Three days have passed since Ura sold me out. Three days have passed since I had been hunting on my own, living in the wild, never knowing if I was going to be killed during the night or not. Usually I preferred nature above anything else - a peaceful quiet that revived my energy. Now everything had changed; it felt like nature wasn't safe anymore. It definitely didn't revive my energy. Even worse, it only wore me out. Constantly, I had to make sure that travelers didn't see me, or that I hadn't become the prey instead of the hunter. The cold was another factor that had me on my toes, especially during the night when the temperature fell. The constant rain didn't help either.

Currently, my feet and trousers were wet and my hands were sticky from the fish I skinned. My stomach was growling loudly. It had been a day since I ate, and it had been rumbling for a while. My feet hurt and complained just as much; I had traveled since first light. During the day it was hard to navigate, the sun was hidden behind the clouds that disappeared only at night when the cold fell. So I had been traveling much further north than I had anticipated. If I had to guess, I was a day off the White River shore, and two days away from the first mountain peaks - the first line of vampire territory. When the forest thinned out, I could already see them towering in the distance, like the giants in the human children books. I smiled, a pleasant memory of Io reading me the tale of giants in the clouds. It didn't last, as sadness quickly followed. Perhaps my life would've been better if I grew up to be a human. All of the heartache would be in the past. I wouldn't be here alone in the woods, running for my life, with the heaviness and soreness left behind by betrayal. The safest option was to keep moving, and so I did, but my body was struggling.

For now, I had succeeded in staying off everyone's radar. I even succeeded at keeping others off my radar, which I was grateful for. It surprised me, but who was I to question the one thing that was going my way? My sole focus now was the daily struggle of surviving in the wild. Luckily hunting was one of the basic skills of a Vampire Hunter.

Again, my stomach growled.

"Yes, yes," I grumbled back. "It's almost finished."

The fire was blazing nicely. Heat radiated against my wet trousers, it was a nice change from the constant cold. The gray smoke of the fire made my eyes water. I leaned over the fire to attach the fish to the wooden stick leaning on a simple construction of twigs and rocks.

"There we go," I hummed and my stomach rumbled in response. "You know, Ura never liked fish. Another thing we disagreed upon. I should've known she wasn't to be trusted." My head turned and my eyes caught the salamander sneaking away, between the bushes and under the rock it had been waiting under for most of my time at the water side. "Who doesn't like fish?"

I pulled my shoes off, the water in it making a slurping noise once my feet came out.

"Nice," I sighed. "Another thing that goes my way." With too much force, I threw my shoes to the side and dropped to the ground, my arms outstretched next to me.

Waves lapped at the rocks scattered across the stream. The gentle sounds of the rippling water were soothing. My eyes closed involuntary, for a second I could imagine that I was back on my familiar stone at home. Ura would've sat somewhere on the ground, not too far away from me, keeping herself busy with cleaning weapons or something else useful. I could almost imagine her little frown, the one she always wore when she had difficulty scrubbing off a particularly hard piece of dirt. My eyes pressed together, tighter, just like my heart did.

"I'm tired," I turned my head, slowly opening my eyes, to the green-turning rock where the salamander had hidden itself under once again. "Can you believe that? I have no tasks to do except for finding food, a few hours of walking and setting up camp. Yet, I feel like I've aged ten years. And all because of that betraying-," a silence fell before I simply went on, "that I once called my friend. And now I'm alone and tired and-," my voice hitched. "I just don't know what to do." I closed my eyes again and let the sadness once again overtake my heart. It broke yet again, or it simply broke further now that I had stopped keeping my mind and body busy. "I have nowhere to go."

The salamander reappeared, it slithered towards me and curled up next to my hand. Its slimy body felt cold and yet it gave a warmth I hadn't felt in days. I turned my head slowly and looked at its black and yellow body. He was only as big as my middle finger, but his black eyes were big and round, filled with emotions. A tear formed in the corner of my eyes.

"Thanks, buddy," I smiled with pressed lips, my voice croaky.

Silence once again settled. My ears listened to the ruffling of the trees. My skin felt the moisty ground underneath me and the warm lively body of my new friend, curled up in my left hand. My tongue and nose prickled with anticipation for some decent food - food that wasn't berries or plantlike.

"You know, my mom once spoke about some friends. My parents used to visit them on missions in the west. I think they live in Roachtown, near the Great River. You think they would take me in?"

The reptile didn't respond. The corners of my lips dropped. "Yeah, you're probably right, not worth checking out. Too risky, with all the rich vampires living near the trade centers that cover the east side of the Great River."

I sighed in defeat, yet another possibility down the drain. There had to be somewhere nobody hated me, right? Or at least, didn't know who I was.

Loud ruffling and lazy footsteps made me jump up. If I had to guess three or four people. Out of reflex, I unsheath my knife and let my hand rest on its simple leather handle. With slow steps and investigating eyes that remained on the treeline, I walked back towards the water shore where my bow and arrows lay. My new reptile friend had run off towards its stone, and I couldn't really blame him. The trees had been quiet for some time now, ruffling wasn't a great sign. These days, nothing other than quietness was a great sign.

One after the other, three shadows appeared from behind the darkening forest. The first, a hulky man at least twice my size, didn't even try to sneak up on me. With an ax, twice his own head, hauled behind him, he dragged himself onto the river shore. A grin that showed off his rotten teeth covered his face, and all I wished was for him to close his mouth.

The second shadow was a woman, sleek and small, but with a deadly look in her eyes. She hopped beside the half-giant, like she was his bodyguard. It was a strange view. Scars painted her skin like tattoos, and the rags she wore as an outfit only helped her look semi-human. This was a woman that didn't have much to lose, which was not reassuring.

The third shadow remained too far out of sight. They were sitting higher up, on one of the heavy, lower branches of an oak. I imagined they were a spotter, back-up for when things went south. Perhaps giving air support when a fight broke loose - which it would. Why else would bounty hunters walk up to me in threatening steps? Their plan of attack was almost clear in the way they approached me, and then there was of course the feared orange band they both wore so proudly on their right upper arm. Typical bounty hunter arrogance.

It didn't even surprise me that Marcus had put out a bounty. I imagine only in the human cities, to not tip off the vampires. Would they take me alive, or was it simply my body they needed for their money?

The peaceful silence from before was replaced by a pending doom. When my fingers reached for my bow, laying next to my feet now, an arrow whistled through the air and hit the ground right next to my left foot. Not losing my moment, I rolled over the ground, picking my gear up along the way. With practiced moves, my arrow was ready to kill in no time.

The sleeky woman was already half-way the battlefield when I released my first arrow. The woman was fast, too agile to take out from a long distance. So I made a tactical decision that would either cost me time or would win me the advantage later on. Going off by the loud grunt, and a body hitting the ground with a crunch that I could hear all the way back at the waterside, I'd say I hit someone. The damage wouldn't matter much, the goal was to give myself some time to take out the other two - both gaining the advantage very quickly.

My first real problem was the woman that came in fast. With iron spikes around her fingers, she lashed out. Two quick jabs were easy to faint, but an arrow flying my way at the same time was considerably more difficult. The arrowhead greased my shoulder, not bad enough for it to hurt, but enough for my attention to slip from the woman standing in my personal space. With another two quick jabs to my stomach, she had me on the ground coughing in pain. With my arms clutching my stomach, I remained on the ground. Pain flared up along my spine and warm blood coated my palms. A wooden heel closed in on me, and I had just enough time to roll out of its reach.

With excruciating pain flares that trapped the air in my lungs, I pushed myself to my feet and parried her next blow. My other hand had unsheathed my Hunter's blade, and with a clean and quick move I plunged the knife in the woman's side. Her eyes turned big, while mine had difficulty staying open. She looked so surprised, and if it wasn't for the loud, incoming footsteps that could have easily been from a small giant, my stomach would've turned inside out. Instead, my body didn't have time to feel sorry, and simply jumped into the thing it knew best; fighting.

The petite woman fell limp against me. My knife remained tucked inside her body and like that I moved forward - her body serving as my shield.

A low growl, a sound that reminded me of a crying bear, was the only human reaction I got from the woman's companion. That was before a heavy ax sizzled my way, and I had to fall to my side to not get split in two. Not a second later, an arrow pierced the air. I rolled the body on top of me, just in time, for the muffled thud of its impact to have missed me. My eyes were already back on the size 8 shoes that approached me. His ax still remained in the ground, not too far away from me. My only chance would be to keep those two separated.

With a squelching noise, I pulled my knife back from my human shield. My stomach made some unnatural turns. Tensing my muscles, I jumped up from my hiding place and ran towards the giant. With quick steps, I avoided each of his archy ugly hands. They were too big, and when did he last clean them?

Left. Under. Parry and turn. Hit. My knife plunged in his side, lower than would've been fatal. But he was also so damn big. Not waiting for his counterattack, I pulled my weapon back. By now it was already coated in dark red blood. He turned on his heels, swung his fist towards me, constantly switching between left and right. He was too big to be agile, but nonetheless, he made it difficult to avoid every single one of his jabs.

"Stay still, you midget." His voice sounded as roughed up as his body looked.

And a midget I was; my knife pierced through his skin, again and again. None of them were very deep, but every single one was right where I wanted. Below his kneecap, along his calf, on his lower back, below his hip towards his groin and then finally right through his Achilles tendon. The man collapsed. On his hands and knees, he grunted in pain. He muttered something incomprehensible, but I had no time to ask him to repeat himself. The third of their party flung a long blade, something between a knife and a dagger, in my direction, hitting my upper arm. I stumbled back. Hissing like a snake, I pulled the blade from my biceps. The warm blood trickled down my arm, dripping from my fingers onto the moisty grass. Water formed in my eyes at the burning pain spreading through my arm like wildfire.

The shadow limped into the orange glow of the evening sun - my arrow must've hit his leg before. His blurry figure made its way across the shore. In a stumbling retreat, I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes. Pain was for later, it would only get me killed now. No emotions. Wall after wall formed around my heart, the pain and fear leaving my body with each one, until there was only cold clarity left. My jaw moved back and forth, my hand tightened around my knife and my eyes cleared up. My full attention on the gaunt-like figure, dressed in full black rags, draped around and around his body, like a mummy. Or at least I thought he was male, it wasn't clear from where I was standing. The only color on him, his orange bounty band. His lips were curled up in a one sided smile that made him look annoying, and dangerous.

"You a dafty one, aren't yah?" His accent took me by surprise. Nobody in the Green Lands spoke like that. I wasn't even sure where it was from. The south? The West, from across the Great River? It wasn't from the north, that I was certain. Those lot spoke too posh for us Greenlanders.

His eyes, hidden behind his ear-long hair, were fixed on me. Perhaps, he was the biggest challenge out of the three of them. He looked ruthless. A cold killer, lacking the minimal humanity that his companions had.

"Kill the bitch, Graigor," the giant grumbled, pain laced in his words.

"How much am I worth dead anyway?"

Graigor grinned, a gesture that made my skin crawl in disgust.

"You're worth a year of nightly pleasure, pleasures of all kinds." I felt bile come up.

"That's what you're going to do with the money?"

He shrugged, his grimace not disappearing. The walls around my heart tightened, so did my hand, the one that wasn't creating a puddle of blood around my feet. In four long strides, I was standing in front of Graigor. His slender hand handled his blades with a precision that I had to applaud. But he wasn't as fast as I was. My genes were simply better than his. Before his blade reached me, my knife had sliced from his armpit up towards his ear. Both his axillary and carotid arteries cut through in one swift move. With my last force, I pushed him off me. His smile remained on his face, but slowly his arrogance seeped away from his eyes. Until they stilled and his body collapsed to the floor. More blood flowed together with the trampled grass and the black mud.

"I'm really tired," was all I said, before I turned my attention to the giant. His brows punched together, molding into each other. "You can leave, or you can end up like your friends. Your choice."

He breathed out, his eyes switching from his one comrade to his other. Both lay lifeless, covered in blood, on each of his sides.

"You'll pay for that!" His voice was croaky, like he had difficulty getting all the air past his vocal cords.

I groaned.

No one was agile with a weapon as heavy and big as his. With quick steps, I distanced myself from him, reached for my bow and arrow once more and took my first shot. He surprised me when he dodged my arrow, his movements were a lot quicker than I had expected. Not that it mattered. My next arrow was already on my string and ready to unleash. His big steps crossed our distance, but he was too late, my arrow flew right under his weapon and into his shoulder. Not entirely where I wanted it to land, but a moving target was always more difficult to hit accurately.

"Wouldn't pull that out," I said, my hands already preparing to fire another arrow. "You'll tear your clavicle artery, that's quite an important one."

The man didn't listen, and blood streamed out once the arrowhead left his body. Without thinking twice, the man attacked once again. The ax reached much further than any I had seen, and only missed me by a hair. With stumbling steps, I stepped out of reach and into the woods. I had to change the fighting field. With the trees now covering for me, I gained much more ground. From behind a bush, five trees from the bounty hunter, I shot the arrow at him. It hit him right next to his bleeding wound. He broke the arrow, but this time didn't pull it out.

"You're not going to stop before you win, are you?" I called out to him.

His voice boomed back. "That money and the honor will be mine."

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that," I mumbled to myself. "I don't have the energy for that, I'm afraid."

The next arrow would be in his chest, between his fourth and fifth rib. Even if it missed by a few inches, it'd still hit vital organs and by the speed he was losing blood from his previous injury, it would take him out in seconds.

Exactly as planned, the arrow hit its target, the man took only a few more steps but then dropped down, his ax hit the ground, and just like that, I had killed a man.

The uneasiness that came with it, made my stomach turn.

I sighed, my shoulders sloped. With tired steps, I made my way to the fish roasting above the fire. It had taken on a nice brown color and it smelled delicious. I dropped to the ground, with my back to the giant and his companions, and the stick in my hands. My teeth finally enjoyed the soft flesh of the sea animal. My body instantly relaxed. My eyes closed, once again, the forest was quiet. My back hit the ground and I looked up at the sky that had colored red and yellow. Black birds flew by, their tiny eyes bright yellow, like the sun during the day.

Please, let this be the end of my day.