by Katie Pottle
“When I heard about the Archery Club,” Instructor Kade said as the group approached, “I asked the Headmaster about any school gear that we could use. He gave me access to the storage shed, and let me tell you—it was a ridiculous experience trying to find anything in there.” Cadin smiled as he glanced at the storage shed which was the size of a large barn and used to store all the unused items in the school for the last twenty years or so.
“Well, I was lucky after about five hours of searching I found these targets and bows,” Instructor Kade said, indicating the old broom bows. Cadin asked about the white one.
“Oh, that one is mine,” Sun said happily, skipping over to Instructor Kade’s side and expertly extracting the bow from the stand. “I won this bow in a tournament. I don’t think that I had ever wanted anything more when I learned that it was the prize for the Lavine Championship Games.”
“You won the Championship Games?!” Cadin asked, flabbergasted that someone so young could enter, let alone win the Games.
“Yes, but it was just the Young Division, which is offered at some Games to encourage early competition.”
“Wow,” Bartholomew said, as Cadin just shook his head in amazement.
“Well, would you like to show us how to begin, Sun?” Instructor Kade asked, handing her a beautiful quiver full of arrows.
So quickly that Cadin almost missed it, Sun pulled an arrow, spun on the spot and shot at one of the targets. The arrow was quivering with recoil where it landed—dead center of the highest target.
“Wrath’s-eye!” Bartholomew shouted, breaking the silence. Sun giggled at his exuberance.
“Wow, that was great, Sun,” Cadin said in an amazed voice.
“Oh, boys,” Sun said while still giggling, “that is nothing. Just a basic shot at a non-moving target. Thank you anyways. Would you like to try it?”
“Yeah,” said Cadin.
“Great,” said Bartholomew at the same time.
“I too would like to give it a go,” Instructor Kade said. “It has been a while.”
“Well grab a bow and arrow and spread out evenly in front of the targets,” Sun said confidently.
Cadin grabbed the old bow that Instructor Kade handed to him and picked out the straightest arrow he could find before standing next to Bartholomew. Instructor Kade strolled up to the other side of Cadin and Sun began the first lesson.
“Obviously, the goal is to shoot your arrow and hit as close to the center of the target as possible. Now grab your bow with your left hand and one of your arrows in your right. Fit the notched end of your arrow onto your string like this, and rest the arrow on the top part of the handle.”
The arrow would not sit still as he attempted to follow Sun’s directions. Instructor Kade had no problem and was at the ready before Sun finished talking. Cadin wished just then that he had paid more attention in middle school. It was required that they at least try every common angel weapon for a week, though the teachers gave up on bow and arrows after only a couple of days.
Cadin finally got everything set, and turned back to where Sun was giving instructions, only to find that she was no longer there. Just then, Sun tapped him on the back, making Cadin jump.
“Whops, sorry. Didn’t mean to surprise you. Just wanted to tell you to turn your arrow so that the middle feather is pointing out rather than in.” Sun helped him fix his arrow and returned to her spot.
“Everyone note the color of your feathers,” Sun said.
Cadin felt silly that he had jumped, and even sillier that he had not remembered the basic feather rule. He glanced at the three stiff feathers attached to his arrow, thinking that he liked how the middle blue feather was flanked by two yellow ones. It gave a fast and accurate look to it. In fact, the arrow itself completely outshone the bow with which Cadin intended to shoot the beautiful arrow. They seemed quite mismatched.
“Alright, time to give it a try. Why don’t we all aim for the lowest target this time? As you pull the string back toward the corner of your mouth, breathe in, hold the bow steady and take aim. As you breathe out, release the arrow.”
Cadin looked at his bow and arrow, and then glanced down the field at the lowest target. The center of the target had a black circle the size of a fist. Just outside of the black center was a large red ring. Three concentric circles radiated out from the center before reaching the edge. Cadin focused on the black center.
“All together now,” Sun said.
Cadin panicked a little trying to remember the simple steps that Sun had just recited.
“Breathe in…” Cadin could barely hear Sun as he quickly gulped three or four breaths and raised his bow.
“Take aim…” Where did the target go? Cadin thought in a hurry. It looks so much smaller than it did a second ago.
“And release.”
The sound of four arrows whistled through the air, followed by three thuds. Cadin tried to focus his eyes on the target, having lost sight of his arrow the second that it released. An arrow with all yellow feathers sat center of the target once again. Next was an arrow with green feathers that just missed the center red by a thumb’s width. Lastly, one arrow hung off the bottom of the target, the tall grass obscuring the color of the feathers. Is that my arrow? Cadin wondered. What happened to the fourth arrow? Did I miss completely? How embarrassing.
“Let’s go and check it out,” Sun said brightly. “Before we cross the shooting line,” Sun said quickly as Cadin had begun to walk towards the target, “we all have to put the bows down and confirm that it is safe to walk out to the targets. It really is no fun being accidentally shot on the practice field. So, I will call out ‘all clear?’ and you shout back ‘clear’ if it is safe on your end.
“All clear?!” Sun shouted out in a carrying voice.
“Clear,” everyone said back in much quieter voices, there were only four of them.
“Let’s go get ‘em,” Sun said, marching down the field. Cadin couldn’t help but laugh, forgetting his worries that sprung up when he shot the arrow. If he completely missed his first shot, then he missed. He would just have to try harder the next time. Approaching the target, Cadin focused on the arrow hanging low in the grass, but still attached to the target. He thought that he saw a flash of blue and got excited. When they reached the target, Cadin confirmed that it was his arrow sticking to the target and hanging low. He felt so excited that he jumped up giving a shout.
Sun laughed, and then said, “Good job, Cadin. And a very nice shot from you Instructor Kade,” pulling out her own arrow. “But what about your arrow, Bart?”
Bartholomew looked at Sun, apparently amused by the nickname. “I think that it flew straight over the top.”
“No problem,” Sun said while sidestepping the target. “Your arrow had red feathers so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
They located Bartholomew’s arrow far afield, and Sun commented on the distance like that was just as impressive as hitting the wrath’s-eye. Cadin decided then and there that he liked Sun and he was glad that she had moved to Glade. Bartholomew was a good guy too. The Archery Club was worth attending, they just needed to find a way to get more people to join.
They continued shooting for the rest of their free period, trying some of the higher targets. Cadin found those much more difficult, missing one or two shots completely. Bartholomew hit the target a few times before the end of practice and was utterly ecstatic each time. Sun never once missed, though she was a little off dead center a couple of times when she demonstrated trickier techniques. Instructor Kade hit the black wrath’s-eye on the third shot, resulting in high-fives from everyone.
“All in all, a good first practice, everyone,” Instructor Kade said as he broke down the targets. Everyone grabbed something to help carry back to the storage shed. Upon entering, Cadin was overwhelmed by the piles of junk that only opened enough for a narrow path through the middle. There were hundreds of shelves lining the walls, but Cadin guessed that those had been filled up long ag
o, the unorganized piles building up after the shelves were full.
“Now you understand how lucky I was to find all of this for us to work with,” Instructor Kade said. “Sun was kind enough to let us borrow her arrows today, however, I will speak with Headmaster Tripharian about purchasing some for the school. I have cleared out this area on the floor for us to store the archery stuff, as most of you can’t fly yet to access it up high.”
“Well, when should our next meeting be?”
“Tomorrow,” Cadin said just a little bit faster than Sun or Bartholomew.
“Alright then, enjoy your lunch.”
Sun, Bartholomew, and Cadin all headed for the cafeteria, excited about the club and what it could mean for each of them.
Part Two
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gur—the Baby Rock Dragon
The first two months of school flew by, with the Archery Club quickly becoming Cadin's favorite part of the week. Eventually convinced his friends to try it out, and they came every so often, insisting that more than one day a week was just too much to spend on archery.
The club began diversifying their weapons and training, which Cadin found to be great supplemental studying for his Warrior Path classes. Bart—as Sun’s nickname for him had started to catch on during Archery Club practices—and Cadin got better with bows, and Lep enjoyed throwing daggers, mostly at a ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ target that was drawn by a Guardian. Lep told them he thought that Earth donkeys were funny creatures and wondered what humans thought of their tails constantly falling off.
Cadin's math suffered and he didn't know how he was going to pull off that required badge. All his other classes were fascinating and he was hopeful that by the end of the first semester, he would have a badge or two and a better perspective on the best Path choice.
The last day before their Fall Break seemed to take forever and Cadin amused himself by watching Lep and Treven who were discretely playing games whenever Instructor Kade wasn’t looking. Lep launched a smooth stone across the table toward Treven, trying to get it as close to the edge as possible without it falling off. It sailed too far and Treven deftly caught it while pretending to take notes.
“Nice,” Lep whispered.
Cadin watched, thinking that Instructor Kade was probably not as oblivious to the games as he seemed. He looked around the room and noticed that a lot of the kids were just as restless and paying less attention to the lesson than normal. Then it hit him—this is the last class before Fall Break!
Cadin’s mind drifted through the possible excursions that could be done with a whole week off school. He would be limited as he was still grounded and had the rest of the school year of required community service cleaning the Town Hall.
He also thought about Sun, and how nice it was to be around someone so motivated and at the same time easy-going. Playing with his medallion now, he remembered how he had missed the outing with his friends when they had shown her Mist Lake.
Being grounded stinks!
Frustrated at his lack of freedom, he watched Treven sail the stone across the table, leaving it short of the end. Lep picked it up with a little smirk, and carefully sent the stone back across the table. The stone barely reached the edge and then stopped just before falling off.
“Yes!” Lep celebrated quietly, but with enthusiasm.
Apparently, it was not quite enough, because several people turned towards them, drawing Instructor Kade’s eyes.
“So, Leptan, you think that poverty is inevitable in the Fringe-clouds, and you are excited about it?" Instructor Kade inquired.
Lep turned red. "I, uh...don't...what was the question?"
Many in the class giggled, and Instructor Kade just shook his head. "Oh, alright.” He let out a huff. “I know a lost cause when I see one. Today I’ll let you out early.”
“Yeah!”
“Alright!”
The entire class perked up and starting packing up their things.
“Everyone just make sure to use the field exit from our classroom, so we don’t disturb the other classes. Have a good week off and enjoy your Fall Break!”
Cadin was struck with inspiration and silently thanked Treven and Lep for the extra twenty minutes as he grabbed his stuff and headed across the room. Sun was reaching to the ground to pick up one of her fallen belongings and smiled when she sat up to see Cadin in front of her.
“Oh. Hi, Cadin. I have never been let out of school early before.” She picked up the last of her things and stood up. “I am not quite sure what I am going to do.”
“Well actually, that is why I came over,” Cadin said, a little flustered as Lep and Treven walked up to their conversation. Cadin took a breath and continued. “Well since you have extra time, I was wondering if you wanted to walk with me and Lep towards our houses, and then if it is okay with my Mom and Dad, maybe go with me to Mist Lake for a few minutes before you have to go home?” Cadin looked down at his feet, not feeling like he could look Sun in the eyes, and knowing that he couldn’t look at his friends.
When she didn’t say anything right away, Cadin keep talking. “I would have been happy to walk you back to your house, but I am still kind of grounded after the whole Glade Palace thing.” He looked at the dirt on the tip of his shoe as he felt the back of his neck warm. “And well, I was sad that I didn’t get to go with you guys to Mist the first time.”
They did have the extra twenty minutes and could sneak off to Mist; however, after the Glade Palace incident, Cadin felt the urge to do things in a better way than he had done in the past. Plus, if he got caught, who knows how long being grounded could last.
Sun still hadn’t said anything, so Cadin looked up. This seemed to be what she had been waiting for. Instantly she smiled, and said, “I’d love to. My dad is busy with work, so I have some extra time.”
Most of the walk was spent talking about the Archery Club and the possibility of adding other weapons to train. When they reached Cadin’s house, Lep ran off to his own house, saying that he had promised to take Charlie into town.
“Come on in,” Cadin said as he held the door open.
“I like your house. It is very different than what I am used to. My dad and I just live above his shop.”
After showing Sun through most of the house, Cadin finally found his mom in the back valley near his dad’s workshop. She was on a ladder and looking none too steady as she reached up into a tree that had a strange fruit that Cadin had not remembered being there before. He rushed to grab one side of the ladder and Sun hurried to grab the other side.
“Oh, it’s you, Cadin. Thank you,” Sara said as she made her way down with a basket on one arm. “I was just excited to see that sun fruits were growing this year and I wanted to pick a full basket and couldn't reach the inner tree mid-flight.” She smiled when she reached the bottom and noticed Sun.
“Well, hi there; I didn’t notice that Cadin had company.”
“Mom, this is Sun,” Cadin said stepping forward and grabbing the basket. “She moved here from Lance and is the one who started the Archery Club I told you about. Sun, this is my mom, Sara”
“It’s nice to meet you Sun. How do you like the greenness of Glade?” Sara asked.
“Well I’ve had a good time so far, but it is funny that you should mention the greenness. I have definitely noticed the difference from living on a yellow land. Everyone and everything here seem to be so green and grounded—almost immovable—that is until I met your son and now you. You are the first person with a blue Aura that I have seen since I got here.”
“Yes, and you are not likely to see any others. Glade is almost completely homogeneous in the population of green Aura angels alongside white of course; however, I think it is good to have some different colors around here—so, welcome.”
“Thanks.” Sun smiled.
“So, what are you kids up to? Isn’t it a little early for you to be out of school?”
“Yeah,” Cadin said. “Instructor Kade let us
out early today, so I thought I would show Sun around Mist Lake…that is, if it’s okay with you?”
“Hmm,” was all Sara said as she took the basket back from Cadin. She looked at both of them and then smiled. “Well, alright.”
“Yes!”
“You have an hour and a half until I need you back here to help with dinner. Sun, you are welcome to join us,” Sara called after them—Cadin already leading Sun towards Mist Lake.
“It is so nice here today,” Sun said as they approached the lake. The sun was still high enough to reflect sparkling rays off the water’s surface, as a slight breeze rustled the surrounding grass and moved the shape of the higher clouds. Cadin closed his eyes and enjoyed the unique smell of the cloud-daisies that crowded the rocks at the base of the lake.
“Yeah, a perfect Mist Lake day,” Cadin agreed. “You up for a swim?”
“Definitely.”
Leaving their belongings and outer clothes at the edge of the lake, Cadin watched as Sun raced ahead and cannon balled into the water. Cadin laughed as he followed, but instead of balling his body and making a huge splash, he soared over Sun in a perfect swan dive.
“Wow, where did you learn that?” Sun asked after Cadin surfaced.
“My mom. She loves to swim.”
“Even though she has wings?”
“Yep. Apparently, in the blue cloud-lands a lot of angels with wings still swim. They don’t normally develop the veretal coating on their feathers, so they are not as heavy in the water.”
“Interesting,” Sun said as she lifted her body into a back float and just drifted. “Angels from yellow lands don’t usually develop veretal coating either; however, not many adults swim.”
“I hope that I am still able to swim after I develop my wings,” Cadin said as he paddled in circles around Sun.
“Well, is your dad from a blue Aura land as well?”
