ASHE

Ashe nocked a magical arrow on her bow and took aim at the deer that was just a few feet away from her. Both her bow and arrow glowing blue, signifying the True Ice used to build them. All was quiet around Ashe, with a few birds chirping here and there. Silence was one of the biggest things Ashe enjoyed whenever she went hunting, and she had two reasons for it.

The first was because it allowed her to concentrate without any source of noise (that was too loud) snapping her focus like a twig. As such, Ashe had a much easier time hunting in the quiet since she could pay closer attention to any potential prey that got caught in her sights. The second reason was because silence meant peace. Sure, silence could also mean that predators were waiting to jump on their game, but in Ashe's current environment, the rather spacious and hassle-free forest, it also meant that nothing bad was happening. No conflicts were arising, no one was at odds with each other, the Freljord was at peace, if only momentarily.

Ashe silently drew in a breath of air, and slowly exhaled, calming her beating heart. She closed her left eye and used her right one to direct her arrow's direction before drawing the arrow back even more, ready to let it fly. However, she slipped slightly, and her boot crushed a dry leaf that was under it, making a small crunch.

The deer perked up at the sound and turned towards Ashe, who was now out in the open due to her accidental misstep, and made to run. But the archer was quicker.

She released her hold on the bowstring, the arrow making a whistling sound as it sliced through the air. Her aim's deadly accuracy had not gone askew at all from her slip, and the arrow pierced through the poor deer's head. The deer didn't make a sound as its carcass fell to the snow-blanketed ground.

Ashe smirked and walked up to the carcass, slinging her bow over her shoulder and pulling some rope from the little sack she carried with her. She knelt down to string the deer's legs together when she heard a low growling.

Her body went still as a part of the instinctual fight, flight, or freeze response. She kept her ears peeled for any other sound, her hand reaching for her bow. She shouldn't have let her guard down just like that, even when it seemed like she scored some game. As she continued to maintain her cool, she faintly muttered a prayer to Avarosa that she wouldn't have to pay a hefty price for her foolishness.

Just as she fully slipped her bow over her head, a bear, two heads taller and much bigger than she was, burst out into the clearing, barreling towards Ashe. The archer, having reflexes that were quicker than a typical person's, was able to jump out of the bear's way, barely dodging the beast's outstretched claws.

Ashe dropped to a roll, grunting as a small wave of giddiness hit her with the quick motion of turning and as she had to duck her head as her body moved in a circular motion for a moment. She quickly fought off the dizziness her mind was facing as she turned towards the bear, drawing another True Ice arrow and firing. The arrow whistled as it sliced through the air at a near-breakneck speed, getting impaled in the bear's shoulder.

This only served to annoy the bear, for it roared, reared back, and took another swipe at the iceborn archer. Ashe, who had been slightly frozen in fear at the sight of such a beast, barely got out of harm's way. Three of the bear's tore through Ashe's pale flesh, and as the archer pulled away from the bear's grasp, the pain she experienced made her feel like her arm was being wrenched out of its socket.

Ashe bit her lip as she stifled a scream, quickly backing away from the bear to put some distance between them. She never took her eyes off the beast, who pawed the ground and snarled at her, eying her as prey for the taking.

The archer risked a glance at her injured arm, getting met with three angry, red scratches that ran down the width of the side of her bicep, all of them covered in blood that flowed freely from them. The blue sleeve of her attire was now stained, turning into a dark purple. The intense sting of the scratches brought tears to her eyes, but she refused to cry. Instead, she sharply took in another breath, trying to force the pain to the back of her mind, before standing tall against the bear. Showing fear in the face of an adversary was the equivalent to encouraging them to continue.

The bear growled again and placed a paw forward, getting ready to lunge again. Despite keeping up a brave front, a part of Ashe, a very small part, meekly asked, What if you don't make it out of here alive?

The bear growled again and lunged. Ashe wasted no time in drawing her bowstring back, getting ready to launch another ice arrow right between the brute's eyes.

However, as the bear drew closer, something flashed before Ashe's eyes, blinding her for a split second. When her vision cleared, she saw the bear rearing back, roaring in apparent pain. It was clawing at its face, which was smoking.

Smoking? Ashe wondered, though she wasted no time in drawing her bowstring back and letting the nocked arrow fly. Her injured arm unfortunately hindered her aim, for the arrow was planted on the brute's other shoulder, angering it even further. It roared and lunged at the archer again, but another flash happened, though this time Ashe had closed her eyes to await the apparent fate for her. When she opened her eyes, she saw the brute flailing about, falling to its side as it frantically clawed at its face, which was smoking even more now.

The brute gave another roar as it got back up to its feet. But instead of going after Ashe, it turned around and ran off, roaring in agony as it did so.

Despite the situational threat having run off, Ashe remained on guard. The bear had been a reminder as to what happened to one who got too cocky in the Freljord, and she was hoping to not repeat her mistake. Besides, whatever that bright flash of light was didn't really ease her nerves. For all she knew, that thing could have only saved her with the intention of claiming her for itself.

She kept her attention to the trees around her, constantly turning here and there to catch any more dangers near her. Her ears and eyes were peeled, and another arrow was nocked on her bow's magical bowstring, ready to be fired.

As she turned once more, the crunch of a leaf reached her sharp hearing, and she whipped around in the direction where the sound came from, her bowstring drawn back even further, though she kept a firm hold on it in order to not accidentally kill an innocent being. "Who goes there?" She demanded, her voice filled with that silvery tone that reminded most people as to why she was regarded as the queen of the Avarosans.

The more Ashe stared at the shade under the trees, the more she could barely make out a figure who was turning away from her. What stood out the most was the glowing blue that undoubtedly meant the person before her was holding True Ice. The person turned to Ashe for a brief moment, and Ashe could make out two orange irises that seemed to glow in the darkness of the shade.

Ashe hesitated at the sight of those orange eyes, loosening her bow. Those eyes did not come from a dangerous person or beast. They radiated warmth and safety, making the iceborn archer want to trust the stranger across her.

Then again, all they shared was a brief moment of eye contact, for the stranger turned and began to run off, the glow of the True Ice she wielded waving about and getting smaller as the distance between Ashe and herself.

"Hey!" Ashe made to sling her bow over her shoulder and give chase, but as she did so, she groaned and dropped the bow onto the ground, her uninjured arm instantly flaring up in pain, forcing her to drop to her knees. Taking slow and deep breaths to steady her breathing and cope with the pain. She reached for her bow and stood up, looking around her again. She would have to find a safe spot to heal her injuries.

She left the rope and deer where they lay, taking temporary refuge behind a nearby tree. She reached into her little sack and withdrew a canteen of water and some healing supplies, setting the healing supplies next to her. Taking another deep breath, she gently poured the water on the cuts, biting her bottom lip to silence her screams as fresh and raw stings of pain burned through her entire arm when the cold water made contact with bare, exposed flesh.

Ashe, however, endured the pain. Once she was done cleaning the wounds, she picked up the healing supplies and tried to apply them onto the scratches as gently as possible. Once she was done, she wrapped her arm in bandages, then tried flexing it to see if it was still usable. Thanks to her somewhat impromptu treatment, the painful sting was reduced to a numbing sensation, and so the scratches didn't hurt much now.

Ashe sighed as she kept the canteen and healing supplies, turning back to check on her hunt. The deer's carcass lay as it was, completely unmolested save for a small pool of blood forming underneath it, trickling down from the prior fatal wound the archer had inflicted on it.

The Avarosan queen turned her attention from the deer's corpse to the trees, wondering who that mysterious figure was, and what reason they had for saving her. However, given that the mysterious figure had run off before Ashe could properly question her, she didn't exactly feel safe in the forest, especially with the possibility of the bear returning looming over her head.

She slung her bow over her shoulder and hurriedly went back to the deer to string its legs up. While getting away from the forest quickly was recommended at the moment, she could not forget all the mouths she had to feed in the tribe she ruled over.

However, as the archer hefted the deer onto her shoulders, grunting and slightly grimacing from the pain it caused to her wounded arm, she could not help but feel that she was being watched, and not by a wild animal of sorts, but from a person.

That paranoid thought made her quicken her actions, and she was soon staggering her way out of the forest.

[[[[[]]]]]

The Avarosans perked up at the sight of their queen and warmother returning with a deer atop her shoulders. Two men dropped everything they were holding and rushed up to take the deer off of the iceborn archer. And when I say they dropped everything they were holding, I mean it literally. They had dropped the logs they were carrying to one of the many campfires in the camp. One man, with a full beard on his face, gave an annoyed shout at their action.

As the two men hauled the deer away, one woman who was carrying a child looked at the bandages on Ashe's arm. "Warmother, aer you well?"

Ashe flashed a smile at the woman, trying to reassure that everything was alright. "I'm fine, Cara. Just ran into a little trouble on the hunt." Cara still wore a look of concern on her expression, but nodded and moved along, rocking the child in her hands.

The archer nodded back at Cara and walked off to her cabin, pulling the cowl off her head, letting locks of white hair fall freely onto her shoulders. She was just a few steps away from the door of her cabin when a raspy voice spoke up from behind her.

"That arm looks like it has seen better."

Ashe playfully rolled her eyes as she turned to a man who leaned on a walking stick for support. "Halfdan, how you're still able to move about is still beyond me."

The elderly man gave a chuckle as he walked up to the iceborn, staggering slightly to keep his balance on the snowy terrain. Despite looking like he was going to topple over at any given moment, he held up a hand to Ashe when she extended her arms to support him, stubbornly refusing help from the iceborn. He coughed once and took Ashe's injured arm, inspecting the messy work done to dress it.

"Tsk, tsk. And I thought we covered impromptu cleaning and bandaging in one of your recent lessons." He muttered disapprovingly, though his words brought a smile to Ashe's face. Ever since she became warmother, Halfdan took it on himself to teach Ashe the fundamentals of survival, despite Ashe's previous oathfathers, mainly Yrael, already having done so.

Ashe went along with it to humour the old man, and there were times when she had to admit that she did learn something new from his lessons. In time, she came to look up to Halfdan as a hilarious yet wise father figure, sometimes turning to him for advice on proper leadership.

"I was in a bit of a hurry, so I couldn't properly remember all the steps." Ashe said, observing the old man as he undid the bandages. The cotton grazed at her exposed flesh a few times, causing her to wince.

"You did clean the scratches properly, I'll give you that…" Halfdan muttered thoughtfully, focusing on the damage done. "But those scratches are rather big. What hit you?"

"A bear." Ashe replied softly, remembering the brute she had encountered. "It came close to killing me. Even when I was ready to fight back, I think it would have still killed me."

"So why didn't it?" Halfdan looked up at Ashe with narrowed eyes, already sensing that the warmother had more to tell him.

"There was a flash or something. It scared the bear off before it could do any more harm." Ashe looked up at the sky, trying to piece together the events that had happened while she was out on the hunt in the forest. "I saw someone hiding in the shadows. She was wearing True Ice, but I'm sure she wasn't Iceborn; white hair would be easier to make out in the dark, but hers wasn't."

Then the last memory of that person struck Ashe. "And their eyes, they were orange. Whoever that was had a spell of something, because once I looked into their eyes, I just didn't feel like I was in danger at all. Like I could trust them entirely with my health and safety."

Halfdan hummed, looking up at Ashe's pensive expression before turning his focus back to the scratches on the iceborn's arm. "You'll need to take a bath first, then you can properly dress it up." He said as he released his hold on the iceborn's arm. "And if you don't do the bandaging properly now that you have all the time in the world, I'll have many words to say to you."

With that, he turned and walked off before Ashe could reply. In fact, it was surprising that he didn't stay to press Ashe for details as to how the bear found her and to later lecture her for letting the bear find her so easily.

After he mentioned a bath, it dawned upon Ashe how filthy she was. The gold on her shoulder armour was stained red from the blood of the deer, and the blue fabric of her outfit and cape were also stained purple from the same deer's vital fluid. Seeing this, Ashe hurried to her cabin, wanting to clean herself of all the blood and sweat on her body.

Once she was inside, she first stripped herself of her boots, setting them down neatly next to the door that led to the cabin's lavatory. She walked over to a clothes stand and pulled off a navy blue bathrobe before turning her focus to the bathroom.

It wasn't long before the iceborn archer was laying in a wooden tub full of warm water, enjoying the contrasting feeling the water gave her cold body. She scrubbed her body with soap, being especially careful with the scratches on her arm, hissing softly whenever a fresh sting erupted through her arm as a result of the bath washing off the healing ointments she took earlier.

In spite of the pain and comfort she was feeling now, however, one question remained in Ashe's mind. Just who was that person she saw in the forest?

….

The woman trudged through the snow with a little difficulty. It seemed that she was getting farther from the shack by each passing day. She was grateful that she had been taught to navigate through complex environments such as dense forests, especially since she resided in one. She was also grateful that the fire in the shanty's fireplace hadn't gone out, as it made the cabin easy to make out in the dark, the glow of the flames emanating from the gaps of the wood used to build the small cabin.

The sun had fallen by the time she had arrived at the lone shack that stood in between two large and broad trees. She really had to stop this habit of wandering off. The gauntlet she wore, along her orange eyes and the markings on her face and neck were enough to make her noticeable to others, even in a place like the forest.

The woman sighed and extinguished the flames in her palm, opening the door and stepping inside.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, she was greeted by a cheerful yelp, and she turned to find a small ball of white fur jumping up and down on the mattress that lay on the floor. She smiled and unlatched the blue gauntlet she wore, getting down on her knees and setting it down next to the mattress. She then cupped her hands together, allowing the adorable creature, mainly known as a poro, to jump into them.

"Dearest Willow," she cooed softly, lifting the poro up to her face and allowing it to give her cheek a sloppy lick. "Did you miss me?" As she asked this, her eyes flicked to the bowl that sat in the centre of the shack. The bowl was still moderately full, thankfully. That meant Willow had had enough to eat while she was out.

The poro gleamed at its owner, giving her face another sloppy lick. The woman chuckled and sat on the mattress, setting the poro on her lap. "I saw a huntress today, Willow." She spoke. The poro stopped moving, instead sitting and looking up at the woman with earnest attention. This was almost a routine for the two. The woman would leave the cabin for most of the day, then return and tell Willow of the day's events, much like how a mother would to her child.

"She saw me as well. Maybe I could have talked to her. But I took one look at her, then I remembered that I couldn't." As the woman spoke, she gently scratched Willow on the poro's little head, between the horns. "She may have heard the prophecy, just like everyone else. And she had a bow and arrow. She could, no, would shoot me if I fully showed myself to her."

The poro frowned slightly, then nudged the woman's hand with its head. The woman smiled as she looked down at the ball of fluff, gently stroking a warm hand over its warm furr. "At least I still have you with me." She said before yawning and stretching.

"It's time for some shuteye." She said as she lay down on the mattress, turning to her side and letting Willow snuggle up to her as both prepared to sleep. "Tomorrow, we'll just wake up… and repeat everything all over again."

As she spoke the last few words, a tear emerged from one of the woman's eyes and traced down her cheek. She wiped it away and wrapped her arms around her poro, and within seconds, she had drifted off to sleep.