Her small figure still pointing to the treeline, then slowly, she lowers her hand.
"Why wouldn't you go back?"
She asks her voice is soft, like she's some how afraid to speak out loud.
"The Soul Bear will maul you, and my father won't be able to stop it."
She continued.
"The bear is the one I need to kill."
She looks at me like I've told her the sky is falling.
"You want to fight the Soul Bear? You understand that the Soul Bear is a creature that could very easily kill you?"
She says, her voice still soft, but forceful as she makes her words heard.
I shake my head, my hand holds my arrow with a strong grip.
"I understand that, but I have to fight it, to make sure that I can help Marcilene feel safe for the rest of her days."
I pause remembering that she could hear Marcilene beside me.
"Marcilene is the girl I was with in the slavers tent."
I say to explain who Marcilene is for Apatite.
"Is this Marcilene, who is she?"
"Marcilene is my sister, she's also the person that I've wanted to use my strength to protect for a while."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning she's an important person to me, and the person that can help me get stronger wants me to kill the bear…"
I pause, pulling in more breath.
"Please. Just help me kill the giant bear."
Apatite, shakes her head.
"No, that bear is very dangerous, it's not even fully grown.. making that bear way more dangerous than it has the credit of being."
'That bear isn't even fully grown yet?!'
"I still need to kill it."
She looks at me dumbfounded.
"Why do you need to kill the bear anyway? I didn't feel anything besides the bear around here."
As she asks that her body lets off a clicking sound that feels louder this time.
Especially compared to the one that was going off in the distance and the other time she was doing it when she was losing her Soul Energy.
"Marcilene isn't here, but… wait, you can feel the bear?"
I say, making me pause my response.
"Yes, the clicking."
She lets out another clicking sound.
"It's how my father and I call for each other and we feel around the area, using it."
She points into the area we came from.
"It's dark, we'd never be able to see through all of that."
Then she points to me.
"Unlike you, you are able to see me, when I went to see you at the edge of the forest, you saw me…"
She looks down, like she's embarrassed of what she had said.
"Why do you need to kill the bear..?"
She slowly lifts her head.
"I need to prove I'm willing to fight to protect Marcilene."
She looks saddened by what I've said.
"Why's he still here Apatite? He should be leaving now."
A voice from behind me, frightened me with a jumpscare that leaves me stuck in fear for a second.
"He said he needs the bear dead."
Apatite says to the man behind me.
Making me turn and look at him, a man clad in orange aura, and blue hair that is messy.
His ears are pointed as well, but one of them has a v shaped cut, small but visible on the right side of his ear.
His skin, the same color as the moon, giving him the same color as Apatite.
Wearing an a white shirt, along with a brown leather vest, and shorts the stop cuffing up at his knees.
"Who are you?"
I jump back and pull my bow up to protect myself, the elf grabs my bow and points it away before I can even get the chance to pull the string.
"You… you're the one that saved my daughter."
He released the bow grip.
His voice then went apologetic.
"Thank you. You may have very well saved her."
He put his hand on his chest and gave a small bow to me.
'Is that traditional for elves?'
Apatite walks closer to us.
"The bear?"
She says.
She looks to her father than to me.
Her father lifts her head and stands tall, towering over my small body.
"I'm sorry son, but that won't be possible…"
I shake my head.
"No, please there has to be some way that you can help me with the problem at hand?"
Apatite's father looks at me dumbfounded by what I've asked.
"Son, I know that you want it dead, but there's no way to pierce deep enough into a Soul Bear, unlike a regular bear."
"Please, anything… I'll do it."
He sighs.
"Unless you have enough Soul Energy that can make the hide of the Soul Bear become a pillow then we can't do anything about it."
"If you're not gonna help after what I've done for you then nevermind!"
I move to the side and begin to walk, before I can even get past him, he steps in front of my path stopping me from moving any further forward.
His Soul Energy moves around his body, like its blood pumping through his heart towards the furthest ends of his body.
"Do you truly need it dead?"
I nod.
"I have to prove myself to someone so that she can give me her training and learn to be a better archer, to protect someone."
Her father nods, only after looking at Apatite.
Apatite looks over at her father then at me.
"What do you plan to do?"
Her father looks at me and nods a little.
"Okay, son, can you tell me how you were able to give my daughter Soul Energy?"
"What?"
"I felt it."
The moonlight, truly reflected off his skin.
"And she told me that when she called for me you made her stop, along with making her feel rejuvenated in a way."
He paused and looked me up and down.
"So can you do that?"
I stamped my voice not sure if I should answer anything correctly.
"I… I… I… Don't know…"
His face looked at me with seriousness.
"It's a yes or a no…"
I look both of them and see their aura's they don't look scared, especially Apatite, she didn't even feel scared when she was side by side to me holding my mouth to keep quiet.
"I think I can…"
Apatite looked at me.
"What do you mean… you think?"
"My eye is the one that makes me able to do it, but I need to be around, many people all at once."
I look at him, with my voice sounding like I'm pleading for help.
"I think I could do it, if I have a strong source of Soul Energy."
Apatite and her father look between each other, then they nod.
"Okay, I'm sure that we'll be able to kill the bear if you're able to infuse a huge amount of Soul Energy into the bow."
I look at him bewildered a bit.
"How do you know, how the bow works?"
He looks at me with furrowed eye brows, then pulls back then looks at me normally again.
"I'm the one that threw the knife to stop the lady."
He reaching into his darkened vest, pulling it open, he reaches in and pulls out a knife that is completely similar to the one that had been stabbed into Jahar's leg.
'What ever happened to Jahar?'
"I saw how you tapped the grip, and a weird blue arrow appear."
"Okay, but how do we kill the bear?"
"We, aren't killing the bear..."
I look at him, my face grows angry for a second.
"..You are going to kill it."
"Wait, how? By myself?"
"Yes..."
I feel my breath shake.
"..Soul Bears, have a large supply of Soul Energy, because of their hibernation patterns, making them become have a huge amount of Soul Energy, but no time to use it."
'Don't bears only decide to hibernate during winter.'
"You will use the bears own Soul Energy to pierce their own skin."