Alicya's heart

Chapter 1: The Stag

      Alister brushed my shoulder lightly as he pointed across the field. There, about 500 yards out, was a stag. It was large and beautiful. We hadn't had food in days and here lately, the animals were scarce, and the rain was few and far between. I have to admit I was a little more excited than I should have been when I saw it right in front of us. Alister drew his bow and shot it straight in the heart. It ran a few yards then dropped to the ground. Finally food for a few days.
   " It's about time we got something. I was starting to believe we'd starve to death before spring. Honestly I still think we might." Alister said in a gruff saddened tone. Things haven't been easy for human kind in the last few decades. Wars on all sides had broken out and many of our people were killed since the ancients popped back onto earth. At first they were peaceful but humans being humans, saw them as a threat and the peace ended almost as soon as it began.
   I all but ignored his remark and started cleaning the animal in front of me, preparing it to take it back home. I don't remember what earth was like before the ancients. I wasn't even born before all this began and by the time I was, the world was all but in ruins. I gathered up the meat and pelt and smiled at Alister as we started the long walk back to the run down cottage I call home. Alister was in front of me with his long dark hair tied neatly in a ponytail. Carrying the pelt across his broad shoulders, streaks of blood forming on his shirt where I had neglected to wash the stag's hide.
        I've known him since I was a child, our parents living in the same run down village just a few houses apart. It seems my parents found him to be a suitable husband, so I'm due to marry him in just two short weeks. I don't mind it. I like Alister enough, I wouldn't say I love him just yet, but I like him enough. My sister, Cadence,  was quite upset when she heard the news, she's always had her heart set on him, and honestly I feel bad in a way. It's not like it's my choice, or his. It's just how the world works for us now. The strong marry the strong to ensure that we survive.
     Looking across the way, to the row of small cottages and fields almost bare of the crops we desperately tend to, I see my mother and my sisters. My mother is a small woman, with long red hair and big green eyes, thin but beautiful. And all my sisters almost look like carbon copies of her. Small, thin, long red hair and big green eyes. I looked almost nothing like them. Tall,  short jet black hair, muscular in a feminine way, brown eyes. I pity Alister for having to marry me as him and my sister, I feel, would be a better fit.
     Lori, my youngest sister, ran towards me and wrapped me in a hug as I neared the house. "What do you have for us today? Did you get lucky? Is it a lot of meat? I bet you and Alister did an amazing job, huh?" She rapidly fired questions as I smiled down at her. " We saw a stag in the meadow about a mile from here, Alister laid it down with his bow." I rubbed her firey red hair and picked her up to rest on my hip. Lori is seven, and a half if you ask her, and she's the youngest child in the village. She smiled and planted a kiss on my blood stained cheek. Then she reached her arms out towards Alister. " Hold on now kid. Gotta put down this hide first and find a new shirt, wouldn't wanna ruin that pretty dress you have on with all this nasty blood your sister neglected to attend to." He said as he looked at me and winked. Always with the snide jokes, but I found them amusing.

Sitting at the big table that stretched the length of our cottage with the rest of the villagers, we rationed the meat between all 30 of us. I look over at Alister and we give each other a knowing nod. Back at it tomorrow it is, as there's barely enough to last a few days with the crops we have.
      Mother makes our supper and sits it on the very end of the table as do the other women in the village. I've never been one for that role, I'd rather be the hunter and gatherer. My family has accepted this and embraced it, though I do get looks from the other women and families. A few have made a fuss when I haven't helped with "womanly duties" as they call it, or when I come home covered in blood or mud after a long days hunt. Me, Alister, my father, and Alister's father are the ones to go out and hunt, while the rest of the men stay back and tend to the crop. But something we keep from the villagers is, animals aren't the only thing we have to hunt.
      There are dark, horrible things out there. Sometimes we are the ones hunted, and we are the ones who have to keep our families safe. We really don't have names for these things but they aren't natural. They don't seem to be. Huge snarling wolves that are twice the size of regular ones.  Hairless creatures, almost human-like, but walk on all fours and are so slim you can see their bones moving as they lerk around. Tall scaly creatures, with rows of teeth, bulbous eyes, tails, and they walk on two legs. That's just a few, and they all have a taste for human flesh. You always have to watch your back on a hunt, or you'll quickly become the hunted. 

Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to leave comments or vote and don't be afraid to give some instructive criticism I'm new to writing