The Valiant

Ch-5 The Archer Queen

A very big sorry for the long delay. Hope you like it.

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Valiant was silently walking between the two archers while helping the male archer ahead of him in carrying the dead boar. His bow and quiver of arrows was with the female archer walking behind him.

He had to give in to their order, which sounded more like request, to come with them unarmed. Though he still had his dagger with him. He also had offered to help in carrying the dead boar.

It had been just over 5 minutes of their trip when the archer behind him asked, "From where are you, archer-man?"

Valiant heeded attention to what she had referred to him as, so he first answered and then asked, "I am from Antiman village. I am the future headman also. But what did you mean by archer-man?"

The female archer behind him took a moment to understand what he told her and asked before replying, "That bow and those arrows with you. And your accuracy in using them. Your skill surely exceeds that of a Rank-2 archer, if not Rank-1. Therefore, you are an archer-man. And atop of that, that's really rare."

"So that means you are an archer-woman?" Valiant asked. His curiosity was also raised on hearing her using the 'Rank' word. But he decided to first eradicate his one confusion fully.

"No. I will be called simply an archer." She answered before asking, "Why do you ask though? Don't you know this much at least?"

"Well, sorry. I didn't know about it. But..." Valiant apologised while thinking that generally the term archer is more or less represents a common gender, or male. Because that what usually common words signify in this male-dominated world. So he was very curious. No, it was not that he thought that women were inferior. He was not among those to think others as pests. Rather he liked changes, innovative changes.

"But?" The archer asked after waiting for few seconds, urging Valiant to complete his sentence.

"But...isn't it usually the other way round? I mean, the more common word is masculine, like man, pig,horse and other animals and such, except cows,sheep, from whom we get milk, of course." Valiant stated his confusion sincerely while smiling.

But the archer was not pleased and shook her head while saying furiously, "You men, always thinking yourselves to be the rulers. Hmph! Its time for you to understand your place and accept that your rule has come to an end."

She at the end of her statement continued walking while the two males had stopped, like giving her respect. She first glared towards the 'archer-man', who simply looked at the ground and bowed his head, and then towards Valiant who gulped and nodded slightly in response, feeling a little bit of fear.

'Really? I am afraid on just hearing a threat? What's this? I am sweating? Hell!' Valiant thought while clearing the sweat from his forehead and tasting the saline liquid, after the 'archer' had left the two males behind.

After few seconds the 'archer-man' motioned to Valiant to continue moving his legs and not just stand there. And the both of them followed the 'archer' from a distance while carrying the stick on which the dead boar's legs were tied.
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After trudging for another hour, Valiant, the archer and the archer-man reached a clearing, where many people were present and were performing different tasks just like in a village. But they had bows and quivers filled with arrows. They too had almost similar faces. Seeing this amazement struck Valiant really hard and he appreciated the scene mentally.

The archer from before motioned to an archer-man, who came and took the stick from Valiant.

Then the archer moved towards Valiant and ordered him, "Follow me. And keep quiet."