Cigarathe

Chapter 1

It was a cold evening in the forest. The wind blew with enough force to shake the strong trees of Aredhel and force its wildlife back into their dens or burrows. It wasn't good weather for beast hunting, but Arendyl and Umoni Cigarathe were out in the forest hunting a beast that was known to only appear in this bitter weather. Arendyl was the elf who liked beast slaying while her wife Umoni preferred assassin work. However, they both would still work alongside one another and perform their tasks together. They were a powerful duo on the field; woodland and dark elf duos always were. Arendyl, the woodland elf, would use her seemingly spiritual connection with the world and her resourcefulness to slay a beast while Umoni, the dark elf, took more enjoyment in using brute force or stealth than using the world around her. They both had different approaches to certain situations, but those approaches were never an issue. They've been married for almost a hundred years so they both know how the other person operates and makes their plans on missions based off of it. They no longer needed to take time and plan approaches to certain situations too, they just knew what to do based on eye contact and a small dose of body language.

They had a bond that was very rare where they came from, but alas, their bond was not tied together by romantic love. Neither Umoni nor Arendyl was in love with the other. Their ties to one another are based on friendship more than romantic attraction to one another. The reason for this was because all elves can only fall in love once in their practically immortal lives. Umoni had fallen in love with a woman who is now dead while Arendyl has convinced herself that she is incapable of loving another being. Perhaps if elves could fall in love more than once, they would and could love each other; but sadly it isn't so and they cannot love one another in the way a partner normally could. Neither of them would admit this to anyone though. How could they? They vowed to love and cherish one another for all time so saying that they did not love the other was dishonoring their marriage vows. Instead they played pretend and acted as if they were madly in love with each other and could not be taken away from the other, hence why they were hunting a beast together as opposed to Arendyl going alone.

"Arendyl it's almost sunrise, we should head home. We have things to do and if we stay out here they'll never get done." Umoni explains to Arendyl while scanning the land around her from a large tree branch, "Plus Aleratha is getting antsy."

Arendyl thought for a moment, trying to think of a way for them to stay on the hunt longer without having to worry about Aleratha throwing a tantrum and Umoni becoming angry with her. She wanted to keep her wife and child with her on this hunt so sending them home wouldn't be the best choice.

"Take her out of the carrier then. I just need one more hour before we go home." decided Arendyl as she moved down from her own tree branch near Umoni's. Arendyl thought it would be best to move closer to the ground since the beast was heard to be a ground traveler. Plus, the Cigarathe women were not finding anything from any tree's canopy. Umoni understood what she was doing and followed her lead with Aleratha attached to her back.

"You said that two hours ago," Umoni complains with a sigh, "So after this hour we go. No more waiting."
"Yes ma'am." Arendyl responds jokingly. Umoni took her daughter out of her carrier and placed her on the branch with her since it was stable enough. Despite being only five in human years, Aleratha was well behaved and didn't try to run off on her mothers. She could do anything the average human teenager could do while still being the size of a toddler. Maybe it was the different kinds of elf blood running through the child's veins or maybe Umoni and Arendyl were simply blessed, but Aleratha was the perfect child and her mothers were grateful for it.

Arendyl heard a thudding noise in the distance. Upon hearing it, she grabbed hold of the tree. With every following thud Arendyl could feel a vibration in nature that most cannot recognize. She watched as leaves shook in the distance and trees fell to the ground. Something dangerous was about to cause problems, she could feel it. With just a longer touch with the trees, Arendyl knew that whatever the creature was had made it to a village. She could feel terror and torment thanks to the nature around her.