Steady. Breathe. Throw on an exhale.
She repeated Leo's guidance in her mind, adjusting her form and stance with each mental instruction.
The forest grew silent as Sol rolled her shoulders and sent the blade flying. It sang through the air and slammed proudly into the evergreen she aimed for. Just as she began to smile in triumph, she tilted her head.
The knife didn’t hit the bull’s-eye.
"You're getting lazy, Sunny."
Sol frowned and wiped at the sweat on her brow with her sleeve,
then eyed Leo as he stepped up beside her. "I need to sharpen them. They always miss when they're dull."
"Knives aren't sentient." He gave her a casual smile. "Last I checked, weapons are only as good as their wielder."
In a smooth dance, he retrieved an arrow from his quiver, nocked it into his bow, and shot it right into the hilt of her dagger, all without taking his golden eyes from her face.
Sol looked from the tree to her now broken knife on the forest floor. "You owe me a knife."
It's not like it was the first knife that had succumbed to Leo's lessons, but it was the first time it was one of her favorites. She’d brought her mother's old knives out to play this time, hoping Irene's spirit might gift them some luck on their hunt.
It hadn't.
Surely the animals were scarce due to the season—Yavenharrow spring was dreadful. The animals felt it. The town felt it.
Sol also felt it as she gathered her belongings from a nearby cluster of stones, stray hairs from her braid plastered to her neck.
By the time she and Leo made it out to the Hunter's Lands, Yavenharrow’s best hunting ground, the sun burned overhead, but the promise of rain lingered on the horizon, making the breeze sticky and humid.
"I keep begging you to let me get you all-metal ones instead of flimsy wooden ones," Leo said, collecting his bag of weapons. "But every time I offer, it's like I've said a personal insult." His tanned skin was flushed, and his short ebony hair was glued to his forehead with moisture as he took her bag from her hands and retrieved his arrow from the tree.
Before Sol could protest, he led the way deeper into the woods, forcing her to swallow her remarks and follow.
Typically, she accompanied her best friend on hunts to practice her aim, never really engaging with the “killing” part of the activity. She often provided snacks and miscellaneous anecdotes about the herbs they came across, some so obscure her aunt Lora would send her right back to pick them for her tonics and salves if Sol ever recounted the discoveries to her.
She plucked interesting things from the forest regardless, her last find being a cluster of poison berries from a Sadenberrie bush. That had been a fast, valuable lesson from her aunt the second Sol placed them on the dining table.
Sadenberries and blueberries were unfortunately very similar.
They continued their walk in companionable silence until the familiar trickle of Jasen Lake signaled the halfway point of the land— and usually their landmark to return to town. Anything beyond the lake was too unexplored for either oftheir skills.
Leo halted, forcing Sol to shift sideways to avoid a collision. "What is it?"
He shook his head. "I hadn't been out here since..." His eyes flashed and his grip tightened around his bag of arrows.
Sol looked back to the river, knowing exactly the memory it brought.
It had been here that they found Holden. Yavenharrow's most seasoned hunter and explorer, he had always known to be prowling the lands for whatever adventure Erriadin gave him next.
Two weeks ago, though, the town had been shocked speechless when the details of his death spread like a plague. The shops in the town square began to close at dusk instead of midnight, the taverns at midnight instead of dawn. Sol hated seeing her lively town gloom in terror at the realization that one of their own had been murdered doing what he loved most.
And what he was best at.
Second best, and now owner of Holden's archery shop, Leo had been forced to answer all the questions the townsfolk flocked him with—to the best of his abilities.
"Is it true a beast slew him?"
"We heard his insides were missing."
