Alfred sighed, watching as Arthur tacked up his horse, this is how it always went, the boy was left to sit alone while Arthur left to hunt.

"Can't I come with you this time?" He begged, latching onto the older boy's cape with wide blue eyes. Arthur sighed as he turned to Alfred.

"You know I can't Alfred, you're still too young to hunt with me…" Arthur said as he shot a small smile at the boy before him, Alfred's pout only grew into a frustrated frown.

"No! Ten is old enough! William is already hunting and he's only a year older than me!" Alfred yelled, balling his hands into small fists as he glared at the ground, why couldn't Arthur see that he was old enough? All the other boys his age were hunting by now, he should be too!

"Ah, yes but William's father is a excellent hunter, I bet he taught Will how to hunt when he was just a little thing, you on the other hand? Your father never taught you a thing before he left, and I have no time to teach you yet." Arthur said, crouching down before Alfred with a sad smile.

"I promise, i'll start training you by next year okay?" He whispered, moving to gently take Alfred's hands in his own, Alfred just pulled away and stomped off.

"This isn't fair! I'm old enough than, right? So teach me!" He cried before the started running off, tears in his eyes. Arthur just sighed as he mounted his horse and made his way to the forest, maybe he'd take down a deer, that seemed to always cheer Alfred up on a bad day.

Alfred had hidden away in his bedroom, curled up in the corner to try and make himself smaller, maybe if he got small enough he'd disappear, just like his parents...it was true, Alfred was an orphan, both of his parents disappeared when he turned seven, some say they ran off and others said they were killed by a guardian, most believed that they were killed, this only drove hate into Alfred's soul, he wanted to hunt the guardian's, not the animals.

Arthur was currently his caretaker, he had been a family friend but was only around fifteen years old, his own parents died when he was young so he felt the need to take care of Alfred, the boy had no problems with Arthur being his caretaker but he did get upset with him more than necessary, especially when it came to the hunting issue.

Alfred sighed bitterly as he stood up, glaring at the ground again before he looked up, smirking.

"Fine! If Arthur won't teach me, than i'll teach myself." He said, quickly running off and out towards the forest, Alfred was sure he could do this, he was good at everything he had tried! This couldn't be any different, except for the fact that he realised he had forgotten to grab a weapon once he was halfway into the forest.

"Ugh...great." He muttered, letting out a heavy sigh before he turned around to make his way back, though he blinked when he saw a small fawn, quietly following behind.

"Oh, hey little guy, are you lost?" Alfred asked with a small grin, looking around slowly before it dawned on him.

"I think I am too…" He mumbled, sighing as he looked back at the fawn. He made a huge mistake, he never marked his way in so now he couldn't get out.

"I bet your mommy is looking for you, why don't you go find her?" He asked, smiling at the fawn, it staggered closer to Alfred before looking up at him, the boy was left in awe at the sight of the fawn, it was one of the prettiest he had seen, at least in the flesh, he had never seen a fawn before other than in books.

"Do you want me to help you?" He suggested, slowly reaching forward to pet the little fawn, but it quickly ran off through the trees.

Alfred pouted before he moved to follow the deer quickly.

"Hey wait! No let me help!" He cried, panting as he frantically looked for the fawn, but stopped once he was met with an odd scene.

"H-Hey...where did you come from?" He said quietly, looking the small boy over quickly.

"Where? You saw me, I was the baby deer!" He exclaimed, grinning widely at Alfred.

"Do you want help out of the forest? I can show you where to go." He said, moving to lean against a tree.

"Y-You? You're that fawn? No way…unless if you're-"

"A shape shifter? Yep! I'm what you guys call a Guardian I guess, i'm an Elm Shifter, i've been practicing and I just happened to stumble across you!" The boy said happily, his violet eyes gleaming happily.

"Aren't you supposed to be going after hunters?" Alfred scoffed, crossing his arms as he looked the guardian over a few times, he didn't look like one…

"Nah, i'm too young still, I have to practice before I can go out and work, so no need to worry about me!" He said with a small laugh, reaching forward to take Alfred's hand.

"Come on, i'll show you out, oh! And my name is Matthew." The boy said with another smile, Alfred just grinned back lazily.

"Okay...if you say so, and i'm Alfred." He said as he followed Matthew happily, maybe this wasn't so bad…

Matthew led Alfred to the edge of the forest, he looked at the town and sighed softly.

"The hunters are so mean...they've started to hunt more innocent animals you know? Last week one of the shape shifters got killed" Matthew mumbled as he let Alfred's hand go.

"Well, isn't that their own fault? You don't go out when the hunters go out…" Alfred said with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets, frowning when he felt Matthew glare at him.

"I bet you're just like them, aren't you? Fine, guess I shouldn't have helped you." He muttered bitterly before turning away, shifting back into a fawn before he ran off, Alfred frowned as he watched Matthew leave, what got his tail all tied up? Whatever, Alfred started on home, thinking the situation over to try and find where he had gone wrong, and then it finally hit him…

The guardians were just like humans, if one gets killed it's back lashed through everyone else, all they're doing is trying to save the forest animals from dying out.

That still didn't change the fact that Alfred wanted to hunt the guardians, maybe he'd just go after the fighters? They went for innocent people too! Sure that's how he'd work everything out, it was perfect…

almost.