Heir to the Empire

1. Greenhaven

The dark brown eyes of the doe carefully scanned the horizon of the deeply vegetated forest, keeping aware of any potential dangers the world had to offer. Its beautiful reflective irises confirmed there were indeed no threats in the immediate vicinity allowing the deer to continue grazing.

Instinctively, it raised its head again as a small sound drew its attention. The breeze whistled among the trees, and the chorus of birds echoed throughout the area, but there was nothing to suggest that there was danger.

Lowering her head again, she was eager to chew on as much of the local flora as physically possible before she would be forced to move elsewhere.

It was all to peaceful.

Briefly, she heard a swoosh before the incapacitating arrow found its target deep in the doe's skull, making her instantly fall lifeless.

From over one hundred and fifty yards away, a plump young man stood gawping, utterly amazed by the shot that hit the now lifeless deer. The skill and precision to get the clean kill in dense vegetation was nothing short of magnificent. Picking up a self-made sling already housing three dead rabbits, a fox and two pheasants he started to waddle towards the next task of the hunting trip.

He rubbed his nose, eagerly still watching dumbfounded at the target. "How do you do that? I remember going to Wyvernthorpe two winters ago, and even some of the archers there wouldn't be able to make that shot!"

His companion eventually stood slinging the longbow across her back and smiling at the achievement. "I don't know," she replied, "I can just feel the wind and how it will guide the arrow." Pushing back a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear, she gracefully clambered over the bushes to confirm her kill. Intuitively, she knew that the deer was dead, but she had learnt always to check to ensure her prey would not unnecessarily suffer.

The two companions walked over towards the corpse of the deer, their styles complete opposites. The woman was full of grace and poise. Her steps were silent, her moves, precise, her demeanour, confident. Her male companion, however, thumped along with no delicacy, trampling everything in his path. The cracking of twigs under his feet became frustrating.

"Willis Billingslea, when will you ever learn to walk quietly!" she scolded him with a little chuckle. "This would have been the third deer we lost today with your stealth-like advances!"

Willis rubbed his nose again just as he reached the corpse. "I'm sorry, Loldirr, I do try. I wish I could walk like you, but my legs are simply too big."

She formed a warm, welcoming smile as he said those words. He wasn't the sharpest man in the village, but his heart was genuine and his company entertaining.

Carefully removing the arrow from the deer, Loldirr mumbled a small prayer to Austineth, the goddess of the hunt. Despite giving thanks for the clean kill, her words felt somewhat hollow.

'The gods are too busy to listen to my pointless prayers.' she thought.

The prayers, however, had become a habit. She believed no more in the Gods than in monsters, sorcery or dragons. Religion, to her, was just another form of control to maintain order in a world that often steered towards chaos.

"Are we hunting more?" Willis questioned Loldirr breaking her train of thought.

He was greeted with the kind but distant green eyes of his companion who smiled at his gentle but straightforward nature. "No Willis, we will need to get this deer back to Mr Butcher so he can prepare venison for us tonight. You like venison, don't you?"

He started bouncing and clapping his hands "I love venison." He responded with a massive grin across his face.

As Loldirr stood to clean her arrow, she intuitively smiled. With Willis picking up the beast and slinging it on his shoulders, it was time for them to make the trek back to their village Greenhaven.