“Reina, you can’t come with me. It’s not safe out there.” A young woman seemed to desperately try and convince her seven year old sister.

            A young girl with a pout on her face seemed to tell her that her persuasion had no effect. Sighing, she finally agreed to let her come under the condition that she stay within her sight at all times.

            She grabbed her bow that was laid on its side on a wooden table. With a dagger already strapped to her leather belt, she moved to the quiver next to her bow. Twelve wooden arrows stuck out from the quiver, their feather fletching in perfect condition.  

            “Hmm, I’ll have to make some new arrows later,” she muttered to herself. Her orange cat-like tail swung back and forth as she thought about the things she would need to do later.

            “Elise, let’s go, let’s go!” Her younger sister put both hands on her hips and pouted at her in front of the open door.

            Elise couldn’t help but smile before playfully answering back, “Alright, alright. Let me just get my things, unless you don’t want dinner tonight?”  

            Reina lost all color in her face hearing her older sister’s words. The thought of not having dinner scared her terribly, so she ran to her sister’s legs and hugged them tightly while apologizing. Reina’s fluffy tail his between her legs during her torrent of apologies.

            Elise chuckled at her sister’s reaction and told her not to worry. Strapping the quiver onto her back, she and her younger sister made their way out of their modest wooden home. The early spring sun blinded her momentarily as a cool breeze played with her dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Even with tight-fitting thin clothes underneath her simple armor, the chilly temperature never registered in her mind. Even Reina, who wore tight fitting clothes, found no discomfort with the weather.

            Outside were similar wooden houses along with several larger ones near the center of the small village. Other people, with varying tails, were moving about under the morning sun as well. Most had leather armor on, while a few had simple clothing.

            Similarly, Elise had her own set of simple leather armor: greaves, a breast plate, and bracers. Her armor had their own fair share of marks on them, like nearly all of the others.

            They made their way towards the thick wooden wall that surrounded the village, greeting everyone who passed by. It was a small community of roughly one hundred beastmen and they were all relatively familiar with each other, so greetings were a commonplace thing.

            They eventually reached one of the four gates on the wall, which was opened for the day. Standing at each side of the open gate were two men in leather armor. A middle aged man with graying cropped hair and a young man with shoulder-length brown hair. The young man waved enthusiastically towards Elise, who returned his greeting with a smile.

            Elise spoke up, “Morning Reylin, Jenks.” She nodded at the older man first before greeting the energetic Jenks. Reylin simply nodded before facing the forest once again.

            Jenks immediately spoke, “Hey Elise, going hunting again?” He leaned against the long spear he was holding. Its deadly metal tip sparkled under the sunlight, but in Jenks’ hands it seemed like nothing but a toy for show. His brown dog-like tail wagged slightly.

            Elise answered, “Yeah. Reina didn’t want to stay home so I gave in and decided to take her with me.”

Reina stuck her tongue out at Jenks before running towards Reylin, whose gentle smile seemed unfitting for his grisly face.

            Jenks noticing the change in Reylin’s behavior decided to tease him, “What a softie right, Elise? Guarding the wall is a job for hardened fighters, you sure you should be here old man?”

            Reylin’s cat ears twitched but he simply ignored Jenks and continued to entertain Reina. Jenks just shrugged his shoulder with a big smile on his face.

            “We have to get going, I have to make more arrows later so I don’t want to spend too long out in the forest. We’ll see you guys soon. C’mon Reina.” Elise motioned to Reina before walking towards the forest. Reina ran around Reylin one more time before running after Elise, giggling along the way. Elise couldn’t help but to smile at the antics of the two at the gate. Gate duty was normally assigned to the better warriors as they were the first line of defense besides the scouts. As much as they liked to fool around, they were all very serious about their duties. Recently turning eighteen, her official duties for the village would be starting soon, and she could not wait any longer to be of use.

            Elise didn’t know much about the scouts, along with many others, except that they were some of the best warriors in the entire village, aside from the all-female group. They’re tasked with scouting for potential enemies and monsters, and taking them out if necessary. No one but the chief and his advisors knew how many scouts there were or who they were as the information was usually kept under wraps. Just as both her parents used to be, Elise hoped to become a scout as well.

  Ending such needless thoughts, the pair entered the forest not much later. Reina followed along patiently, picking flowers and enjoying the scenery. Both made no noise as they moved, one searching for prey with a bow and arrow at the ready while the other simply played around. However, both were attentive to their surroundings.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

            With their keen senses, they slowly moved deeper into the forest while paying close attention to their surroundings. The constant sound of forest animals kept the two girls in a relatively calm state.

            Any sane person would have been surprised by Reina’s ability to keep up with Elise, but most in the village knew that Reina was probably more of a genius than Elise or the other two touted ‘geniuses’ of the newest warrior generation.

            Elise shrugged off the thoughts and eventually caught three rabbits and a fat squirrel. While she was tying the newly caught rabbit, Elise asked Reina a question, “I think that’s enough. Ready to go back Reina?”

            Not getting an answer, Elise looked around but there was no sign of Reina.

  “She couldn’t have gotten far and the forest still seemed to be teeming with energy so nothing was probably wrong. She just probably saw something interesting and accidentally got lost," or at least, that was what Elise tried to tell herself.

  All of a sudden, birds took flight and the animals rushed past her. She could even see some monsters fleeing.

  Elise couldn’t help but feel something bad about to happen. She knew that animals were very weary of their environment. And the fact that monsters were fleeing, was more telling than any normal animal fleeing. Monsters walk a fine line between life and death just to survive, turning many into fearless creatures. Especially in the mountain range here, survival is much more difficult than many other places.

  Immediately, she began to feel a chill run down her spine and sweat drenched her entire body. Her body froze momentarily. Even someone like her, who had survived many clashes with monsters, could feel the bloodlust in the air. It felt so thick, that she was having a hard time breathing.

  The aura that she felt immediately dissipated as fast as it had appeared. Elise regulated her breathing and her heart rate began to calm down.

  Elise realized that she needed to notify the village, but she would have to find Reina first. She needed to find her as quickly as possible before whatever was out there found either of them or the village.

            She sprinted ahead in the direction where everything was fleeing from. For the first time in a very long time, fear gripped her heart. Yet she had to at least save her younger sister.

She had to.

            Her grip on the bow was so tight that her knuckles had long turned white. Elise kept an arrow knocked ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

            She strained her ears to hear, but feline ears like hers, albeit keen, were not as strong as some of her canine counterparts. Her speed had reached max speed as she blurred towards her assumed destination.

            Reaching several hundred feet in several seconds, she slowed down and searched for her younger sister. Carefully moving around with her weapon at the ready, she used her senses in order to find a hint on Reina’s location. Even with desperation in her step, she moved silently and effortlessly. Her training did not allow her to let herself go even in such a situation.

            Elise stopped in her tracks. She swore she heard Reina crying. But she couldn’t figure out where it came from. It was too brief of a moment for her to pinpoint where it came from.

            Taking a chance, she loudly called out, “Reina, where are you? Reina!”

            Making her way, she eventually came out from the tree line and entered a small clearing with a large tree at the center. Short grass encompassed the area and flowers sprouted in spots.

  Elise found Reina happily playing with a young man with snow-white hair.

  “What’s a human doing here?” She thought to herself.

  His blood-red eyes were already staring into hers as if he had known exactly where she would have appeared from. His bare upper body looked as if it had been sculpted and his face was incredibly handsome yet gentle at the same time.

            Elise was momentarily stunned by the young because of the young man, which she found highly suspicious.

            Getting rid of her ridiculous thoughts, she quickly brought her bow up and aimed at the man. She didn’t know who he was, but something seemed off about him. And she seemed to already be pissed off about him for whatever reason.

            Elise was fully confident in her skills however. She just needed to make sure Reina would not be used as a hostage, and she was willing to kill the man before her if she had to.

            She succeeded in getting Reina to come over to her, and they briefly talked about whether the man had done or said anything to her.

            Reina shook her head and gave a big smile while saying, “I like him! He’s nice and he lets me play with his hair like Mom used to.”

            Elise could only shake her head, she would have to teach Reina about the dangers of others not from the village later. She was just glad that Reina seemed to be unharmed.

            She also decided to take the man into custody so that the village can question him and his possible connection to whatever monster was out there that could release such bloodlust. Commanding him to walk in front of the pair in order to keep an eye on him, they made their way towards the village. Even the way he walked seemed perfect, which made her dislike the human in front of her. The man reminded her of the village chief’s daughter, Cass, who also seemed so perfect as well.

            They walked until they finally made their way out of the forest. The sight of the walls entered their vision as well as the small figures of Reylin and Jenks. Even from this distance, she could see them tense up because of the fact that she seemed to be forcefully bringing someone along. Jenks disappeared for a moment, probably letting the higher ups know of the young man with them, before coming back with a firm look on his face.

            By now she had changed her weapon to her dagger so that she could easily respond to any close quarter combat. She casually walked with it by her side, but she stayed alert the entire time.

  She watched the young man pat Reina’s head as they walked. The grip on her dagger tightened subconsciously. Elise couldn’t help but feel cautious against someone who could so easily gain Reina’s affection. Earlier, she had continued to stop Reina from getting close to the man, but her constant pleading and the fact that she hadn’t been taken advantage of earlier eventually let her do as she wished, as long as she was careful and listened to her commands during the rest of the walk back.

  Elise also noticed how his walk never faltered as they neared the village, as if he was completely confident in himself. Anybody who knew of the village in the mountains would feel fear beyond belief if they ever came across them. Yet this man seemed as if there was nothing to worry about. She figured he was either really stupid and ignorant, or someone really powerful.

  But what really bugged her right now was the fact that there was not a single scent on the man. Which was impossible, or at least unheard of as far as she knew.

  She muttered under her breath, attempting to solve the mystery that was in front of her.