I was happy. Happy that I had finally found something like this.

My mother had seen me off with her usual bright smile and kind eyes as she waved. Alyra had welcomed me with open arms and a warm hug. And now we were walking through the streets of the village, walking past market stalls selling all kinds of peculiar things. It wasn't anywhere near as grand as it was during the festival a few years ago but there were still a lot of interesting things.

Like that one lady selling rings that one could put around their antlers. They had strange engravings on them that were similar to the wood elven magic mark. A man not too far from the lady sold a peculiar dish. It was a bowl formed from meat and then filled with all kinds of vegetables. The smell it produced made my mouth water and stomach growl.

Alyra chuckled when she heard it, but not loud enough to drown out the sound of her own stomach's growl. Both of us began laughing and we sat down at one of the tables in front of the stall. Shortly after we had ordered the food was already at the table, steaming how and smelling as good as any dish could smell, at least in my book. When we finished eating my stomach was filled to its limit and I had trouble with continuing onwards on our date.

I tried my best to hide my nervousness, after the conversation with Ilmar a few days ago I had no clue what to think. I played it off when I talked with him but once I actually got home and thought about it I remembered that I had no clue how wood elven marriages actually worked. Did the man propose or the woman? How are the ceremonies held?

Oh, why am I even thinking about this... I'm fourteen and she's sixteen. We aren't even adults by wood elven standards since our antlers have yet to grow.

A smile crept across my face as I thought about a wedding.

"You alright?" Alyra asked, taking me out of my fairytale wedding illusion.

"Oh... yeah, I'm fine..." I responded, taken by surprise, smiling at her.

We continued down the market, looking at multiple stalls that sold different things like accessories and sweets but ended up buying nothing. After a while, we reached the hill overlooking most of the village, the same one we had visited during the festival all those years ago. It was just a few hours past noon at the moment, I felt like I did something wrong as I was missing something. But before I could even begin to figure it out Alyra began talking.

"So, Alt, there is something I wanted to talk about," she said.

My heart began beating faster and faster in anticipation.

"What about?" I asked, completely ignoring my heart that almost seemed like it wanted to implode on the spot.

"Well, it's about what I talked with my father about," she said slowly.

"Oh, what did you talk about?" I asked, trying to sound like I didn't know what it was about.

"Well-" Alyra began but she was interrupted by the loud sound of a horn.

This was the sound of one of the hunting horns.

"Grudon has been sighted!" a voice resembling that of mister Elster echoed through the village.

"Grudon!" I said, immediately getting angry.

"We should help," Alyra said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Right," I responded.

_________________________

We were running through the forest, some on the ground while others jumped from branch to branch. I had both of my deep black daggers in my hands and I could see the black arrow tips on some of the arrows the hunters had.

Good thing I killed that damned fish...

It didn't take long until we found what we were looking for. In the middle of a large open area was the massive white dire bear. It seemed angry, a bit sleepy, but mostly angry. It let out a loud roar once it saw the two dozen hunters approach it, among them Alyra, Ilmar, my father and I, the one who had just recently rammed a sharp object into one of its eyes.

And the bear certainly seemed to remember that as it opened its maw, which was filled with sharp teeth, revealing a small white orb.

What's that?

"Dodge!" one of the hunters yelled.

I didn't know why but did so anyway. Oh, how I hated myself for almost not doing it because of my own cockiness.

The spot where I and a few other hunters had just been was gone after the pearl white beam that burst forth from the orb in the bear's maw. It looked like someone had simply deleted what was there before, it was all perfectly cut out as if a circle of deletion just went through the forest. The destruction went on for a few meters before it stopped. A few, pearl white, flame-like remnants of what I knew to be mana remained on the edges of where the beam had deleted things.

So that's white magic...

I let out a desperate chuckle.

So it was holding back then. I got scared, more scared than I was ever before, including my past life. This was a being that could wipe me off the face of this world by breathing on me, leaving not even a speck of dust of me behind. Normally I wouldn't have been able to move but the adrenaline did its job.

"Archers!" a hunter called out.

In the corner of my eye, I saw all of the archers get into position while I and many others activated the wood elven magic mark. I felt the familiar sensation on my skin as I burst forwards with enhanced strength, dodging a paw swipe from the massive bear in the process thank to my enhanced reflexes. A white shimmer was left behind where the claws cut through the air.

A nervous smile crept over my face as I readied my dagger and cut into the meaty and muscular leg of the large bar. His pearl white fur was painted with a hint of red.

"Loose!"

I heard more than a dozen arrows fly through the air and hitting their large target. Grudon let out a roar of pain as he backed away from a man with a large two-handed sword which he brought down from above, only slightly missing the bear's head.

"Ah shit," the large, bald wood elf cursed as he lifted up the heavy looking sword.

I focused on Grudon now, both eyes fixated on the large bear. When I burst forward I hurled up dirt beneath my feet. I rushed towards the bear with two other, adult, wood elves, both of whom had very complex looking magic marks covering their bodies.

One of the two drove their spear deep into Grudon's chest. I expected him to power through it but instead, Grudon fell over, letting out a tired roar of pain.

What's wrong with him?

Before I could really think about it I saw the other wood elf stabbing Grudon's stomach with their sword while I stabbed both my daggers into his throat. Another volley of arrows followed the weak roar of pain and the weak gurgling from Grudon and his large body became limp when a large, metallic arrow with a black tip pierced his head.

For some reason, I didn't feel satisfied. This felt wrong. Something was definitely up with this whole thing. I somehow felt let down, disappointed and... and almost a little sad that it was over this fast.

"You feel it to little one?" one of the wood elves, the one with the spear, asked.

I nodded.

"This isn't usually a time where he's awake," she said.

"It isn't?" I asked, slightly confused.

"That's right, someone must have woken him... but who?" my father, who had approached us and put a hand on my shoulder, said.

I looked up to the sky, the wind blowing against my face, and what I saw was strange. There was smoke in the sky, smoke coming from the direction of the village.

"Dad," I said, pointing to the smoke in the sky.

"Everyone! Return to the village! Now!" my father screamed, his voice echoing through the forest.