The bitter cold nipped at Liesa's nose and fingertips even though she was wearing gloves. But she'd already grown accustomed to it, having almost no feeling in her bones when it came to hunting. She was numb inside and out. Her breaths puffed out like smoke as though she had a huge cigar, but she never had taken up the habit of it. Elder Lady Sillavana always told her to stay away from such addictions, and when Liesa was little, the old woman would drag her into a different room or even outside for fresh air whenever Respen, Sillavana's adult son, took out one from his personal stash.
A part of her missed those days. The days when she could just lay back and watch someone else do most if not all of the work while she tried to enjoy what little childhood she had left. Even if nobody else spared her a passing glance. Even if her own kin always considered her an outcast. Even if whenever she'd pass another elf on the street, they'd whisper behind their hands to another either, "Don't go near her. That girl was kissed by Death." or "She's not even a real elf."
Liesa often wondered they were right to think that. Death Itself took away the biggest thing that made all elves apart from humans: their longevity. Their bloodlines have lasted many generations, eons at that, spanning back to the first mortals that walked this world. A normal elf's lifespan is roughly fifteen thousand years. Liesa herself, as of three weeks ago, was only nineteen, and she aged like a human with the life expectancy of one hundred years.
Compared to all other elves, Liesa truly was one of a kind. And to them, that was a no-good thing.
She soon came across a small, frozen-over pond, scanning the area. The ice was not that thick. Surely there'd be a few critters or beasts lurking around looking for a drink.
The sound of twigs snapping. Her long, pointed ears twitched. She pulled out an arrow from her quiver and moved in closer to the location of the source, remaining on high alert.
This wasn't her first time hunting alone. One time last year, during the New Year's celebrations, when everyone else would be enjoying the festivities, Liesa trapped and skinned her first ice bear all by herself. What a massive beast it was; the three had bear meat to last them the next three months.
She needed to do this. Sillavana and Respen were far too elderly to do any outdoor chores that could cause a bent spine or even a crick in the knee. If not her, who else would hunt animals for their meats and furs or gather edible plants for their cabin's stockpile?
No one, that was who.
She owed them so much since the day she first came to live with them and had been trying to pay off that debt ever since.
Peeking through the brush in her path and using it as camouflage, she spread the branches apart and saw footprints belonging to a smallish deer imprinted into the snowy ground.
She decided to get to higher ground in order to track since these prints were made relatively recently. Climbing up the nearest tree till she found sturdiness on the thickest branches towards the middle of the trunk, she was concealed by the pine and conifer foliage. Hopping from branch to branch was a challenge. The branches were a bit slippery due to the previous storm, but she maintained her balance through sheer wit, even though she wobbled several times.
Following the deer's prints from a bird's eye view, she eventually came across a couple of fauns roughly fifteen feet below and twenty feet ahead of her, grazing in a snow-covered clearing. She crouched and pulled her arrow back on her bow's string, silently waiting for the right moment to strike.
She was not afraid. Why would she be? There was no reason to be.
She was not afraid until she heard the sudden cawing of multiple ravens perched up in the same tree with her on a few branches above her head. She lost her concentration as well as the grip on her arrow, which shot down into the snow beside the two fauns' legs, and they got startled and darted off into the snowy thicket.
"Damn it," Liesa cursed out loud, while punching her fist into the tree trunk beside her. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! Stupid ravens, why can't you just leave me alone?!"
She made eye contact with the ravens and gave them a serious death glare. More and more flew near and perched onto the branches till the amount turned into a whole flock. Each little, black-feathered bird stared intently back at Liesa as though they had done nothing wrong.
This was nothing out of the ordinary, though. Her curse had always attracted the ravens from far and wide to her. Ravens were a symbol of Death. They were the familiars she never wanted. All they ever did was make her screw things up and remind her of her doomed fate.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew at Liesa's back, nearly knocking her off balance, and the flock of ravens left their perch and flew perpendicular right in front of her. Almost immediately, she could sense she was no longer alone. By the time she looked back at where her arrow had landed in the snow, a tall, masculine figure wearing silver armor and a red, blood-stained cloak was standing over it. His cloak had a hood that was covering most of his head and face, but it didn't take long before Liesa recognized the brand of armor he was wearing. She let out a tiny gasp at the realization, and the cloaked figure seemed to hear it because he turned his gaze up in her direction.
This snowy woodsy area had been Liesa's personal domain for as far back as she could remember. Not once had she seen a real live human soldier this deep in elven territory.
Liesa held her breath, wondering if the human saw her up in the trees. She stayed as silent as absolutely possible and observed the human's actions, but all he did was whip his head around seemingly scanning his own surroundings upon turning away from where Liesa was hidden. His feet were unmoving, and his right hand was positioned firmly on the sword hilt he had slung around his waist. Then Liesa noticed that there was blood dripping from the human's arm and head into the snow, staining the fresh white with dark red.
This human is definitely injured, Liesa thought inside her mind. But why is he out here alone? Shouldn't he be with his platoon or something? Surely, this is some kind of death wish, unless…Oh no…
That was when she thought that if this human soldier was indeed not alone, his squadron may not be far behind him. The cabin that she called home along with Sillavana and Respen was only a mile and a half east of here. If Liesa had any chance at defending what little sense of sanctuary she had, she needed to sneak away before the humans got to her.
Just as she began to reposition her footing on the tree branch, ready to jump to the next one and then the next, Liesa heard the crunching sound of multiple pairs of heavy metal boots stomping in the snow and getting closer. She looked down in the direction from where they were approaching, thinking she was going to see the rest of this one human soldier's squadron. Instead, they were elves; fellow Winter Elves adorned with the garments, armor, weapons, and treasures of their fallen enemies. There were a dozen of them, and they were all smiling maliciously. The garments they had stolen from their slain foes still had their blood on them, but they looked dried, so it had been a while since they'd killed.
Liesa took this as an insult to injury. These were elite elven soldiers who fought for the Four Seasonal Elf Empires and should not had taken pride in violating war law. At least, that was what Sillavana always told Liesa.
The nineteen-year-old girl Winter Elf watched as this elven platoon arrived and stopped in their tracks roughly twenty paces away from the one human soldier cloaked in red. Liesa could practically taste the tension between them, and it was a strongly sour, bitter taste. It made Liesa's stomach churn.
From within the platoon of twelve elf soldiers, one of them, who was taller than the rest, stepped forward to the front of the cluster, still smiling as though he had murderous intent on his mind. He was clearly the leader of this platoon; Liesa could tell because of his high-ranking military badges visibly displayed on the front of his elven soldier uniform. That was also something that left a sickening feeling deep in Liesa's gut due to a past altercation that had been in the back of her mind for a while.
Silence overtook the area as these two races stared each other down. Even the rustling breeze in the trees had stopped, and all the birds stopped chirping. The anticipation was killing Liesa after a few moments.
Then the Lieutenant finally spoke out, addressing to the one human soldier, "Well, well, well, looks like we've got a straggler here."
"Another chump for the slaughter!" one of the lesser-ranked elf soldiers exclaimed.
"I think I'll take his cloak next," another one shouted.
"Just give us the order, Lieutenant!" yet another shouted.
The rest of the platoon began cheering and clapping and laughing until the Lieutenant raised his hand as to gesture them to settle down. "At ease, soldiers. Remember, we are not animals. We should at least give this one meager straggler a chance to defend himself."
But as he said that, Liesa noticed that the human soldier had already taken his right hand off of his sword's hilt, as though he were not planning on drawing it out of its sheath. She watched as this human stood his ground firmly, both hands at his sides and relaxed, simply facing the elven platoon who was ready to strike him down all at once.
"Go on, then," the elven Lieutenant told the human soldier, "Draw your sword and make your pathetic last stand, Captain."
Captain? Liesa questioned inside her mind. Then she noticed the human soldier had a badge on his armored breastplate that meant "C-A-P-T-A-I-N" in human military regards. She had never seen one before, but even so, he did not stand a chance against an entire platoon of Winter Elves led by a Lieutenant.
Seconds past and the human soldier didn't even move or make a sound. After a while, he lifted his head and said aloud, "I'm way too tired. I won't fight you."
Both Liesa and the platoon were baffled to hear this. Liesa's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. The platoon, except for the Lieutenant, burst out laughing so hard that they were crying, and they mocked the human as they did.
"Are you freaking kidding me?!"
"You do realize you're on death's door, right?!"
"My sides! My sides!"
"Humans really are pathetic!"
"Ha! This'll be such an easy breeze!"
But as for the Lieutenant, his facial expression had turned angry as though he had been insulted so harshly. He glanced back at his platoon members and the force of his gaze sent a strong gust of wind blowing passed the other elven soldiers. It shut them up immediately. The Lieutenant then turned back toward the human Captain and asked sternly, "Do you honestly think we won't kill you?"
"I never said that," the human Captain replied surprisingly right away.
The elven Lieutenant scoffed. "If you're here on some kind of peace treaty mission, you're sorely mistaken," he began. "I can assure you that we elves have no intention of signing off on any sort of peace until every last one of you humans are dead.
"I suppose it won't hurt anybody to tell you, since it is just you here, that we elves are always hearing a voice in our heads telling us to kill humans. It may not be a pleasant thing to have, but what is rather enjoyable is when we do kill you. Spilling your blood and ripping out your hearts," the Lieutenant reared his head back so that his gaze faced the sky, his fingers twitching and his lips smiling again with malice, "Oh, how much fun it is!"
As he said all this, Liesa saw a magical aura emitting from the silhouettes of each elf soldier present. This aura was dark red, purple, and black, and Liesa could sense it was something made of pure evil. A shiver ran up her spine, and she gasped a little again, this time no one else heard it. Liesa was indeed freaked out by everything the Lieutenant had just said, but she was also very confused. He did say all elves hear a voice telling them to kill the humans, right? So why couldn't she?
Then a raven suddenly flew up to Liesa from behind and perched itself on her left shoulder, starling her and she tried to shoo it away, swatting her hand at it. But soon she lost her balance as the raven flapped its wings in her face, and she fell from the tree she was hiding in. She tried to land on her feet as usual, but the unexpected fall forced her to do a forward flip and land in the three feet of snow flat on her bottom. As she grimaced the pain, she heard a voice from the platoon call out, "Hey, were you spying on us?!" and she looked around to see she had landed square in the center between the elven platoon and the human soldier.
The platoon of elves looked furious at her. She stared back at them, her eyes wide and her mouth open like she was about to try and explain herself, but the Lieutenant cut her off. "Well, since you are here, perhaps we can make a little deal. I can sense you're a virgin, right?"
Liesa immediately stood up and her face blushed bright tomato red despite her skin being an icy light blue. She also took out her bow and a new arrow aiming at the Lieutenant for being so vulgar.
But he continued, "You've never killed a human before, I mean. Allow me and my soldiers to give you this grand opportunity by slaying that Captain standing right behind you. Should be easy enough for someone of your…skillset. And in exchange, you keep everything you heard here to yourself."
"I…I…" Liesa hesitated, not knowing what to say.
For once in her life, her own kind was not treating her as a pariah. They were actually giving her a chance to prove herself and maybe join them. That was all she ever wanted; to be accepted. But her knees wouldn't stop trembling. She knew that this was wrong. This was not like her usual hunting. Or was it? This time, her prey would just be a bit smarter. And he already said he would not fight back. Even as she thought this through, her forehead and hands began to sweat profusely. She couldn't even find the strength to turn around and face the one human. The struggle raging inside her was worse than any battlefield.
Then a few ravens flew down beside her and began circling her in midair. Liesa took a few deep breaths to clear her mind, and after considering the fact that since she couldn't hear the voice like all other elves do so she did not have to obey it, she got a firm grip again on her bow and arrow and backed up several feet toward the human soldier. She stopped when she was merely a few inches in front of him, her eyebrows more furrowed than they'd ever been before and her eyes were giving the Lieutenant and his platoon a serious death glare. The ravens then nestled in the snow at her feet, and Liesa pulled the string on her bow back as far as it could go.
"Oh? You intend to make enemies out of your own kind?" the Lieutenant asked her.
All of Liesa's rage and frustration exploded in that moment, and she said without thinking, "You know damn well we are not the same!"
Her fingers' grip on her arrow was tight right up till the second she released it. The arrow soared in the air ready to impale its victims, but the Lieutenant caught it by the stick in one hand in midair just inches before the arrowhead would've hit him between the eyes. Then, without any warning, he squeezed his fist wrapped around the arrow and snapped it in half like the twig it was, its pieces falling into the snow at his feet.
Liesa's shoulders drooped at the sight of this. Her mouth hung open like she was about to make a groaning noise, but no sound came out. A drop of hot sweat rolled down her face, and her upper body slumped forward in disappointment, realizing what a terrible blunder she'd just made, with a look on her face that said: What the hell have I gotten myself into?!
"You're way out of your league, sweetheart," the Lieutenant beamed a smile and mocked her.