THE HUNTERS

Same day, during the late hours of night. Two full moons at the opposite horizon were shining brightly.

[HORSE FOOTSTEPS CLOMPING.]

somewhere in the deepest part of the forest, The princess was still travelling with her group even though normally by this time they always set up a camp and rest. The General was also travelling on his horse by her side, he said "Princess if we continue our travel for an hour, we will be able to hunt them all by tonight, but looking at our soldiers condition I think they need some rest."

She glared at him in anger and said "General, are your soldiers more frail than me?"

"No, no that's not what I meant." He replied anxiously.

"So, Do I lack intelligence ,that I can't even understand what you meant." She added "I don't care about any of it, we will hunt them today, I can't keep up with this forest anymore."

"Yes, your highness, as you wish." The General replied.

After an hour or a bit more, in the cave where all the Elves were sleeping, two Elves were stationed at the cave's entrance as guards. They looked weak, with no body armor guarding the cave with only sword. They were attentive to their surrounding, but still even before they could real any change they were ambushed from behind, two human soldiers approached the Elven guards in silence, they caught them off guard and simultaneously slit their throats with dagger without making any noise. After a while the Princess along with The General and other Human soldiers walked out from the darkness of the woods. The princess and General were still mounted on their horses while the soldiers were on their feet. The Princess smiled while looking towards The General, she whispered "Haaah, Finally it's time, I am going to skin some of them alive to get myself some excitement."

As she was speaking, the two human soldiers who were still standing near the cave's entrance felt something, they wanted to move but even before they could move an inch, two huge hands came out of the cave and caught the skull of both the soldiers, those hands were covered in bruises and wounds with fresh marks of a tiger's paw scratched on his skin. A heavy yet exhausted voice came from inside the cave "so, as always my gut feeling was true, there really was something ominous."

The voice pulled attention of everyone towards it, the man who spoke was till in the darkness of the cave with only his hands revealed, he tightened his grip on the soldiers head.

Blood started to leak from their eyes and ears and nose, both of them screamed in pain "Aaaaaaaaaa".

All the other soldiers present there were frightened, none of them dared to attack, soon he crushed their skulls and his hands started dripping with blood of them, as soon as he let go, both of the human soldiers fell dead at the spot.

The man walked out of the cave, he has a huge build, with naked chest covered in fresh wounds and marks of previous wounds, with a huge white beard that covered his neck and some part of his chest, with long white dirty hairs and black eyes, he had a huge axe on his waist. His sight alone was enough to strike fear in enemies, the human soldiers walked a step back, as soon as he became visible, The General from the Empire panicked and screamed "form a circle around the princess, protect her at all cost, he is a dangerous man, don't let your guard down, soldiers aim your bows, magicians prepare your spell."

Witnessing this reaction of The General, even the Princess was strike with fear, she asked "General, do you know this man."

The General while keeping his eyes on that Elven man said, "Yes, I know who he is. I saw him twenty two years ago in the war, I was just a soldier at that time. He is the most dangerous Elf in terms of strength, NATHAN ELDINA, THE WESTERN GENERAL OF ELVEN KINGDOM."

That name alone was enough to make the soldiers despair, his reputation was well known even amongst the Humans, the most ruthless and merciless Elf. The one who can never be countered when it came to strength, swords and arrows from soldiers were meaningless in front of him. Hearing his name and finding themselves in front of him some of the human soldiers lost all their hope even before any action, their weapons fell from their hands, some of them fell on their knees themselves.

Witnessing that the soldiers are beginning to lose their morale the General said "stand straight you morons, can't you see he is not the same as he was twenty two years ago, he is hurt, and looks weak, above all you all are in the presence of the Princess, if you bastards pull me down I will kill each one of you with my own hand."

Hearing this, Nathan gave a nasty smile, while covering his smile with his hand he said "he he he, of course it should be like this, slaughtering some spineless creatures doesn't really fits to my taste.

With a serious look and eyes that of an hunter he continued, "If you have come to hunt, then at least you should have spine to stand in front of you prey."

He looked towards all of them and said in an angered voice "I have worked hard in the day, so come at me all at once, I have to sleep a bit before sun rises."

The General jumped of his horse and while walking towards Nathan, he said "as your reputation speaks, an eager man with no patience." He looked towards his soldiers and said "No need to aim at him anymore, I will bring him down alone, after all you don't get a chance to fight an alone Elven General every day."

The soldiers followed his orders, the General walked some distance more before he stopped. Another voice was heard from inside the cave, "and who told you bastards that he was alone." It was a voice of an old man, as soon as the Human soldiers heard this voice they re aimed their arrows towards the cave. A skinny weak old man with long white beard and long white dirty hairs, in a dirty white Elven attire walked out of the cave.

"Old man, did I not tell you to remain inside ?" Nathan said in a heavy voice.

"Who are you calling an Old man, go look your face in the pond." Replied the old man in sarcasm.

"I have told you all before that you will only get in my way." Said Nathan

"Fine, but even if I go back in what will you tell these morons who say they want to also fight and protect their family themselves." As soon as the old man completed his sentence, twenty young Elven man walked out of the cave with rusty swords in their hands and with no armors, even these young Elves looked weak and skinny, but their eyes were filled with determination to fight.

As soon as the twenty Elven soldiers walked out of the cave, the General from Empire said "Haaah, now this changes things."

 ----×----×----×----