The Archer

Intro

What is the Archer? The archer is someone who has courage but is also caring, someone who is brave but understands and accepts fear, someone who has no earthly bounds.

This story is one of an unusual tale, the tale of Pepper Sprig. Who is Pepper you might ask? He is one of the most common boys you'll find around, there is nothing particularly special about him, except his future. He is an average 14 year old boy with normal 14 year old tendencies like picking fights, stealing from shops, and playing with his friends in the creek just outside of town. He comes from a rather large family with five siblings, I am not going to go off naming all of them but his fathers name is Spirit Sprig, and he is a strong man, he works countless days and always manages to pull through. See five years ago when Pepper's youngest sibling Alim was born his mother passed due to complications. It was a tragic time for the whole family and left his father in shambles, but being the man he was he pushed on past hoping for a better future for his children. See the town Pepper was from wasn't doing so great, the country had been going through a forced drought for years, the people from the upper city required the water to feed their children and more.  Pepper always despised this unjust system they have to live in, He has dreams of when the archer will return. Him and his friends often listened to the stories of the old lady by the old oak tree, she often told tales from her youth of a marvelous human who would defend the people no matter what it cost them. The children from this town have grown up on stories from the old lady but the favorite of all was The Archer. It willed some hope into this gloomy town, and hope is what made the farmers farm and the bakers bake, it was the lifeline there.

We find Pepper and his friends Amiya and Solomon wandering their ways down the streets trying their hardest to think of anything to do, Amiya whispers into Peppers ear " Hey, I have an Idea" she giggles and Peppers nudges her to spill her thoughts , she grabs onto his arm and says " What if we go stargazing!". Pepper shrugs her off and thinks about it for a second before nodding his head yes. Amiya Eagerly starts jogging away from the group yelling behind her "See ya later alligator" but before either of the boys could respond she was long gone.

After Peppers father was asleep he snuck out and met Amiya under the apple tree just between their houses. She came skipping down the path with a blanket over her shoulders, the two peacefully gazed looking through what shapes they could find in the stars. Just as the two were getting comfortable they heard people yelling, they got up and walked to town square to see what all the commotion was. There were guards from the city, they were looking for someone. They pointed to Pepper and Amiya, the two slowly walked towards them and they instructed them to get on the horses. At this point Solomon had noticed it was his friends up their and started calling to them just as he was getting closer he felt a hand on his shoulder, " Are you an acquaintance of this kid?" Solomon shook yes and the guard pulled him towards his friends. The three were taken to town hall were the city guards and the towns council sat, the head stood up and said to Pepper, " You are the hope we so long for, you are ... The Archer". The three kids start bursting out in laughter but soon realized they were the only ones laughing and that they were being serious. "Pepper Sprig you are the next Archer, do us proud. You and your friends will have one day to gather your belongings and say goodbye before you leave for the city..."