The Elitra: Book One

Chapter Two

One Year Later

"Rohaun! I am running out, I'll be back soon," Airena called and she carefully pulled aside the covering to the cave entrance.

The white light melted around her, making the forest glisten and come alive. It had just rained that night and the drops still made the leaves and flowers sparkle. A sight that always took her breath away.

"Now, to find something... anything," she muttered to herself. She wanted to go out and be back before the sun had set. Sometimes she got lucky. Sometimes she didn't.

Checking to make sure the coast was clear, even of animals she eased herself out and then making sure the bunch of vines and branches was placed back in securely to hide the cave she stalked away from the entrance, keeping low to avoid being seen by anything.

The familiar stream where she would get water for them both came into sight quickly. It was only a few yards away from the cave entrance. The short distance made things easy when she had only to leave for water.

Airena shouldered her sword and slunk away, using the cover of the underbrush to hide her.

The sun was only a few hours past sunrise and everything was dappled in a brilliant sunlight. The yellow bright and warm. It was some hours later when she finally spotted something.

A small boar nuzzled through leafage at the edge of a small puddle. She listened to its grunts as it picked its way through. She would have stopped and watched had she not needed to hunt it. She always thought the animal was a funny looking creature, and this one especially with small stubby tusks protruding from the sides of its snout.

A breeze whistled through a hollow tree further into the forest, the sound making the boar unsettled. It stopped its grazing through the mucky water to perk up its ears and freeze. It listened. And Airena watched. The two only footsteps away from one another but both stopped by a mere sound.

When the echo had faded and the boar went back to busying itself through the puddle did she dare to move, just a little. She hefted the short blade against her shoulder. She wanted to come out swinging and fast, but she needed to be able to get the jump on the animal or it could end in two ways. One, the animal gets away and she has to continue looking for food for her and Rohaun. Two, the animal rushes her and tramples her.

She's careful as she shifts her handle on the sword. Suddenly when the boar looks away, turning just slightly where she is no longer where its line of vision would be if it looked up, she bolts forward, springing quick.

She leaps to her left, further from the boar but swings around, deftly turning as she went and swung the blade down, cleaving the boar's back. It broke the spine.

A sharp squeal pierced the quiet forest.

Quickly she slammed down her foot keeping her momentum and slammed the blade, point first through its skull. It twitched once and then lay still.

She knelt breathing heavily, the adrenaline coursing through her like a rapid river, her beating heart thundering on the inside of her chest. She let the tip of the blade sink into the muddy ground, keeping a hand on the handle as she sought her breath and a slower heartbeat.

She whispered words to the spirit of the forest, saying thanks to the animal for giving its life for her and Rohaun, and also apologizing for ending its life earlier than it should have been.

Over the next couple of hours she carved away the pelt, the meat placing it all carefully, wrapping up the good parts in separate clothes and tucking it all within a drawstring leather pouch. One that had seen almost too many days before it would need yet another patch. Luckily Airena knew how to sew, and after having to live in the forest for the last year she had learned much the forest gives for one to use to live on.