The sweet fragrance of the blooming camellias, the twittering of sparrows underneath the trees, the colorful butterflies flying around. The sound of waterfalls in a distance and the rustles of grasses as Caelen walks around the forest.

This beautiful scenery in front of him made even more perfect by the lady standing with her back facing him from a distance. The woman's beautiful caramel-colored, wavy hair that seems to dance whenever the cool breeze of wind blows. She looks like a real life fairy that has come to life from those children's folk tale books.

"Elle," He called her name with the tone as softly like a cotton. The warmth in his eyes as he looks at her shows that he doesn't just fancied her but that he has been completely head over heels with her.

She immediately turned around and gave him a warm, genuine smile.

"Caelen."

Her, calling his name while smiling like that is enough to stir different emotions within him.

"What are you doing in here all alone?" He asked, as he walks closer to her.

"I plan on hunting around here so I'm checking out the place."

He looked around, it's marked by a yellow-green colored flag. It's

indicating that it's a level two hunting ground. This is one of the safest place to be if you don't want to go all out.

This forest was divided by five levels of hunting ground. The first level is marked with a green flag, anyone can easily hunt in here. The second one is yellow-green, the third which is the intermediate level was given a yellow mark while the last two which was hard and dangerous were indicated by orange and red pennants.

"Then should we go together? It's been a while since I have spent time with my best friend." Caelen asked as he lowered and tilt his head a little while smiling to meet Eleanor in her eye level.

"Alright. Go easy on me then."

Eleanor nodded and playfully grinned at him. She has always been competitive since they were kids. Seeing that she hasn't changed at all even when they are adults now made him happy.

They casually stride deeper in the forest. Eleanor was holding a rapier while also having a bow and arrows clinging on her back. Caelen on the other hand also brought a sword with him as this is what he specializes.

"Elle, what do you plan on doing from now on?" He asks as he looks around looking for some targets.

"What do you mean?" Eleanor asked back, puzzled with his question.

"Certainly, you don't plan on really staying with him right? He's dangerous."

"Are you suggesting that I should plan to divorce him?"

With this counter question Eleanor had thrown out for him, he was dismayed.

"Don't tell me that divorce hasn't cross your mind?" He suddenly stopped walking as he couldn't believe it. A trace of disappointment could be seen in his eyes but he managed to concealed it quickly.

"I don't see anything dangerous about him at the moment to deem him a peril for me."

"Elle, do you even hear yourself right now?" Caelen sounds frustrated with his thick brows almost touching each other and the lightly opened mouth that indicates his disbelief.

"I do, but It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

Hearing her said that, his heart thumped loudly.

"You don't mean to say that you're slowly falling for him right?"

Eleanor chuckled as if she heard something so absurd and funny.

"Although he really treats me gently, I think it's only because he respects me as his wife. He was just doing his duty as my husband and so am I."

He sighed in relief. He was shocked to realize that he had even forgotten to breathe for a moment, afraid of hearing what she has to say. Although he still had suspicions, he decided to just buried it in his heart.

They walked and scouted the area until they heard rustles near the bushes near them. They immediately get into their hunting position and wait for whatever animal is it that was going to pop up.

After a few seconds of waiting, a white mixed with gray patterned rabbit leaped out and a deer also appeared.

Caelen and Eleanor looked at each other first as if having a telepathic conversation on which one they would come after.

Eleanor quickly equipped her bow and put the rapier on the sheath strapped and dangling from her waist and immediately go after the rabbit that was headed towards northwest. While Caelen on the other side, decided to go for the deer that was running towards northeast.

Caelen decided to take a shortcut and plan on waiting first towards where the deer headed and ambush it right there. It only took him a few moments before the deer really did showed up to the place he figured out it would be.

Gripping the sword with his two hands for a more accurate shot, he swung the sword as if it was a part of his body and with one quick motion, he accurately hit the deer's right front leg, making it unable to move and just collapsed there.

After this, he decided to go and search for Eleanor and show it to her but after half an hour going around in circles searching for her, he felt that something was wrong.

He went back to the place where they last been before parting. He searched for her shoe prints and saw it leading somewhere so he followed it. He managed to find an entrance hidden deeper in the forest. This is the first time he is seeing this. He had memorized every inch of the forest and couldn't remember it having this place in the last few hunting contests the palace decided to held in the past years.

His body went into high alert mode as soon as he steps into that place. The place seems dangerous. The idea that Eleanor was wandering around here alone made his body bathe in cold sweats. He never felt like this even when he was in the middle of battlefield.

"Please be safe." He muttered as he starts his search for her.

***

Eleanor was so fixated in catching this rare looking rabbit that she still went after it despite noticing the unfamiliar place where it went to.

She managed to find a good distance to shoot it but the sudden roaring from the distance shook her and her target. She withdraws her bow and arrow and swapped it with her rapier.

It was just a normal bear, it would still be hard to take it down in a few swings since the rapier is much thinner than the normal battle swords.

She quickly hide in the big trees surrounding her and waited for it to voluntarily appear. She wasn't wrong since it only took a few seconds to show itself.

It's a burly looking grizzly bear that's quadruple of her size.

She gulped.

Although Caelen and her brother, Ezra, always take a time to train her, she was still not confident with her swordsmanship. She only sparred with knights but she's never been in the battlefield.

She decided to just incapacitate it and quickly run away after. It's the most realistic thing to do in this scenario.

As the bear comes closer to where she's hiding, she breathe in and out loudly, clutching the hilt of her rapier, in an attack stance. So as soon as the bear was only a few meters away, she jumped on it from behind. Taking a chance on it being defenseless at the moment, she hurriedly lunges for bear's leg.

She managed to stab it again with the same area but it was standing still. It would take her time to tire it out completely. It was like thrusting a sword with a boulder.

She decided to go and swing another few thrust while the bear tried to hit her with it's sharp claws. Of course, it wouldn't just stand there as she attacks.

"Roar!" The bear growled angrily. It looks like she made it so mad. When the bear fall with its buttocks first to the ground unable to get up, she decided to make a run for it but she has only took a few steps away when arrows from unknown different directions launched at her.

She managed to deflect some of it by slashing a few in halves before it reaches her but two managed to hit her. One arrow grazes her right cheekbone, while the other one manage to cut shallowly on her upper arm.

She dived down on the ground and crawls her way towards the big acacia tree near her for cover.

'An ambush? Who could it be?'

There's a lot of thoughts in her head at that moment when she suddenly smelled a familiar scent near where she was. The attack has already stop too, probably because they also heard rustling sound of someone coming.

She sighed in relief. The wound on her upper arm has started bleeding so she leaned on the trunk of the tree to support herself. She hope that he reaches her quickly.