The Blonde Bowstring: Steelgray's Story

9

"Luna Hudson-Bryant!" Nelson exclaimed. The two friends shared a long hug and Nicole watched.

So this was one of those 'big names' that 'The Warbuds' collabed with sometimes. Nicole scoffed and rolled her eyes. Once they landed the right way in their sockets, Nicole realized that Luna was looking right at her.

"It's not very nice to ignore one's calls, Nicole."

Nicole hadn't seen this girl in eight years and the first time she gets the opportunity to tell her off, her tongue is tied.

"Well, if one can't take a hint," Nicole bit out pleasantly.

"Oookay, I wonder what I missed," Tim said dramatically.

"I simply wanted to catch up," Luna said with a little laugh.

Nicole hated to fall back into her judgmental days even though she was doing a lot of that tonight. But she was so glad Luna never cut her bangs after graduation. They worked really well with her long and curly brown hair.

"Oh, was that all?" Nicole asked, deceiving Luna until she had her insult together.

"We ended things horribly. I didn't know it was going to be the last time I would ever speak to you. If I did, we wouldn't have talked about my brother."

"Yeah well-" Nicole hated how quickly Luna could talk. Those damn lungs. She couldn't insult her now. Everyone would have to remember how Luna answered Nicole's question and that was like thirty minutes ago!

Even Nelson's patience wore out waiting for Nicole to finish her sentence. Tim slowly looked away from his best friend. He blinked a few times before looking at Luna. "Luna, I haven't seen you since 2015, I believe. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your life."

<14>

The blonde's pale index finger raised and pointed to the sky."Wait," Nicole instructed. So the boys behind her did. She reached up behind her shoulders where her sheath was. The rustling in the bushes subsided, and Nicole's fingers found her arrow, quickly placed it, and let it fly.

"All that in two months, Steelgray?" Ronnie, one of Jameson's younger men asked.

Nicole shrugged and jogged away from him with a smile. Her hair was shoulder-length now, so she barely felt her blonde locks on her face as she ran. She spotted the feathered arrow and picked up the dead animal that was attached to it. She nodded at the smallest wild duck she'd ever seen. Her disappointment was immeasurable and her day was ruined.

"How did you hit something so small?" Ronnie asked, unaware of Nicole's downcast eyes.

"Because it was six feet away," she answered. Which was all she was limited to with her current self-training.

The hunting group stayed out another half hour before making their way back to camp.

"How'd it go?" Raymond asked walking up to his daughter. Nicole could see that he was coming from Jake Jameson's tent.

She held up her unimpressive duck and walked past him. The teenager took the sheath off her shoulders and threw it into her tent. From far away, someone noticed her lack of discipline.

"That's really good. Last week you could only bag leaves, but it was great salad," he attempted to cheer her up.

The girl's hair was dirty blonde now, which meant it was in dire need of another dye job. She scratched her forehead with a small smile. "Dad, I have to go." The letter was burning a hole in the tan jacket Jameson had lent her the first day here. She needed to read it again, to analyze it and pick out any troubling details.