Faye

A loud squeal shatters the tense silence as a small shadow dashes out from the bush and sprints directly at me.

PEW!

I didn't think twice before pulling the trigger. The bullet hits the shadow in the head and its body tumbles toward my feet.

I stop it with my foot and take a look.

It's an animal, about the size of the little girl. It has a fat body and is covered in dark brown fur, with two fluffy black ears and a huge nose. There is a thin wooden rod sticking out of its side. The feather at the end of it tells me that it's an arrow. Blood drips out from the wound on its head and side.

"Is that a… pig?" I ask.

"It looks like a boar," Cisca says.

"A boar?"

"It's like a wild pig that lives in the forest."

"Ah," I say, "There is an arrow sticking out of it, too. Someone is hunting it, and they are likely not far away."

"You are probably close to the village you are looking for, then," Cisca says.

"Yeah."

I holster my pistol and bend down to examine the arrow. The wood is rough, and the fletching is just a single feather. I can't see the tip, as it's embedded deep into the flesh of the boar, threading through the thin gap between the ribs.

"Master," Lohikaarmi whispers beside me, "there is something else in the bush."

I look up from the boar, and indeed, the bush is rustling again. When I have my hand over my pistol and am about to take it out a second time, I hear a female voice from behind the leaves.

"Uh, where did it run off to?" The voice said.

Two hands reach out from the shrub and spread it open. A girl's head pops out from the opening. Her big, hazel eyes scan the area, landing briefly on me. She gasps and jolts, but because she is deep in a bush, she trips and face-plants onto the ground.

"Oww…" she groans and quickly pushes herself up to get back on her feet. There are sticks and leaves entangled in her long, brunette hair. A thin layer of suntan covers her milky skin. In the ragged and dirty one-piece dress she is wearing, she looks a year or two younger than me.

Ignoring the roughly made bow and quiver slung around her back, overall, she looks like a normal girl, a very pretty one, too, but there is something about her ears that catches my eyes. They are long and pointed to the sides, like the fairies from the folklores.

"Whoa, she's an elf," Cisca says.

"A what?" I ask.

"An elf, you know, from Germanic myths."

I have never heard of such a thing, but of course, Cisca knows. She has a doctorate in anthropology, after all.

"Uh. H-Hello there, Sir." She fumbles as she tries to bob a curtsy and almost trips over herself again. Her voice is soft, close to disappearing into the breeze, but hearing her talk somehow soothes me.

"Hi, Miss," I say and extend out my hand to offer something for her to grab on so as to not fall over again.

"Ah, thank you." She takes my hand with an embarrassed chuckle and steadies herself.

As she is doing that, I notice her staring at my forehead, but when I try to match her gaze, she quickly looks away. Her stare made me a little uncomfortable, and I have no idea why. I haven't looked in a mirror in a while. Is there blood on my forehead or something?

The elf girl clears her throat and looks at the dead boar and says, "It looks like you found my prey."

Her sudden appearance was so surprising that I forgot she was looking for the animal.

"Yeah. It's my bad for killing it," I say, "Take it. It's yours."

"Oh, no, no. I didn't hurt it that much. You were the one that killed it. You can take it," the girl says while waving her hands.

"I know, but it wasn't going to get far, anyway."

"But…"

"It's alright. Just take it. We don't need it."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

She puts her hands together in front of her chest and does a weird bow. "Thank you so much, Sir," she says and walks over to pick up the boar. The wild animal looks no lighter than herself, and yet she lifts it up effortlessly. Even with lower gravity, that's pretty impressive for a girl as skinny as she is.

I noticed that she has been catching glances at my forehead throughout our conversation. I wipe my hand over it to see if there is indeed blood, but it's clean.

Cisca was also grinning during the whole encounter with the elf girl.

"What's so funny?" I whisper to Cisca.

"I'm sorry?" The elf girl somehow heard me.

"Ah, nothing," I say, "Is there a village nearby?"

"Yeah. My village Alventyr is not far that way," the elf girl says and points over the bush from where she came.

"Can you lead us to it?" I ask.

"Of course. I have never met humans as nice as you," she says with a bright smile. Her genuineness reminds me of Cisca, but unlike Cisca, there is such an overwhelming sense of purity in the elf girl's beautiful eyes, I can almost get lost in them, and those dimples… I try to shake that strange feeling out of my head.

"Come with me," she says and walks into the bush.

Lohikaarmi and I follow her further into the depth of the forest.

"May I ask for your name?" I ask as I catch up beside the elf girl.

"Faye," she says.

"Just Faye?" I ask.

She nods and says, "We village elves don't have long names like the city people. There aren't many of us.

"The city people?"

"Yeah, like you guys."

Like us? Oh, right, I am wearing the knight's armor. They must have been the city people Faye is talking about.

"What about you? What are your and your partner's names?" Faye asks.

"You can call me Kris, and she over there is Lohikaarmi."

I didn't think twice before revealing a dragon's name, but Faye doesn't show any recognition of it.

"Ah. Nice to meet you, Kris," Faye says and looks over to the dragon girl, "and Lohikaarmi."

Lohikaarmi nods.

"She doesn't really talk," I say.

"Yeah?"

There it is again. Faye is looking at my forehead with interest in her eyes.

"Is there anything, um… over here?" I ask while pointing at where she is looking at.

"Ah sorry," she says and averts her eyes, "It's just… your hair is strange and… lovely."