From the very first moment of her life that she could remember, everyone around her always had huge expectations about Talisa. And not without reason. She excelled in everything she did, be it fighting, learning, cooking, leading. She was the foremost and brightest child in her generation.

That didn't mean that she had it easy though. Quite the contrary, Talisa was always pushed harder than the other kids, she always trained more and her greater achievements were left unappreciated in contrast to the praise the other kids got for their lesser achievements.

She was smart though. She knew it was for her own good, so that she could continue improving. She was also incredibly curious and adventurous, thia distant, cut-away from the world village life was not her cup of tea. She dreamed for grand adventures, for hunting and battling mythical creatures, exploring ancient ruins. To see the grand age-old cities of different might empires and kingdoms. To experience different cultures and see all kinds of different people.

Exactly this way of thinking got her all too often in a neverending verbal dispute with her father, the chieftain. From early age he tried to train her not only as a warrior and hunter, and teach her the Hunter’s codex, but to be a capable leader as well. Teaching her to read, write and mannerism. Passing down the teachings that his tutor, the previous chieftain, teached to him and what his ancestors had teached him, and so on and so forth from the very founding of the settlement.

Even though she was against that and did not want to become the next chieftain and to be tied down to this small boring place, Talisa accepted his teachings and cut short her physical training just to make her father happy. It was the only thing that made him smile since her mother died. Her father kept blaming himself for her death, even though everyone knew that it wasn't his fault. It was an accident and a completely natural and honourable death for a hunter. To die fighting a mighty beast in a heroic battle of a hunter and hunted.

The beast in question, a 2 headed Reinclop, a formidable behemoth of a beast. Standing a bit over 2 meters in height on all four and over 5 meters long. 2 heads taken right out of a nightmare, rough purple scales, glowing white eyes without irises , 2 long curved horns for each head and a maw full of endless razor sharp teeth. A body packed with intertwined muscles, sharp claws and a spiked morning star-ish tail.

Truly a beast from the depths of hell. Her mother, the strongest hunter the forest has seen challenged the beast to a one on one hunt showdown. In that regard Talia takes after her mother. Adventurous and reckless to death, once her mind is set, there's no changing it.

After almost 2 weeks of continues hunting, chasing, stalking and small skirmishes, her mother had finally managed to take down the beast, unfortunately paying the ultimate price in return, succumbing to her battle wounds two days later.

At the time Talisa was too small and couldn’t comprehend completely the concept of death and what had happened, but with time and slowly learning the codex she understood that her mother died with honour and dignity, doing what she loved to do - adventuring and hunting. Their settlement was one of hunters, and they lived as such.

To hunt is to live and to die hunting is to die happy, a never ending cycle for the hunters. Such deaths were treated akin to natural deaths, such as old age.

From then on Talisa did not mourn her mother, for such was the life of a hunter, she used her as an inspiration. Pushing forward ever so harder, training, learning and at the same time the bubbling feeling for grand adventures was slowly transforming into a monster inside of her. And still she did not have the heart to leave her father and these villagers alone, so she persisted ever onward. Meeting and crushing expectations, excelling in both academic and physical exercises, soon enough she was the strongest huntress right behind her father, Roxus.

The tipping point for her ever-growing need for new experiences was when, two years ago a shaman tigress suddenly came to the village. Talisa found out with a great shock that the shamaness, Melisa, was actually her late mother’s sister. In no time her new-found aunt became her most favourite person. Apparently the two sisters used to adventure around the country numerous years before her mother fell in love with her father and settled down in his home village.

Melisa, however, had continued adventuring and travelling for years, until she finally decided to come and visit. Talisa watched with heavy eyes as a tonne of different emotions attacked her aunt the first day she arrived. From the utter happiness and bliss she felt from finding out she had a beautiful niece, to absolute horror and immense sadness when Roxus told her about her sister’s fate. That night they both cried their eyes out from dusk to twilight.

Her aunt promised to stay in the village for a couple of years to help around and teach the kids what she knows, both about magic and the world. And so came the endless nights of questioning, where Melisa would tell her all about her different adventures, meetings, the people she’s seen, the places she’s been. Talisa would listen with sparkling eyes and burning desire, unable to sleep for hours, repeating every word her aunt told her and imagining herself on these adventures.

She couldn’t take it any longer, she had to change her future. After endless hours of discussions, brawls and pleading, Talisa finally received what she most desired. Her aunt agreed on taking Talisa with her when she leaves the village after two years - when she becomes 18 years of age, of course, without the knowledge of her father, Roxus.

And thus two years had come and gone, in the blink of an eye. They were due to depart after a month and she could barely contain her excitement. Unable to stay in one place she volunteered to go on scouting and hunting missions every day, without pause or rest.

It is exactly on one of these scouting missions that something completely unexpected happened. She and the other youths that were on a three hour scouting mission of any games nearby the village were just returning home when they suddenly stumbled upon tracks that were going in the direction of the village. That in itself wouldn’t be strange, however, the tracks were two-pedal and humanoid.

She and her group decided to follow the tracks, soon enough they caught up to the perpetrator. Her eyes widened with shock, yet a mild, almost unnoticeable fire light up inside them. The thing that had left the tracks was something that she had never seen before. That wasn’t the shocking part of course, she had not seen any other humanoid beings except her people - The Forest Tiger beastmen.

No, what was shocking is that her aunt had been to numerous places all around the Empire, yet from the numerous stories of her encounters with different beings, she had never described a humanoid that looked like this one.

At first glance it looked normal, but upon closer inspection it didn’t have any of the characteristics of the races that she knows of. Goblins, Dragonlings, Drawfs, Vajorns and Giants were immediately out of question. Nor did it have the characteristics of the beastmen clans, the elves or demons. Was it perhaps some kind of a halfbreed? Or an exotic creature that her aunt forgot to mention or hadn’t encountered?

Her excitement bubbled uncontrollably, however, even in such a circumstance, she knew that she had to be extremely careful. Most of the people from the village, including herself, have not met any outsiders thus far. That makes things even more strange and dangerous, for the first time, to her knowledge someone is walking towards the village. What intentions does he have? Is he friendly or or not. They must proceed with great care.

Making a couple of hand signs Talisa singled the other youths to continue following the being from afar, carefully analyzing it’s behavior, as if it was a game that they were about to hunt.

A couple of hours of careful following later, it was painfully obvious that the person had somehow noticed them. But since he didn’t do anything about it, they were content to simply continue following and observing him.

Sooner rather than later, the man apparently finally had enough of the charade and sharply turned around, scanning the forest left and right. She and her group were trained from the moment they could walk, their abilities to hide and move through the forest was top-notch, it was not a surprise that he couldn’t locate them. But, that leaves the question how had he even known they were following him? A skill?

His face adopted a scowl, “ Who’s there? Why are you following me?”, her team all looked at her questiongly, she was somehow, unanimously chosen as the leader, not only because she was the chieftain’s daughter, but mostly because of her prowess.

When she didn’t make any move to respond, neither did the others.

“I know you are there, come out at once!” , There’s nothing left to do, he definitely knows we are here, she thought. With a small sigh, yet sparkling eyes, she made a couple of hand signs and then jumped down from the branch that she had been using as a platform.

Mid air she masterfully drew her bow and nocked an arrow, ready to release it at the slightest sign of aggression from the person.

Landing in front of him with an arrow pointed directly at his head, she finally had the opportunity to inspect him more closely. Definitely not a race she’ve heard of before, but from the descriptions she has been given, the race he looked most like was the high elves. Just except the ears and blonde hair.

Staring directly at his eyes she was at loss for words. Instead of showing fear or any drop of panic, his expression was more that of shock, excitement and bewilderment. Was he just that strong that there was nothing for him to fear? No, it can’t be, nothing about him screamed of danger or strength. Talisa was pretty certain in her ability to determine the power of a being in front of her, something she and the other hunters have acquired from a lifetime of fighting fearsome beasts.

Then.. was he simply shocked to see her? But didn’t he already know he was being followed? Or was it an expert bluff? No it couldn’t be, perhaps.. It’s his first time seeing a tiger beastmen? That must be it, it was the most logical explanation, Talisa deduced.

“Am.. Hello?”, he said, voice infused with his bewilderment. At that point the rest of the group came down as well, creating an almost perfect circle around the man.

“Who are you and what are you doing in our territory?”, she asked deliberately whilst taking a step forward, trying to seem more threatening. At this point Talisa was almost sure that the man didn't have any bad intentions, that or he was an incredibly good actor.

“Am.. sorry, I ..”, when suddenly Dory, her childhood rival and the most annoying person she knows, used the edge of his bow and landed a clean blow to the back of the man’s head, knocking him out cold.

“What was that for? We were just about to get some clues about why he's here!”, she yeled in his direction, “Oh please, do you really think he would’ve told us the truth?”, the reply came instantly, followed by a glare.

Talisa could feel her face turning red with anger. “He was clearly as shocked as we were, or more, besides he was alone and didn't seem like a combatant. We wouldn't have lost anything hearing him out!”

“Oh bullshit, look at how relaxed he seemed. His posture didn't look like the one of a scared or cornered being. I say we kill him right now and don't take any risks.”

“No! We are hunters and we abide by the codex. As long as we are in this forest we will not kill, unless it is a game that we hunt, for food or if our lives are endangered.”

“Again with your cockiness Talisa! How would you know that he isn’t a danger to us! Just because you are the best of the youths, by a small margin at that, doesn't mean you are invincible!”, Dory practically screamed at her at this point “You know how many hunters lost their lives by underestimating their enemies!”

“Enough!”, a booming voice put an end to her reply. Turning her head around she saw her best friend, Julie walking towards her and Dory.

Stepping in between them, pointing each of her hands in both their directions, “It's not the time to argue you idiots! This is something that has never happened before and it concerns the fate of the while village! We will the guy", theatrically waving her hand at the coldy knocked out person in her legs “and bring him to the chieftain”

She ushered forward the others from the group, “Get a pole or something and tie him up, please", followed by a sigh and rubbing her temples, “You are such kids, guys.. stop fighting over everything will you".

The sight brought a smile to Talisa’s face and instantly lifted the rage mask. Julie always was the most mature of them all, having the ability to calm them down and cease their fighting at any time.

Truly a great friend”