The Fall of Barbara

"Wo wo, help!" She wobbles and falls off the small fir bough.
She tries to grab it but her hands fail to grasp it.
She screams.
She feels the wind rushing around her.
“Gllk!”
She almost chokes as her cloak catches onto another branch. She tries to free her neck from the Cloak, turned glider, now noose.
With the claws on her gloves, she cuts open her shoot, it's caught in the branch, she slips out of the cloak.
Now with only her grey-brown pocket laden shirt and pants exposed, the contents of which begin to fly out.

"Oof!"
She hits a branch on the way down.
The figure cries out in pain, the branch might have supported her weight if she had landed on it gently, but it buckles from the weight of the fall.
It fails to support her and bends to slide her down to the forest floor below. But not before snapping back to give her a nice sharp cut on her head and take her hat.
She spins and falls using her right arm to brace the fall.
Darkness.
Her eyes open, and she attempts to rise to her feet:
 Fails.
She tries to sit up and instinctively grabs her arm.
It's not moving:
"Dislocated." she thinks.

She hears the thuds in front of her. One of the monsters lumbers towards her on its massive feet and its burly arms swaying side by side. The Sling is useless now, she finds her daggers. The waves of pain tell her they are safely sheathed inside her leg.

They aren't coming out: She can't move. The adrenaline has failed her.

Between the terror and the pain, the elf is paralyzed. She gives a cry out. Not sure who it will reach. The strangers? her colleagues? Maybe her mother and father from beyond? Anyone will do at this point.

"Help Me!"
 She cries out again, this time a little softer. Her voice failing.

The creature is snarling and a large tongue licking its sharpened and broken teeth. She goes to reach for the flare in her chest, it's still there. As good a time as any to use it. She pulls it out.

"Illum Audio, Vini. Senex." 

The voices of the stranger speak behind the monster.

The voices are closer than she thought, but she barely notices, she pulls out her flare and prepares to fire, flicking the safety. She fires.

A loud pop can be heard and a bolt of fire emerges from the flair. The two figures see the flash and run towards her. The Flair lands in the creature's giant snarling mouth. The Cavernous orifice lights up. The Creatures' eyes widen. She doesn't just hear the roar, she feels it as it splits her ears. The Burning creature runs towards her.

"Oh. I should have thought of that."
She thought hopelessly to herself. Realizing she avoided getting eaten, only to be crushed.

The two strangers are speaking to themselves.

"Too Late." She thinks with final clarity.

The monster grabs its mouth as it lunges towards her. It can no longer roar, so that was pleasant at least. She sees a spear land on the top of its chest.

"I'm sorry Father, I shouldn't have wasted it."
She thinks to herself.
“The villagers who find my body would need it.”

As the creature lunges towards her she hears the "twang" of a cord. The creature stands up straight. Its bulging eyes crossed together. It leans forward but cannot fall, suspended by the rope. The figures pull at the cord and the now stiff creature falls backwards. With the crunch of leaves and sticks it falls with a thud. The feet standing upright in the ground as grave markers.

"Resolve funem, Senex, dum Magoulo locquo."
The figure with the torch spoke, while the other, next to the rope, nodded and began to untie the cord.
She can see the flicker of the man speaking as he holds the torch.
She tries again to move, but the sharp pangs in her legs prevent her from doing so. She gives a yelp in pain.

“Iactare flamma, Barbaram veto”
The Figure said, with a bark. His words carried threat and command. His sword emphasized it.
She couldn’t understand him but she got the message. She held her one hand up.
Her eyes darting around the site, the clean-shaven one with a torch pointing at her with his sword. Seeing she understood, he let the sword drop a little.

He comes up close to her and squats down. He takes off his helmet. His dark curly hair matted in sweat. His brown green eyes looked with an aged wisdom, but his face looked youthful.
“Were they elves too?” she thought? She couldn't see his ears. Tucked behind his hair.

"Barbara?"
She says, mimicking the sound. With her one useful hand she points at herself?
"Vere, Barbara es!"
He nods while pointing at her.

She tries to mimic the sounds she heard.
“Essss…”
The man perked up as she spoke. She felt emboldened to ask
“Erufu.”

The man looked confused.
 “Erouphou?”
He turns to his friend, and calls out?
“Plinie unde est Eroupho? Estne in Graecia?”
She hears the man in the distance call back
“Forte dicere “Europa” intendit.”

The figure called back.
"Whatever they were," she thought. "They clearly weren't elves. And apparently had never heard of them either."

"Barbara,"
She thought to herself. "Is that my name?"

She had never had a name, none of her village did. She was Scout, because that was her job for the village. Just like Silk-spinner, “Chief,” “Medic,” or “Cook,” none of them had real names. No one had been there to give them.

But does she have one now?
“Barbara”
There was a strange comfort to this, as if she was given a surprise present.

"Senex, veni veni, barbarae aures specta"
The clean shaven man gestures to his friend to come to him. The clean shaven figure looked at her ears strangely,
“Did he think she was strange?”
The other one wore a short beard. She gasped.
“Humans” she thought to herself. “They are real.”
The figures wore armor she had never seen before, steel with red cloaks and white tunics. Their boots were cloth and leather protecting bare legs and…
"skirts? " She stifled a giggle. "Are those leather skirts?"
"How strange." She thought, her head feeling light.
"Strange humans this Romanuses."
It hurt to sit up so she let herself down as gently as she could. Her head still hit a root with a thud.
The bearded one came closer. He seemed to chastize his friend.
"Iam Non Caro!
 Est Libera!
Specte! Sanguinis profluviat!"
He spoke briskly while walking towards her. Like he was concerned.

“What is he worried about?" She thought. "What is Sanguinis?"
Her good hand touched her leg. She feels the warm liquid. She hisses in pain.
“Oh. Blood.”
She thought.
"That makes sense."

The man looked grave as he fetched material from a pouch.

The clean-shaven figure nodded, and the two seemed to work in tandem. He struck the torch into the ground, then grabbed his cloak off his back and laid it down.

"Castra Nostra Portamus. Cure illa."
The clean shaven man says. Pointing at the cloak on the floor, and gesturing towards her. The bearded man nods.

The ranger's eyes are getting heavy, and her head is ringing.

"Barbara" she says as a whisper.
"At least I had a name!"
She thinks to herself.
She smiles.
"Strange name, but it sounds nice.”
Her vision fades as she sees their faces loom over her. She feels light. Like she is floating in the air.
“I wonder what it means?"
Barbara thinks as she fades away.