One of the most difficult lessons for idealists to learn is that rights are never guaranteed. The moral high ground belongs to those with the power to uphold it, and the conviction to fight for those beliefs. In the absence of force, the cruelest warlord will always crush the individual diplomat, no matter the merit of that person's argument. This lesson is especially relevant to those who live outside the governments originally made to regulate rights: people like Natsumi.
Unfortunately for the young outcast, she was unaware of just how visceral her lesson would be to learn. She had relied on stealth, cunning and wit to maneuver her way through the wilds immediately after running away from her father; never once engaging in up front combat. That was her way, for she understood that combat was something best avoided when possible. It was a wise policy for one so inexperienced in the realm of battle, but wisdom, like many virtues, can be muddied when subject to anger.
Natsumi, like any human, had triggers that set off her rage, but one of the most volatile was trophy hunters. Her empathic link to animals made it emotionally difficult for her whenever they died. Yet the outcast had always tried to put those events into perspective. Humans needed animals to survive, and, sometimes, that meant taking an animal's life in order to acquire necessary components like food and clothing. She eventually reconciled her feelings with this grim reality, but was never able to do the same with the fact that hunting was sometimes done for sport rather than need. It enraged her how cruel hunters could be that they reveled in the torture and death of another being simply because they felt the race they were hunting was not deserving of the basic rights all, other, sentient races possessed. For Natsumi, these people produced the same revulsion that sadistic, homicidal criminals did for the general public. It was that same trigger that caused her to endure a very painful lesson.
When the wolf known as Sage had gone missing from his pack in Virens Forest, he had been hunting for food far ahead of their course. Some hunters had been nearby his search area, and one of them owned a rather unfortunate cat by the name of Sir Pouncalot. Mr. Pouncalot had wandered away from his owner in the middle of a chill morning. That very same owner, Richard Fluffles Smith, had followed his precious companion only to see him get killed and eaten by Sage.
If the world had followed Natsumi's ideal in that moment, Sage would have been let go. Mr. Smith had been careless enough to let his cat wander around in a forest where he knew predators were lurking. It was his own fault that Sage had access to his cat. None of the blame could rightfully land on the hungry wolf that was incapable of understanding human courtesies.
Sadly, "Fluffles" did not see it that way. Incensed over the death of Sir Pouncalot, he rallied his two hunting companions and relentlessly pursued Sage. The wolf had tried to return to his pack so that he might be protected by his leader, Katerina, but the hunting party had ensnared him in a net before he got far enough to be heard, or even smelled, by his pack. They could have killed him right then and there, but death wasn't enough. They wanted pain.
Natsumi had been in the area when this event was taking place. She looked down from the tree tops on the captured wolf at first, figuring the hunters were after it for food. That impression changed with "Fluffles" opened his mouth.
"Don't kill him," the man with a gnarled nose and a high pitched, Egjoran accent said. "Make him suffer, first. Beat the mongrel to a pulp." The runaway's outlook on the situation changed drastically when those words were combined with Sage's constant pleas of mercy. Unthinking, she dropped down from the trees with spear in hand and impaled the man who had given the order. Her spear sunk deeply into Smith's neck, killing him instantly but making the spear nearly impossible to retrieve cleanly. Rather than try, Natsumi quickly broke off what portion of the spear was still exterior, smacked the nearest man in the face with it as he attempted to ready his bow, and then kneed him in the crotch to send him to the ground. In less than five seconds, she had dropped two, fully grown men that were a decent size larger than her.
Much to her misfortune, though, Miss Yamauchi had missed the third man present during her ambush. Noticing that his friends were getting butchered, the final hunter had retreated into the forest to await a chance to strike. Taken in by her rage and desperation to rescue Sage from the net, the girl hadn't even noticed. She naively assumed she had scared the hunter off, and so went to cut open the net containing the desperate wolf without keeping her guard up.
"Hang on. I'll get you out of there." Taking out the tanto she had borrowed from her family on the night of her escape, Natsumi quickly cut open the ropes containing Sage. She was almost done with the last strand when she heard a cracking leaf behind her.
"You little bitch!" The club came down on Natsumi's head just as she turned around to look at the source of the noise, sending her reeling to the ground away from the wolf she was trying to rescue. The third hunter's tactic had worked to lull his assailant into complacency, and now he advanced with both violence and ire. "You killed my friend over a damn wolf!"
Strikes from the implement were relentless, hitting Natsumi anywhere from her legs to her face. This beating continued for an entire minute until the hunter finally sated his rage - the pained cries of the runaway echoing into the forest all the while. By the time it was over, the girl was already broken. Her right eye was black; blood matted her hair; and multiple bruises decorated her body. Her leg was also not looking too good, while her left hand had a boot print in it. The entire scene was like something you would see on the streets of Vilpamolan when a whore overstepped her "place." Perhaps that was all this man thought of when he saw Natsumi.
"See what you made me do," the immoral savage consoled whilst turning the heavily beaten woman onto her back. "You had such a beautiful face, and now it's ruined." He started lying down on top of Natsumi after speaking, but such was his final mistake. She may have lost her tanto on the ground in the struggle, but she had picked up a sharp stick as a replacement with the one hand that wasn't injured. When the barbarian was right in front of her face and moving her hair out of the way, she took the stick and plunged it into his carotid artery.
"And there is your reward, dishonorable barbarian." Without a second to spare, the man began gasping for air. Blood pooled in his mouth, and Natsumi pushed him off with what little strength she had left. She could no longer walk by this point, but her determination to free Sage was great enough for her to feebly crawl towards him. Grabbing her tanto along the way, she placed the hilt in her mouth, grasped the two sides of the last strand to be cut, and sliced it clean. The wolf was finally free just before Natsumi lost consciousness due to pain and head trauma, and his pack would soon arrive to finish off the one hunter left alive.
