"Ah, I was wondering if you'd come back after I so deeply offended you."
The human smiled at me. Like he was welcoming back an old friend to his home rather than welcoming a warden to his makeshift prison barn. He had made no attempt to loosen his restraints, as far as I could tell. A pity. I would've liked to point my arrows at his head and use him as a moving practice target.
I bit my tongue. I wasn't in the mood for games, and I certainly didn't have the patience. The human wasn't even worth a glance, so I just threw the blanket and the wicker basket filled with fresh fruit and vegetables down in the hay in front of him with my eyes averted. Then I turned and marched out of the barn.
"Thank you! You're most kind, if not a little curt," the human mockingly called after me.
Again, I didn't bother replying. My mind was elsewhere already. With Rhadoron's bow and what practice targets I would use, if not the human's face. There wasn't much in terms of material I could use out here. I was about to give up on using targets (it's not like my aim was great anyway), but then my eye fell on more wild berry bushes. I could draw marks on the barn's walls. The red berry juice would show clearly on the pale, weathered wood.
Satisfied with my temporary solution, I plucked a few berries and drew a circle at eye height and another at the height of my heart. Elven hunters never trained to wound; they trained to kill with a single arrow. Shooting with Rhadoron's old bow and not going for either the eye, throat, or heart felt disrespectful.
Holding his bow, to be truthful, already felt a little disrespectful. I looked down at the weapon in my hands, silently promising it I'd be worthy soon. Then, took my distance from the barn's wall and clumsily pulled an arrow from the quiver. Drawing the bow was hard. Harder than I'd expected. My muscles trembled with effort as I aimed the arrow at my makeshift target.
Taking a deep breath like I'd seen the hunters do, I released the arrow. The arrow hit the side of the building with a dull sound but didn't embed into the wood; it rebounded off the surface and landed in the grass. I couldn't tell exactly where I'd hit, but at least I'd hit the wall. That was a start and a vast improvement from how I handled a bow as a small child.
I took another arrow out of the quiver and aimed again, the same way as before. It was already becoming more challenging to draw the bow, and I was embarrassed at the way my arms and shoulders ached. As a hunter, I would have to be able to fight all day.
I breathed out as I released again, entirely focused on the target. Unfortunately, focusing didn't help me. The second arrow flew entirely in the wrong direction, towards the barn's door. Right as the arrow split wood, the door opened with a squeak.
A blond mop of hair peeked around the corner first. Then the human's face appeared, and he looked at the arrow with wide eyes. "Whoa, don't shoot!" he called out. His shoulders twitched like he wanted to raise his hands, but they were still tied. Good. I would've shot him immediately if he had made an attempt to free himself now.
"What are you doing outside, human?" I demanded, taking a step closer as I drew another arrow.
The human snorted. "Something hit the barn, and you failed to lock the door behind you. What was I supposed to do? Stay put and wait until an old, rotten beam fell on my head and killed me? And I have a name, you know. It's Malte."
"You're really going to give me ideas now on how to get rid of you and make it look like an accident, human?" I asked through gritted teeth, emphasising the last word.
"Right, my bad," the human replied flippantly. He glanced at the part of the wall where I'd smeared berry juice. It had already started its slow descent down, trickling into the grass. "Is that your target?"
I growled in frustration and aimed an arrow at the human. "Get back in the barn before you become my target instead."
The human raised his bound hands in front of his chest with a chuckle. "No offence meant, elf, but with that stance I'd be more worried about my hide if you were aiming for the man next to me."
An embarrassed tingle shot up the back of my neck. "What do you know of archery?" I snapped. "I've seen your hands. They are soft and untrained— not worker hands and certainly no warrior hands. You look like you've never even seen the outdoors."
"True," the human easily conceded, hopping forward as his ankles were still tied together as well. "But I have seen many soldiers being trained, and one tends to pick up instructions if they are repeated enough. Even me, contrary to what my dear father liked to claim about how I could never get any information through my thick skull."
I was inclined to agree with the human's father. Still, I had to keep my mouth shut. He was talkative. And if the human was willing to spill secrets he'd learned inside the palace about the way humans fought, who was I to stop him? He was even more foolish than I thought.
"What would you say I should do then with my stance, then?" I asked. It physically hurt to even pretend to accept the human's help, but if I could get information out of him... well, it might please Rhadoron.
The human shifted uncomfortably. "You know, it's quite hard to instruct while tied up like this."
I rolled my eyes. "Do you think me that naive? No. I'm obviously not going to arm you so you can 'show me', which I'm sure would've been your next question."
"It was worth a try," the human replied with a shrug. "Very well." Groaning exaggeratedly, he hopped a few steps closer to me. He seemed to sense he was already trying his luck, however, and still stopped a decent distance away.
"First thing I noticed: you're dropping the elbow of your bow arm. And you're facing me head-on. You should stand sideways." The human smiled and tilted his head to the side. "That's what I meant with I'd be more worried if you were aiming for someone beside me."
I glared at the human. I distrusted him, and anything that came from his mouth, but what he said did not sound unreasonable. Now that he'd spoken about standing sideways, I remembered seeing our archers doing the same. With one final sneer at the human, I faced my makeshift target and tried to shoot another arrow.
The arrow swished through the air, and when it hit wood, I was surprised to see I'd actually hit the centre of one of the berry juice circles I'd drawn earlier.
"Much better," the human remarked with a nod. "But with all due respect: shouldn't you have a, well, teacher from your people teaching you this kind of stuff?"
"I will have a teacher," I replied tersely. "I'm just starting early to make a good impression."
The human raised an amused brow. There was a sparkle in his eye. "Oh. On Rhadoron, yes?"
My jaw twitched, but I bit my tongue.
The human only smiled wider at my angry expression. "A very sensitive topic I see. One you can't even tolerate teasing on. My apologies. I would've just expected a man like Rhadoron— and all the other elven warriors mind you—to have started from a young age. If you're among them, you should've been training already as well."
The truth stung. I had lost out on years of practice by not being deemed suitable to be a hunter as a child, and I was all too painfully aware of it. But even if I was late, Rhadoron wanted me to join the hunters now. He even went toe to toe with our village elder for it, so he had to see potential in me. He wasn't playing with me like my sister thought he was. Like this human seemed to think as well with his intrusive questions.
Annoyed, I turned away from the human. "Unless you have more to say about bows or fighting while using bows, shut it."
With a tired sigh, the human lowered himself down on the grass. "Fine," he conceded. "I was just trying to help."
" Well. Don't," I snapped while I readied another arrow despite my protesting muscles.
I expected another snarky or witty retort as the human seemed to have an endless supply of both, but instead, there was silence. The human only sighed again. "You know, I get why I am mad at the elves. Or, should be. But why are you so mad at me? Why did you call me a murderer before?"
"Are you kidding me?" I called out, turning on my heel to face the human. My bow was still raised, and the human rolled behind a rock, ducking for cover on instinct. With a scoff, I lowered the bow. "You royals invade our woods, kill our children!"
"But I've never been in these woods before," the human protested. "You can't blame me for what my father is doing. I haven't seen him in years and he doesn't care to see me either. But I do know he only invaded because you are killing our children."
I bristled. "Lies!" I marched around the rock the human was hiding behind so I could properly glare at him. "We killed no one's children! All we wish for is to be left alone. We have enough problems of our own to deal with without you humans also sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."
For the first time, I saw a hint of annoyance flitting across the human's face before he covered it with a wry smile. "Human blood sacrifices made in the name of the "Changeling"? Ring any bells, elf?"
In a moment of pure surprise, I forgot to be angry. "The Changeling? The bleeders are not a part of our village. They steal our children, our people, too."
The human held my gaze, and his smile disappeared. "Well, shit. You're serious, aren't you?" He grimaced. "Oh, bother. If you are, then you and I are in much more trouble than I already thought."