The Master Race (Ongoing)

RACHEL FENLAND I

Rachel closed her eyes and breathed out slowly as she felt a vague heat signature coming from the north. She saw a red blob form into a recognizable shape in her mind. "Its a deer, alone, average size I think." She said with her eyes still closed, her face frowning as she tried to concentrate. She turned and hushed the group of laughing drunk men behind her. They bared their ugly teeth in return to the black haired girl and went back to their laughing. She looked away in disgust and focused on her job. She shuffled around trying to lock the location of the feeling she felt.

"Its around 500 steps from here, north." She approximated. Every creature had a unique warmth to them. Rachel had been just eight years old when she realized she could sense it and twelve when she realized she could approximate its distance. And it hadn't taken long after that to be noticed by Gorham, the white haired leader of the tribe she grew up in - Fenland Tribe. This gift of hers made her tribe the most famous around the Old Neanderlands. Now at seventeen, she was delighted to be taken for every hunt to help detect their prey, much to the horror of the women of her tribe. They had no interest in hunting or fighting, which Rachel didn't understand.

"Good girl. Hunters! North we go." Gorham shouted to the group of ten men behind him who cheered back in unison as they gathered up their weapons.

"Its moving Gorham. Moving further north." Rachel continued getting up.

"Listen to that fellas? Hurry up and gather yer things." Gorham screamed impatiently. He let out a sigh of despair as he saw the stumbling men grinning behind him and quickly moved out of the way as one of them rushed to the side to hurl.

Rachel glared angrily at the vomiting man. "Men are all fools. Where did they get the ale from anyways?"

"Stole it a few days back from a group of Settlers that was on their way to the mines. Its easy to take things off those god loving fellas when you show them a knife." Gorham grinned showing what was left of his set of teeth. Most of the teeth had fallen from the left side of his mouth and those that managed to stay were yellow and rotten.

"Were my parents like this?" Rachel knew it annoyed Gorham to talk about this topic. But she found ways to sneak in the topic every now and then.

Gorhams grin quickly turned into a scowl. "To hell with your parents." He muttered gesturing the group of men to follow him. "How many times do I have to tell ye I don't know em. My woman got ya for a piece of bread and some -"

"-eggs. Yes, yes I know." Rachel continued rolling her eyes at how much she was worth. She started walking in the direction of the hunt.

"Did they have this birthmark? Do you know at least that?" She pointing to her right wrist where a pitch black unusual mark was seen, as large as the nail on her little finger.

Gorham shook his head and walked on. No one knew much about her parents even Gorham, who got her as a baby, didn't know. Whenever she tried to remember them, all she could remember was a warm glow that made her feel safe. She was part of the Fenland tribe for as long as she can remember. The women of the tribe, who took care of her, always stayed near the camps near Fenland lake, south of the great Neander River that ran across the land. While they gathered berries and knit clothes all day, she grew up learning to fend off the boys that made fun of and pulled her hair and stole her share of the food. It didn't take long for her to realize she didn't fit in with the group of brown haired humans and she had to fight to keep them off ever since she could walk. The women she complaint to told her to stay away from men. Men will be men. They said day after day. Men are fools. She had replied each time. All her life she saw women complying to the wishes of men and she swore to herself she wouldn't become like them. It was an old man that eventually told her what she wanted to hear all along. He told her everyone had to fight for their place in the tribe. She had learnt from then that a knife was her best friend. The boys from then on thought twice before picking on her.