The Archer

Chapter 2: Story Telling

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Lying by the bed, Arkane stared at the wooden ceiling of her room, deep in thought.

Questions started to fog her head. Why did her father die? Is it true that he committed treason by helping the cast out king ? Why did they kill every person in the manor ? And why didn't his father fought back ? These were the questions she can never answer, the main reason why she stopped thinking about them a year ago but why they suddenly came floating ? Maybe because of the visit yesterday. It triggered the soft spot in her memory, her father, her mom, and their death. A knock from the door get her thoughts back to the present.

"'Ye awake, kid ?" Arthax called.

"Yes." She wondered why he have no family- no wife, no kid.

"Come join us. It's good to 'ear some stories."

"Sure. Just a second," she managed to answer. She sat up and walked to her wardrobe pulling a pair of shirt and trousers on.

She walked back towards the door when her eyes fell upon a cloth sack slumped behind her wardrobe. She reached for it, checking the things inside. She eyed the bow, touching the smooth surface of it and checking its string. It was firm. She wondered if she'll be able to pull the string, it looked impossible to bend. She hanged it against the wall with the arrows, and moved to reach the sword.

"Magnificent", she muttered, " and heavy!" She exclaimed as she lifted it up, rolling her eyes for mockery. Its hilt was carefully detailed with the carving of a phoenix, blades extra sharp which she think can probably slice a paper afloat. "Dangerous" she whispered as she put its sheath on the table as well as the daggers carefully placed beside each other. She took out the tome, gold linings encrypted on the hard leathered cover. Its letters she couldn't decipher, maybe written in some old language or something but she kept it nonetheless. Another book was written by his father but same as the first, she couldn't understand. She kept the two books inside her wardrobe, under her clothes.

She found the bannans talking and laughing around a fire. Arthax was there, having the loudest laugh. Andre, Idra, and Czar was also there same with Eon and Rean including Dys, Bryt and Eron.

"'ey, Arca, come'ere." She heard Arthax call.

"Yeah, I'm suppose to come ya know." She rolled her eyes as he laughed.

"Hey" Rean called grinning. She glanced to acknowledge him.

"Sit ! Sit !" he offered.

"Of course I'm goin' to sit". She heard chuckles. Arthax laughed as usual. "What's this meeting all about ? Are we gonna plan to kill a grisly bear ? Common common!" They laughed out loud.

"What?" She inquired, skeptically.

"You!" smiled Czar, the only one who's not laughing.

"What about me ?"

"You're stupid!" Eon still laughing.

"If ya ain't gonna tell me anything, I'm leaving!" She stumped her foot and turned to walk away but a hand pulled her to sit down.

"We're story telling 'ye know" Arthax grinned. Her eyes looked at him pointedly.

"We've been talking about why you've got here first before us." Rean stated. All of them stared at her and Idra.

"Uhh well, we went to the city and broke into a house." She squired and felt uncomfortable. She noticed the look on Idra's face.

"Actually, that wasn't just a house. It's a manor if you failed to notice. " Idra informed.

"Wa-wa-wait! You broke into a manor ? That's cheating! Arthax told us to attain weapons from fighters." Eon grunted.

"He didn't say we cannot gain weapons from breaking a manor. And he did not particularly mentioned attaining it from other fighters. You just assumed." She grinned.