She gasped as she jumped awake. She looked around. When did she fall asleep? When did the sounds stop!? They stopped? It was silent but for the morning birds, singing happily. Did she dream last night? Probably not. She leaped from her bed and grabbed her bow, her quiver, and a bit of limbas. She would be careful, but she wanted to know what those sounds were.

As she walked, she noticed... Nothing. Everything seemed normal. She could tell that the sounds were fairly distant, so a long walk was in her future. She didn't mind, she enjoyed walking, and at least she had something interesting to do. She wondered what could have possibly made those sounds. A bear or something? Well, the roar didn't really sound like a bear. Perhaps a boar, though she'd still never heard one bellow like that. As she walked, her mind flipped from one option to another. An anxious horse? Maybe a deer could make the shriek. Or maybe some wild cat. Or maybe-...

She stood stock-still as she reached the place where the voices came from, and she realized. No bear, no horse, no boar, but an orc and man battleground... Dozens of corpses littered the ground. Arrows, banners, swords, and blood... She raised her arrow to her bow as she slowly approached. There wasn't a sign of life, not a single one remained standing. Both men and orcs lying in the grass. She looked through them curiously. Grotesque mangled corpses everywhere. She wasn't sure what to do about them, or if she even should bother, there were far too many to bury, and she would refuse to burn them.

She paused as she thought she heard something. She listened. No, nothing just silence. Wait... A soft hiss, almost nothing. She turned in the direction of the sound. Her ears tracked it back to a bloodied body of an orc, slumped against a tree, its eyes were closed, and she realizes the hiss, was a steady escape of breath.

She instantly drew her bow, training the arrow on it, readying for the kill... She stood... Ready... Let go! her hand still held the arrow. Kill it! She didn't... This didn't seem right. She was fine with killing in self-defense, but this felt wrong... Like shooting a caged wolf, no chance for self-defense.

She focused yet again, readying a shot, but she still couldn't fire. She sighed. It was wounded, and would likely die anyway. So why shoot it? Well, she didn't want to let it suffer, what else could she do? She took a deep breath and readied to finally shoot it, directing her arrow for its head.

Then, she saw as its eyes slowly opened. A piercing yellow stood out in its dark complexion, as it stared, fixedly on her face. She prepared herself, but could only watch as its passive expression remained unchanged, till its eyes fell once again. She took in a breath and held her hand like stone, till at last she...

She let her breath go with a puff, her bow and arrow falling from the creature. She couldn't do it... If only it had tried to kill her at least once! But now all she could do was look at it with disgusted pity. It was mitered with arrows, and a massive slash mark across its chest, its breath was weak and shallow. Looking around, everything else seemed lifeless. Should not it be the same? What could she do?

As dumb as it was, she would rather it be healed and healthy when she was to kill it. Maybe she might as well. She felt certain she could handle one wounded orc. Maybe she'd have to kill it or maybe it would leave and not be her problem. Well, she wouldn't want it coming back with more orcs. Either kill it or get rid of it blindfolded. Oh, this was stupid, just shoot it! Ugh, she couldn't. Whatever, she'd figure it out. Maybe she was just hoping to have something to do, but did it have to be this?!

She rolled her eyes, she couldn't just leave it there! Alright, heal it, then either kill it or get rid of it. Well, she supposed step one was to get it back to her hut. She kicked away its sword, then pulled its arm over her shoulder. She tried standing it up, but quickly realized that wouldn't be working any time soon! She then grabbed its hands and started to drag it. She'd only gone five feet when she began questioning if maybe shooting it there would be better. She'd always heard that orcs were small and shrimpy, why was it so heavy!!

She stopped and tied its hands figuring that would be safer in the long run, as well as easier to pull. From there she started her long trek back. She'd dragged many a deer, but none were as heavy as this one creature! She was starting to think that dragging a whole damn elk would be easier! Thinking about it, it might have been... Logically, it was also a longer way than she was used to, but still! She pressed on, forcing her feet to move, ignoring their objections. This was all a horrible plan...