Crunch!
The hunter noisily stepped on a dead twig.
"Little white deer, stop hiding!" His voice was slimy and creepy sounding. "I hear the meat of the White Deer Tribe is very tasty. Oh, I can't wait to taste it!"
The hunter wasn't even trying to hide his presence. Why would he? His prey had no chance of escaping.
"Maybe I'll skin your pretty white hide and sell it for a fortune! Maybe I'll just sell you to the slavers! They'll carve off the flesh off your bones and then heal you just so they can carve it off again!"
The doe's body shuddered as she heard the hunter cackle. He knew she couldn't run and was simply tormenting her.
Yun Lei, who was watching all this while hidden in the tree had a deep frown on his face. His gaze had turned extremely sharp as he watched the hunter move into the clearing.
A huge grin appeared on the hunter's face when he saw the doe's distinctive white hide which was difficult to hide in the forest full of green. His body was relaxed and he walked confidently towards the shivering creature.
His bow was still slung over his shoulder as he didn't want to use it. He would kill that little deer with his own two hands and watch as those pearl-like eyes slowly turned lifeless.
Yun Lei's hands were trembling with anger, his aura wanted to explode and snuff the life out of that bastard but he clenched his teeth and remained patient. However, one thing had changed. The arrow that was pointed at the hunter's throat was now pointed towards his thigh.
Yun Lei could tell that the target was just an ordinary mortal, an arrow through the throat was more than enough to kill him. But he no longer wanted to just kill him, he wanted to make him suffer.
"Found you! Come out and pla—"
The hunter choked on his words as he felt a sharp pain in his thigh. Another sharp pain began radiating from his right arm.
It all happened so quickly that he couldn't even tell what had happened. The impact had knocked him off his feet as he landed noisily on the ground. When he raised his head, he saw two arrows sticking out of his body.
He heard the faint whistle of an arrow flying through the air before landing on the ground next to his ear. A hoarse scream escaped from his throat as pain began to shoot through his body.
With another faint whistle, an arrow flew out of the trees, landing on his left forearm, pinning it to the ground. As he let out another scream, he saw the white doe walk slowly towards him. Behind her, an almost naked man holding a bow walked with a cold expression on his face.
"Who are you, bastard!? Which group are you with?" The hunter spoke through the pain. In response, Yun Lei raised his bow and fired another arrow.
The hunter watched the arrow fly towards his face and land next to his head once more. A nasty scratch had been left on his cheeks. He looked up to see Yun Lei's face full of mocking.
He was being looked down upon. That alone would have filled him with anger but that bastard in front of him was so shockingly handsome that he only became angrier.
"You pretty bastard! You think you're hot shit!? I'll kill you; I'll fucking kill you!"
Yun Lei didn't pay any attention to the man squirming around on the ground, raving like a lunatic. He instead turned toward the doe.
"How do you want him to die?"
A shiver ran down her spine when she heard the soft whisper of the man behind her. His voice was full of temptation and comfort, as if it invited her to just give herself up and leave everything in his hands. She felt as though he was softly coaxing her down a path of violence and hatred.
How many of your kind has he hunted? Does he not deserve pain, does he not deserve to suffer? All you have to do is tell the man behind you. Say it! Just tell him to make this hunter suffer. Her heart was screaming at her. The worst part was that she agreed with her heart. She wanted him to suffer. But—
'Do you know what your name means, Nuo'er?'
Her mother's voice echoed in her mind.
'Your name means 'kind'. We are the children of the cursed tribe. The world will never show us kindness. But we must never treat the world as they have treated us. We must return cruelty with kindness. That is our fate.'
"Just put him out of his misery."
She would not fall to the level of those that wished to harm her and those precious to her. A painless death was the only kindness she could offer to the hunter.
She felt the man behind her raising his bow. As she heard the whistle of an arrow, she shut her eyes.
The hoarse shouts and curses of the hunter faded away as silence returned to the forest once more. Only the rustling of the leaves remained.
'Only through kindness will we receive our salvation from this cruel world. We can only hope that our kindness is returned one day.'
"Turn around." She heard the scariest man she had ever met speak in a tender voice. When she did and opened her eyes, she saw him looking at her.
"I'll go bury the corpse. It will take some time. Don't look." He spoke again.
Of course, Yun Lei didn't want to just bury the corpse. He looked down at the hunter who had a look of disbelief on his face, even after his death. A lot was going through Yun Lei's mind but he felt no regret nor did he feel any remorse.
In the many books he had read, taking the life of another person was a task that was very difficult, so much so that the feelings of guilt would induce nightmares for years. But he felt no such thing. He only felt that he had stepped on a bug that was left alive for much longer than it should have.
He first grabbed the arrow sprouting out of the hunter's throat and pulled it out. He pulled out all the bloody arrows one by one. There wasn't anything of interest on the body besides the hunter's bow, the quiver full of barbed arrows and a pouch.
It was difficult to dig a hole without any tools. Yun Lei had just gotten down on his knees and begun scraping out the soil with his bare hands. The activity was exhausting, his hands were bleeding but, he didn't stop.
He pushed the body of the hunter in the shallow grave with his feet. The bastard didn't deserve a grave dug with his sweat and blood. That was what Yun Lei felt.
"You really are lucky, bastard." He spat on the corpse before covering it up.
Of course, he was lucky. If that doe had told Yun Lei to give him the cruellest of deaths, there was no doubt in Yun Lei's mind that he would have done exactly that without any hesitation. If the doe had not closed her eyes to avoid witnessing the death of the hunter who wanted to skin her hide, Yun Lei would have just left the body out in the open to rot.
"I hope King Yama makes you suffer for eternity." With that cold prayer, Yun Lei turned to look at the spoils.
The bow belonging to the hunter was much worse than the one he already had. He didn't want to use those barbed arrows but he still kept them in his quiver. As for the pouch, it contained a small wooden plate which seemed to be some form of identification, quite a few small brown pills, a knife, some coins and a map.
The doe turned her head back towards Yun Lei and saw him calmly looking at the map. It was crudely drawn and quite ugly to look at, but he did recognise a few landmarks. Namely, the hill where his cave was and the river. Other than that, it was pretty much a mystery to him. There didn't seem to be any settlements marked on the map.
"What do you make of this?" He showed the map to the doe. She was more familiar with the area than him so he figured that she would be able to gather more from it.
However, as soon as she laid her eyes on it, her face was filled with shock.
"They found it." She muttered. "No, no, no, this can't be happening!"
The injured doe who could barely walk without wincing began moving as fast as she could towards a particular direction, surprising Yun Lei. But he wasn't stunned for too long and immediately ran after her.
"Found what?" He asked while he quickly scanned the map. It didn't take him that long to spot a small 'x' on the map. "Is this where your people are?"
His question seemed to make the doe run even faster but Yun Lei caught up and grabbed ahold of her.
"Calm down." He hissed. "Do you want to walk on three legs for the rest of your life?"
"It doesn't matter, I have to go warn them!" The doe almost shouted. She struggled and tried to get Yun Lei to let her go but he held on with a vice grip.
"Being panicked helps neither you nor your peopl—"
"What would you know, you damn human bastard! The longer I take to go warn them, the more of my people will die! I've seen my people be hunted and slaughtered by your kind since I have been a child. Who are you to tell me to not be panicked!?"
"Listen to me, look at this map carefully. The mark here has been made with a piece of charcoal. I didn't find any ink on his body. Also, this mark is freshly made. I believe he is the only one who discovered where your people are. He probably wanted to kill you first so you wouldn't alert your people before returning to where the other hunters are.
"We can get there slowly, okay? We still have time. We'll go together. If nothing else, I can take down a hunter or two by myself. Maybe more if I can take them by surprise. Your people will be fine."
"Why should I trust you!? You could very well be working together with the hunters to stop me from alerting them!"
"If I wanted to stop you, you wouldn't be breathing." Yun Lei's voice lost all of its tenderness and turned cold. "If you're going to say I need you to show me the way to your people, I already have this map."
Yun Lei gently stroked the body of the doe, as if he was trying to calm her down. She had been shaking nonstop since some time ago, he could feel her pounding heart without even trying.
Initially, he had no reason to help her other than the fact that he wanted to use her to find his bearings. Yet now, he truly did want to help her and her people. The reason for it was simple.
He liked her. He liked how she had shown kindness to that hunter. He liked how she was willing to sacrifice herself in order to save her people without any hesitation.
"Trust me." Yun Lei spoke softly before letting go of the doe's warm body. She didn't give a reply but the fact that she hadn't shot off immediately was more than telling.
"Show me the quickest way to where your people are. Alert me immediately if you smell any hunters." For the first time since she had seen the young hunter, he had a smile on his face.
"Let's go save them, shall we?"