Far north in the freezing lands of the Ivory a white haired woman of pale complexion dressed in white fur coating, trained her bow at a large Wight Elk. One of her eyes closed as the other focused on its target. With patience, she inhaled and exhaled, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The albino furred elk flicked its ears sensing danger. It lifted and turned its head to stare off into the foliage of bushes nearby. The creature was silent and still, as if it waited for something to pop out.

Without warning, two white haired men rushed out of the bushes. One man was much taller and bulkier with a bit more fat than the other while the second man was thin but muscled, both running with axes in hand. The elk, as planned, was spooked and began to run southward into the direction of the huntress who still had her bow trained on the fleeing creature.

“One. Two. Three.” she quietly whispered under her breath before letting the string of her bow go.

A singular and precise arrow whizzed through the air piercing into the skull of the fleeing Wight Elk.

‘Thud’ was all that could be heard as the large elk dropped to the blanket of snow under its hooves. Blood puddled under its body, but much of the snow soaked it, keeping the fur of the elk intact. The white-haired men that chased it finally caught up to the carcass of the elk; they quietly muttered a prayer before they gestured for the huntress to come from out of the trees.

The huntress leaped down from a lower branch of the one hundred and fifty foot tree she was hiding in. Trees of that size were extremely common in the snowy tundras of the Ivorian forest.

With a soft pat of the snow she landed on her feet with sheer elegance. The white haired woman made her way to her two other companions who already began working on skinning the white furred elk.

“Iris, when Victor is done skinning it, you can start working on the thigh meat. We gotta be quick about this, night is soon to come,” the thin man ordered. His name was Tunis, and while he was the one in charge he was also Iris’ older brother, teaching her the ways of becoming a huntress.

Iris nodded to Tunis and plopped onto her knees in the thick snow sitting beside the carcass. She took the folds of its white fur and held them while Victor sliced a dagger through the thin meat of the Elk, peeling its fur coat off in small increments. While Victor and Iris skinned, Tunis stood watch, keeping an eye on the surrounding woods around them.

Victor and Iris managed to cut the fur clean off, but that was only a small portion of the work. The meat was what they wanted to bring back to Wighthall. The two wasted no time carving their daggers into the meat of the carcass.

Tunis glanced through the canopy of the giant trees, seeing the dimming daylight, soon to be night. He bit his lower lip and looked at the two others still hurriedly cutting into the fresh meat of the elk.

“Fuck,” he uttered quietly under his breath.

Victor turned to look at Tunis and already knew the look on his face. He was worried. Victor looked up to the sky and noticed the same thing Tunis did. He took a deep breath and looked over to Iris who was still diligently working on the elk.

“Alright, I think that's enough.” Victor said, wiping blood and sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his thick fur coat.

“We’re not gonna take all of it? There's still so much left,” Iris asked, gesturing to the carcass.

“We aren't going to have enough time, Iris. But hey, you got a good shot on the Elk. Your skills with the bow are improving.” Victor smiled, and stood up looking over to Tunis.

Tunis walked over to the two and looked at Iris, reaching his hand out he asked for something to be put into his hand. “Where’s the Ward Dust?” he demanded.

Iris scoffed at Tunis’ impatience but that’s how he always was. She stood up and wiped the snow from the knees of her trousers, when she was done she reached for the pouch of dust that was usually kept on the back loop of her leather belt. However, when she reached for it, she felt nothing.

Iris’ face fell into a deep dread. Her lips parted, and her eyes widened the moment she realized it wasn’t on her belt. Iris looked down at the snow hoping maybe she dropped it while skinning the elk. Her chest felt as if it were about to burst, her breathing became quick and erratic, she began shoveling the snow around her digging her hands into the cold snow.

Tunis clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “Iris, tell me you didn’t lose the dust,” Tunis calmly asked. “The Black Bloods will kill us without that dust…” frustration rattled his voice.

Iris however, ignored her brother and continued to dig around in the snow, her hopelessness turning into a panic as she tried to keep herself composed.

“IRIS!” Tunis shouted, “where is the dust!?”

Victor kept his attention on the sky. The orangish hue of the sun sinking in its horizon painted the sky. This meant they only had about an hour.

“If we start heading to Wighthall now, we could still make it.” Victor proposed.

“We will never make it in time, we are leagues away from Wighthall,” Tunis said, turning to face him.

“Well, I’m not staying here and letting the Black Bloods slaughter me. Either you come with me or get eaten alive.” Victor stated while fixing his hatchet to his belt.

Iris lifted her shivering red hands out of the snow and ran them down her face. She wanted to give up and die right then and there but she stood up and looked at Victor. “I’m coming with you.”

Victor smiled at Iris and nodded at the young huntress. “Let's go then.”

Victor finished fixing the hatchet to his belt. He took one last look over to Tunis wanting him to change his mind, “you coming?”

Tunis glared at Iris then back at Victor, letting out a loud whiff of air from his nose. “Sure.”

Stolen novel; please report.

With a smile on his face, Victor gestured with his chin for the two of them to follow. He planned on marching eastward through the forest, hoping to reach Wighthall in a few hours. It was a dangerous idea to travel without ward dust at night, but it was their only option.

The three began walking through the beautiful Ivorian forest, and the unbound nature it had to offer. Colossal trees, rose tinted bushes, and pure white snow blanketing the earthy dirt below their feet made the forests of the Ivory a rather other worldly place. A place untouched by war and plague, a place the Ivorians called home.

However, night was fast approaching and the three had to pick up their pace. The sky turned a dark black with the only form of light coming from beams of shimmering light peering through the thick canopies above them. The forest silenced itself with the ambient sound of animals quietly vanishing. Only the sound of wind howling past the giant trees was all that could be heard in the almost empty forest.

The three huddled closer to one another with Tunis taking the lead, Victor at its end and Iris sandwiched in the middle. The group walked through the darkness without uttering a word to one another. They hoped not to bring any attention to themselves and kept their eyes and ears open, but one could only be in the darkness for so long before being found.

Something was watching them.

The distant hooting of an owl caught Iris’ attention, her eyes peered to the north only to see a pair of white pupiless eyes gazing back at her from the treelines. The creature shadowed behind the veil of darkness just beyond her eyesight. Iris’ blood ran cold.

Iris quietly tapped her brother's shoulder, “look..”

Tunis turned his head to Iris, looking at the direction she was gesturing. However, when he looked at the treeline Iris was pointing at, the pair of eyes were gone. Tunis glared back at his sister, with an annoyed expression painted on his face, turning back around and to his horror he saw a pair of white pupiless eyes staring back at him. A Veiled One, sometimes referred to as Black Bloods.

A lurking figure approached slowly from out of the darkness. The creature was thin and lanky, its appearance was the physical embodiment of rancid. It looked human but yet it wasn’t human. The creature had blackened veins running all over its malnutritioned body. Its jaws hung open like an unhinged serpent salivating at its meal.

Tunis, Iris, and Victor all froze in place. Victor lowered his hand over his hatchet, but didn’t dare move any further; he instead carefully watched the creature in front of them. Iris meanwhile turned her attention to the surrounding woods, she noticed more figures moving around just beyond the treelines . There were too many. They were going to die.

A blood curdling ghoulish scream ripped through the cold air from all around them. Vile monsters rushed out of the woods from all directions, honing in on hunters, some running on all fours, others running on their hind legs.

Hearing the scream, the three formed a circle pressing back to back with one another. Victor pulled the hatchet from his belt as fast as he could, Tunis held his hatchet tightly to his chest, and Iris unstrapped her bow from her shoulder struggling to ready an arrow with her shaking hands.

“Sentelis sentelis, ul Ivory dulva.” Victor muttered the prayer under his breath.

Tunis was the first to strike, cutting the blade of his ax into the skull of an approaching monster splitting its head open and splattering its black oozing blood over the snowy earth. While Tunis managed to kill one, another grabbed him by the shoulder with its long, talon-like fingers digging them through his thick fur coat and into his flesh. Tunis turned his upper torso just enough to smash his elbow into the creature's face. “I’LL DIE FIGHTING,” Tunis roared.

Iris managed to get an arrow slung onto her bow, without a second thought she aimed it at the head of the creature rushing at her, and pulled the string of her bow back with two fingers. She took a deep breath and released the string, letting the arrow fly at air splitting speeds right into the eye of the charging monster penetrating all the way through its head. However, the creatures running behind it, didn’t seem to care and only trampled its corpse trying to reach the hunters.

Victor was quickly overwhelmed from all directions but fought like a lion defending its den. He landed a punch on one of the creatures that got too close then turned his attention on another, vertically swinging his hatchet into its neck, killing it instantly. No matter how many Victor killed, it seemed another replaced it. His swinging arm felt numb as he tried to keep them at bay. Iris was able to lend support by cracking a few skulls with her bow and arrow keeping some from getting behind Victor.

Amidst the fighting, Victor and Iris heard panicked screams. Taking a look for just a moment they noticed Tunis being swarmed by the Black Bloods.

One of the creatures grabbed a hold of his head and bit their mashed teeth into his face, ripping a chunk of cheek flesh off. The already screaming man pleaded for mercy, wildly swinging his hatchet hoping to hit one of the creatures but nothing could be done. Another one dug its fingers into his ribcage, finally dropping Tunis onto the ground. All Victor and Iris could do was watch as he was swarmed by more and more of the vile monsters eating and tearing into him.

All hope felt lost. Victor watched as his childhood friend was eaten alive. A touch to his shoulder however, had him react quickly. He turned his head and raised his hatchet ready to swing it down only to notice it was Iris standing beside him. “We have to go..while they are distracted,” she whispered.

There was no protest in Victor’s eyes, only sadness. He looked over to Tunis whose screams no longer filled the air. All that could be heard was the ravaging of the Black Bloods tearing into Tunis’ flesh for a feast.

As Victor looked on to the carnage, one particular Black Blood glanced over to the pair. Victor took note of this and widened his eyes but before he could even say anything to Iris, the creature let out a blood-curdling shrill.

All of the distracted monsters stopped eating the corpse and turned their attention to the two standing.

Silence fell upon the woods as the handful of Black Bloods stared at Victor and Iris. The huntress could feel her heart sink to her stomach as she saw the white pupiless eyes staring back at her.

“RUN!” Victor screamed out.

Immediately, the swarm of monsters ran at the two. Some ran on all fours while others ran on their two feet. Victor turned around, ready to run, but he was caught on something sticking out over his foot. Iris took one glance at Victor as she tripped him.

“I’m sorry,” Iris said, before turning and running to the tree line, leaving Victor on the ground.

Victor was speechless at this betrayal; he simply stared at Iris as she disappeared into the forest. His eyes began to water as his last thoughts swirled around his head. ‘Why?’ he asked himself.

Iris was still running when she heard Victor’s screams echo throughout the night sky. The moment the screams ringed in her ears, she could no longer run. Iris collapsed to the snow below and covered her ears. She couldn’t handle the sound of her friend being eaten alive.

“Stop, please stop. I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Iris cried out to herself, still covering her ears.

Minutes had passed after the last scream was heard, but she continued to sob to herself. Iris bit into the thick sleeves of her heavy fur coat in an attempt to hide the noise from the monsters that were undoubtedly still nearby.

Iris tried to keep herself together, but suddenly, her blood froze as the sound of ‘crunching’ snow approached her. The huntress tried to lay her body as still as she could wishing for the sound of the crunching to go away.

The crunching got closer and closer, with every waking moment feeling like an eternity for the Huntress.

From around the corner of a thick felled trunk came a monstrous creature walking on all fours, salivating a black putrid sludge. Its spine was practically bulging out of its flesh. Its fingers resembled claws, and its jaw unhinged to snake-like levels. It was human-like in appearance, but yet it acted like a feral abomination. Coated in blackened veins, its white pupil-less eyes seemed to wander around the ground as if searching for something.

It was obvious by its demeanor it had found a trail of the Huntress’ scent. Iris ever so slowly inched her hand down to the carving knife she had hung on a tight leather harness that wrapped around her right leg.

The Black Blood’s eyes suddenly stopped searching. It instead slowly turned its gaze upon Iris who was still very quietly lying in the snow - not a peep, not a word. Without warning, the monster lifted itself up from all fours and bolted at the Huntress. Iris quickly grabbed at the handle of her carving knife and jumped up, letting out a scream of adrenaline, stabbing the knife meant for skinning animals into the skull of the Black Blood.

However, the momentum of the charging monster slammed Iris’ skinnier body against the trunk of a tree, smashing her against its wood as the creature's body dropped lifelessly with the carving knife still lodged into its skull. Iris stared down at the blackened blood puddle forming around the corpse, but she was too tired and frightened to even be concerned with the smell.

Despite Iris wanting to collapse from the exhaustion she knew she couldn’t. Her scream was bound to attract unwanted attention, she had to get out of the area. Fast. Iris rolled her back off the tree trunk and limped her way through the snow. Heading east, exactly where she knew Wighthall would be.

Two more exhausted and sleepless hours trudging through the snowy and rough terrain of the Ivory led Iris to the outskirts of the forest. Beyond the tree-line was a sky covered in stars.

A single pink moon illuminated light that was difficult to catch when covered by the thick canopies of the Ivorian forest. A few miles away from the tree-line was a large city glimmering under the rosey colored moon light. The city had large stone walls around it with giant blue flames at the top of its fortifications. These flames were a beacon to all travelers of the realm. This was Wighthall. The capital of the Ivory.