“Then I’ll take everyone and run together.” begged Tika.

“If it was as simple as that. You’re one of our best hunters, I don’t think they can catch you if you run alone, but it’s another story if you took a large number of people and tried to escape with them.”

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“I can manage it, Chief. Please let-“ before she finished her sentence, the Chief shouted “Enough with your selfishness!!! Riku will go with you, no more, no less.” he said as he turned his back to her and the leftover fighters followed him to the south.

A boy with brown messy brown hair and green eyes came out of the crowd. He was the son of The Chief. Tika and Riku hunted a lot together, so they were good friends. His age was 15, the same as Tika, so he was one of the futures of the tribe too.

Tika insisted that she stay here and help them but Riku was a little more logical than her. He dragged her away from the village and she finally agreed to run away. This took almost ten minutes and this was after the sound of the battle reached her ears.

She was formerly from a peaceful world, so even though she could kill, she didn’t want to or was afraid of it.

They were both hunters, so they knew of the habits of the animals and the dangerous parts of the forest, easily reaching the edge of the forest, or what it was supposed to be.

The trees in a range of about a kilometer were all cut, resembling something from Tika’s old world, Earth.

There were lumberpersons chipping away at it with their axes. The ground was half-dyed in blood, revealing that there was a battle here. However, there weren’t any corpses left there, most likely taken away.

“Unbelievable.” whispered Riku.

“Yeah, but we have to get to Rainwurth forest without being seen.” whispered Tika, likely back with her rationality. Rainwurth was the forest inhabited by Wood Elves, which is separated from Pirmin forest by a small amount of land. However, this was widened by the labor of the lumberpersons working on the site.

“How about we run through them, we are fast enough.” suggested Riku, still standing on a tree with Tika, covered in leaves as to not be seen.

“No, there are 2 watchtowers and who knows how many archers there are.” answered Tika, looking at the two wooden towers with a roof on top. This was a tactic normally used by the militia in cases of war on Terra.

They would build watchtowers from wood and it would allow them to see their opponents, but was completely useless against mages. This was the most suitable tactic, as the Tribesmen would usually use [Shamanic] magic to strengthen their bodies, but not use it outside of their bodies.

But building it near the Elven forest would most likely be a grave mistake, as their arrows could be embedded with [Fire] magic and easily burn it down. This was a mystery to the two teenagers.

“We will swim through Rilain.” said Tika.

“That’s suicide, the current is too dangerous.”

”Don’t worry, the water level should be down to about a meter or two.”

“That could work.”

…

They looked at the river silently, or rather, where it should have been. There was no river. Tika however knew that this was the work of a dam, possibly made by humans.

They crossed the dried river and walked easily entered the Elven forest. After a while of walking and as the sun set, the forest started to glow a gentle blue light. This was the work of Wisps, the spirits of trees. Although there weren’t many in forests near human settlements, this wasn’t the case for the Elven forest.

It was literally right next to the kingdom of Rivain, but still remained untainted. This was thanks to the elves security which led to the forest being called The Dark Forest by many humans and their like.

“It’s been a long time since we last came here.” said Riku, with a nostalgic look.

“Yeah, we used to play with the Wisps during the evening.” said Tika with a simle on her face.

“So, how about a little sprint.”

“Sure, the one who gets there last is a pig.” shouted Tika as she took the lead. They could afford to be carefree because of the protection of the elves.

Soon enough, they stopped. There wasn’t a single building or its like on the ground. But they looked up into the village of Glamour. It was beautiful, even more so than the luxurious villas of the nobles, although they hadn’t seen it, it’s a word from the narrator.

They were built on a thick tree, about 30 meters in diameter. The capital of the elves was even better, with a tree of about 100 meters in diameter, which was called the World Tree.

They were extended by some strange wood-like material and some buildings were built inside it and some were built on the branches. The branches were thick as well, capable of holding about 2 houses.

The Wisps were highly concentrated up there and it was the same as day thanks to them.

Then 2 elves descended from above and examined them. They were both wearing brown uniform resembling that of a military with a green emblem on their right chest. It depicted a growing vine.

“Who are you?” asked the elven man.

“We are from Pirmin, our tribe was attacked so we are here seeking sanctuary.” said Tika. Being a social person really pays off in this kinds of situations.

“Please follow us.” said the woman and they both turned around, entering through an invisible door into the thick tree. As they walked through the tree, they saw that there was a device like an elevator, though Riku didn’t really understand what it was.

She then pressed a button labeled with the number 8 and the lift ascended. The door opened, revealing a military office, but the furniture looked like it had grown from the tree itself, which it was located inside of.

“Lieutenant, they are here from Pirmin.” said the man as he showed the two behind him.

“I suppose you were attacked. We deeply regret being unable to help you.” said the one called Lieutenant with regretful eyes and then fixed his voice before opening his mouth again “You can stay here for as long as you like, we will try to do what we can.”