Hunter of Midnight

Ch.11 Natural

By the time the spring comes, Darius and I have moved on to hand-to-hand sparring. The lessons don't get any easier to handle. While doing the muscle building and breathing exercises might've made me feel like my body was getting bruised, I know it's getting bruised after each time I spar with Darius. The issue isn't my speed; the few times I've actually hit Darius in a match is because I'm faster than he is. The problem is Darius' strength.

"It doesn't seem natural to me," I tell him, knowing full well the bias behind it. Though, given the fact that I've lost track of the amount of times Darius has knocked me down in the span of an hour, I'd think I had the right to be.

"Wait until you're older," Darius laughs, giving me a wink as he wipes the sweat off of his nape. "You'll be able to be as strong as me someday."

I give Darius a sort of awkward smile, because deep down all I want to do is scream in frustration. As far as I've seen, Darius is only a year or two older than me, if not my same age. Training has been keeping me out of my room, and has made me more aware. Not to say it won't be helpful, but it's annoying to notice so many little things. While I haven't spoken to Captain Alard since my trial, if that even counts, I've been noticing her coming around more. She's started to watch Darius and I while we spar, taking moments to correct him.

The most common phrase being, "We can't afford to make these stupid mistakes when the day comes."

Each time it has me wondering, what day? Is all this training in preparation for something... more? I don't even know why I should be concerned in the first place. I'm just some scrawny huntsman that fell down some weird well and ended up running across the wrong person's yard. It makes me worry why they're still keeping me around.

"Look," Darius sighs, crouching down in front of me. He looks into my eyes, a gentle smile on his face. "This is frustrating, I know, but despite what you may be thinking, you're a hell of a lot stronger than you were when we started. Your endurance has improved as well."

I'd kinda hoped that would be the case. After all this time, I'd had to've accomplished something, right? Even still, the weight stays in my chest, and I can't help but feel disappointed as I look back to Darius. "Then why do I still feel so... useless?"

Darius purses his lips for a moment, tail swishing as he thinks. After a moment, his smile returns, and he looks back to me. He grabs my arm, going to pull me up with him. "It's cause we're out of your comfort zone." Once I'm standing, Darius backs away and goes over to a chest across the way. "I know exactly what will get your motivation back. Trust me on this!"

Though I nod my head, somehow I don't feel that my trust in Darius is the issue. I look down at my leathers and find them covered in dirt. You can hardly tell that they're black anymore. Seeing Darius with his leathers still all perfect and clean, it makes the useless feeling worse. I don't know what any of them are expecting out of me, what they're trying to get me to be. All I know is that I can't be it.

Darius whistles for me, and I feel my heart skip a beat. In his hands, he holds the bow and quiver that Pete had given me. Darius gives them both to me, and I don't wait for him to finish speaking before I put the quiver on my hip. "Took me a hell of a time to get Audrey to give em back. Thankfully, Simone had found a spare key, and Queen Niara had approved my idea, anyhow." Darius shrugs as if he's done nothing, grinning at me. "I'm good with a sword, you're good with a bow. Maybe we can both get better at this sorta thing."

It feels so... so right, to finally have my bow back in my hands. It's just as beautiful as I remember it being, that familiar hum I initially felt coming back. It's almost as if the bow was welcoming me back, telling me that it missed me. Even though it sounds crazy, even though I sound crazy, it's just the feeling that it gives me. Then Darius asking for my help with it?