Caw! Caw!
"Ah... ow, what the hell?" Aithne opens her eyes to black crows pecking at her face. "Shoo! Go away!"
Wincing from the injury and the soreness of sleeping on the pavement, she stands up slowly and looks around. Over on the street is the dead Erymanthian Boar, her sword still protruding from it's side. Looking over to her other side, she sees Harlow, still in the same position with her glassy eyes staring upward. Except this morning there were black crows surrounding her.
"Shoo, go away!" Aithne says as she walks toward her friends body and shoos away the crows. Bending down next to her, she raises her hand and closes Harlow's eyes. "I'll miss you" she says, as tears start falling down her face again.
Standing up, she turns towards the dead boar and walks over to it. Hoisting herself up on its side using its legs, she manages to make it up. Being this close, she could smell the stench of dead flesh coming from the boar. Pulling out her sword, she jumps down to the pavement, wincing as the impact of her feet hitting the pavement hits her ankles and rushes up her legs.
Turning towards it's stomach, she stabs it with her sword and starts to make a slit in it's belly. Through the slit, she can see a green glow. Screwing up her face in disgust, she reaches in and pulls out a glowing green orb, this species' Origin. It was covered in spikes and stomach juice, glowing an electric green and pulsating.
"How am I supposed to destroy this?" She asks herself.
"Stab it." A voice says from behind her.
"What the- how long have you been standing there?" She says as she whirls around to face a teenage boy that looked like he belonged in Hawaii, with shaggy black hair, the tips of which was dyed a bright blue. A pair of brown eyes stared at her as she watched him cautiously.
"Stab it. You want to destroy it. So stab it."
"Where did you come from?"
"My mom. Duh."
She glares him as he walks towards her, plucks the orb out of her hand and pulls a knife from his belt.
"Stab it. Like this." He drops it on the ground and stabs it with his knife.
Green liquid spurts out from where he stabbed it and then the orb disappears in a shower of sparks. He looks over to Aithne, smiles and puts the knife back in his belt.
"I never got your name."
"Zane. What's yours?"
"Aithne." Aithne says as she sheathes her sword, "and don't help me in the future."
"Why not?"
"Just leave me alone, please." She turns and starts walking away.
A few seconds later, she hears steps from behind her. Zane walks up next to her. They walk alongside each other for awhile in silence, Aithne forcibly ignoring Zane's presence.
"This way," Zane says, grabbing her arm and steering her towards an ominous looking building. Yanking her arm out of his grip, she moves to stand behind him, and pulls his knife out if his belt. She brings it up to his neck and holds it there.
"Don't man-handle me." She says, enunciating each word.
A sudden screeching sound fills the air, making them both wince, then scream as the ground opens up beneath them, and they fall into darkness.