"What are you thinking about?"

While absentmindedly washing the utensils in the kitchen, Legas flinched from the abrupt voice. Turning to the side he found that, at some point without his notice, Lena had been scrubbing a stew bowl. The boy's face displayed an expression of a shock for an instant, before he quickly wiped it away, putting on the best poker face he could manage. His hands briefly stopped, replying in a short 'Nothing serious' before resuming the chore.

'How come I couldn't sense her?'

A tinge of doubt clouded Legas' mind. It was quite a failure as a hunter, not being able to notice the arrival of a presence this close to him. Something like this would lead to instant death in the dangerous woods. Trying to wrap his head around the strange event, the boy once again drifted afar in his sea of thoughts for a moment, before glancing at the dazzling splendor that stood right beside.

"Was the stew good?" Legas nervously asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"It was amazing. Much better than last time, if I may add," Lena said with a smile.

The last time referred to when the young hunter had successfully hunted his first big game, a Black Horned Stag. He had skinned the entire beast himself and had cooked meat for the very first time under his mother's guidance. The entire village had feasted on that day, upon horribly burnt steak that is. Clearly, his cooking skills have leveled up a lot since then.

A feeling of relief and bliss assaulted the young boy's heart after the praise. He was so happy that an uncanny, foolishly wide grin stuck to his face. As a result, Legas couldn't find anything else to continue the conversation with as another awkward silence awaited right after that short reply. Both of them did not speak for a while, silently tending to the utensils. After what seemed like an eternity to the fidgeting boy, Lena finally spoke.

"Legas, can I ask you something."

The boy got flustered for a brief instant as he witnessed the girl's serious expression, before quietly nodding his head.

"Hunting in the woods alone with your life on the line, only to give away your share of food to the village...Why do you do it? Especially when you get barely anything in return?" Lena displayed a face of confusion.

She could not understand. Lena had seen lots of monster spoils by the hunter's house and knew that the family could survive for months without hunting if they sell all of it. But instead, they keep the minimum amount of meat for themselves, distributing the rest among the village folk for free. Therefore, the family has to delve into the monster-infested woods for extra meat every day. Even today Legas had brought hard to come by Horned Rabbit meat for the children to eat.

"Yeah, even I had wondered about that some time ago," Legas displayed a wry smile at the girl's confusion. "Actually, all of it is my father's wish."

"Your father?"

The boy's family survived through selling the monster pelts and drops in the nearby villages and towns, while they distribute the meat among the villagers for free, every time after a hunt. His parents had been doing this for a long time and after his father's death, the boy had taken up the job.

The village they lived in was a nameless settlement in the far outskirts and was far closer to the monster's territory than fellow human dwellings. In such a hilly region, covered by rocks and valleys, farming was a very difficult and essentially a thankless job, yielding bare minimum grain for survival.

The threat of monsters loomed every second, and the villagers had to fight hard just to live. Amidst all that hardships, if someone could provide them with an extravagant bowl of meat even once or twice in months, that would be enough to bring a smile onto their faces, no matter how short-lived it might be. That was the reason Legas' father had explained to him as a kid, and it was one of the few actions that he had acknowledged.

"..to bring a smile onto their faces," Lena muttered with a gaze of fascination. Her visage turned into one of a deep ponder. She had expected something to be along the lines of training and accumulating hunting experience. But instead, it was such a pure and selfless act, that she took some time wrapping her head around, contemplating the truth.

"Is that reason not enough?"

"No, it's enough. It's more than enough," Lena had a brilliant smile and her pretty azure eyes twinkled with a joyous glimmer as she clasped her hands. For a moment, Legas was transfixed at the glittering image of the girl, wondering if Alathia herself had descended into the mortal realm.

"See, a smile on the face. I got my reward for today's hunt," as if hypnotized, the boy blurted out his extremely cheesy thoughts with a comical poker face, before it was dyed by the reddish shade of embarrassment when he realized his deeds.

Lena stared with wide, surprised eyes for an instant, turning around with a slight blush on her cheeks that made the boy's heart almost skip a beat. Both of them felt equally awkward at the moment, as they hurriedly stacked the cleaned bowls and made their way to the veranda.

"Where is grandpa?" Lena asked, glancing at the empty seat of the old man.

"He has gone to take a piss outside!"

"Sister Lena, before grandpa comes back, sing another song for us!." one of the kids shouted, the same one who had asked Uncle Granor for another story.

'You really don't want to go home huh'

"Yay!! another song!"

"hurrah!"

"Eh, but the time...", Lena wanted to refuse at first, but abruptly stopped the next moment. She had a mischievous smile on her face when she continued, " Okay! If everyone here wants to hear it, only then will I sing~~"

The veranda was suddenly drowned in immature shouts of the children voicing their desire to hear the song, except for one person. At the moment Lena glanced beside her with a teasing smile, Legas' face froze. A pair of dozen or so intense gazes prickled his skin, that seemed to imply, 'Why haven't you agreed yet?'

Lora immediately donned a puppy look in her eyes, something no brother can even think of ignoring. Legas, on the other hand, was dumbfounded at the situation, but no matter what, he just could not refuse his sister. Still, he was too embarrassed to say the words out loud in this atmosphere.

'Is she getting back at me for what I said before?'.

"I want to hear it...", Legas painfully squeezed out. He suddenly became anxious, and desperately added...

"I-I was preparing the stew before, that's why I couldn't ...hear...", the volume of the words gradually decreased, till it became a whisper towards the end. Legas was quite pleased with himself for coming up with a good excuse, but after the words came out of his mouth, he suddenly wanted to die.

'Getting torn apart by Green Wolves would have been much better!'

The kids were overjoyed with another array of hurrahs, and Lena prepared for her performance while giggling. Legas had the face of a red tomato as he sat down at the corner, muttering something about revenge.

It was deep in the night and an unusual eerie silence permeated the forest. An old man trod forwards with a heavy furrow on his brows that was distinctly visible under the shining moonlight that pierced through the thick canopy. A slightly nervous complexion was displayed on his face, but his steps were unwavering and courageous.

screech!

Suddenly a sharp sound broke through the silence, as the man felt something approach him extremely fast, cutting through the air. However, the old man was not startled in the slightest as if he had been waiting for it.

Peng!

A sound of something metallic colliding with a hard surface drowned the area. Approaching the scene in the near distance, a long iron arrow could be found, stuck into the bark along with a paper tied to it near the head. The old man cautiously untied the string, totally unperturbed throughout the strange event, as if he had done it many times before. Nervously unfolding the paper, his eyes widened in fear and shock at the letter's contents.

In that small piece of paper, one could see what was written, in bold black letters.....

"ESCAPE!"