Steel teal eyes. I am staring at steel teal eyes. The sharpness of his stare makes me feel small. His eyes feel like a void slowly eating me away. His grip holds me in place— the predator and his prey. I had to endure an unbearably long silence before he decides to speak.
"Why are you here? This place is dangerous for women." he asked. Voice as smooth as honey yet one cannot miss the venom in his words.
"I-I h-hunt. I-I live a f-few... walks f-from here..." I've held his stare for too long that I can't help but shy away. I've never been held by a man like this before. Heck, I haven't been this close to a man my entire life. He opened his mouth to reply but before he could let out another word a loud roar shook the entire forest. The birds left their homes in a quick bid for life and escape the looming threat. The man from the Imperial Army loosened his grip and drew out his sword. From the looks of it, it was made by the rarest of metals and had a dark glint to it. Near the hilt of the sword is a word engraved on it.
"Duodecim..." I whispered. His eyes fell on me. He saw me staring at his sword and asked "have you ever fought before?" His question made me move my eyes to meet his. I only told him I hunt, I don't remember having to fight against deers nor rabbits before. "No. I haven't." It was all the confirmation he needed before holding me by the wrist as hiding me to my resting place near my bag. "Hide here." he made the gesture of covering myself with leaves, he better not think of fighting that thing here. I'm afraid if things go way out of hand the village might be placed in danger. Heck, I might not be able to repair my poor door and wall anymore. Maybe I should just make a run for it? But my feet won't move, it's as if I can't leave him here.
Another roar broke my thoughts—the sound much closer than it was before and from the deep and darkest part of the forest an animal emerged. It was a bear, but this bear is much more different–it is ridiculously bigger with two horns sticking out of its head and spikes are starting to grow from its back, and its eyes—pitch black eyes. There's clearly something wrong. It bared its teeth to the man, the bear's pitless eyes narrowed, it's preparing for an attack.
"M-Mister, I haven't seen such a monstrosity in this forest before, are you sure you can handle it?" I asked worriedly, although he's a member of the Imperial Army I'm not sure if he will be able to leave without a scratch.
"Not Mister. I'm Elliott, and yes I believe you when you tell me you've never encountered such a thing before, and yes I can handle it. The rest we can discuss when I'm done." he replied his eyes never breaking the monster's stare. The bear went to a frenzy and rushed in on Elliott, Elliott showed no signs of movement it looked as if he's willing to get hit by that bear. The bear raised its oversized paw and its long claws threatens to rip Elliott to shreds. "Lux" Elliott spoke and the next thing I know the sword I've been staring at earlier is now on the bear's head. The bear gave a painful cry and dropped on the ground its spine like spikes scraping the mossy ground. Elliott held the sword at its hilt which is still attached to the bear's head, and in one quick sweep, Elliott splitted the bear in half. That was it. No harm. No wounds. No nothing. I got myself in a trance, this... this is what members of the Imperial Army are capable of. I broke my train of thought when I saw shadows emerging from the dead bear's body. It got bigger and bigger until tbe shadow shifted itself to a knife-like ones. Elliott still has his eyes on the bear but he raises no alarm at the shadow, am I seeing things?
"WATCH OUT!" I screamed lunging at him as the shadow quickly aimed its knives to Elliott. I made an initially futile attempt of shielding Elliott and deflecting the shadows with the dagger I hid from my boots. To my surprise, the dagger suddenly released a bright ray of light deflecting those shadow knives and eradicating the entirety of the dead bears body.
It all happened so fast that I wasn't able to respond to what just happened. "Woman...." Elliott uttered, breaking the silence. "Who are you?" I don't know how to respond to his question. That light....I did that...