He shook his head with a pinched expression. “No. I need to stay up with you to make sure they don’t come back.”
I decided to poke the bear, as I have learned recently what it takes to motivate Ajax. “So, you're not tired?”
He looked over at me, his eyes rimmed with fatigue but still held notes of resilience. It was commendable, but not needed right now. “Are you?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not very tired.” He scoffed and turned back to scanning the forest. “It seems like a waste of resources for both of us to be up. Do you want to take shifts? I’ll take the first one.” I offer, hoping that he would take it and I would just not wake him up for his shift.
He squinted his eyes at me, trying to figure out my angle, but really I just want the guy to sleep. Climbing the mountains was going to be hard enough for everyone. He looked off into the forest saying, “I’m able to watch a tree line. It’s not hard.”
I nodded, agreeing with him since when I disagree with him, he gets all prickly and I need him at ease. “You’re right, but sleep is important, too. How about we play for the first shift?”
One eyebrow rose as I saw his eyes light up at the thought of competition. He always wanted to compare our styles of work, but it’s an unfair comparison. I got to be taught by some of the best assassins in the world. He only had Onisea and his father to train with.
I stopped myself from giving him a devious smile like I wanted, keeping my face impassive. “How about we do something easy, something we both know how to do? Throwing knives.” I lifted one from my thigh holster and flipped it in the air and caught it.
I watched his Adam's apple bob as he gulped, his eyes watching the knife with hesitation before he squared his shoulders and tipped his head up. “What are the rules?”
Oh, so he really wants to embarrass himself. I guess today was going to be a lesson in humility. “It’s simple.” I looked around and pointed to a tree that was twelve feet away, just enough to be challenging for him. “All you need to do is hit the center of the tree from this distance.”
He looked at the distance, hesitated, then turned back to me. “And if we both hit the center?” I almost laughed at that. He doesn’t know that I saw his knife throwing game, watching him not hit the target he was desperately wanting to hit. Throwing knives was not his strong suit, but I played the game.
“Then you get to pick the tiebreaker.” I supplied, hoping he didn’t see the doubt in my eyes at that ever really happening.
He moved out of the trajectory of the tree. “Ladies first.” His rumble of a voice was still potent, making me remember the cave and how I wanted to do that again.
I positioned myself, taking the knife in my hand and holding it at the tip of the blade. I turned to him, not looking at the tree as I cocked my arm back and threw it, keeping my eyes on him. As soon as I heard the familiar thunk of the knife hitting the wood, I winked at him, his eyes growing wider by the second as he swiveled his head and saw what I already knew was there.
The knife embedded into the bark, dead center. His eyes held a sense of wonderment to them before he closed off his emotions and stomped over to my side. I moved over, giving him room as I handed him one of my throwing knives.
He looked at it, tiny in his hand, and he handed it back to me, plucking his long dagger that was just a few inches shorter than the size of my short swords. I cataloged the weapon he had chosen as he prepared his stance and did a few fake throws.
The weight of it probably felt better for him and his size, having a better handle on the weapon, which would help. In fact, it would be a good knife for him to use except for one thing: his handle. The handle has a large skull with a ruby at the end, weighing the end down. That will hurt the accuracy even if he could throw it hard enough to get the distance.
He threw it. A surprising thud happened as it collided with our target, but just like I thought, it was a few inches below mine.
Instead of his instant anger response I was used to when he felt like a failure, I heard him puff out a tired laugh as he looked at me. “I guess I’m going to need some lessons from you.” I was so shocked by that admission that I tripped over my own words.
“I… I mean sure, or, of course, I mean… I can help.” He gave me one of his rouge boyish smiles, making my cheeks heat up even more before he winked at me and turned to find a tree to sleep on. Well, well, well, how the tides changed with that one. Instead of him being embarrassed, like I counted on, I was the one that was embarrassed, for a whole different reason.
He settled down between Zayden and Rykon, making it easier to defend them all if I had to. He looked up, a flash of heat came into his eyes as he said, “I’ll be ready for my shift in a few hours.” I just nodded, not trusting my own damn voice since I made a fool of myself.
He closed his eyes and after a few minutes, I could see the rise and fall of his chest as he was sleeping. I was definitely not going to wake him up for some kind of shift. He needed his rest for what was to come. They all did.
I was just finishing up another update on the two way parchment to Vance, they all started to stir. Zayden was, of course, the loudest as he groaned. “Ooohhh. I think I slept on the damn ground wrong. My back hurts.” He felt around him and found a rock and threw it, “That’s the fucking culprit, you back mangler!”
The rock ended up hitting Ajax in the face, who shot up, reaching for his dagger in his holster and forgetting the last time he saw it, it was embedded in the tree. Once he fell asleep, I pulled it out and sharpened it again.
“Where is it?!” He yelled, which woke up Rykon who scrambled to his feet, looking side to side. It was actually kinda comical.
I could see Ajax was a few seconds away from bellowing out my name, so I dropped out of the tree I was watching them from and waltzed over to him with his newly sharpened dagger in my hand.
“Here is your dagger.” I handed it out, hilt first. When he continued to glare accusingly at me, I followed with, “You really needed the sleep since you forgot it was in the tree before you went to bed.”
“I thought I told you to wake me up for my shift. You’re so worried about our sleep, but what about yours?” His response was laced in anger and frustration that I didn't understand.
I lifted an eyebrow at his tone but I let it go, wanting to get a start on the day. “I’ve been trained to live on less sleep. I’m fine.” He jumped up. Apparently, he was upset again.Surprise Surprise.
“I’m starting to get tired of you always saying you’ve been ‘trained’ for all these things. It seems like this might be an excuse to just do what you want.” He folded his arms and his mocking tone came out. “I don’t know of anyone that good.”
