To Onder’s north stood the frontier between the human country of Oman and the elven country of Aldebrand. The first elven village one would find going further to the north was Alferion, protected by a dense forest.

Isolated in a stone cabin in the middle of hundred trees, lived a young woman called Feyan.

Some nights, she dreamt of her childhood, those days when everything was simpler. She would run around, giggling about the mischief she would do next while Korinn followed behind, keeping her out of trouble.

So many things had changed, but others were still quite the same.

“Fey, wake up. Fey!” Korinn yelled. Feyan gruntled and hide under her bed blankets while the elf woman tried to pull them away.

“Are you seriously just going to stay in bed all day?” Korinn left the blankets alone, seemingly giving up.

“That’s the plan,” she mumbled, getting herself comfortable. It didn’t really matter if it was hot or cold, she took longer to fall asleep without a heavy blanket on her.

“It’s new year’s eve.”

“A day as unimportant as any other.” She could feel the disappointment radiating from Korinn. It would be a lie to say it didn’t bother her, but the alternative was worse, at least for Korinn.

Korinn sighed and sat on the bed’s border. “Fey...” She extended her hand to Feyan’s head. If it were anyone else, she would slap the hand away.

Instead, she just tried to ignore it as Korinn moved her fingers through her hair. As infuriating as it was to be treated as a small child at her age, this was Korinn. She couldn’t get mad at Korinn.

“I prepared some things so we could celebrate the new year. The other day I discovered this hill to the east from here that has this really amazing view of the starred sky. You wouldn’t believe how beautiful it is. And you won't need to get even remotely close to the village to get there.” When she didn’t answer, Korinn stood up, taking a moment to fix the wrinkles in her skirt. Always propper. “It’s alright if you feel a bit under the rain right now. Anyway, I’ll be waiting for you as always.” Her voice sounded so sad that hurt Feyan’s heart.

“Sounds nice,” she said quietly, not wanting to look at the woman’s face. She knew it was going to make her feel worse.

“R-right? See you later!” Korinn sounded happier as she left.

Feyan tried to go back to sleep for a while, but it wasn’t working. The sunlight entering through the window was too annoying, and she wasn’t feeling in the mood of resting anymore. She rose from her bed and brusquely closed the window. Again. She was sure she had done it the last night. "Stupid wind."

Feeling a funny tug in her stomach, Feyan sighed and dragged her feet to the shelf where she stored her food.

"Of course..." It was almost empty, only some carrots left. She took the miserable little things and sat at the edge of her bed. ‘Beggars can't be choosers’. She munched one carrot, thinking about how to solve her food shortage.

The villagers were celebrating the New Year, which meant food of the best kind: Free food. And with how sneaky she was, it would be relatively easy to enter the village and borrow some food without anyone noticing.

But if for any reason, she got discovered… That wouldn’t end well.

‘It would be pathetic, too.’ She didn’t even like to depend that much on Korinn these days, and at least she meant good. The same couldn't be said about everyone else.

Trading was impossible for a pariah like her. That only left her with an option: Hunting.

In a couple of minutes, she was ready. Her dark clothes were comfortable but protective. Unlike most hunters, Feyan had no bow with her. She was too bad with it.

Assuming she found good prey, her daggers were all she would need. The javelin hanging at her back was just in case she needed something with a longer range, but she doubted she would use it. Anything useful she managed to collect, would go to her backpack.

Outside, at the back of her cabin, she knelt in front of a very tall tree that stood there. Its leaves a fiery red color.

"I'll be hunting, mom." Feyan put her hand on the trunk. "Please, bless me." She stayed in silence for a minute. She always did, as if expecting her mom would answer her from the afterlife. Alas, it didn't happen. But she still felt a sense of peacefulness spreading through all her being. She liked to think it was her mom wishing her success. She stood up, feeling encouraged. "Thank you, mom.”

* * *

Despite her optimism, she wasn't having much luck.

"Maybe it's the winter?" Most animals were probably already hidden on their refugees because she hadn't crossed even one yet. "I guess I'll have to fish." The river was relatively close and its waters were shallow enough to easily catch something with her javelin.

She halted as she sensed something was off.

It didn’t feel like an immediate danger. She could barely notice it through her nose; a metallic odor permeated the air.

She frowned. Her instincts told her to turn around and go in the opposite direction. After all, in Alferion’s forest, even small animals were dangerous. Something like a rabbit, as cute and inoffensive as it looked, could kick you and break your bones with frightening ease. So getting close to a possible fight between wild animals was a terrible idea.

However, instead of getting as far away as possible, she did just the contrary.

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Quicking her pace, she found the river in a couple of minutes. The clear transparent liquid was now tainted with red. She couldn't see the source, but it wasn’t hard to guess and imagine what the substance was.

"Be something else. I don’t know what, but be something else." She picked up a bit of water between her hands and took a sip, immediately spitting it out. The flavor was as aberrant as she expected. "Oh, Elaise. This it's truly fucking blood!" Korinn would scold her for mentioning their dear goddess and a swear word in the same phrase, but Feyan had other more important things in her mind.

It was too much blood to come from a fish or any of the small animals that inhabited the forest. It had to be something bigger… or someone.

Even knowing the implications and the danger it could represent, she still ran following the river. The water became redder and redder as she went upstream until she finally saw a body at the side of the river. It was a person, lying down on their stomach.

She moved her hand to her belt, prepared to get her knife out of its sheath and use it if she needed to.

"Hey! Are you okay?" she said, as her eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for whoever had caused that mess. "Say something!" Just as she feared, she wasn't receiving any answer.

Feyan didn't want to accept the possibility that the person was dead, even though the huge quantity of lost blood said the opposite. She didn’t know if she was ready to deal with something like that.

As she stepped closer, she distinguished some important facts. By the form of their body, this person seemed to be a male. She had never seen clothes like those he wore. The same with his short black hair and his dark skin. His ears weren't pointy either.

He wasn’t an elf, and -bless Elaise- as his skin wasn’t green, he couldn’t be a goblin either. In conclusion, he had to be a human.

It was the first time she saw one of them.

A real full-bloodied human at least.

‘Stupid and violent beings, they are. Brutish. Incapable of coexisting with their own kin and even worst with other races. But astute in their horridness; if you cross with one while alone, run away and look for support before trying to bring them down,’ one of her teachers said. But even as a gullible kid, she never took those words too seriously, especially because the teacher in question seemed to hate her. Besides, she couldn’t see the human in front of her, on the verge of death, being a threat to anybody.

She heard of humans trying to cross into Elven territory just to end up being caught, then sent back to their lands with one less limb, or, in the worse of cases, getting executed. This was probably one of them.

For morbid curiosity, she crouched and turned him around to see his face. She regretted it immediately.

Stomach. Red. Open.

She didn’t scream. She wouldn’t allow herself to. Never again.

She stood up, keeping her gaze away. ‘It’s just like a gutted fish. It doesn’t matter,’ she repeated to herself, repressing the horror she felt along with the sensation as if she was about to throw up at any second. After a moment, she felt calmer. Those awful feelings didn’t disappear, just receeded as if put on a locked chest.

Everything was cold and distant as if she had detached from the world around her, but at least she could think clearer and felt ready to analyze the situation.

Beyond the awful imagery that wouldn’t leave her for a while, now she had a lot more info than before.

To start with, this person was young, not an adult but almost. He had to be the same age as her.

She knew nothing about the human; and yet, she find it hard to believe he was a bad person. Maybe it was the way his -admittedly handsome- face projected an inherent kindness, increased by the current paleness of his skin caused by the blood loss. Even if she was naïve by judging him as innocent for reasons so superficial, she couldn’t but feel pity for him.

Besides, as stuck up and severe as they could be, she seriously doubted one of her kind would do something so awful, even to a human. Even when trying to kill someone for sure, they wouldn’t do something so unnecessarily brutal.

Everything was silent, not even the whisper of the wind remained. However, a thump interrupted the tranquility of the forest, and then another, and another. A heartbeat that wasn't hers.

Feyan forced herself to stare at the human. It was difficult to notice, but his chest was softly rising up and down. "No way." As absurd as it was, he was still alive. ‘But for how long?’ If she left him alone like that, he would die. ‘I could try to help him, but should I...?’

Her mother would.

According to Korinn’s stories, her mother was the kind of amazing person that wouldn't let someone die without at least trying to help.

‘But what about the villagers?’ They wouldn't care about him. He was a human that entered their territory. ‘Would Korinn help him?’ She was kind to Feyan, sure, but she was her best friend's daughter. This young human was a stranger.

‘A stranger holding to his life with all he has.’ Feyan’s doubts started to clear up. The coldness vanished; everything felt close and personal again.

All the people she knew would probably let the human die and that was the reason she decided to try saving him.

* * *

The travel back to her cabin was one of the most stressful things she had done. Having to construct a stretcher out of sticks to move him all the way, quick but careful enough not to hurt him more than he already was, constantly fearing he would die at any second and it would be all her fault.

But miraculously, the human resisted.

It was already dark when she brought him inside the cabin. "Just wait a bit more." Quickly, she ignited a lamp and grabbed all the healing herbs and items she would possibly need to treat him.

Cold sweat down the back of her head. ‘Okay. Now, how am I supposed to clean and close a wound this big?’ The boy's life was in the line and she felt completely lost about how to even begin. She had treated some of her own injuries before, but those were only small cuts.

She flinched when someone knocked on her door. “Fey! Are you there?!” said Korinn.

‘Seriously?!’ She brought her hands to her head. ‘Why in this precise moment?!’

“Fey?”

“I-I’m here,” she answered, looking around for something to cover the human up. Not as if that was going to help. He was very tall, impossible to miss, really. She just couldn’t let Korinn inside. “I’m a bit busy, though!”

“You didn’t come and I feared something happened,” Korinn said worryingly, still behind the door. ‘Elaise bless her for being nice enough to knock instead of simply enter.’

“No, nothing happened! I just fell asleep and totally forgot about it,” she forced a laugh out.

“Can I enter? I brought you some food!”

She was speechless for a moment. “No?”

“Oh, Elaise, you got hurt again!” The door moved an inch open, but Feyan immediately pushed it close and stood against it to block it.

“I'm not. Totally fine here!”

”That’s what you said last time, Feyan! And you had three broken ribs so let me enter!” Feyan didn’t move. She was physically stronger than Korinn. The elf woman wouldn’t be able to enter as long as Feyan didn’t want her to. “I put those walls there, young lady, and I can move them away! So don’t force me to do it!” Unless she threatened to move the whole structure, of course.

Despite the less-than-ideal situation, her attention focused back on the human in the middle of her house. She didn’t know how to treat him… But Korinn did. At least, she knew more about healing grave injuries and wounds than her.

Feyan moved away from the door, causing Korinn to rush inside the cabin. “C-couldn’t you have said you were going to move? I almost trip-” Korinn fell silent the moment she noticed the human.

“So…” Feyan started. “As I said, I’m totally fine, at least this time.”

Korinn looked at her in the eyes, paler than she had ever been. “Feyan, what in Elaise’s name have you done?”

She smirked, her previous stress dissolving in exhaustion. “The question is what are we going to do now?”

They turned to look back at the human for a moment and then put their hands-on work.

It was how they received the New Year.