《Dark Retainer》 Chapter 1 ¡°Shhh¡­ Sylvie you are making too much noise¡± her father chastised. ¡°That¡¯s not possible I haven¡¯t even said a word!!!¡± Sylvie complained. ¡°See you made another noise.¡± again in a haughty voice ¡°But you were the one who started it.¡± She was getting irritated now. Her father looked at her straight in the face. She looked exactly like her mother. Those graceful features slanted thin eyebrows (that were frowning at the moment), large eyes (that were staring at him in anger), lips curled in anger and thin cheeks bones with cheeks in perfect proportion to the face. All of this was her mother¡¯s contribution only feature she had from her father was his hair. Unlike her mother¡¯s blonde hair she had black hair with and unnatural boyish cut. *Why doesn¡¯t she keep her hair long? She would be a beauty that even the Angels will be jealous of.* He thought that maybe she would get some proposals from high class nobles not that he would let them come even close to her. Whenever he had seen any boys make a move on her he had stared them with blood chilling stares, shooting down any possible approaches. *I am not a doting Dad but I am not going to give my daughter to some guy not until she is 40.* Unknown to the father, Sylvie didn¡¯t have any interested in any guys. She loved her parents. They were her role model. She couldn¡¯t compare herself to her mother in beauty and her father in his charisma. Her mother was a high elf with so much grace and beauty that people kneeled before her unknowingly showing respect on their own. Her father had been a ranger for the King until he met her mother. She didn¡¯t know his exploits but the way town people showed respect to him and were friendly with him she knew he was a man of dignity. She wanted to make her parents proud that was why when she reached 5 years of age and gained consciousness of her world, she had been really studious. Copying her mother¡¯s every act so that she can be graceful as her and pushing her father to teach her techniques of a ranger. In fact she cut her hair after her father told her, two weeks ago, on her 8th birthday that he would teach her few techniques. She knew it would get in the way of her training. The silence of the forest was back after the short exchange of words. It was as if the dense foliage of fauna has absorbed every noise to prevent the Mother Nature from being disturbed. Heavy fog covered the parts where trees didn¡¯t grow as if to prevent people from noticing more than they should. The pair of father and daughter were here to see how much the latter has grown in the last 2 weeks of training. The first thing the father gave her was knowledge about the surroundings, what to eat, and what not to, where to get water, what to do when lost. In short it was about survival and she understood the meaning. She was blessed with good brains (from both father and mothers side) hence she absorbed all the knowledge in a short time of a week (much to the surprise of her father). The last two weeks had been about tracking and archery. ¡°Tracking is mainly an observational skill. You need to keep all your senses to the peek to get a good understanding of where your target is moving and in what conditions. Some great hunters can track the target so well that they know where the beast will be before the beast knows itself. Instincts and experience also make a hefty contribution for such precise tracking.¡± Her father had explained to her. He taught her how to distinguish between different tracks, the situation of the beast ¡°deeper irregular tracks means it¡¯s in haste, whereas normal regular occurring tracks means otherwise¡±. He also taught her how to ambush, how to distinguish fake tracks and a bunch of other things that didn¡¯t make sense to her currently. Right now they were in the forest searching for their hunt that they had been tracking for past few days. It was a family of deer that was probably separated from the herd. The winter was near and it was a nice opportunity to increase the food and clothing for the village. Sylvie¡¯s mark was the fawn. She wanted her first kill to make her father proud and show him that she had been sincere with her studies. She was leading while following the tracks whereas her father was behind her monitoring her and noting the mistakes she had committed to teach tease her later. So far he had only found few that¡¯s why he irritated her by telling that she was making too much noise. They had been following the trail for about an hour now it was leading towards the clear stream that flowed through the forest. Sylvie was sure she would find the family there. Her archery was not up to the mark to kill the stag but a fawn was small and weak she could easily take it out with few shots. As they came closer to the stream the fog and trees thinned out a bit for them to have a clear look of the deer. There were 2 foals and a doe (female deer) not that it was unknown to her. One of the foals was quenching its thirst while the other was rubbing against his bothers body. The doe was on high alert and keeping an eye all around. Rigg (introducing ¡°Father¡±) was proud of her, she had perfectly tracked a family of deer, found the no. of deer and even their gender right. He was surprised to see her progress so fast, or maybe not since she had his talents. So far it had been good but this was where it became tough, she was good at tracking but her aiming was at best mediocre. She needed to get at least as close as 25 metre to get a good aim and maybe a one shot kill, but the doe was on alert and deer were good at sensing presence especially of predators so getting that close was going to be really tough. So she had to gamble now either take a shot from far with less probability of kill or expose herself and get close to get a better aim. This was when the lady luck took her side (or maybe in her case it would be Gentleman Luck). The foal itself moved towards her. It was going for the tree near the shrubs to scratch itself his brother¡¯s body not being enough to remove the itch. The parent child duo sat still as a rock and Sylvie took an arrow from quiver as silent as possible. The deer was now probably 12 metre from her and she was confident that she would get her first kill today. She aimed her bow perfectly, calmed her breathing set the arrow and pulled back the bow string till it stretched no further, waited for the pattern of the foal to set in her mind and with perfectly practiced form she efficiently let the arrow go. ¡®TWANG¡¯ ¡®DHUBB¡¯ ¡®THUKK¡¯ Rang through the forest. The Doe was first to move she carried her remaining child and ran for their lives so fast that Sylvie didn¡¯t even notice the movement before they were far off. Well she might have noticed them if her eyes were not preoccupied with something else. Even her father had a perplexed emotion on his face. He had seen her beautifully draw the bow and position herself. He had seen her take in the motions of the fawn. He had seen her let go of the arrow in a perfect motion and he knew the foal was about to be dead by an arrow in the heart. And there was an arrow stuck but it wasn¡¯t in the heart of the fawn but the trunk of the tree and there was a fawn lying dead under the tree but not from his daughter¡¯s arrow. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ He started following them when they entered his territory. They were different, he understood it from the moment he noticed them. But they were in his part of the forest which was wrong. He needed to determine who they were? Were they preys? Or were they predators? What were they after? He quietly watched that¡¯s what his plan of action was. Too less information to do anything otherwise. He noticed the details, the finer complexities of their motions, the patterns. He understood they were following trails. Trails of the family he had separated from the herd. It was his nutrition for the winter. He couldn¡¯t allow others to take from him. They were his. That¡¯s when the mind kicked in, processing every detail and how to stop them from taking what was his. The thin small one was easy. He could take care of that one in a breath and she won¡¯t even see it coming. Her movements were forced, lacked the proper experience, and were hasty. It was easy when the prey was hasty, they make mistakes, and they don¡¯t see him coming. Haste was his friend. But the one behind was the problem. He could sense that this one was different. He (the one behind the girl) had seen and done things that set him apart. That second one looked flippant but he knew from the fluid motion, the alertness and the relaxed attitude that the one following was no pushover. The man behind was probably confident that nothing in this forest could harm both of them till he was there. He instinctively knew that there must be a reason behind that confidence but that confidence could also be his doom. The second one hadn¡¯t sensed him from so close hence he knew that they were lax with security. But he couldn¡¯t do anything till the second one was there. He can¡¯t fight them he wasn¡¯t a fighter he was a hunter. Long time in You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. wilderness had taught him not to mess with what you couldn¡¯t take down. So the plan began to formulate. He had only one way to not let them have his prey. It was to kill them himself. If he killed one of them the rest would be alert and harder to hunt for. But he can¡¯t run ahead of them. He was worried that getting any close would bring him in the radar of the second person. He couldn¡¯t take the other way because it would be too long and they would have his prey by then. He can¡¯t think of stealing back because it will again involve one on one confrontation with the man. So he followed them silently. Maybe he just needed to make a sound to alert the family to make their hunt harder. *But that would get you noticed genius* He can¡¯t think he didn¡¯t have time. No way out of this mess. Maybe he could just let them have one. How greedy could they be? But that wasn¡¯t the point if he let them have one they will come back again. No, he can¡¯t have that. He needed to kill the deers himself before they got it. They had already reached the river by then. But they didn¡¯t go after their prey. Something was wrong. Why were they waiting they could easily kill them right now? The deer were in sight and easy targets. Maybe they were only following them. But then the most tender meat started to make its way towards him. He was almost relieved that they weren¡¯t after his prey when the hasty one took out an arrow. He had less time now and no plan of action. So he did what he could. He fell from the tree and twisted the neck of the beast. They were dazed by this sudden appearance. He took this chance and started to run with the corpse but it was heavy and he was no longer in the comfort of his shadows. Then came a ¡®swoosh¡¯ and something hit his shoulders and he could feel the hot fluid trickling down his arms and smearing on the fur of his future clothing. Then came the pain and the corpse suddenly gained weight and fell. This wasn¡¯t what he had expected. This was going wrong. The pain was getting worse. He could run but he would either end up getting pin-cushioned in the back or would have to leave his kill behind. Then he could hear arguing. What were they doing now? They could easily take him down. They weren¡¯t far now. The girl was running towards him while she let out another arrow. This one he tried dodging and there was a second arrow in his arms. *She is going for the kill* that was the only thought in his mind. If he hadn¡¯t tried to dodge that the arrow would have been in his heart. That was when it broke, the patience to listen to his brain was now gone. It was good to listen to the brain but not when you are facing death. It¡¯s no good if your brain freezes up thinking of what¡¯s going to happen next. Now it was all instinct. He broke up on of the arrow heads from the damaged arm and clamped it between the teeth. He bent down picked up the corpse with the only good arm he had. She was close enough he wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge another shot with such small distance. This was it. Just like last time and the time before and countless other times when he was in mortal peril in this home of god forsaken deadly beasts. It was time to go for the last battle. Either his or hers. He ran towards her, not fast just enough speed. Running fast wouldn¡¯t do any good for his bleeding arm. Also he needed her to use her arrow before he reached her. She saw him coming the expression changed from frustration to anger and she let go the arrow aimed to kill. He knew she would do that, she was hasty. If it was him, he would have taken the legs first. Just as the arrow left the string he lifted the fawn to cover his torso. He kept it there until he heard the sweet sound of bow entering the flesh of the dead, and then he let go of the corpse. It had served its purpose now it was only extra weight she saw what he had done and before the arrow had entered the flesh she was already nocking another one in the bow. But the moment the fawn left his hands his speed shifted and so did his trajectory. She thought he would come straight but he knew better. He jumped towards the right to her used the recoil to jump again this time behind her and raised his hand for the kill. The arrow head had at some moment in his run had changed positions from his mouth to his hands. This was it, the sweet spot on the neck was where he had to hit. She wouldn¡¯t die fast bit she would die certain. He had done it many times with sharp rocks and beasts. But the hand didn¡¯t budge and that was when he knew he had made mistake. Maybe he should have ran. He had forgotten about the man with the girl. He hadn¡¯t even seen him for the whole process so he thought he had gone after the rest of the family for meat. He hadn¡¯t even felt him coming and his hand were stopped in mid-air. He had stopped him from delivering his saving blow (saving him). She would have been down with the puncture in her neck and killing would have been easy. He could have left her or given her a short death. But he knew what was next to come. The girl had her bow aimed on him and he waited patiently for the countdown to finish and then the man knockd the bow out of her hands and the girl was down on the ground shaking. He couldn¡¯t hear anything now , the vision was getting darker. The loss of blood was playing its part now. The running and jumping had quickened his heart beat and the blood was overflowing. Before he knew it he had fainted. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rigg couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. He hadn¡¯t sensed this child¡¯s presence until he fell down from the tree and killed the fawn. The boy lifted his head and stared at both of them. He had brownish red hair long untied dirty. There were bits and pieces of branches and leaves stuck here and there. He had a tanned face and arms but the portion of neck revealed that his original colour was light. He was short, a little shorter than Sylvie probably, long legs, thin waist. Nothing really stood out about him until he looked up. That was what shocked the most. He had a claw mark running vertical from his forehead to his cheeks. It was healed but the skin still showed redness around it meaning it was recent. But the most distinguishing part were the eyes. He had eyes of the colour of pure gold and they were slit in the middle. He could see those eyes looking at him and at the same time looking through him. He was piecing the situation together and then he ran. Like a nimble squirrel that charges away when it feels anything nearby. Sylvie couldn¡¯t believe what she saw. She had a sure shot of the fawn and then some random person just fell off a tree, broke its neck and ran while taking ¡®her¡¯ fawn. She was angry. Not only had he taken her first kill he didn¡¯t even have the decency to say sorry for it. She didn¡¯t even notice when her hand drew the arrow and when she placed the shot. But she saw the fawn fall from his hands. ¡®Good¡¯ she thought ¡®she was going to make him pay¡¯. That¡¯s when her father interrupted ¡°What are you doing Sylvie?¡± ¡°What does it look like? I am taking back my kill and teaching that guy some manners!¡± ¡°Stop it. It wasn¡¯t your kill. He killed it and it¡¯s his spoil¡± ¡°No its not. It would have been mine if he hadn¡¯t fallen of the tree and killed it by mistake.¡± It seems she still hadn¡¯t figured out that he had killed it and not by mistake. ¡°And what are you going to do about it? Kill him?¡± ¡°If I have to I will do it.¡± This was the first time he had seen Sylvie like this. She had always been well mannered around the house. He didn¡¯t know what had gotten into her. She was already running after him. He was down with the arrow in his hand and the kill was lying near him. She didn¡¯t know what drove her so mad. Maybe it was because her father was siding with some no name kid who just stole her kill. ¡®Why couldn¡¯t father understand that I am doing all this just to make him proud? I will just scare this kid a little and let him give me the fawn.¡¯ She nocked another arrow and let it fly. The kid moved and it hit his arm again. That was when the situation changed. She could now feel a different pressure than she felt earlier from him. She was suffocating, it was like she had fear etched into her brain. But she stopped moving. She saw his eyes, they were stained in red around the pupil and that¡¯s when she knew he was coming for a kill. She had to defend herself. He started running towards her and she aimed for the heart. But he blocked it with the carcass of the fawn. And she knew from his movement he was going to do that so she drew another arrow but when he let the carcass fall he became a blur, and he was behind her. She felt the chill and was waiting for the blow but it never came and she turned around aiming the bow towards him and in fear she was about to let the arrow pierce through him, but her father shouted ¡®NO¡¯ and knocked the bow out of her hands. In a moment she was down on all fours trying to calm her heart from the encounter she had just faced that almost got her killed. Chapter 2 His eyes flicked open. First thought that registered his mind was that he was in a room, a manmade room. He had not thought that he would be taken to the man¡¯s house when he lost the battle. When his eyes started to become comfortable with the brightness around he noticed the vivid details. His hand was bandaged up to stop the bleed while he was lying on the bed unattended. *Why did they bandage me? Are they trying to tame me?* He had seen animals tamed before. The only reason he could think of healing a prey was to use them as a bait or for labour. He wasn¡¯t going to do any of that. He sat on the bed rolling down the sheet covering him. That¡¯s when his sight registered the girl. She was standing there maybe as a guard. He needed to get past her and run. He couldn¡¯t stay here this wasn¡¯t the place he belonged. The human houses were cramped. He needed nature and freedom. The human house devoid him of both things. His instincts told him that he wasn¡¯t safe around humans. They were illogical and irrational. He needed to get out and get out fast. Sylvie was standing next to the door. Her father had ordered her to look over the boy since she was responsible for the whole mess. She was annoyed. Just looking at his face she can feel the anger boil her inside. This guy had been responsible for her utter disgrace. Not only had he robbed her of her first kill but also made her almost piss herself in fear. She had almost lost her calm and control. He had disgraced her in front of her father. She was never going to forgive him. This was supposed to be her day, but now it was all about him. He was responsible for everything. She had moved towards the door to check when her father would come and relieve her of this torturing duty. Then she heard movement behind. And turned. The boy was now sitting in the bed staring at her. She couldn¡¯t control herself and shouted ¡°What the hell is wrong with you? You tried to kill me!! You even stole my deer!! You are an uncivilised beast!! Don¡¯t you know¡­¡± He had seen her. He needed to take care of her and clear the way. The door was the only way out. He heard her shouting, not that he understood any word of the human speech. The tone of the voice suggested she was angry, he didn¡¯t care. Humans get angry at various things. He didn¡¯t understand them. He threw the bed sheet towards the girl blocking her vision. She stopped midway through her rantings. He jumped from his sitting position and kicked her in the stomach. She brought her hands to her stomach in a reflex. Her body curled bringing the head down in same motion. He knew this was supposed to happen he brought his fists up connecting it to the jaws while head was in its down motion making her incapable of speech for few moments and possible unconscious if he was lucky. He ran for the door. This was all over in a matter of seconds and he was almost out when he crashed into the guy from earlier. This he didn¡¯t expect but instinctively he aimed at his nether regions. That was the only possible location he could probably hurt the man. With the momentum of his running blocked he couldn¡¯t summon much of his power but the blow still hurt the man enough that he was down clutching his hurt parts. He ran for the side trying to get through the door, but a hand caught him. The man was still not down. The pain wasn¡¯t enough to create a diversion for him to run, and before he could take any further steps, the man had taken control of his weakness. The wound from the arrow was still fresh. A slight pressure from the man was all that was needed for him to cry out in pain. The bleeding that had stopped renewed with vigour. He couldn¡¯t do anything as the man bound his arms and legs to avoid further confrontation. For the time being he was a prisoner of this man. He needed to show that he wasn¡¯t going to run while hatching a plan in his mind to do the same. While he was sitting thinking about how to make an escape the man started talking. He didn¡¯t understand a word of what man was saying. He didn¡¯t know human language. *Why was this man talking to him?* This man probably thought of him as human. He noted that fact. This could help him in his escape he thought Riggs was still uncomfortable in front of this boy. He was still hurting from the sudden action the boy had taken. He didn¡¯t want to scare him anymore than he already was. Fear was a great motivator to perform nasty deeds. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be afraid¡± Griggs said trying to calm the boy down. The boy now had a serene face with eyes closed as if dreaming a soft beautiful dream. He knew the boy was thinking a way out. ¡°My name is Rigg¡± he said while trying to help his daughter up and bring her back to her feet. The punched had knocked the living daylights out of her. She kicked the boy in the stomach screaming ¡°What were you thinking? You could have broken my jaw!!!¡± ¡°Now Now Sylvie, I told you to be alert. This was partially your fault.¡± ¡°How was it my fault?? He was the one who punched me.¡± Rigg came back to the boy. ¡°This here is my daughter Sylvie who almost killed you and I apologise for that. She is slightly hot headed and gets it from me. What is your name boy?¡± ¡°What are you apologizing for father he was the one who tried to kill me. He should be apologizing to me, even though I won¡¯t forgive him especially since he tried to break my jaw¡± ¡°Boy can you understand me? What is your name? What were you trying to do in the forest?¡± The boy didn¡¯t reply. For him it was just a bunch of gibberish. He was rather concentrating on things around the room that he can use as a weapon. That was when he felt it. It was the feeling that he never expected to get in a human settlement. The feeling of warmth and purity. The moment she stepped in from the door he knew she was the very embodiment of nature itself. He was almost kneeling down to greet her. Then she saw her with the milky eyes that seemed to know everything about the world and more. She saw the boy bound and lying down and the immediate response was ¡°Thakk¡± ¡°What in the gods name is he doing down on the ground?? Can¡¯t you see he is injured??¡± She inquired from her husband who was now trying to soothe the pain in his head from the blow. ¡°Darling he attacked me, so I had to take measures¡± he tried to explain This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Anybody would attack you if you greet them with a vicious look, and he is only an 8 year old how much do you think he could have hurt you?¡± ¡°Well he is surprisingly good at finding weak spots. If I hadn¡¯t bound him, the possibility was we could never had a child again.¡± This made her blush and angry ¡°Thakk¡± another blow ¡°Have some shame in front of your daughter¡± Then she went to the boy and removed the bandages. He just gazed at her as if the mothernature herself had come to greet him. He had never felt this much blissful in his life ever. He was interested in who she was. He knew if she walked in the forest someday all animals would gather around just to have a look at the person giving off this feeling. She gave a look at the wound and the boy¡¯s face then with a smile she said in Old Language ¡°Don¡¯t be scared young¡¯un I am going to heal the wound¡± ¡°OK¡± was the only thing his mind could come up with She placed her hands over the wounds and with a strange incantation she tried to ask the wound to close and it did. Then she went for the face and did the same thing with the scar over the eyes. He could feel the strange warmth from her when the incantation was uttered and he knew it was a healing magic. ¡°Ohh.. So he can speak Old Language.. That is quite strange for a boy this old. Darling how did you know that he could speak that?¡± ¡°Ohh.. I felt it. The spirit of the forest which resides in our people was present in him. Almost all creatures of the forest are born with the knowledge of Old Language. Those that aren¡¯t are usually taught by their parents.¡± ¡°Well I was trying to find out few things about him. I am guessing he can¡¯t speak or understand our language so maybe you could ask him instead, about his circumstances.¡± ¡°Boy what¡¯s your name? I am Estaiya.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a name!!¡± ¡°What do you mean? Your parents must have given it to you!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember. The first thing I remember when I woke up was the wilderness around me. I was cuddled in warm rug made of animal skin and was in a dying tree trunk. I don¡¯t remember how I got there or who put me there but that is where my existence began. I had general knowledge about everything like how to survive, where to move, what to do and how to do it. I had general sense of everything what I lacked was knowledge.¡± ¡°How long has it been since then?¡± Estaiya asked with a little tears in her eyes ¡°538 suns and moons have passed since then. You don¡¯t need to pity me I have lived well and couldn¡¯t have asked for much more. I like the forest. It¡¯s my home just as yours. Sometimes it is unforgiving but most of the time it provides you with what you need without anything in return unlike humans.¡± His general sense dictated that humans were an abomination. He knew right from the birth that they were no good and were followers of their wild emotions rather than logic and reasoning. Estaiya translated everything for her husband and also displayed her concern for the boy. He agreed. The boy got up. ¡°Thank you for taking care of me but I must return to my home. This place is nasty¡± he exclaimed Rigg said ¡°Ask him to stay here. This year¡¯s winter is going to be harsh. He might not survive. Even if he does it would be more comfortable for him here.¡± Until now Sylvie had remained quiet and seen her parents talking about the boy. She didn¡¯t get why this boy was living in the forest for so long but she didn¡¯t care enough for the stranger to fell any sort of remorse or anything. But seeing the talk moving towards him staying in her home she couldn¡¯t keep quiet. ¡°What are you talking about father? He is a beast!! He attacked me and you and if he stays here he is certainly going to be a danger to everyone around. And what are you going to tell the village people that you brought a boy home from the forest?¡± ¡°He won¡¯t listen. He has a wild spirit.¡± She replied ignoring her daughter. She didn¡¯t get why she was that upset about somebody staying here for the winter?? ¡°Try to convince him anyway¡± The boy was still on the ground trying to re-feel the body after a long rest. He was almost up and about when she said ¡°Maybe you should stay here.¡± That took the boy by surprise. Why would they want him here? There was no logic behind it!! Maybe they wanted him to work for them because they had healed him. But he had just explained he didn¡¯t have any knowledge of anything remotely related to humans. Also it was Estaiya that was asking him. He can¡¯t believe she would want him to do any sort of work as repayment for healing. ¡°Why?¡± was the simple question he put forward. ¡°The winter is going to be real tough you might not be able to handle it¡± ¡°I have handled it so far I think I can bear it¡± ¡°You might be more comfortable here¡± ¡°No I know I will be comfortable at my home¡± ¡°You could learn a lot if you stayed here. You said you didn¡¯t have any knowledge¡± That got his interest. He needed the knowledge. The knowledge was his only friend in the wild. It was his armour and his weapon. Having knowledge was the difference between killing and getting killed. Also his instincts dictated him to get as much information about the world as possible, he was going to need it in future. Also the prospect of living with an elf intrigued him. He only had few tid- bits of knowledge about them, from which he knew they weren¡¯t an enemy. Also he knew that in Old Language anything she says would only be truth hence she can¡¯t really deceive him (not that he ever thought she would but still being alert was the reason he was alive). Living with a human on the other hand was rather irritating to him because of his knowledge about them. Well, maybe that would change after this winter, he thought. ¡°Okay, if you promise in Old Language that you people wouldn¡¯t try to hurt me or make me do something against my wish.¡± She did so. ¡°Make him say the same words¡± he said pointing at Rigg She made him repeat the same. After few tries he got it correct and the contract was formed. Thus began his first step into the human society. Chapter 3.1 THIS ISN''T A FULL CHAPTER I JUST WROTE IT WITH WHATEVER TIME I COULD GET. I AM CURRENTLY QUITE BUSY WITH ONE PROJECT.. AND IT WOULD ALMOST TAKE 2 WEEKS BEFORE I AM FREE... BUT STILL I HOPE YOU GUYS READ IT AND LIKE IT........ PLEASE COMMENT ______________________________________________________________________________________________ The first thing that told him that he had made the right decision was the Food. He had been salvaging from the forest for a very long time. Meat was the main ingredient of his meal, but he had never had it the way he was having it now. Truthfully it was hard eating like humans ate with all those instruments while sitting on hard wooden things, picking meat one by one. They should atleast be free while dining. If it was him, he would have dove head first into the delicacy and finished it. But now that he was with humans he needed to observe them. Also since the food was too good it didn¡¯t matter how they ate. He tried asking Estaiya about how the deer he caught turned out like this. She said she had cooked it on fire. He was impressed. It¡¯s not like he didn¡¯t have any knowledge of fire, but his knowledge declared it to be harmful and deadly. It was a berserk part of nature whose only goal was burning. *As expected from great elf, she could even tame fire. I really need to learn a lot* He was about to start when Estaiya scolded him and told him to offer his thanks to Gods. He was perplexed. ¡°What are Gods?¡± he asked ¡°Ohh.. I forget that you don¡¯t have much knowledge about the world!! Just offer thanks to whoever you think provided this food to you. The topic of Gods can be discussed later.¡± That raised many more questions. Well who was he to thank he couldn¡¯t find anybody who provided him this food other than himself. And so he silently prayed ¡°Thank you myself for providing me this food and saving it from the clutches of the mad girl sitting next to me.¡± He had expected his knowledge to be less but now that he had seen the food and he fully comprehended the fact that he knew less than the little girl sitting next to her whom he frankly considered a pest. She hadn¡¯t shut up, until her mouth was stuffed with food, shouting like a crazy animal. Even wolf¡¯s hound seemed to a lullaby to him after hearing her shout non-stop for such a long time. He didn¡¯t know what she was getting by shouting but he knew the reason was probably him or his stay in this place. From time to time she glared at him with food in her mouth as if after the deer it was his turn to be chewed up. He didn¡¯t care. There was nothing this one could do that could hurt him or even take him by surprise. She was at least eating in silence and though she wasn¡¯t at all trying to be modest with food like her mother. He knew she would chow it down whole if she was left alone with it because she had the hungry look in her eyes. He had seen that many time while battling wolves and mountain lions. Ignoring her was easy because the food was quite good, but maybe that was working the wrong way ¡®cause the more he ignored the more he could feel a deathly glare. Sylvie couldn¡¯t believe her parents when they decided that this guy was going to stay with them. Calling him a guy would be wrong he was more of a wild beast. She had been shouting about all that could go wrong ever since they brought up Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. the topic of him staying the winter. She knew he was definitely going to hurt somebody or something. Even if he doesn¡¯t it wouldn¡¯t mean he doesn¡¯t want to. He had been criticizing about how humans were maybe he will take revenge of some sort. She couldn¡¯t bear the fact that she would have to stay with this freak for more than 3 months. She can¡¯t stand the fact that he had punched her, kicked her and almost puncher her neck. But the biggest fact about him that she couldn¡¯t stand was he had bested her not once but thrice. She had never faced a loss ever before. The child her age weren¡¯t even comparable to her. She had been following her mother ever since 3 learning everything possible and she had already started her training with father while other children were still sitting at home in trying to read and write. She was annoyed at the very existence of this guy. If he didn¡¯t exist she would have come home with her first kill and would have been alone enjoying the moment with her parents, but this guy had ruined it all. Not only that he had shown violence towards her when she didn¡¯t have a shred of inclination of doing so to him. This guy was brutal and if that was so she was going to do the same. When she sat on the chair for dining her fears were confirmed. The guy didn¡¯t even know about tables and chairs and wasn¡¯t really accustomed to eat with plates and spoons. She doubted he ever had a decent meal in his life. Before even the food was brought in she saw him almost drooling from his mouth just from the smell of the dinner (for a moment and then he was back to his cold face). She saw him reach out for the meat when her mother hit his hand and told him something. Maybe to pray cause he silently did say something while closing his eyes. Then he began, and she was astonished. He had large pieces of meat and most delicate ones. The ones that melted in the mouth just by placing it, especially when her mother cooked it. He knew the anatomy well or he was trying to piss her off, and it was working. They were her favourites she couldn¡¯t let him have it all. She stole from his plate. He was exceeding the bounds of a guest which he was. He had been eating too much she couldn¡¯t believe he wasn¡¯t even being modest, but she supposed that was to be expected since he was not civilised enough to be modest. Every time he took a piece of the deer she glared at him indicating that was enough, and he ignored it. She can¡¯t let him have his way in her home on her dining table. So she started taking huge portions of meat herself. She was going to have the largest portion no matter what. But every time she took some of it the boy followed, and with even larger pieces. This was infuriating. Even eating at family table, her most favourite time with family, he was turning it to a competition. If that was so she wasn¡¯t going to lose. The challenger and the challenged (in the minds of Sylvie) kept on going until there was no food left on the table. Halfway through her parents got worried and tried her to make her quit (at least that¡¯s what she thought) but she wasn¡¯t going to lose to this guy again she had vowed. When the dishes were finished she was the winner and she thought tonight¡¯s sleep was going to be specially blissful for her.
Also if anybody knows how i can provide link to next chapter at the end of my chapter please tell... I am complete noob at this....