Eris looked around, each step was careful and precise. The forest was darker than usual today, so she had to be on high alert for bears, wolves and animals alike.
She came to a ledge which was about two or three meters above the ground. Eris crouched down on her knees, extending a leg down to scale the slight rock face. She landed quietly on the leaves below. She whipped around at the sound of a distant howl, her heartbeat rising. She wasn’t too far away from the lake, so she decided to keep on making her way down to the riverbank. She noticed a cave to her right, and with past experiences, she steered clear of it, careful to not tread on sticks that could attract unwanted attention. There was a slight decline leading down to the riverbank, with some rocks. She decided that walking on the rocks would lessen the risks oh her treading on a stick. She hopped from rock to rock, light on her feet. As she took a step onto one of the rocks, it came loose, causing her to slip. She regained her balance, but the rock rolled down, hitting a tree with a thud. The sound seemed to echo through the forest. She sighed, closing her eyes. Great.
Suddenly, a rumbling growl came from the cave. She quickly ducked behind a large rock, though she peered around the side of it. A huge, black bear ambled out from the cave, sniffing around. Eris held her breath, her left hand slowly moving backwards to grab an arrow, bow in hand. It growled and went back in the cave. She exhaled in relief. She waited a few minutes to be certain it had went back into the cave, and then stood.
Instead of heading down to the lake, she decided to walk a few meters away from the edge, so she was still concealed by the tree line. She walked casually for a few minutes, then a loud squeal echoed through the forest. Quickly, she hooked an arrow to her bow and ran towards the sound.
She came to a small clearing, and saw an injured deer, no older than a few weeks. About a meter away, was an older deer. 'Dead' she said to herself sadly. However, the little one was well alive, looking around frantically. Her heart ached for it, and she walked up to it. Seeing her approach, it tried to scramble to it’s feet, letting out another terrified bleet. “Hey, it’s ok” she said softly, putting her bow on the ground, raising her hands to try and show she meant no harm. She walked up to it, and it’s injury was worse than she had previously thought. A large tear was on it’s shoulder and rump, and blood was gushing out of it. She knelt down beside it, reaching her hand out to stroke it's head to calm the fawn down. The deer shuddered at her touch at first, but steadily began to calm down as she pet it.
“That’s better” she said, smiling. She looked at the wound. “That looks fresh, let’s take a look at it”. She peered at the wound, noting the claw-like gashes.
She reached behind her, grabbing her water flask. She opened it and slowly poured it on the wound. The little deer shuddered again at the coolness of the water. “Shh, it’s ok” she said, patting it while pouring the water on the wounds. Soon they were clean, and too her surprise there wasn’t much dirt or anything in the flesh.
'Must of been a clean swipe the animal had taken on the deer' she thought to herself.
She then fetched the fabric she had at the bottom of her quiver, and the small bottle of ointment Rae had given her for her lip. She applied it on the wound, again comforting the baby deer. She carefully wrapped the fabric on the wounds, and used the excess to wrap the deer up loosely to keep it warm, since it was getting cooler as it got darker. She then busied herself putting away the ointment and water flask, and the little deer snuggled into the blanket near her leg.
She smiled at it. “I’ll look after you” she said, reaching down to stroke it’s head.
Suddenly, a loud roar was heard above her. She looked up, and a huge bear, similar to the one from the cave, looked down at them, with blood on it’s claws and mouth. She was almost certain it was corrupt, since it’s fur was mangled and it’s eyes had a sickly look to them. The bear had multiple wounds on it.
‘That must be the one that killed the fawn’s mother’ she thought. ‘It looks like it’s been tainted, somehow..’
This was no ordinary bear. She picked up her bow, stepping over the baby deer. Before she had time to react, the bear jumped down from the ledge and surged towards her, rocking up on it’s back legs. She took a step back, and just as she let the arrow fly from the string, the bear took a savage strike at her chest, tearing a wound from her shoulder to her hip. She yelled in pain, but did not take into consideration how bad it was. She focused on keeping the deer safe. She quickly reached for another arrow, and the bear fell back onto it’s front paws. She jumped up onto a nearby rock, leaping off it and twisting to aim at the bear’s head. She tucked her leg up to get a clean shot, and let the arrow fly. It hit the bear near the back of it’s head, and it roared in anger and pain. Eris landed, grabbing another arrow. The bear then caught sight of the deer, and ran towards it.
“No!” Eris cried, dropping her bow and drawing her sword from her belt. She tore after the bear, and when she was side on to it, she surged sideways, driving the sword into the bear’s side.
It twisted around, attempting to take a swipe at her head. She ducked, kneeing it in the jaw. The bear took a side step, and she drew out her blade. It rocked up onto it’s haunches, letting out a devilish roar before falling backwards, dead.
Eris looked at it, breathing heavily. Then, she looked down at her torso. Huge claw lacerations were gouged into her skin, from her shoulder down to her waist in a diagonal line. She frowned, then looked up. The little deer lay trembling in the blanket, but it was untouched. She picked it up, careful not to freak it out by getting her blood on it. Slowly, she made her way to the river. She lay the deer down, and filled up her water flask, since quite a bit was used to treat the deer’s wound. She splashed a bit on her own gash, but it was too painful, so she soon left it. Eris ambled back to the spot where she killed the bear, retrieving her bow and arrows, placing them in her quiver and putting the bow on her back. She bent down, grimacing in pain, and picked up the little deer, fixing the blanket so it could be warm. She held it close to her chest, feeling dizzy from the blood loss. She could only stumble forward for about two meters, when she collapsed to her knees. Placing the deer down beside her in case she passed out, she put her hands on her knees, blinking. Her vision blurred, and her head throbbed. She felt herself collapse to the ground, then she blacked out, falling onto the leaves on the ground. The little deer called to her nervously, but she did not respond. The fawn bleated nervously, scrambling forwards to lie next to her. Feeling safer, it slowly drifted to sleep by her side.
