The lord and his lady looked out on the garden from their balcony. The Lord heard his wife sigh quietly beside him, and he grasped her hand. They had been too lenient on their youngest daughter. They both knew this well enough. She had been born after the Lord and Lady had left the courts to settle down in the countryside. They had been tired of the politicking, and their getting older finally gave them excuse to find refuge in the outskirts of the Kingdom. At the age of 11, though, the young girl was still being spoiled far too much. Girls her age had already begun learning the delicate process of managing courtly practices, yet their daughter was running through the garden below. Running was in itself enough to ostracize any noble, but even more so, their daughter was running with the daughter of a maid for company. Already her fair complexion was beginning to brown and freckle under the glow of the sun. It was even beginning to have an effect on their oldest son. It was true; they had been too lax with their children. This nonsense of playing with a maid's daughter had to stop. The lady sighed once more, and the lord knew what they were both thinking. One more week. They would give the girl one more week to live as she wished as they found a tutor for her. By her next birthday they would send her to court. Hopefully by 14 they would still be able to find a suitable husband for her.
She did not hunt often. It was enough of a challenge to locate prey, but her lack of sight added another problem: she could hardly ever find arrows after she shot them. A soft sigh escaped from the huntresses' lips. She knew quite well that winter would be coming once again, and she would need the smoked meat to help her survive. She had barely made it through the last one. She pulled the animal skins tighter around her body. She supposed she could just steal meat from a village, but the idea displeased her. It was not that she had qualms from stealing from the humans. Her boots and her reputation were good evidence that stealing (and all around causing trouble) for the humans pleased her quite a bit, but it also meant taking a risk, and that alone gave her pause. No, the huntress decided. She would hunt for now, and she would leave the thievery as a last resort. It was better this way. She wouldn't have to wash the stench of their society off her skin later. She heard a snap, and she paused in her walk. It was undeniably the steps of an animal. A rather large one, she guessed, probably a deer. It was being rather careless with its steps, but perhaps it was just stupid.
She followed closely, arrow prepped in her bow. Thankfully she was down-wind and she used that to her advantage. She was getting closer. She crouched, and waited for the beast to move near. She shifted her weight and heard a soft crunch as a result. She cursed under her breath, listening desperately to see if the deer had heard. The footsteps had stopped, but it seemed hesitant to flee. A vapid beast indeed, the huntress thought to herself. However, its stupidity was her good fortune. She knew it wouldn't be the best shot, but she knew she would have to take this risk. She pulled hard on the bowstring.
"Is anyone there?" A voice called, and the crouching hunter loosed her arrow in surprise. Humans were not supposed to be here. However she barely had to time to think about this before the feminine voice cried out in pain. The huntress cursed once again. She would have to leave the arrow. She moved to flee, but she paused. She didn't really care about the wounded girl, but the huntress hadn't gone too far from her home. None would come to search for the girl as was, but if the girl began to yell too loudly… they weren't so far that the noise wouldn't reach a neighboring village. It could be enough to cause the especially curious and foolhardy to come. With a swirl she marched up to the whimpering mess lying on the forest floor. Without a second thought, she knocked the girl out with a quick blow. Then, with deft fingers, she searched for the arrow. The huntress sighed once more when she found it lodged in the girls' lower calf. It had been a perfectly good arrow, one of the best the huntress had made. Now, however, the huntress broke the arrowhead off it as easily as she had knocked the girl out. She pulled out the shaft and then quickly reached and tore off a layer of fabric the girl was wearing, wrapping the fabric tightly around the wound. Nothing severe had been hit. The girl, obviously, was quite lucky. If she hadn't spoken, she surely would've been dead. A lead weight sat heavily in the bottom of the huntress's stomach. She would have to be more careful. This was already too much trouble caused by an idiot human.
With a grunt, the huntress pulled the girl over her shoulder. Another example of how lucky the girl was. If she had been any heavier, the huntress would've been forced to leave the girl to the wolves. However, having wolves around one's home was trouble enough, and so the huntress carried the girl back to her house. She would return later that night to cover the blood with dirt and check her snares for any meat. But, as the huntress already suspected, her own luck had run out a long time ago.