Chapter 12 (redone)

What have I done? I’d never hurt one of my friends! But there’s no time to worry, because Llare is aiming for me next. He already shot at and missed Kyle. I try to avoid the arrow, but I’m not quick enough. I only manage to turn enough so that the missile doesn’t hit my heart. I instinctively know Llare means for it to. What have I ever done to him?

The arrow’s sharp point stops three inches from my right shoulder, like it hit a wall. I feel a dull pain in the spot where it would have struck, and I have trouble moving my arm. I think I’ve been injured.

“KRYSTAL! ON YOUR GAME, NOW!” screams Hanayni. I obey, nocking another arrow to my string. In spite of the pain from my shoulder, I pull the string back and aim at Llare. I try to locate Ya’asa, but she’s nowhere to be found.

Wynn is skillfully pegging my entire group; no one can dodge his arrows, except for Kelta. She’s firing back at him with just as much skill. Both Kyle and I have one hit each. Eyrad is covered in arrows; this obviously isn’t his thing.

Hanayni glowers at him as one of Aiyamar’s arrows finds his heart. Three inches from it, anyway. Hanayni raises her hand to pause our combat.

She strides over to Squirrel and stands over him threateningly as he cringes and whimpers. I can’t hear what he was saying, but Hanayni’s voice is loud enough for all to hear. “What have I told you about HIDING?!” she growls. “Do you want me to bring Lorik in here? Would you like that?”

Eyrad’s eyes widen in horror. So I’m not the only one who didn’t take to Lorik.

Most people think he’s a little…gruff, Kyle says. He comes to stand next to me, glowing with some sort of forcefield. I remember Ya’asa saying something about a forcefield. That would be a convienent little bit of knowledge to have right now.

Hanayni grabs Eyrad’s wrist, not harshly, and yanked him to his feet. “You’ve died in every archery scrimmage we’ve had this semester,” she tells him, sounding disappointed. “You are dead,” she says simply. “Lay on the ground for the rest of the scrimmage.”

She blows a whistle, the signal for us to resume our fight. We fight hard.

It’s a long time before Hanayni stops us. I hear the thought before she says it: “LINNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEE UP!”

Kelta and Wynn beat the rest of us to the middle of the field, and choose spots next to each other. Maybe they’re related or something.

Walking sternly down the line, Hanayni evaluates each of us. Wynn did the best, and I followed closely behind, just ahead Kelta.

Hanayni is visibly surprised at my skill. I am, too; I was barely thinking the whole time. “You are an Energy Classman?” she inquires.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ma’am, I’m not much older than you,” she says. “You have been well-trained, I see. Especially for a First Year Classman. Good job.”

She turned to Llare and Ya’asa. I see that Ya’asa isn’t actually hurt. My arrow is suspended about 3 inches from her thigh, just like every other member of the opposite group. I kind of…got them all. Their group won the battle, though.

We are all in pain. The arrows must have some kind of spell on them so that they won’t actually hurt us. We definitely feel the pain of the would-be injuries, though.

Hanayni waves her hand in our general direction, and my team starts pulling each other’s arrows. There are an uneven number of people, so I get stuck by myself. You’d think that Kyle would automatically come to help me, but no. He’s helping Ya’asa. The way he’s looking at her is kind of strange. And she keeps batting her eyes and smiling. I don’t like it.

I don’t know how to pull arrows, so I’m just going to wait until Kyle’s not busy.

While I’m waiting, a man of medium height emerges from the double doors at the north end of the training field. Lorik follows after him, and Mrs. Jameson after him.

MRS. JAMESON!!!! I greet her enthusiastically.

Lorik holds a hand to his ear, the sign to tell me that I was being too loud, but I ignore him.

Kelta waves to her, a joyful smile on her face. Aiyamar squeals and tackles the new man. I’m going to guess that he’s her instructor.

“ASTULAD!” she shrieks. Then she says something to him that I can’t understand. It’s a different language. The volume of her emotions reaches me even though I’m not actively listening to her thoughts. What she said was something to the effect of “Oh my gosh I’ve missed you so much!”

Astulad laughs and picks himself and Aiyamar up, hugging her tightly. His medium length, jaggedly cut black hair hung over his chocolate brown eyes as he greets his pupil. Aiyamar tells him something and points to me. He starts to walk towards me, but she pulls him along faster. He laughs again and waves to Hanayni, blowing a sarcastic kiss to her in greeting.

Aiyamar lead a slightly protesting Astulad right up to me, and introduces us. “Krystal, this is my brother and instructor, Astulad. Astulad, this is that girl I told you about; the one who killed the Immaterial Beast,” she gushes excitedly.

Oh, I guess that’s not a secret after all. He’s her brother? They’re really close. I kind of wish I had an older sibling to look up to. I’ve always had to look out for myself.

“It’s nice to meet you, Astulad,” I say. He smiles, showing perfectly white teeth. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Krystal. Forgive my sister; she gets…excited,” he says, eyebrows raised meaningfully. I giggle and nod, shaking his hand. I can’t believe myself, giggling like a schoolgirl. He is cute, though.

Meanwhile, Kyle had been greeting his mother. She moves over to me now, and I lose it big-time. Mrs. Jameson is like a mother to me, since my own mother failed parenting 101. I run into her arms, forgetting about the arrow in my arm, and I sob like I’ve never sobbed before. She just holds me, like she totally knew I would break down. I can feel the eyes of everyone on me. Hanayni’s surprised, and so is Lorik. But understanding and respect emanates from my instructor as well.

When the waterworks dry, Kelta comes and puts her arm around me. She holds a small, foggy substance in her hand. She gives it to me, saying “It’s a cloud; wipe your face with it, okay? It’ll make you feel better and it even has nutritional benefits.”

I giggle and accept the gift, leaving Kelta to greet Mrs. Jameson. I remember hearing that Mrs. Jameson is her instructor.

I run into Llare and accidentally jar the arrow in my arm. He steadies me, and wordlessly tears the arrow out. It hurts like hell. I really hope this isn’t going to last all day.

“Thanks, Llare.”

“No problem, Krystal.” The way he pronounces my name is different than everyone else. It’s more like “Ked-EE-stil”. He’s got a really heavy accent. I noticed it before, but I was too flustered to care.

A tap on my shoulder. I turn to face Lorik. He’s not looking too happy. Ikah is with him. Needless to say, she doesn’t look happy either.

“Ikah, Krystal, we have something to talk about,” he says gravely. “You, too, Kyle.” Kyle’s shoulders sag pitifully, dramatic person that he is. What’d I do now?