“Now!” screamed Iseca, she kicked a twig that had been leaning. This sent the mechanism into full swing, the vine connected to the twig slid across the ground, a zipping sound could be heard as it displaced every leaf that crossed its path. It twisted past tree branches managing to break the last one from the combined heat and speed. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen until there was a triggered a weight drop. As the weights fell, it raised a rope made entirely of vines to entangle itself around a four-horned boar’s foot. The boar’s weight made it impossible to suspend, but the weighted pulley system was sufficient enough to limit the movement.

“Stab it! Stab it now! She yelled, The reason her voice was raising in volume meant one of two things, they’d be eviscerated by an enraged beast, or second, they boar would chew through the vine rope, and their meal ticket would escape. And this would be the last time they’d be able to hunt anything for the day seeing as the sun was starting to set. The boar coming along was almost sheer luck considering most animals were avoiding them due to a ‘mysterious’ being triggering their flight responses.

Rina dove right into the beast’s flesh, claws first. What she was going for wasn’t a killing blow. But, more like a desperate search for the magical organ most creatures contain. And to her, a magical beast like this four horned boar was poor albeit better than eating an Orc.

The boar roared in pain; it made noises that Iseca didn’t even know was possible. The pain the beast felt was understandable having a magical organ ripped out was nearly like having your soul torn from your body. But, as far as Iseca could see Rina was just searching for the creature’s heart. She didn’t agree with having the beast suffer this much. But she had to let her do her thing. She knew that from experience comes efficiency; it was the unnecessary evil of hunting.

Iseca sat that for a full bloody minute, sixty seconds of watching a beast suffer before she decided to intervene. However, by the time she came close enough, Rina had finally ripped the magical organ out, it looked like a blood-covered pouch. The size hadn’t been very substantial, but in compared to Rina size, it took up most of her palm. She greedily stuffed the thing into her mouth. As soon as she bit down blood splattered from the organ from all the pressure built up on the side that couldn’t fit in her mouth.

“Whoa! Hey! You can’t eat that!” Iseca slapped the organ from her grip. Instinctively, Rina let out an angered hiss. Iseca slightly paused, seeing a child act like a starved animal wasn’t exactly something she was prepared to deal with, she steeled herself and got close again. “Eating raw meat is dangerous!” Rina still looked up at Iseca like a starved predator on the verge of death. Something in that face sparked a memory for Iseca. She saw a familiar face in the child. Her skin lost a little bit of color, as much as her dark skin allowed. She saw the face of a ghost, a haunted memory.

Tears began to well up in her eyes. She mumbled, “I’m so sorry.”

Rina noticed the emotions of the darkly skinned elf change; she tried to change her attitude.

Iseca rubbed the tears from her eyes, “I’m...I’ll meet you back at the house. I’ll...prepare the boar.” She reached down grabbing the front legs and pulled. The two hundred pound boar moved with almost ease. Were all elves naturally this strong? Rina really would have to make sure not to get on her wrong side if she wanted to consume her magic.

She waited until Iseca was out of sight. She looked at the ground, the magic containing organ had become covered in blood, dirt, and bits of rock. A lot of the magic had retreated into the field; unfortunately, Rina was still hungry, she scooped the organ up from the ground.

~

Rina decided to take her time going back to the camp; If she went the long path, perhaps she’d see the ambush if they discovered what she’s capable of doing. Coming up on the site The boar was already pinned up and roasting above the fire, Iseca was sitting on a log and occasionally throwing herbs and spices on the body. Any seasoning was entirely wasted on Rina. She could consume anything practically raw, most microbes, bacteria, and parasites had no way of fighting the digestion of her’s if it could ever be called digestion. Besides her taste buds were nonexistent, even if she looked like she had skin and bones she had shared more traits with insects, She had an exoskeleton and could pick up on a specific pheromone.

“Hey...Sorry, I left you in the forest...I needed to be alone for a second.”

Rina cocked her head to the side; she was ignoring the speaking elf and looking at the magical energy that was approaching from the darkness.

“Well, Well, Well.” The disembodied voice said. “The roadkill is awake.” The figure stepped towards the light. He was also one of the dark-skinned elves that appeared before Rina blacked out.

“Rina, her name is Rina.” Iseca prodded the boar to check on the tenderness of the roasting pork.

There was a pause, the tensity of the situation was shining in the dim light. “Quite a coincidence that a little girl bearing a resemblance to your sister shares the same name.”

Iseca wasn’t even bothering to look at the speaker. “I gave her that name.” she put it bluntly.

“...Iseca that’s in poor taste, just because she bears a resemblance here and there doesn’t mean you should throw around her name.”

“...I know.” she sounded like she was nearly ready to burst into tears again at any moment. “I blurted out the first name I could think of. And she looked like her so I…”

Interrupting her explanation “But, I can’t blame you. The looks are scary close.” He was standing just a couple of feet away from Rina’s face. His hand was on her chin.

Swallowing back her sadness she asked. “Dirsk, is there something you came over here for?”

“Not really, I saw you cooking something and invited myself to have a slice or two.”

Rina never took her eyes off this creature. The magic steaming off of him was more significant than the female that she was just hunting with. This may have complicated things to a further extent, judging by how close he seems to be with this woman, a conventional sneak attack might not work if they found her body and traced it back to Rina. The kill would have to look as natural as possible. So killing her while she slept was out of the question.

Dirsk approached Rina. He smelled so deliciously; he stretched out his hand water began pouring from his palm. Rina did not flinch or even make a move when his hand touched her face. Even if he seemed dangerous, the magic imbued liquid was buying her more thinking time.