Chapter 1

A Poor Girl by Benjamin Agar

Year: 2489 AHV (After Holy Victory)

Age: Late Industra era

Country: The Republic of Isstarrsia

Walking along the roadside, Jelcine frowned, stopped and looked over her shoulder. Her huge axe blazed into being in an explosion of white light.

‘Show yourself,’ she snarled down into the forest. ‘I am not in the mood for any shit.’

She was never in the mood “for any shit” but that didn’t matter.

For a few seconds Jelcine waited but was answered by silence.

‘Whoever you are! I am a Hunter we have the ability to sense magical auras, almost every being emits an aura, I know you are out there! So come out! Or I will find you! And...’

About two metres down the road, a bush rustled and Jelcine readied her axe.

A little girl stepped out. She looked about six or seven, but Jelcine felt she was older. The light, floral dress she wore was unsuited to this time of year in Isstarrsia.

‘You...You stopped the vampire,’ said the girl. ‘You killed the vampire attacking our town.’

Jelcine shrugged, it was a statement not a question.

The girl started to approach Jelcine, looking up at her with wide eyes.

‘Can you help me?’

The question took Jelcine off guard but she kept her composure.

‘Help you with what?’

The little girl’s eyes filled with tears. ‘My daddy...My daddy.’

Jelcine had never been particularly enamoured of children but she couldn’t help drop into a kneel and take the girl in her arms.

‘Your daddy? What happened to your daddy?’

‘Help, please,’ she sobbed into Jelcine’s shoulder.

Jelcine then felt the bloody, ragged opening in the back of the little girl’s head as the child went limp.

‘Shit!’ she snarled, picking the girl up in her arms. She had to find a doctor, she had to get back to town.