Chapter 1

Florans hunt, stab, and eat. That's what we are thought since the day we are born, and know very little of anything else. Florans enjoy the hunt, it's fun, and it puts food in our bellies, but Floran is different. Floran used to enjoy the hunt, I even stabbed a monkey before, which was a lot of fun. However, a summer ago, Floran started to feel less joy when hunting, and it started in one of those hunts. Floran can remember it very well, and Floran is surprised that Floran can remember for that long.

Floran and her friends were hunting a bird man, don't know how he got to Floran territory, but Floran didn't care, there was food trying to get away. Bird man didn't know the forest like Floran did, and Floran caught him without any problem. Then, Floran did what every other Floran enjoy doing, and stabbed the bird man, but that was when everything changed for Floran. Floran looked into bird man's eyes, seeing the bird man's life leaving him, and instead of feeling happy for stabbing him, Floran didn't feel that. Floran didn't know why, and didn't know what Floran should feel, but felt something different. After stabbing bird man and taking it back to the tribe, Florans ate with a smile, happy to have food, but Floran didn't feel like eating much. After that day, Floran decided not to hunt prey that looked like bird man, but hunted other prey from the forest. It felt different from hunting bird man, some of those prey proved to be more challenging when they fought back. That looked weird to some of Floran's tribe, hunt some prey, but not other prey, since Florans are hunters. Florans are strong, could defeat and capture an Ixodoom, they asked why Floran didn't want to hunt all prey. Floran said that Floran didn't want to, and that was it. Since then, most Florans avoid Floran, some hiss at Floran, other ignore Floran, and other say very little to Floran.

It is a new day now, Floran prepares to leave house and hunt for food. Floran grab sword and shield, put Nomad's armor on, leave house, and heads straight to the forest. On the way, Floran is stopped by a familiar, and very friendly voice.

"On your way out, are you?" asks Greenfinger Idalla, an elderly Floran with long brown foliage, with some flowers of different colors, and yellow skin. Even though she's old, she still looks as smart as ever. She was a very respected Greenfinger, still respected for her skills, but another Floran hunter took charge of tribe. Greenfinger is the only one who would talk with Floran.

"Floran going to hunt for food," Floran say.

"To be more precise, you're going to get some breakfast."

"Is it food?"

"Yes, it's food that's called breakfast, because you're eating it in the morning."

"Sounds complicated, food is food." Floran still don't know why Greenfinger likes to make things complicated.

"Of course, take care of yourself, Seba." Floran nods, and gets into the forest.

Floran has been looking for prey, and finds it very easily. Florans should feel lucky that forest has plenty of meat to eat, even though there is plenty of fruit in the forest's trees. Floran likes both, so Floran has easy time of finding food, and never starving. That's one of the things that Florans find weird about Floran, likes to eat fruit just as much as eating meat. When it comes to food, Floran thinks that Florans shouldn't be too picky. Floran stabs prey, but it moves in time to avoid sword. Floran is going to have fun with it, hunt is always fun for Floran when prey can put up a challenge. The prey is big, just as big as Floran, but Floran has fought worse, have survived The Hunt, never won big prize, but always survived. The prey is ferocious, fights back against Floran, but Floran is better fighter, better hunter, and attacks when Floran see the opportunity. The prey falls to the ground, and Floran stabs it one more time to make sure it's death. With the prey death, Floran gets to work on getting meat, and takes pelt. Florans might not like talking with Floran, but still willing to trade for good pelt. Now, Floran's stomach makes noise, Floran is hungry, have to walk back to tribe, but too hungry. Floran always have tools to start fire, and Floran does it easily, had a lot of practice in the past. Floran gets meat on stick, and start to cook it. Smells very good, can't wait to eat it, juicy and tasty meat. Then, Floran hears a loud noise, sounded like a shot, other Florans might be hunting something, doesn't concern Floran, Floran is too busy and too hungry to care at the moment. When meat gets ready, Floran starts to eat meat, only problem was the noise of the guns, Floran would have liked to eat in peace.

The noise continues, but there isn't that much meat left, so Floran eats it quick to leave the noise. With meat done and belly full, Floran prepares to head back to tribe. The noise stops, they probably already killed the prey, Floran is already fed and is going back home. Before Floran could start to leave, Floran hears a noise to the left, and see something that Floran never expected to see. Floran have never seen something like that before, but have heard through stories, and Floran was certain that the creature standing there, was a fish girl. Smaller than Floran, she was white and pink, with three pointy purple things at each side of the back of her head. Half of her face was pink, while her mouth and throat was white. Three eyes, two on the normal place, and a third one on the forehead. She was wearing some strange clothes that Floran have never seen, but Floran could see a red cross on the shoulder. The red eyes were looking at Floran, and it was the look in her eye that made Floran feel something strange. The fish girl starts to run away, and she disappears into the forest. Floran didn't want to hunt her, Floran was already full, there was no need to eat more. Floran was about to leave, when Floran was stopped again, this time, by another Floran with a spear in hand. The Floran was Rak, he was the chief's hunter, with spiky red foliage, green skin, and wearing the same armor as Floran. Rak looks around, and looks at Floran.

"Where did she go?" asks Rak.

"Who?" Floran asks, and didn't know why.

"The fish girl, where did she go?!"

"Floran don't know, Floran didn't see a fish girl." Floran was lying, and didn't know why would Floran lie. Rak says nothing else, and runs into the forest. Floran doesn't know why, but Floran hopes that fish girl gets away.

Floran got back from the forest, took the pelt and gave it to the trader for more food. Trader ran out of meat, so Floran took fruits and vegetables. As compensation, trader was willing to give me a shield, which is better than the one that Floran have. Floran was going back home, until Floran heard some cheering, probably for the hunters coming back with some food for tribe. It doesn't concern Floran, most of the time it doesn't, until Floran hears a lot of hissing from the tribe. There's no reason to hiss at the hunters, they brought food for the time, they killed prey, they should be praised. That got Floran's curiosity and went to see what was going on. Floran pushed through the crowd, and saw what was going on, something that Floran didn't want to see. The crowd was standing in front of the chief's house, and the hunters were dragging the bodies of two fish men. They were dead, blood painting the grown red, stab wounds in chest and stomach. That's not what bothered Floran, Floran had seen plenty of dead prey, but what bothered Floran, was the fish girl being dragged on the ground.