The Archer

Nowadays...

POV RUE

-Rue! Hurry up! I need to do my own laundry too! - Claudia was screaming at me again. 

- One moment, please! -I said to her. 

- The moment is over! I've been waiting for an hour now! Move! - she took my clothes out and put them in the basin. I grabbed it and went back home. I left the basin next to my bed, sat on the floor and cried. 

My parents died in a war when I was three, Asteria, who was my mom's best friend and the woman who took care for me like I was her own child passed away seven years ago and now I'm on my own. Few months before Asteria died, she started teaching me how to shoot with a bowl and arrow. Right before she passed, she told me not to stop training. These were her last words to me and I did what she asked me to. I trained every day. I started hunting, so I have something to eat. I taught myself how to fight with a sword, how to shoot and not miss the target, how to grow melons, potatoes and others and most importantly - how to survive by myself. 

Today was the first day I managed to go to the room where Asteria used to sleep and search it up. I never knew what I could find there. And I definitely didn't expect to find what I found. I found two diaries, a few letters and a photo with two names on the back of it. My parents' names. Leila and Dian. 

- Wow - I said quietly. I was really amazed by the way they looked. And how much I looked like both of them. My mother looked like a strong woman. By her look in the photo, I could tell how happy she was with my dad. She looked so lovely, loving and as Asteria always used to say, my mother, Leila, was the most beautiful woman in this world. My father was a very handsome too. But his look was somehow different than my mom's. He still looked happy with my mom but his look in the photo was also worried. Maybe about the future. 

- I wish you were here, mom and dad - I whispered and ran my fingers through the photo. I closed my eyes and a little tear fell down my cheek. I really miss them and I really wish I had more time with them. I folded the photo and put in one of the pockets of my cloth.

As I previously said, there were also two diaries. I wonder who they belonged to. I opened the first one and the first thing I glanced, was a very lovely handwriting. At the bottom of the page there was a name. My father's. This diary belonged to him. It was his when he was my age. 

             "Dear Diary

               It was my seventeenth birthday today and it was a bit different than any other day. A girl, very special to me made my birthday so much better. Leila. Every evening, I go to the fountain in the center of the we live in, hoping she'd come. And she does. Most of the time. We gaze at the stars and talk and it's really nice. I love her more than she can ever know and I want her to be mine. But she's not. And she will probably never be mine because she is with Sander. Lucky him. But today, something happened that I want more of. As every other evening, I went to the fountain with a hope. She came. We talked. I couldn't help myself but think about kissing her and starring at her lips. And suddenly, my lips touched hers. The best feeling of my life. I love her and doesn't matter if someday, she's mine or not, I'll never be able to love another girl as much as I love her. 

          - Dian, July 31, 1321"