Ashes of Vile

011

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bows & Bickers

Serenity runs through our veins hidden in the caves of our blood that shelters away from the marvels of mortal wilderness. But the odds of such a case to ever reveal itself in August's existence and a time loop of reincarnations assured the world it was to never happen. The dagger she harshly threw at the tree dug deep into the bark, right at the center of Chase's carved target. He nodded impressively, although not over the top since August had never missed a bullseye. But every time he got the chance to see August in action, it was never failed to amuse him even just the slightest. He had pushed the agenda onto Sung Mi, Zakeen, and Cassidy in practicing weaponry to defend themselves. They had fallen into the torment of Chase as they were the unfortunate ones to be in the same time and place he was.

"This is ridiculous, Chase. You're acting like you'll be sending us to war. This girl's sixteen for Vermithis— for Pete's sake," Sung Mi crossed her arms.

"Please, you act like she's a child," Chase retorted. "She is a child," Zakeen defended.

"She's only a few months younger than August. Plus, if she wants to get in, this is how she gets in. You want to get in, right?" Chase faced Cassidy, and as Cassidy felt cornered, she gave in to the pressure and nodded. "That's settled then isn't it, Vermithis worshiper?" He teased. Sung Mi frowned and forwarded towards August. She gave Sung Mi a judging look before handing her one of her less important daggers.

Sung Mi threw the dagger, attempting to follow August's effortless throw, but her odds were against her as she completely missed the tree. Zakeen chuckled and Cassidy tried her hardest to tuck away her laughter. Sung Mi glared at Zakeen, picked up the dagger on the ground, and threw it right in between his feet. He gasped and the roles switched as Sung Mi chuckled at his reaction.

They quickly snap back to reality when August threw another dagger straight into the previous dagger. With its blade being so rooted deeply in, it would've been deemed to be nearly impossible to pull out. But she had managed to take it down with a dagger from a distance, and that was enough to shut the two up. "We don't have all day," August hoisted the daggers back into her jacket. "We do actually," Cassidy muttered but August noticed her snarky comment and was about to counterattack her, most likely physically, but was stopped by Chase.

"Daggers clearly aren't for everyone," He brought out a simple and grand white birch bow. "Didn't think we had enough running away time to bring a bow with us," Zakeen commented.

Chase answers his indirect question— the bow was special and not crafted by just any normal person. It had been a personally handcrafted bow for the Ashdown family, and Devin had given him permission to make use of it considering no one in his family has touched a bow for the past hundred years. He placed the bow on Sung Mi's hands as she positioned back to the front of the tree, but more backed away from her old position. She somewhat struggled in readying herself and positioning her bow but she got the hang of it before anyone could teach her. Chase handed her an arrow and she drew it back, the strain of the bowstring clashing with the fine material. She let go with as much power but her precision and force were miscalculated as it only brushed the side of the tree. A failed attempt, but Sung Mi had a wide grin. "It touched the tree!"

Everyone looked at her strangely and she rolled her eyes. "That's something. It touched the tree. Not the whole tree but that's good. If you're so good, why don't you try it?" She handed the bow to Zakeen. He takes her place and draws the bow with less trouble than Sung Mi, but as he let go of the arrow he falls back, losing his balance, but he avoided the embarrassment of falling. He looked up to see his arrow on the ground, but unlike Sung Mi, his arrow was right in front of him. Sung Mi starts laughing hysterically and Zakeen rises, his cheeks lightly rose from humiliation. Chase pats his back sympathetically, finding a bit of amusement in his misfortune.