How did it come to this?
Those words repeated themselves incessantly inside Elequinn's mind as she hid her face in her hands, tears streaming down her face. The cave that she was taking shelter in barely kept out the cold winds of the tundra, and her body felt absolutely chilled to the bone. Her hair, dyed a bright aquamarine and tied up into a single wild looking ponytail, bobbed slowly in motion with her crying.
Every now and again, Elequinn's sobbing would cease, but the moment she looked at her palms and iron armor covered in the dried blood of what had once been her former comrades, the painful reality caused her to relapse into a pathetic weeping heap once more.
It should have been an easy hunt. Hell, it wasn't even supposed to have been much of a hunt to begin with. We were merely supposed to deliver a few tongues from Popos, and a couple of Anteka horns. It should have been a simple carve-and-deliver job. So what went wrong?
When the hunting instructor gave the groups their task for the day, the majority of the trainees had scoffed at what they had to do. Elequinn had simply bit her tongue – as much as she wanted vengeance on the monsters that took her parents' lives, she knew that becoming a hunter required patience and resolve. Charging headfirst into a monster's den was the equivalent of someone trying to run when they did not even know how to walk – a mistake that would have severe consequences.
Still, the girl couldn't deny that there was a desire to prove her worth as a hunter as soon as possible to the world. It was the entire reason she had signed up for the hunter training program as soon as she hit the age requirement after all.
Just like the other trainees, the instructor had grouped Elequinn in with three other cadets, each one equipped with the same iron armor and sword and shield as her. She had introduced herself accordingly, and the other three trainees then introduced themselves in return.
The first of the three was a handsome looking blonde male, who took the lead to shake Elequinn's hand and introduced himself as Joe. He had seemed both amicable and knowledgeable enough at the time that the girl took an instant liking to him. The other male in the group called himself Stephen – he was a black haired man with a stout physique, complete with a booming voice and a penchant for laughter. The final member of the group was a female named Amelia. Unlike the other two, she possessed a cold stare that befitted her long brown hair and blue eyes.
After a brief moment of conversation with her newfound comrades, Elequinn quickly discovered that Joe would often assume the role of the leader in the group. The girl didn't have any objections with the decision to follow the blonde haired man's commands. She knew that in the field of battle, it was easier to follow orders than to actually be the one giving them.
With so many of the hunters in training feeling headstrong over the seemingly mundane quest they had been given, it came as no surprise that the majority felt both shock and despair when not one of them could find a trace of the herbivores that they were supposed to acquire the items from.
It was then that Joe came up with a seemingly brilliant idea at the time.
"Just follow my lead, I know where we can find a herd of those herbivores. We're gonna leave every one of those other groups in the dust."
The rest of the group thought it over, and quickly came to a consensus to head deeper into the tundra. Elequinn had initially voiced some unease over moving beyond the training area, but ultimately decided to head out anyway. In hindsight, it had been a fatal mistake. The benefits of returning to their instructor with the quest item in hand and the possibility of earning a few extra brownie points had blinded them to the dangers they were exposing themselves to.
It would have all been fine, had a storm not suddenly rolled in as they were traversing across the harsh mountainous terrain. The harsh winds that had appeared from nowhere began to blow relentlessly, and the thick snow effectively reduced visibility to a minimum. Exhausted from having to brave the weather just after finishing a climb up a cliff wall, Elequinn had made the decision to temporarily stop and catch her breath.
That decision had saved her life. A second after she stopped moving, a huge shadow emerged from the ground and shook the ice off its humongous body, causing the other cadets in front of Elequinn to be caught in the residue. In the blizzard, only the silhouette of the hulking creature was visible, but whatever it was had no distinguishing features. Elequinn could only be sure of one thing: the monster possessed no wings. The beast had let loose an ear-splitting roar before bringing down one of its muscular legs onto the struggling trainees in front of it.
The rest of her memory was hazy - Elequinn only recalled running for her life after that point, leaving her group behind as awful screams of fear and agony filled the air, blotted out shortly after by the howling wind. It was a shameful act for a hunter, but the fear and adrenaline Elequinn felt at the time robbed her of her reasoning and simply screamed at her mind and body to keep running.
She made the mistake to turn around and slow her pace down once – and for a moment felt some relief to see Joe right on her knees. That feeling was short-lived however, as a sickening crunch soon sounded, and Joe's body crumpled like a piece of paper as he was dragged backwards by a pair of hungry maws. The beast was seemingly not content with having killed two trainees, and was still on the hunt for more. As the creature shook Joe's now limp body in its twisted jaws, both its spit and the blood from the corpse splattered onto Elequinn, and she distinctly remembered letting out another scream of horror before taking off at full speed once more.
And now, here she was, seemingly having ran forever before her mind finally cleared up. When she was finally dragged back to reality by the harsh piercing wind blowing into her face, Elequinn had found herself at the mouth of a cave, and decided that it would be in her best interest to temporarily take refuge in it and wait the storm out.
Letting out a tired sigh, the girl did her best to stifle her crying. She had to be strong. There was no place in the hunter's guild for weaklings. Survival came first, self-pity after. Provided she made it out of her predicament, she would have plenty of time to mourn her fallen comrades.
Clenching her fists, Elequinn stood up and surveyed the situation outside. The blizzard had reduced in intensity, but it was still dangerous to head out in her current situation. Whatever the creature she and the rest of her now deceased team had encountered was, it had managed to deform her armour without even physically touching her.
Maybe I should wait until that thing is gone. Or perhaps…
She found herself looking down at her weapon: a standard guild issued sword and shield crafted from iron ores. Elequinn knew for certain that such a weapon stood no chance against the beast that had attacked her. No, it wasn't just the weapon – in her current state of mind, she wasn't even sure that she could take down anything, even with the best weapons a blacksmith could forge.
Her hands moved to the back of her utility belt, where all hunters kept their carving knifes – a symbol of their pride and status. She too possessed one, but it was a crude imitation of the real thing – just another item issued by the guild for hunters in training.
Pulling it out and staring at the knife in her hands, Elequinn found her thoughts drifting off to her parents. She had been born into an uncommon family – a blacksmith father and a hunter mother. Each day, her parents would part after giving each other a long embrace, and the girl will never forget the worry that appeared on her dad's face as her mother left for the hunt of the day.
"What if the armor I made for her wasn't strong enough? What if it breaks halfway through?"
She always had to comfort him, offering words of encouragement and hope. And sure enough, her mother would always return at the end of the day without fail, with a new sack of items carved from the monster she had taken down. Elequinn would always watch as the two of them embraced lovingly, never quite understanding why her father was so worried. After all, in her eyes, no monster stood a chance against her mother.
Then all that changed. It had been just another day in her life, and as usual Elequinn remembered witnessing her parents give each other a loving hug. Her mother then stepped out of their house, but at the end of the day she never returned. Instead, a sombre looking man knocked on their door the next day, and her father exchanged hushed words with the man after locking Elequinn in her room. When they were done, he gave her daughter a hug that lasted longer than usual.
Ever since then, the girl's remaining memories of her father were those of him locking himself away in his workshop, pounding away on his anvil and going through blueprints feverishly all day long. And then one day, without warning, her father had simply collapsed – the combination of the guilt on his mind and the labour he had put himself through day after day had been too much for his body to handle.
A sudden shaking of the ground caused Elequinn to snap out of her reverie. She would have to worry about what her father would think about her some other time. The creature that had ravaged her team was close – perhaps it sensed the warmth of her body amongst the coldness of the snow and ice?
Her teal eyes surveyed the surroundings. The snowstorm had now weakened significantly, and Elequinn found that her visibility was no longer as limited compared to before. From her position, she could see the base camp far downhill, a thin trail of smoke acting as a sure sign that there was still people there. Her path was blocked by rocks and steep cliffs, but she had used her weapon to scale them before, so there was no reason for her to worry about not being able to get down.
A plan formulated itself in her mind – should the monster decide to pass by the cave's entrance, Elequinn would thrust her carving knife into its flesh, and pray that it would prove a good enough distraction for her to sprint past the trees. From there, she should then proceed to clamber down the cliff with help from her weapon. It was a plan that sounded simple on paper, but would require every inch of her reflexes to execute. Elequinn couldn't help but smile a little – perhaps she took after her father more than she thought.
"He always had the best ideas, but acting upon them was something else."
Another quake caused some of the icicles on the ceiling to fall and shatter onto the ground. Her hands began to shake from both the anticipation and excitement, and Elequinn attempted to control her fear by tightening her grip on the carving knife.
"A hunter is...the perfect machine," the huntress-in-training spoke to herself once more, this time quoting the words of her mother when she had questioned her about hunting during one night long ago. "The machine that knows not failure."
An ugly black face turned the corner, twitching slightly as it registered the sight of the hunter positioned in front of it. A thin puddle of saliva formed underneath it as a grotesque tongue licked its hungry lips.
That was her cue to go. Letting out a war cry, Elequinn kicked herself off the cave's entrance, leaping towards the monstrous beast and plunging the knife she held in her arms into its head. The knife bounced off uselessly, but the act itself was more than enough to cause the monster to stagger backwards in surprise.
Her window of opportunity granted, Elequinn took off as fast as her legs could take her. As she sprinted past the rocks, the girl felt their rough texture grinding against her soles. A quick glance at her feet confirmed her fears – her shoes appeared distorted and warped, and seemed to melt away before her eyes with every step she took.
Did I step in its drool?
The frozen ground sent chilling waves of coldness up her legs, but the numbing sensation was hardly enough to slow the girl's pace. She knew that a much more terrible fate awaited her if she stopped her running, and despite her rugged breathing and aching muscles she willed her body to keep moving.
Approaching the cliff, Elequinn jumped off without hesitation, twisting her body around to thrust her iron blade into the wall and slowing her descend. It was a bold move, and the sudden momentum change caused her muscles to groan in disagreement. The blade proved unworthy of holding her up however, and promptly snapped into two, causing the girl to land on her butt at the bottom of the cliff.
Still, the weapon had done its work and kept her alive, and Elequinn couldn't be more satisfied with the outcome. Picking herself up, the girl allowed herself a brief moment to catch her breath. A roar from above the cliff reminded her that she still wasn't out of danger yet however, and with a final burst of energy, the girl took off towards the base camp.
It was only a straightforward path from that point on, and Elequinn felt the adrenaline in her body burning out as she approached the training encampment. It didn't take long for the other trainees to notice her, and the astonishment and relief on their faces reminded the girl of her father's expression each time her mother returned from a hunt. The hunting instructor was the first to approach her, running towards her and asking her exactly what had happened.
Elequinn's reply was a simple shake of her head as her knees finally gave in.
She had done it. She survived.