In the morning instead of doing his daily routine he was sitting at the dining table of his home and pondering about last night. ‘Gift, gift…hmm….’ 

‘what would be a good gift?’ 

‘Will it be a boy? or a girl?’

‘Can I even give the same thing if it's a girl?’

All sorts of questions were coming to his mind. Matilda, watching the unusual demeanour of Eric, asked “Your majesty is something bothering you?”. 

“Matilda I was wondering what to gift my yet to be born sibling”

Matilda thinking for a while, “Wouldn't a bow be an enough gift for such occasion” 

“Your brother gifted you a royal bow with beautiful engraving”

“Yes, he did and it was my favourite bow, thanks for the suggestion”.

“Hmm….but still wouldn't my parents give the same sort of gift, something other than bow would be a better gift. I want to gift something unique”

Thinking about it for some more time, Eric finally gave up “Ugh…. let's forget it for now”

Seeing Eric frustrated, Matilda chuckled. 

“Ok I have decided, to go to the dark forest today”

“Your majesty, should I accompany you and also bring in some royal knights?”

“No It's fine, I will go alone. I am not kid anymore”

Matilda didn't question his decision as she saw how hard he trained these few years and she knows he will be able to handle any situation that comes his way. But a worried expression still appeared on her face which she couldn't help it. It probably surfaced from her taking care of him everyday or from some deeper part within her which even she is not aware of.

It was at the age of 9 when Eric first visited the dark forest alongside his brother and few royal knights. It was a tradition to go hunting. They didn't venture too deep as the deeper you go the more dangerous animals or monsters appear. Although really young, Eric had successfully hunted a bird by the bow that was gifted to him by his brother and he was grinning ear to ear the whole day. It was a proud moment for Eric. It really was a memorable day for him. He had achieved his first kill.

It was a half a day journey by horse. He left his horse at the outskirts of the town and started travelling on foot. The decision was made so that he doesn't get slowed down by the horse and also if impending danger arrives, he is able to run away without having to care about his horse. But Eric did pack heavily for this journey, as he intends to go to the deepest part of the jungle to do what? Only he knows. He had a heavy sword on him and his bow and a short dagger just in case he needed to make some traps. 

The dark forest harbors rare and dangerous animals and it is warned to every elevenheim citizens to travel in groups if they are to venture in the forest. With all the training he had done these few years he was pretty confident in himself to handle everything smoothly and not to mention this wasn't his first time he traveled here. But this will be his first time as a lone traveler. 

Within some deeper part of the forest Eric heard some footsteps and hoarse voices. Immediately he recognized these voices. It was goblins that were making these noises. Goblins are monsters that are greenish in nature with pointy ears and bald head and also their sizes are mostly closer to a human kid about 2 to 3.5 feet. Eric had a smirk on his face. He always thought that goblins are cute. Sounds fun but it's not. Last time he saw a goblin he punched them to death. He would first disarm the goblins and dodge any incoming attack as they are quite sluggish and grab ahold of them and throw the goblins up in the air like a mother would to make her kids laugh, but he would throw those goblins so high up the air that those goblins were scared shitless. But, a mother would finally catch her child in her warm embrace. Eric also did the same or at least he pretended to do that to reassure the goblins that he would catch them but at the last moment as they were about to be caught he would just not bother catching them at all and let them fall. There were some goblins that would fall to their death by hitting their head on the ground and some that survived would be stomped on by Eric. Seeing these dangerous monsters being played like that, last time Matilda and the knights that accompanied him had the face expression of ‘what the hell is wrong with him?’

But Eric did not do that this time. He didn't let his dark desire get the best of him and finished them with 4 arrows shot in succession. 4 bodies lay flat on the ground. Eric came to take a closer look at the bodies. He whispered his disappointment “such a waste”. When he got close suddenly an eyeball scanned him. One of the orcs that laid on the ground was not dead and it let out a loud shriek when it saw Eric. It was so loud that Eric first had to cover his ears with his hand and then did he stomp the head. “What was that about?” Eric didn't really face a screaming orc situation like this before. They usually shriek before dying and that was due to them being in pain and wanting to survive. But this one felt like a warning to other orcs or a call for help!? 

It was already night time and Eric didn’t want to eat orc meat. He preferred animals over monsters. The dead orcs' body that laid on the ground was a good bait to get some good meat. Or that’s what Eric was planning when he killed the orcs.

On a big tree branch hidden by surrounding leaves an Elf lay in wait for his delicious prey. It has been half an hour that he had been waiting and his stomach started grumbling too. 

‘Damn do I have to eat orc meat today?!’. 

3 years ago when he came to hunt he had to consume orc meat. It wasn’t a good taste and the foul odor lingered in his breath for 3 whole days. “It will be adventurous” Eric said three years ago, denying Matilda to bring any food when hunting in the dark forest. Due to Eric’s stubbornness few of the Soldiers that accompanied and ate orc meat vomited immediately. Whereas those that saw them vomiting and the foul odor coming from the meat decided to starve that night just to save themselves from trauma. Remembering that day Eric regretted not bringing some food today.

After twenty more minutes when Eric was losing his patience, suddenly he heard some noise. The pointy ears of elves are actually good at hearing things. That is why within the woods they have the highest alertness out of any other race. The noise of footsteps kept getting closer and Eric started hearing voices. ‘What is it,why are elflings here’ “chet” Eric made a sound of annoyance because they were going to disrupt his hunt for food. 

However, Eric was way off the mark. When he looked closely he found that it wasn't the elf that was there, it was humans, his sworn enemies. Actually Eric can’t be blamed for this confusion. He wasn’t that deep within the dark forest. So it was natural to assume that it would be his brethren that should have been here. But alas it was humans. Against whom he had his hatred built for killing his brother. 

It was actually Eric’s first time seeing humans, he only read about them in books and saw pictures of them. They were quite similar to elves except their ears and skin tone and how tall they are. 

There were four of those humans cloaked in full metal plates only revealing faces. Two of them seemed well built and other two were slender and of the slender two one was relatively shorter compared to the three. They seemed to be in a rush. One of the slender built humans that sounded like a female warrior looked at the shorter one and said “Princess, this is a really dangerous territory please stay close. We are near the border of the elf kingdom”. 

“We are taking a shortcut, but please refrain from making any noises as these parts of the dark forest are full of monsters”. 

“Yes I understand,” replied the princess. 

Hearing these words ‘Weird, don't the human nobles dress differently? Or is there a reason for dressing like that also, doesn't a princess have more body guards than 3 measly warriors?’ pondered the elf hidden within the branch of a tree. 

As they neared where Eric was stationed, they saw dead orcs on the ground. 

“Oh shit” the female knight exclaimed. 

“I think there is a monster here somewhere, that killed this orcs” Calling Eric a monster wouldn’t be too far off nowadays.

“Yes,” replied the other two knights, being more vigilant. 

The princess was stricken by fear. Seeing this as the female knight was about to reassure her…….suddenly earth shaking footsteps were heard from behind them. Each step was like an earthquake.

As if sensing the princess’s fear a monster appeared towering over them, a twelve feet giant. The bottom teeths are sticking out as if not being able to place them within the mouth. It had a huge club and blood shot eyes piercing through everything it watches. 

Fear had grasped everyone that watched this scenario. Even Eric was surprised by the unfolding event and a smile appeared on his face as if exclaiming ‘holy  sh#*’.