Talan took another crunching step onto the mix of long-dead leaves and twigs on the forest floor. Every footstep made a loud sound, that’s echo ricocheted through Talan’s petrified mind. If she didn’t stay quiet, she’d be caught. Taking a deep breath, she started forward again. A thin length of wood snapped underfoot with a sound that cracked like a whip through the silent night air. Talan stopped dead and squeezed her eyes shut. Somebody must have heard that. And that somebody would be after her any moment. Nervously, Talan cast around, staring through the shadows between the looming trees. About five or six feet behind her, a leafy branch rustled as it was shifted out of position. Talan whirled round, only to meet the whisper of an arrow as it sliced through the air, thudding into its mark with deadly accuracy.
Talan gave a shriek and dropped to her knees, clutching at the fletching protruding from the centre of her chest. The arrow had penetrated deep into her flesh and her blood was already staining the dry leaves, adding a stronger hint of death to the blighted ground. The night became still again for a few seconds, Talan’s ragged breathing being the only sound to break the silence. But then, the branch shifted again and, in the moonlight, Talan spotted a glimmer of blonde hair. Her chest stopped heaving as her breath caught in her throat. Her body tensed and she choked out.
“Ellowynn…”
The younger elf stepped out from the cover of the gnarled trees. She shouldered her bow and stooped down in front of Talan. Ellowynn glared coldly at her older sister. Swallowing, Talan grimaced in pain, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes. Ellowynn snorted in disgust.
“You’re too weak to be any sister of mine. You’re a liar, a thief and you’re a coward.”
Talan jolted painfully as Ellowynn’s icy words stung in her ears. She cringed and reached to grip at the arrow again, but Ellowynn caught her wrist, twisting it sharply. Talan gave a shrill scream and toppled sideways. Her younger sister released her and smirked.
“You knew the price of stealing the Indomiel Star was death. That’s why you came here…” Ellowynn peered around the patch of woodland. They were in the centre of a ring of burnt funeral pyres. The Indomiel Clan’s burial grove. The only place an Elf could claim sanctuary and not be harmed by another.
“Really, you should be thanking me,” Ellowynn continued smugly. “Had I not caught you, you’d have been stuck here forever. If you’d managed to claim sanctuary, you’d be placed under heavy guard. Then, if you ever took one step out of this ring, they’d have shot you dead in an instant.”
Talan groaned in pain and glared up at her sister through watery green eyes.
“I didn’t do it…”
Ellowynn’s own eyes widened in fury. She tore her club from her belt and held it aloft.
“Liar!” She spat. Talan’s eyelids fluttered in a desperate bid to stay open.
“I’m not…lying. Ask…Rowan if you don’t…don’t believe me…”
Seconds after she had uttered those words, Talan’s vision was drowned in blood. Ellowynn drew back, shocked at her own actions. Then, realising it was too late to go back, she bought the club down again on her blinded sister’s head…