Try Learn Destroy (Book One- Try)

FIVE- No Turning Back

Harlem looks as if he is fuming. I gulp; he appears as if he is deliberating whether to snap my neck. Like a twig. With his bare hands.

"You, girl, have to understand that you are not truly on our side until your abilities are assessed." Harlem begins. "You need a use." He smirks sinisterly, raising a brow and cackling in a maniacal style. I look to his brothers and friends, each take a step back. What does he mean by use? The rumours echo through my thoughts once again. I shudder; I do not want Harlem or anybody else for that matter fulfilling the stereotypes and the archetypes. I scowl at the morose redhead with pity yet also with tenacity.

"I’ll show you what I can do." I challenge.

"Is that a declaration?" Harlem exclaims with scorn.

"Yes. It is." I decide.

"Fine then Darcy." Harlem sneers delving into a rucksack, sat at Teeh’s feet as the child with green hair fiddles with the strands of wearing fabric. From the shabby bag Harlem produces a sheath of arrows and a crossbow. How did that even fit in the bag? My jaw falls open. Those arrows are…insufficient. Completely useless.

"Harlem those arrows are bound to be unreliable." Hawk says.

"Yeah, did you see how crooked one of them is; it’s almost as if it turns into a circle in the centre." Raven agrees.

"And they look as if you just wedged stones on twigs. There’s barely a feather on each!" Robin nods.

"They can’t be that bad…" Teeh states, plucking out an arrow from the pouch in which all thirteen are perched, when he holds it to his face the arrowhead falls off! "Okay maybe they are." He corrects himself.

"Don’t you understand that someone of a high skill should be able to shoot well with whatever equipment they have nearby? Hawk, shoot with one." Harlem barks. His brother takes a step back aware as to how unreliable they could be. "Pathetic." Harlem mutters, drawing an arrow, as he places it in the crossbow, a feather falls from it. Raven snorts only to be glared at by his oldest brother who is still facing us all.

"Teeh!" Harlem shouts’, beckoning the smallest boy forward, shyly, the youngest of the band cowers forward to face Hawk’s intimidating older brother. "Fetch an apple and toss it in the air when I say so." Harlem commands, Teeh nods with haste, pulling a fresh green apple from the rucksack that the sheath was in. Waiting for a signal from Harlem, he waits his anxiety apparent.

"Now." Harlem says closing his eyes. In one fluid motion Harlem does a one hundred and eighty degree turn and gracefully transitioning into a crouched position in which he releases the distorted arrow. Everybody’s eyes appear to be trained on the apple; the arrow appears to effortlessly stab a hole in the core of the fruit. I blink awestruck, he hit it. With those pathetic and feeble weapons.

Harlem smirks to himself at his accuracy. Almost exactly in the centre, with his eyes shut! "So Darcy. Show me what you can do." Harlem snorts mockingly. My blood boils yet somehow I can elicit the appearance of sanity. I reach into my boot once again to present my weapon of choice at this time. Harlem cackles deridingly as I put an elastic lead finger on the rubber band of my slingshot. Hawk smiles at me encouragingly.

"You can do it Darcy!" he cheers. I smile at the violet haired boy. Harlem snarls, muscles tensioning. Hawk’s smile of optimism falls as he realises how offended his brother is. Teeh, Robin and Raven gulp.

"Take one last look at his face Darcy, it’s not going to look like that for much longer." I hear Robin whisper. I turn to face him, baffled by the amount of exertion Harlem would use on someone who can be deemed as insubordinate, even if it is his brother. Raven is looking the other way and holding Teeh’s shoulders having turned him around to face the same direction as he is. Robin is watching but not sadistically like the rumours would depict. In fact he’s watching with sympathy. I wince when I see a very fresh scar lining Robin’s forehead as well as a small crescent moon shaped one on his left cheek.