Bow and Arrow

Atasha’s Point of View

“The weather is fine, and I didn’t smell any rain or storms coming today. I hope you will have a good day working out with your mate, Atasha,” Devon said those words while I was preparing the things I would bring for our trek today.

I looked at Devon and saw her eyes radiating with joy as she watched me. She seemed very excited for me.

“Thanks, Devon. You can come with us if you want. I assure you that it will be fun!” I told her, excitement was evident in my tone of voice.

“I would love to.” But then she shook her head. “However, I am afraid I need to do something very important today. But I hope your workout will turn out well. I know you waited enough to go through your training.”

“Thank you for all your help, Devon. I promise to return the favor when I get stronger and capable enough.”

I carried up a cookie jar that was handed to me by Devon. She explained that it was a special type of cookie that may provide additional stamina. I also brought up some water and spare clothes for both Elijah and myself.

As we had planned, we would start doing a minor workout for today. I was too excited as this would be the first step of me learning how to control my enhanced abilities. I was looking forward to being able to control those, especially my hearing ability which slightly became a nuisance as I could hear even the smallest chirp of crickets in a silent night.

We trekked for an hour. Elijah instructed me to concentrate with the surroundings in order to become comfortable with the wilderness. Hunting wild creatures, identifying each fragrance in the environment, and identifying the sound waves of each living organism on the ground were all part of the training.

It was already late afternoon, and Elijah had directed me to perform some squats in order to train my lower body. He was the one who demonstrated how to do it, and I was right there with him watching the entire time. The body squats were something I did myself, and I was able to complete twenty repetitions.

The next day, we went near the Sacred falls, not to take a dip but to continue with my minor workout. I needed to squat with a hefty branch from the tree, which would take a while. It was really difficult, and I was only able to do five repetitions of what should have been fifteen on the second day of training with Elijah. However, after three days of training with him, I was able to gradually increase my ability and make progress. Aside from squats, he kept things more interesting by sprinting, doing push-ups, and doing high jumps.

Day four brought me to the point where I could perform back squats while carrying a tree that rested on my rear shoulders.

"Come on, Atasha. keep your chest up!" Elijah let out a yell as he clapped his hands to cheer me. I had to admit that he was so strict while teaching me. I thought that he would go easy on me since we were mates but that was not the case, which I found too helpful to me.

To finish my sets, I took a deep breath and pushed through. There was no place for me to protest because this was exactly what I committed to. I showed Elijah how determined I was by refusing to stutter or say a single word and giving everything I had in every drill we did together.

My training had already begun on day five, and I had already learned how to climb trees, pick up some wild berries, and hunt for wild birds with my trusty bow and arrow. Earlier on that day, Elijah instructed me on how to construct a bow and arrow which were the wooded sticks found in the wilderness. I used his knife to carve the bow, added the bowstring made of thin nylon rope, and selected the sticks that would serve as an arrow with precision. Elijah showed me how to make fire from the materials found in the wild and how to utilize it to mold my arrows. With this knowledge Elijah had taught me, I would be able to make my own weapons.

When I had finished building my bow, I was given instructions on how to shoot it. He designed a target practice specifically for me. A stack of stones that was set a long distance away from me and that I needed to shoot breaks. He then carved a target in the wooden tree so that I could practice shooting. When I didn't have the proper shooting position as I started shooting my arrows, his hands instantly came to my torso to help me up.

“Straighten this up,” he said as he gave me a stern look.

When his hands approached my crotch, I froze in place.

"Oh!" I exclaimed excitedly.

He noticed my reaction and so he chuckled and kissed me on the bottom of my cheek.

"Don't take this too seriously. Please remember to have fun," he said in hushed tones.

I nodded, took a deep breath and resumed what I was doing. I supposed I was upset since I could not hit any of the targets no matter how I tried to concentrate. Because of this, I tried to relax a bit and then followed Elijah's instructions. He walked behind me and held my hips, then my torso, and shoulders in the proper place for me to perform.

I sucked in my breath and swallowed very hard. Elijah positioned himself behind me. His mouth was near to my neck and I felt his cool mint breath brushing against my skin. Our position had a tendency for me to be so distracted from shooting my targets. I could feel his groin striking the back of my thigh, which sent my fantasy into overdrive.

He gave me some pointers but his words became incomprehensible because of our position. I could not pay attention at the time. I was simply maintaining the position that he had asked me to hold. He then whispered right in my ear, "Go shoot it!"

I regained my composure and pulled the trigger on my bow. I made some progress despite the fact that I got distracted because Elijah’s body was so close to mine, and it finally reached its target. I let out a squeal of delight.

I turned around to face Elijah, threw myself to him to give him a warm embrace and at that point, we shared one passionate kiss. I didn’t know why but every time that I was so delighted, I felt more emotionally attached to him that I wanted to kiss him so tenderly.

Right after our training, we decided to head back to the wooden cabin but unfortunately, the rain poured heavily. We didn’t have a choice but to locate a spot where we could stay for a bit and wait for the rain to stop. We found a little cave and went inside of it so we could stay there for the time being.

Elijah collected some woods and attempted to make a bonfire while we were inside the cave.

“Let me do it, El,” I said to him as I intervened, then gave him a smile.

His brows furrowed but then he nodded afterwards. “Are you sure you can manage?”

“We will never know unless you allow me to try.”

“Alright.” He chuckled and moved aside so I could make a fire using the woods.

I held both of the woods and rubbed them against each other. I did it fast and after a minute, smoke was already coming out. I continued what I was doing until the fire appeared between the woods. My eyes widened, as I couldn’t believe that I was able to do it without breaking a single sweat.

"Did you see it?" I glanced at Elijah. He looked at me with a smile carved on his lips.

“I did and I am extremely proud of you, mate . . .” he said.

We remained seated in front of the bonfire to warm ourselves, talked about a lot of things and kissed. Minutes passed and Elijah rose from where he was seated. I watched him walk towards a certain wall of the cave.

“Look at this.” His hand traced the cave wall. “It seems that someone has been staying here for several days.

I looked over it carefully and saw that it was tally markings and counting, which gave us thirty days.

“Someone came here? I thought Devon was the only person in this wild?" I muttered to myself and glanced at Elijah.

Was Devon aware of this? I had the urge to return to the wooden cabin so I could ask her directly; however, the rain was still pouring down and became increasingly violent. There were some thunderbolts from a distance that even caused the trees to fall to the ground.

“We can’t trek back in this kind of weather. It’s dangerous,” Elijah commented, hands inside the pockets of his pants as he gazed up to the sky.

I nodded and sighed in defeat. I guess we had no other choice but to stay here for the night.

“We can stay here. I think this area is safe,” I replied.

I embraced myself and looked at the fire. I couldn’t help but recall our training earlier. I was happy that I made progress regarding using the bow and arrow. I was able to hit a target and it gave me a satisfying feeling. Somehow, it gave me a sign that I could accomplish anything so long as I put my mind into it.

Looking back when I was a child nothing was new in my life, not until I met Elijah. I took a deep breath as I remembered everything that was transpired. My mind wandered, couldn’t help but think about what happened in Silver Moon and Crimson Moon territories. Was there even a living werewolf left in the Silver moon land? I bet none . . .

Then I remembered the East Land. Some of my pack mates decided to live there. Each of them had seen me for the very first time and acknowledged me as Atasha Greene, the daughter of another hero of the Silver Moon pack, Julian Greene, who battled against the Crimson Moon Pack until his death. However, none of them had recognized me for being me. My name was tied up with such honor because of my father. Hero’s daughter . . . They seemed to say those phrases a lot whenever they saw me but nothing seemed to be special about it. For some reason, I didn’t find it special at all.

The version of their story about my father was different from mine. That night when he felt that I was cursed by the Moon Goddess, he threw me in the attic and hid me from the people. I hoped my father was still alive for me to tell him that I was not cursed by the Moon Goddess herself, but cursed by a witch.

My father holding my hand when I was a child and sleeping in a room that Astrid and I shared was etched in my mind before. It was a constant reminder that somehow, he used to love me. But as each day passed, I no longer had an emotion left that I could feel for my father, for Astrid, and for my mother. When I bathed in those sacred falls for a long time, a part of me was buried six feet underground. It was as if all of the bitter tastes of medicine that I had been taking and enduring for a long time had finally vanished.

It was my old, innocent self that told me that all my life I was destined to be cursed and had no choice but to protect my family. But that wasn't the case right now, and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd become selfish to the point where I was no longer thinking about them.

Was love really that selfish? I shook my head and decided to get rid of those thoughts in my head. Elijah sat beside me, leaned his head onto my shoulder and closed his eyes.