Project FLAME™ (IGWE's Random Thought) -- "Prologue to ELUNCHA: Missing Children"

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"Introduction to Table of Contents"
https://steemit.com/projectflame/@igwe-library/project-flame-tm-igwe-s-random-thought-introduction-to-content

(Source: https://elderscrolls.wikia.com)

Before he could pull the seventh arrow, Fairy Figure was upon him -- THWACK!!! -- sending him reeling into the air with a smashing backhand slap, unleashed from its... ghostly arm! He smashed his athletic bulk on a tree, then crashing on the ground, the impact leaving him very dazed! Before he reeled into unconsciousness, he faintly saw Fairy Figure telekinesisly levitating the unconscious Little Girl. Fairy Figure cast a last, hideous glance at the devastated Hunter, let out an alien grunt at him that echoed throughout, and rattled, the entire jungle. Then both Fairy Figure and the girl faded away like a dreamy nightmare --

Into nothingness...

WITHIN THE THICK, vast jungle of Umunnadi hamlet, peered a hunter. Unlike any other hunter, he was a Master-Hunter. Blessed with the curse of the consciousness of the Gods, the Hunt-God himself, the invincible Ọzarra, seemed to favour him the most: for he was the greatest hunter in the whole of Umunnadi village.

Half-hiding, calculating, patiently waiting like a vulture, he keenly observed an antelope grazing across the distance. His hiding scene: behind a huge, tall tree, an iroko tree to be precise. He was clad in ancient African toga, with a bow on his left hand, while stacks of arrows were holstered and fastened to his back, his two eagle-fierce eyes raptly narrowed and concentrated, aptly focused on the unwitting image of the antelope.

The hunter’s right fingers pulled out a bronze-fabricated arrow from its tubular holder of approximately two dozen arrows that hung by his flawlessly contoured muscular back. He adroitly positioned the arrow on the powerful bow. He took aim -- while still partially hiding behind the tree that concealed half his cover -- as the antelope innocently grazed its life away...

“Steady...” he whispered. His two intensely narrowed eagle-eyes penetratingly poised to kill.

“Steady...”

Suddenly! Something crackled, disturbing the tranquillity of the moment as the hunter’s hyde-covered foot accidentally stepped on a dry twig lying on the ground.

The antelope’s sensitive sense of perception picked up the crackle as its ears flipped impulsively to assimilate the unseen danger. But nothing registered as the hunter sleekly withdrew to the safety of the tree, completely hidden.

The antelope, sensing no danger, continued with its grazing...

The hunter very carefully re-emerged. Repositioned. Aimed...

“Steady...” he whispered again.

“Steady...” A clear aim.

“Steady...” There was no way he could miss. He was the crowned best hunter in Umunnadi... the very best!

“Now -- oh, NO!”

Suddenly! His eyes bulged intensely at what he just saw next: an image of a fleeing little girl.

The arrow had been shot --

The antelope had fled --

And from her point of vision, Little Girl abruptly stopped, and swung her head sideways at the sound of Hunter’s alarmed cry -- staring straight at the flying arrow -- with a startled look on her face. She was on the very path of the furiously flying arrow that was shooting directly at her -- she being too petrified to move -- her whole short life momentarily flashing in front of her at the swift approach of the Flying Death!

And just as the arrow was about to hit her --

“Eeeeeeee!”

Her scream slammed savagely, reverberating across the vastness of the jungle. Within that split moment, something supernatural happened. A fairy figure, like a ghostly Protector, instantly manifested -- more like teleported -– in a puff of smoke, in front of her. And with a wave of its right hand, an unseen force whisked the arrow sideways as it swayed harmless aside to stick to a nearby tree instead.

Like an ethereal-looking apparition of some sort, the fairy figure solidified, clad in a cloud-like smoke of black robe, its countenance completely covered by a pulled-over hood. Male or female, the identity was yet unknown. Still, its presence was eerie and suggestive of evil essence as it grabbed the resisting, frightened Little Girl savagely by the hand, doing something to her that was indicative of a spell-cast, by hovering its free palm above her forehead, the effect of which instantly sent her to sleep.

Hunter’s instinct swung into action at sensing an eminent danger. He pulled another arrow. Quickly aimed. Locked unto Fairy Figure. And shot.

Fairy Figure -- tossing the now-sleeping Little Girl recklessly aside -- gracefully caught the arrow with the effortless ease of a master-warrior.

In his state of sheer shock, mingled with fright, he started multi-shooting –- six arrows zooming out from his shots.

Fairy Figure, at the same time, swung ghost-likely toward the approaching arrows, skilfully catching -- and tossing aside -- each flying arrow with only one hand! And at the same time dashing ghost-likely to encounter the Hunter!

Before he could pull the seventh arrow, Fairy Figure was upon him -- THWACK!!! -- sending him reeling into the air with a smashing backhand slap, unleashed from its free, ghostly arm! He smashed his athletic bulk on a tree, then crashing on the ground, the impact leaving him very dazed!

Before he reeled into unconsciousness, he faintly saw Fairy Figure telekinesisly levitating the unconscious Little Girl. Fairy Figure cast a last, hideous glance at the devastated Hunter, let out an alien grunt at him that echoed throughout, and rattled, the entire jungle. Then both Fairy Figure and the girl faded away like a dreamy nightmare --

Into nothingness...