Rise Of The Scoundrel

22. Apology

Asher sat in silence with his back pressed against a large oak tree. He was on high alert and listening for anything that could indicate an incoming attack while making faint but deliberate taps with his finger against the tree truck.

"Why aren't we killing this one?"

"She's my friend." He whispered.

"She's trying to hurt us."

"We're training, not -"

A faint whistle caught his attention, allowing him to barely dodge a flame-infused arrow before it hit him. Flying ashes settled on his shoulder as he bypassed it, allowing the tip to impale the bark of his hiding place instead. The flames began to lap at the nearby foliage, quickly setting them ablaze and sending Asher into a panic. Removing his jacket, he quickly used it to suffocate the quickly growing fire.

"You were saying?"

"Sorry!" Dawn called as she jogged over to him. "I didn't mean to put any elements into it. I swear."

Asher snatched his singed hand away when a small, dark shadow slithered out from the dying flames and attempted to snake around his wrist. He stood to brush his pants and shirt off before glowering at the white-haired girl beside him.

"I didn't mean to add that either. Promise."

"Sure."

"I'm serious!" She hissed. "I'm not synced up with my bow. I never have been, and now that I'm working on my elemental abilities... Things are getting a little messy."

"Crispy, if anything," Asher mumbled. He walked from the tree line back over to the bench at the edge of the training field. Dawn followed as she returned her weapon to its home.

"At least I managed to hear you this time. That little tapping thing you're doing is working for me," She smiled as she picked up her near-empty water bottle. "I doubt the hearing ability has somehow popped up on my list of talents, but it's getting better."

Asher hummed in response as his eyes panned over to the village gates. There were two Garrick members stationed there currently, and that had been the minimum every day since the attack in Cove. He had never seen the outpost so busy, and it unnerved him.

"Your speed is pretty insane," Dawn commented before chugging the majority of her water. "You've got to be using what, ninety percent of that ability?"

"Something like that," He shrugged.

Dawn tilted her head into his line of sight, catching his attention. "What is it?" She asked with a slight frown.

Asher shook his head and turned his back on the gates to face her. "Nothing."

"I'm sick of pretending not to notice how weird you've been this week," She growled as she slumped onto the bench. "Is it the Blight Hound attack that's got you all messed up?"

Watching Ryker collapse on live television had made him... Uncomfortable. He didn't care for the man, he was a Garrick captain after all, but seeing someone so powerful go down like that had shaken him. He had seen the damage Blight Hounds could do to a village; the fires and leveled villages were proof enough, but they never televised how the Blight Hounds directly affected people. Asher had no idea that their bites and scratches could cause that type of reaction.

The Garrick and Capitol had tried their best to play off Ryker's collapse as illness or exhaustion after, "performing his duties as the Southern Nation's Human Sword to the highest extent", but it was all bullshit. Once again, they underestimated the intelligence of the lower society.