Ioelena crouched down on a tree, far up in the sky. She was tasked with hunting with a small group for her tribe and took great pride in it, making sure she did in fact bring something back for them to feed on. She made sure her bow and quiver was on her back and proceeded to leap around the trees, trying to locate some prey. She found a plump rabbit, hopping around and eating, unaware of the approaching danger. She quickly, but quietly, got her bow and placed and arrow on it, bending the string back and pulling the arrow back, breathing, waiting. She'd finally let the arrow loose and it pierced the rabbit in it's belly, quickly killing it. She climbed gracefully down the tree and took her arrow out of the rabbit, putting it back in her quiver and holding the rabbit by it's ears. She went back to the area she was supposed to meet the others at, the great pine. She looked up and tilted her head slightly, before continuing to go up to the tree and climb it to see where everyone was. Ioelena stayed up there for about five minutes, but it felt like hours, until she heard three hushed voices coming in her direction. She quickly got an arrow out of her quiver and pointed it in the direction of the voices, before seeing the figures of Vulmon, Keya and Alasse, three hunters from her own tribe.
She finally climbed down and made sure she landed with a thud behind them, with the intention of scaring them. It worked and they all gave small jumps before turning around and half-yelling at Ioelena.
"Ioelena, that wasn't funny!" Said Keya, the youngest and easiest to frighten out of their group. In contrary to this, she was an excellent hunter because she could hear a lot, so she was often how they were fed during winter.
"Relax, it wasn't even as bad as last time I scared you." Ioelena responded. "Besides, we all caught something, so shall we say what we caught or bring it back to the tribe?" She usually shared what she got with her usual hunting group, but this wasn't it. She usually went with Shaerra, Jonik and Osonia.
Vulmon, who was leading the group, responded. "We should bring it back, winter is coming soon and we need to feed everyone, especially with Celeana pregnant and Nylian having to join the elders." Ioelena nodded and picked her rabbit up by the ears again, keeping her bow in her other hand and walked next to Keya. When they got there, they all nodded in greeting to the protectors guarding the entrance, Arel and Lyklor. They went inside the warm and comforting centre of the tribe. She saw Nuala, the only child left who wasn't training, talking to her mother. Her father, the tribe leader, Ranaeril, talking to her brother, the heir, Aldred. She went with the others to go and put the prey they had all caught into the healers hut, so they could prepare or store it before it being eaten.
She saw her younger brother Artin sitting alone, watching the tribe, so she decided to go and talk to him. She approached him and put down her bow.
Artin spoke first. "Was it a good hunt? I saw you come in with the rest of the patrol and it looked like a good one." He looked at her as she smiled at him.
"Yes, I was a good hunt. I caught a plump rabbit, but I'm not sure what the others caught. It looks like we might have enough to feed the tribe for another week, which is great. Have you finished your protector training yet?"
Artin shook his head no sadly and Ioelena felt bad for him. He wasn't able to finish his training for three years due to his mental illness. The healers did all they could, but they had to postpone his training so he wasn't too stressed, which would have made it all worse. His spirits were raised when he was able to train again, but it was a slow process. Ioelena decided to try and make him happy.
"Hey," She'd start. "Why don't we go out together? We can both practice our fighting on each other, right?" Artin lit up at this and nodded. Ioelena realised she hadn't visited the temples of the spirits yet, so she got up and helped Artin up, signalling they needed to go visit the temples. They headed over to the temple of Shaela, the water spirit, first. They entered and immediately saw their symbol, a waterfall. The temple had water running down the walls and the alter in the middle at the back. They both walked over and payed their respect to them. The water spirit protected the rivers that they collected their water from. They left the temple and went to the nature spirit, Lauseys, temple. Vines wrapped around the entire thing apart from the exit, which did give it an eerie feel, and they entered to pay their respect. There was a giant blue wisteria at the centre, dangling over the altar, it's flowers sprayed all around the temple floor. Next was the fire spirits temple, it was quite rare for many people to go in there, it seemed only Ioelena and a few others went in there because of the amount of flame that was captured in there. Artin stayed back and Ioelena entered, the heat from the fires hitting her face immediately. Above the altar was a burning flame in the sky, an eternal flame put there by the spirit themselves. She payed her respect to the spirit and exited the temple, meeting up with her brother.
