The duelist 2, p.38
The Duelist 2, page 38
I wasn’t quiet enough, however, because before I could make it halfway across the room, Zoie’s cat-ears perked up, and she lifted her head with a confused expression.
“I found him out in the hall,” I whispered. “I don’t know where his room is.”
“Bring him here,” she murmured and lifted the covers so I could tuck Rylan in. Zoie then smoothed the hair back from the kid’s sleeping face and made sure he was properly settled next to her. “Why are you up so early?”
“Bad dream,” I said and shook my head. “I need to meditate.”
“Do what you have to,” she said and squeezed my wrist. “I’ll take care of our dear ones.”
“Thank you,” I said with a weary, but grateful smile and then kissed her on the cheek. “Try to go back to sleep, kitten.”
And with that, I left the room in search of an ideal place to meditate.
After attempting a few small gardens, two empty lounges with comfy floor cushions, and three peaceful courtyards, I was beginning to understand the ideal place was a lot harder to come by than I realized.
For one, it was a challenge for someone like me to sit still long enough without fidgeting, and for two, it was a lot harder to get my mind to focus without Mec’s soothing voice to walk me through the process.
How did the ram-lord even get me to drop into that meditative state so quickly?
The answer came to me as I was glaring out over the estate from one of Icarian’s many balconies.
The sun was just now lightening the horizon where the sky melted into the Ocean Mercedes, and I remembered the ram-lord’s deep baritone describing the sound of the waves as I tried to match my breathing to his cues.
From my position on the southern side of the Icarian mansion, I was just able to make out the rocky beach due to the white foam of the surf as it dragged itself in and out, and if I strained my ears hard enough, I could actually hear the hush of the tide just like when I visualized it with Mec.
This would be as good a place as any to try and meditate, so I climbed up on the wide stone railing, crossed my legs, and put one hand on my diaphragm so I could actually be aware of the breaths I took to prevent my mind from wandering.
The faint sound of the waves focused my mind on isolating the sound from all others so I wasn’t just trying to clear my mind, but instead hone it down to one simple task.
The waves rushed in, and I inhaled.
They rushed out, and I exhaled.
My mind, always constantly in motion, stilled just like the mirrored surface of that sacred Tithe Pool.
“What are you trying to tell me?” I breathed, and I let myself be open to whatever Aventoll wanted to show me.
The surface of the Pool flashed gold in my mind’s eye, and I pictured myself crawling toward it so I could look down at it on my hands and knees.
A pair of dead, milky eyes stared back at me in my reflection, and I scrambled backward, and incidentally, almost fell off the railing of the balcony.
“Shit,” I hissed as I caught my balance and rubbed my stomach to try to get it to calm down from the mini-trapeze going on at the fact I almost fell off a five-story building.
Once my heart rate slowed back down, I closed my eyes and focused again on the sound of the waves and my breathing.
Inhale with the waves.
Exhale with the retreating tide.
The mirrored Tithe Pool flashed again in my mind, and again I approached the still water’s edge. When I got close enough, I eased my way up so the visage of those empty eyes was less of a shock this time, and I gazed down at the haunting expression on my reflection’s face.
Instead of the unnaturalness of the Shadow-me, this reflection showed a hybrid of my natural face mutated with the abomination in the bone tree forest. I still had my regular complexion, but my eyes were dead, and the lines around my mouth and the tension in my jaw made me look half-thawed and as bitter as the middle of winter.
I looked as if I was jaded and cynical, and I suddenly realized this was what that boiling hatred looked like when it had enough time to cool.
It was not a good look on me to say the least, and at last I was beginning to understand what Aventoll was trying to tell me…
“Alex?” someone’s voice sounded from far away, and I felt myself returning to a more conscious state.
“Do you think we should really bother him? I mean--” another familiar voice whispered before it was cut off.
“But it’s been five whole lengths already, surely he’s at least hungry by now--” a third voice reasoned before it, too, was interrupted by the first voice.
“Shh!” Zoie hissed. “He’s coming around, don’t startle him, he might fall.”
Fall?
I peeked one of my eyes open and was confronted with the glittering Ocean in all Her glory as the morning sun shone down over Nata.
Oh, right, I was on the balcony, and if I heard correctly, for five ‘lengths,’ or what I interpreted as Aventoll slang for hours.
No wonder it looked like it was almost brunch time.
“Ugh,” I mumbled as I arched my back so I could stretch out my muscles. Even though I was a little sore from sitting for so long, I felt refreshed and more settled than I had since waking up. Although, my stomach apparently disagreed, and it gave a twinge of hunger. “Did someone mention food?”
I glanced over my shoulder at my audience and immediately zeroed in on Shay holding a dome-covered tray as she stood between Zoie and Horus.
“See?” The falcon-man gestured toward me with one hand. “I told you he was perfectly fine.”
“You were out here for a long time, husband,” my cat-wife murmured as she helped me un-pretzel myself and stand properly back on the balcony. “Did you find your answers?”
“I…” I frowned and trailed off. There was a conclusion I came to when I was meditating, but the details of it eluded me just then. “I think so?”
“Well, do you feel better at least?” Shay asked with a concerned expression on her face.
“I do,” I said with a relieved smile, and then I glanced down at whatever was making that delicious smell under the silver dome in her hands. “Watcha got there, Care bear?”
“I have a sandwich for you, husband!” she sang and uncovered the tray.
A toasted sandwich almost like a panini complete with gooey cheese and roasted meat sat temptingly on a plate alongside a goblet of verna berry wine.
“This looks amazing!” I enthused as I picked up the crispy hot sandwich and bit into it with gusto. “I love how you toasted it.”
“I took some liberties with the method, it’s true,” Shay said with a faint patina of blush on her high cheekbones. “Is it really that good?”
“I’ve never eaten anything as delicious as this,” I said truthfully so she would blush even more.
“Well, now that you are back with the living, you better get ready and meet us all in the training arena,” Horus said with a surprisingly business-like attitude. “We’ve got to start making up for lost time. The Duel with my father is in less than a day, and you still don’t even know how to fire an arrow.”
“Good point, H,” I said, and I placed a hand on his shoulder so his worried frown would go away. “I promise, I’m your humble student from here on out.”
“Do you have any experience with long range weapons?” Horus asked.
“I went paint-balling a couple of times with the ranchers after the summer season ended on the farm I used to work at,” I said.
“What is this ‘paint-balling?’ Is it a game?” Zoie perked her ears in interest as her tail swished back and forth.
“Yeah, it’s a game where you have guns… uh, weapons that shoot these little colored balls,” I explained as I demonstrated pulling the trigger on a paint-ball gun. “Everyone has a different color, and when you shoot someone with your colored balls, they leave behind a spatter of paint so everyone knows who has the most shots.”
“This gun sounds like a crossbow,” Zoie observed as she copied my trigger-pulling motion.
“Yeah, kind of,” I said.
“I have an idea!” Shay suddenly exclaimed in her bell-like voice. “You all head to the arena, I’ll be along momentarily!”
Then she was off like a vibrant hummingbird as her flowing purple dress whipped behind her just like her gorgeous crimson and gold hair.
“Hm, well, since you have some experience with a crossbow-like weapon, I say we go and choose you one from Ren’s old weaponry,” Zoie said, and Horus nodded in agreement.
“I think a crossbow will be good for you, and it still fits the narrative we are going for with the Helix Method,” the falcon-man mused. “Hurry up with your sankwidge already, I want to start shooting things at you.”
“Joy,” I remarked dryly as I licked the last bit of melty cheese off my thumb. “Okay, I’m finished. Lead the way, good sir.”
When we reached the loaded weaponry, we noticed a theme right away at how very little variety Bala Ren chose to keep on hand.
“Oh, me, oh, my. Shall I keep my sword in the ‘Big Swords’ section, or the ‘Big- Big Swords’ section?” Horus brought a hand up to his cheek as if he really was struggling with a dilemma. “Looks like someone was compensating for something.”
“You’re probably right,” I snorted as I looked around at yet even more swords on racks and lining the walls of the vaulted chamber. “It’s very phallic in here. Maybe he was trying to tell us something else.”
“You are referring to the possibility he prefers males?” Zoie asked with a stoic blink and then looked around. “I can see the humor in what you propose, considering Shale-Lea is ‘smoking hot’ as you say. Oh, look, there are a few crossbows over there.”
Then the cat-woman sauntered off in the direction she indicated as if she hadn’t just throw a grenade into the middle of mine and Horus’ banter.
“I… have very confusing feelings right now,” the falcon-man said as he watched Zoie waltz away.
“Ha!” I guffawed as I whacked him on the back. “Welcome to Zoie’s particular brand of humor, my friend.”
I left him there blinking after us, and I came up and joined my wily minx of a wife as she observed three crossbows mounted to the far wall.
“Did I break Horus?” she asked quietly.
“Yep, and you were super sexy doing it, too,” I said and kissed behind one of her pointed ears. “Now, which one of these do you recommend?”
“I’m afraid you must ask our resident marksman,” Zoie said and gestured to Horus as he finally sidled up next to us. “My expertise is more in swords and throwing weapons.”
“H?” I nudged. “What do you think?”
“I think we’ll go with the standard recurve crossbow because it’s easy to aim and operate,” the falcon-man said as he pulled it off the wall along with a smallish leather case. “It looks like it has the most bolts, too. Come one, this will do nicely.”
Then the three of us made our way out of the small separate building that housed the weapons, past the gleaming white stables, and into a small circular arena that was a smaller version of the race track Prosper and I flew on during the Icarian Races. There were even a series of tall spectator stands kind of like the Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts.
We weren’t racing canterflies today, however, and I noticed the ground level of the arena was transformed into a sort of obstacle course. There were bales of hay stacked to over six-feet tall with crudely painted targets on them, as well as boxes and barrels piled in such a way that made them perfect fortresses to hide behind.
“What’s all this?” I asked, and I was beyond impressed.
“This is your practice field,” Zoie said as she lifted her chin proudly. “Shay and I built it when you and Horus were at the forge.”
“It’s awesome,” I said and squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”
“Okay, chief,” Horus said and clapped his now-gloved hands together. “Let’s go over some basics.”
“I’m all ears, H,” I said as I took the crossbow from him. “What’s number one?”
“Number one is always aim the power end of the crossbow down toward the ground even if it’s not loaded,” the falcon-man said and angled the crossbow down with a nudge. “That way you are in the habit regardless if there is a bolt nocked or not.”
“Safety one-oh-one, got it.” I nodded.
“Now, you see that loop on the front?” Horus gestured to the part of the crossbow that had a rectangular metal loop. “That’s called the cocking stirrup. It helps you find the leverage you need to pull the string back to the latch. Go ahead and put the stirrup on the ground, put your foot through, and then pull the string back with both hands until it latches.”
I did as he instructed and tugged the string all the way back until the two limbs on either side of the horizontal bow became taut with tension, and the latching mechanism made a clicking sound.
“Good, make sure you don’t let go until you hear the click or else the whole thing could flip up and whack you in the face,” he said.
“Do you know this based on experience, or…?” I teased and then brought my crossbow back up.
“Hush, there will be no disrespecting Teacher,” the falcon-man said, and he waved a dismissive hand as he rummaged around in the small leather case he brought until he pulled out a short stocky arrow. “Now, pay attention. This is a bolt, and it lives in this little groove along the top of the crossbow, here. You’ll notice there’s a notch carved out of the back just like any old arrow. You’ll want to make sure the sting is nestled inside so when you pull the trigger, you get as much power possible to send the bolt through the air.”
“Okay,” I said and took the bolt in order to place it in the groove myself. “Is one of the feather things supposed to be inside the groove like that?”
I looked underneath the whole apparatus and saw a flicker of orange feather pointing down.
“Yes, that’s how you know it’s loaded correctly,” Horus said as he examined it as well. “It all looks good to me. Now, before you shoot, make sure your bolt is straight, hold your bow as level as you can, and aim at your target along the sight bridge. Go for that hay bale right over there.”
“Alright,” I said and hefted the crossbow so the stock was resting against my shoulder. I squinted one eye and followed the path along the top of the groove where the point of the bolt was pointing to the closest hay bale. Then I gently pulled the trigger and watched as the bolt zinged clear over the bale and landed in the dirt about one hundred yards away. “Woah!”
“Not bad,” Horus said. “Your accuracy will improve once you get used to shooting. Let’s go again.”
It took me going through at least a dozen bolts before I finally was able to aim with a consistency I was pleased with. I noticed my biggest issue was the way I subconsciously leaned the bow a little to the right, and I had to work on checking I was level before pulling the trigger.
My progress was soon interrupted by the triumphant return of Shay as she jogged into the training arena clothed in her practical riding gear instead of her pretty dress.
“Where have you been?” Zoie asked as she helped the phoenix-woman lug two canvass sacks full of something into the center.
“I had a lovely idea when Alex was talking about ball-painting,” Shay said as she unrolled the canvasses. Inside, several long plants that reminded me of cattails were gathered together by some twine around their long stems, and at the top of each stem, there was a round ball instead of the iconic oblong shape of a cattail.
“How do these remind you of paint-balling?” I asked as Shay cut the twine on one of the bundles.
“These are called dust reeds,” Shay explained as she isolated one reed and brought it up to eye level. “You remember the colored powder that rained down on you and Prosper during the Icarian Races? Well, that powder comes from dust reeds.”
To demonstrate, she banged the round end of the reed against the heel of her palm as if she was banging a school eraser, and a plume of yellow dust rose into the air.
“There is a color for each of us, and I thought it would be a fun way to practice, what do you all think?” Shay asked with an eager smile.
“Oh, I get it,” I chuckled as I latched my string and then set one of the shorter reeds in the groove. It was surprisingly sturdy, almost like an arrow itself. Then I took aim at Horus before he could move and shot him in the chest, where a cloud of green made him sneeze. A green circle was left behind on his black tunic, and my grin grew feral. “Point for me.”
“No fair!” the falcon-man whined as he slung his bow around from his back and took aim with another reed.
“Gentlemen, wait,” Zoie said and came between us like a school-teacher. “We must distribute the reeds first because Shay and I want to play.”
“Aw,” the falcon-man grumbled and lowered his bow. “Okay, but just you wait, I’m coming for you, Brightwood.”
“That is if you both quit talking and get to preparing your reeds already,” Shay said as she made quick work of pulling the ball ends of the red dust reeds off so she would have projectiles for her sling.
I looked over and saw Zoie was already paring her reeds down to the length she wanted for throwing, and I jumped to it and organized my own reeds.
Once all of us had enough ammo, we all took up separate positions hiding behind hay bales and barrels as much as we could, but it wasn’t until Zoie threw a blue dust reed right above my head that the battle officially commenced.
“Hey!” I yelled as one of Horus’ yellow reeds exploded at my feet, and I ducked as two of Shay’s red dust balls forced me out of my fortress behind some crates and over to an overturned carriage.
I popped up, rested the crossbow on the side of the carriage, and waited for my prey.
Shay’s red hair appeared from behind a stack of crates, so I fired a green arrow right next to her and was delighted at the adorable squeal she made.
“Alex!” she yelled.
“Come on, baby!” I shouted and cranked back my string again so I could load another reed.
