(Interlude) Fragment of the Past IV: On the Brink of Death (Ellyn)

Ellyn was alone in the village. She would try to play with the village children often but was often avoided or hindered by her injury. The adults and elders frowned upon her for being associated with the "outcast" old man. Once the old man was left alone, he became a recluse and was perceived perplexing by the common folk. The children of the small village were left to take care of the businesses and practices of their parents.

Traders sometimes come to the town to do business but despite having a road towards the outer regions, it was relatively disconnected to the nearby societies. The kingdom royals admired purity above all, and the people in the town were regarded lower than those in the city regions. As a result, many of the peoples devolved into banditry and preying upon the nearby settlements.

And thus, she was one of the only young ones left in the village. She helped with various errands in the village, keen to not be an outcast and wanted to assist others in nature. She liked going to the outskirts of town and on the boundaries of the forest, not pressing on deeper via the old man's constant warnings. She was helping one of the town's hunters, a few that go in the wilderness in search of game.

Once, bandits came in the village, shouting and screaming. All the townsfolk locked their doors in anticipation but the hunters drew their crossbows and tried to shoot them down, sick of the pillaging and injustices. Ellyn was in the area and could only watch motionless, as one by one they were struck down. She instinctively reached for one of the crossbows and came face to face with a bandit. She grabbed it but received a blow that knocked her down.

Even in the daze of injury, she used one hand and her teeth to draw the crossbow, feebly reaching for a bolt and striking the bandit, right in the neck. She faintly remembered being carried and treated by the old man when the rest of the town left her there to die. She thought back to when she was a child, first discovered by the old man in a cave with her injury.

After the bandit attack, she requested for the old man for a prosthetic. She went into a haze of thoughts as she was unconscious from her injury. She could not remember the words anymore; but the sensation of every wound incurred on her previously remained.