Taru moved silently through the woods. She was hunting the arctic fox, or maybe ermine, if she could find them. She had found a tradesman in the village who had a throwing axe for sale, and Taru wanted it. But the thrice-cursed devil of a man wanted to get one of the village maidens to marry him, and he knew Taru was a skilled huntress. So here she was, wasting her time tracking little animals whose meat was bad to eat, but the silly village maidens seemed to love the furs.

It wouldn't be a waste of time if she could just get that axe. It was a beauty of a thing, with mystic runes carved on the handle. The balance was perfect, as was the wicked sharp edge. Taru couldn't say why she wanted a throwing axe - her lack of depth perception made archery difficult and even javelins required a lot of practice to hit what she aimed at. Taru guessed maybe she was a girl after all, and just liked the shiny thing. She was sure the axe would speak to her once she owned it, the runes on the haft were familiar. Taru fingered the carvings on her spear as she walked her trapline. Her stepfather had carved those runes when they had made the spear together.

Ahti had been a hunter and a wise man. He had taken in the young girl Taru when her parents were slain in a Njerpez raid. Her father had been a foreign trader, but she didn't know where he was from. Her mother had been a celt, and Taru's unusual flaming hair and green eyes caught the stares of the villagers whenever she went to trade. In the chill autumn wilderness she covered her hair with a woolen cowl the color of bark to blend in when she was hunting.

Taru was happiest out in the wilderness. Her stepfather had taught her the ways of the hunter from the first day he had taken her in, showing her how to make sacrifice to the spirits when she killed an animal and the hunting incantation that she spoke as the first rays of early morning sun speared the ground at her feet. Beaver and fox were known to her. Stag and reindeer were her favorite animals to hunt. Once she had taken a moose all by herself, and together with Ahti had hunted and killed a bear that had been causing problems near the village. Ahti had been killed by a pack of wolves while he was skinning a stag a year ago, but he had taught Taru well before he died.

She was no fighter, but didn't see the need to be, as she spent most of her time alone in the wilderness. She could move silent as the wind and was smart enough to hide whenever her senses detected Njerpez warriors nearby. She could carry heavy loads of meat and furs, and she was fast enough to chase down a fleeing stag and slit it's throat. Though she prefered to hunt larger animals with plenty of meat and hides she could make larger clothing from she also maintained a trapline or two at all times to collect the furs of smaller animals, like hare, pine marten and ermine.