Ules of the hunt

Rosa continued to tremble in place as Winona happily sighed and walked up to her. 

"You do have a chance to live. Like I said before, I like to hunt, and I like wives. But, I got pride too. If you can evade me for 3 Ules, you live. Simple right? You even get a head start too and can do whatever you want. Submit, run, lay a trap, game only ends if I catch n' kill ya before the 3 Ule mark." 

"Mmph ngh [What're Ules]!?" Rosa asked. 

"The Ules? Probably days," Aoi shrugged. 

"'Days'!? As if I'd give you THAT long!" Winona gasped. 

"Hours?" 

"What's an hour?" 

"60 minutes?" 

"Minutes?" 

"Ya know, 1, 2, 3, then count all the way to 60?" 

"Human numbers... Don't know em. But you don't know what a Ule is, so I'll just let the great voice explain it." 

Silence. 

Winona nervously smiled and held her hand to her ear, expecting a disembodied voice to explain what a Ule was. But nothing. Nothing but wind rustling the trees, the flowing stream and waterfall, silence. 

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CONVERT ELF NUMERICS TO HUMAN ONES, SO SOMEBODY EXPLAIN THIS SHIT TO THEM FOR ME! They don't know the time, the hunt'll be lame as shit, and everyone will be miserable!" 

"Ohohoh, then I'll explain the measurements," a cheery voice chuckled. 

"That's more like- WAAH!?" Winona cried as something suddenly burst forth from the ground. 

Climbing out of the hole stood a creature about 110 cm tall with a bushy beard and bear-like nose. It was clad in old worn clothing straight out of a medieval or fantasy setting complete with a green gnome hat. 

"A Dwear. Dirt vermin that should never breath air," Winona scowled as she drew an arrow barehanded at the creature. 

"Ohohoho! The elves despise any with dwarf blood. Yet it is us dwears, dwarves with the blood of the bears, that hear that above the ground and archive the knowledge beneath it." 

"Cease the riddles! Dwaves are but filthy creatures that hump rocks and mate greed." 

"And you elves are just pointy-eared humans with a habit of inflaming grass and smoking it from wood." 

"WE AIN'T FUCKING HUMANS, YA SCAT!" 

"Oho, oho, ohohoho! But within, you are indistinguishable. Same bones, same heart-" 

"WHAT KIND OF VERMIN DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?" 

"A Da Vinci, that's what." 

"Da Vinci? Like the Italian guy?" Aoi asked. 

A spark lit in the dwear's eye. "You seem aware of the Da Vinci. I know not of the term "Italian", but tell me. What do you know of Da Vinci?" 

"Just heard of him. Studying's for losers. Gamers do everything hardcore n' hard." 

The dwear held his head down in sorrow. "I was hoping for knowledge, yet back to square 1." 

"MMPH NGH MMPH [I KNOW HIM]!" Rosa shouted. 

The dwear perked back up again. 

Beautiful maiden with the gagged mouth, is there knowledge you wish to impart to me?" 

Rosa frantically nodded her head. 

"Then begones to the gag," the dwear declared as claws sprung forth from his hand. 

With an unseen slash, the gag fell off Rosa's mouth, allowing her freedom of speech once more. 

"I've heard of Leonardo da Vinci! He was an Italian renaissance inventor famous for creating numerous things and advancing the field of science greatly!" 

"Hoh, this sounds informative. Continue, young one." 

"You mentioned anatomy, and that reminded me that Da Vinci was known for studying human anatomy. Thanks to his artistic talent, he was able to draw great sketches of the inner workings of human bodies." 

"Like this, perhaps?" the dwear asked as he pulled an old parchment out of his pocket. 

Rosa's eyes widened as she stared at it. "That's... That's exactly like what Da Vinci made. Where did you get that?" 

"Floating in the wind one day. And before that, a town."

"A town?" 

"Yes, a town. A town of tall stone and metal, and glass unstained. It was-" 

Thunk!

The dwear glared as he stared down at the arrow embedded in the ground next to him. "Care to allow the discussion to continue, dark elf? Lest the fine women fail to learn of the Ule's human equivalent." 

"We'll just go with their 3 hour time thing. They can tell me how that works," Winona snarled as she readied another arrow in her bow. 

"Yeah, books suck. Get on with the game," Aoi sneered. 

"What the hell!? Knowledge is power and exciting!" Rosa protested. 

"That's just cuz you read shit in your room like a loser. I like thrilling shit like rollercoasters, online fps, and slasher flicks." 

"Aren't those fps games all the same thing? How can that be exciting?" 

"HEY! They release new games each year! That means they're new n' exciting." 

"And how will you even pay for them with your unemployed status?" 

"Gaming's a job." 

"Then where's your esports team?" 

"They don't know my greatness yet cuz I always play anonymously." 

Thunk!

The two quieted down and stared at the arrow embedded in the three trunk besides them before slowly turning back to face Winona. 

"I'm on a schedule here, so tell me how hours work." 

"Sixty minutes, so nerd, 3 times 6," Aoi shrugged. 

Rosa shot her a glare, but remained silent despite her fear of Winona. Aoi's stupidity meant she held the key to all this and could prevent the deadly hunt from beginning, assuming of course, Winona stuck to her rules and didn't make any new snap decisions. 

"Seems you think you're smart or something by clamming up. Well you wanna be silent, gag goes back on. And if gag goes back on, no say for you, we do 3 ule's whether you want it or not." 

Her hand had been forced. "Do you know how to count to 60?" 

"Um, no?" 

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Then you just count to 10 five more times and that's 60 to make things simple." 

"But how can it be 60 if it's 10 six times?" 

"That's just simplicity speaking. If you want to count proper after 10 it's 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Then from 20 to 30 you just say 20 plus the number like 21, 22, basically 1 to 9, and then 30. Then it's the same rule for counting to 40 but with 30 before the number instead of 20 like before." 

"Quit dragging this out! I still don't get it! And if I don't get it, I'll kill you right now and just hunt Aoi!" 

"Then allow me to intrude for the sake of protecting this girl's mind. A Ule is approximately 59 minutes, 2 seconds and a half second in human metrics. That makes 3 Ules just under 3 hours of human time. We'll say 2 hours 59 minutes for short," the dwear stated. 

"Oh, that's nothing. 3Ules then," Aoi smirked. 

"AOI!" Rosa shouted as fear began to overtake her once more. 

"And it's settled. Now, let's get you both dolled up for the hunt," Winona grinned as she licked her hunting knife.