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Illustration by Emberra O. |
“Meep!” A tiny scrap of an elf cub scrambled out of the thick brush at the edge of the river, justifying her name with continued squeaking as she bolted towards the dentrees as fast as her childish legs could carry her. She knew her mother, the chieftess, was busy and shouldn’t be bothered, but there was a monster by the water! The Holt needed to be informed before it came and ate them all!
“Father, father!” She barreled into Blacksnake’s legs and he caught her with a ‘whoof’. “I was by the water, looking for lizards, and I was really really quiet, and then I passed some bushes and there was a mountain with eyes looking down at me!” She stopped, out of breath, eyes wide with terror.
“It was really close, too, and it yelled at me!”
“Hush, cubling.” Blacksnake hugged her close, his lips quirking slightly. Scouts had noticed the marsh beast grazing near the lake, and there were plans to send a party out after it, later that night. “It was a marsh beast, they do bellow very loudly. We’ve warned you about getting too far away on your own, haven’t we? Come.” He took her hand. “Let’s go see the preparations for the hunt. When we bring it back, you’ll see there’s a lot of meat on that mountain with eyes.”
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