________

We begin our story following a young huntress going by the name Hara Lycal.

Our heroine lives in a small seaside village surrounded by fast forests and the deep sea.

She makes her living as a forester, hunting and controlling the population of the animals that wander and inhabit the forest to the east of her small village.

The 19-year-old took over the post of her mentor after her passing and has since become one of the many hunters residing in "Ignota".

It's a small and cozy little village, the populace not counting more than 3.000 residence, the inhabitants of the village mostly hunted and fished to make their living, professions that dealt with foraging and hunting thriving in the untouched landscape surrounding the small basin-like piece of land the village was placed in.

The mountains protected them from the winds and storms coming from the north, the sea was tamed by underwater caves and reefs that softened the waves and tides.

The land was prosperous and the people warm, it was the perfect place to disappear to and start a new life.

_______

The sunlight shone warmly and the clouds were a soft white, it was a warm and sunny day.

In a comfortable wooden cabin, a girl opened her eyes and got ready for another day of work, just like every day, she stood up and looked over her calendar and the notes she took, this time her notes were few but important.

"Check the forests roads"

"Check for mud and rain slides"

"Check for dead trees"

"Check on the local animals/ population"

These notes were written in her handwriting and were from the day before.

Although today was a beautiful and tame day, the night before had been a raging storm, it had rained like the sky was trying to drown the world and lightning fought in the sky.

Although her job wasn't official in any other location other than her village, she took it seriously just like her mentor had taught her.

Their village chief, an old man by the name of "Herald Styffen" had appointed her as the main forester of the Emerald forest himself, it was written in the village registry and as Ironclad as any other official job in the village.

This was due to their village being far away from other towns and cities, the few people that came here originating from contracted companies taking their harvests and wares to resell in other places.

This was how a 19-year-old could become a forester so young, in the village no one would bat an eye at her age or job, as long as the village chief said so, it must be so.

Although she doubted her job title would be acknowledged anywhere but here, she still took pride in it.

____

The village was surrounded by three giant forests, the Emerald forest, the Rikan forest, and the Sry forest.

The sea next to them was the Fler, an ocean stretching miles and miles wide.

At the moment, every forest had two main foresters watching over them, as they were wide and wild, too much to be watched over by one person.

The Emerald Forest was the smallest out of these natural giants and she was the only main forester, but she wasn't alone as rangers were working with her.

Together they were a team of five, each of them looking after a specific plot of land, and she watched over them all as well as her own sector.

They were a good team, although they largely talked over calls or video calls, as they were busy all day and didn't live close to each other at all.

She lived the farthest from the village and near the forest edge, while the rangers lived in the village itself.

Her little cabin was the house of her mentor and she had inherited it after her passing, it was natural and she just drifted away in her sleep, she was an old woman at the time and had taught her ward everything she needed to know.

She knew the rangers very well, they had worked together for years after all ,and they too had taught her much of what she now knew, they could very well be mistaken as a small family if one didn't know them.

She loved all of them and their families dearly.

______

Snapping out of her thoughts, she picked up her phone and gave one of her rangers a call.

"Ellen here?" A male voice answered after the second ring, his voice coated in sleep.

"Hey, it's me, I'll be checking the main roads out today, I'm sure you saw the storm yesterday."

She informed her friend and walked around barefoot, stalking over to her hopefully stocked fridge.

"Hmm? Yeah, thanks for the reminder, I'll check mine out as well, I'll call you if I find anything out of the ordinary, when are you doing your inspection of my sector? Monday?"

His gruff voice asked, the sleep receding as he woke up, the girl chuckled and bit back a grin.

"Sorry El', did I wake you? And I'm sorry, but we'll need to push that back, I need to take care of Sahra's sector first, god knows how the river looks after yesterdays flood rain."

She sighed as she grabbed a carton of milk and poured herself a glass, her phone held between her ear and shoulder.

"Hmm, understood, give me a date sometime this week please, I'm going to go in deep sometime next week to check on some Beast rumors."

Her friend sighed on the other side of the phone, he sounded tired just talking about new beasts near them, and she could fully understand.

They are around the village was one of the places where the beasts appeared slower than others and so far they didn't have many problems with them.

"... Do you mind if I come with you? This could be important." She requested, scowling softly as she grabbed a pen and paper, beginning to write it down.

"And what was the rumor about anyways? Are we talking about small bugs, or centipedes and crickets... locust?"

She inquired, rattling a few bugs off of the top of her head, her voice wavering as she got to crickets and locust, their village had a few acres of farmland, and a plague would be devastating as the villagers grew most of the grain they used themselves, storing the rest in silos for colder weather.

"No, thank god, talk was that a few kids were exploring the mountains in my sector and stumbled upon a nest of beasts that resembled spiders, they ran away and no one got hurt, the sector around the mountain is closed off until I find what they were talking about."

He spoke, sounding unsatisfied as he spoke about the closed-off area, but then again she couldn't fault him, spider-like beasts generally were bad news, they could only hope and pray that they weren't venomous or poisonous.

Hell, they hoped they weren't corrupters, a kind of beast that could infect the area around them making the area dangerous to humans and other beasts and animals.

"Let's hope we're not dealing with another cockroach incident..." The forester grumbled with a suppressed shiver, their area didn't have many beasts, but there were some incidents in the past, one of them being the cockroaches in their area growing to be the size of the fist of a male adult, it wasn't pretty and fire throwers were used, a few areas are still stained black from the ash left behind.

The roaches had appeared in the basement of one of the abandoned and old buildings in their village, the old house was burnt down and the roaches exterminated, it was a small price to pay as far as the villagers were concerned.

Talk was about making the burnt plot of land into a wheat field.

"...Yeah, let's not talk about that, I still have nightmares about those damn things, anyway, sure you can come, but who'll look over your sector? Mike is already taking over mine."

He agreed to her request and she could imagine his brows knitting together as he talked about the roaches.

As they were rangers and foresters that regularly dealt with animals of all kinds, they were called to the scene, and so were the other hunters, rangers, and foresters that could be reached, a colony of roaches was not to be taken lightly, especially if they were the size of fists and beasts.

She nodded, setting the empty glass of milk she had been sipping from down in her sink to wash later.

"Great, We'll do the inspection on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how the other sectors look and how bad the flooding is, when do we set off?"

She rinsed her glass with water and set it back down, turning away from the sink and trodding into the living room, her little notebook in her hand as she sank down in her seat.

"Next Tuesday? I took Monday off, you know, family time."

She nearly heard the smile that must be on his face right now as he talked about spending his day with his family, a delightful wife by the name of Cassy and a sweet daughter named Monique,

She smiled too, she adored the two, "Alright, that's settled then, I'll call you when I get the date ready, wish Cassy and Monique a good day."

"Got it, Boss, I'll call you if something's off."

He teasingly replied and hung up, she bit back a smile at the "Boss" comment, she wasn't their Boss they were co-workers and partners.

She sighed and leaned back against her couch, sighing yet again, this time in satisfaction for a job well handled.