Where Loyalties Lie (boyxboy)

Chapter Five

Aldrian was still smiling as he left his house after eating dinner. He still had about two hours before the sun would set and he wanted to spend it shooting in his woods. Josh had given him one of his bows to borrow for the weekend and even gave him a shoulder quiver that had twelve arrows in it.

He made his way into the woods and stopped when he got to the clearing. Aldrian turned around facing the forest and just stared at the beautiful expanse of greenery around him. "Now, what can I shoot at?" he wondered aloud. He didn't really like the idea of shooting at trees, he didn't want to hurt them. And forget about shooting animals.

He scanned the area until he found a stump. Now that, he could shoot. Aldrian let loose a couple rounds trying to make his groupings as close knit as possible. But after shooting at the stump for a while he wanted something a little more challenging. He collected his arrows and looked around for something else to shoot.

And then he saw something. A leaf falling from a tree near the opening of the clearing. A moving target. That would definitely be more challenging.

He quickly knocked his arrow aimed and let his string go. Aldrian watched as his arrow soared through the air. And went straight through the leaf taking it with it to wherever it landed in the clearing.

"No freaking way, that was amazing!" He whooped excitedly looking around for another leaf to fall. There was one off in the distance. Again he shot.

Again he hit it.

And it landed in the clearing.

There was a surprised horse whinny.

And he heard a man speak, "Whoa, Aspen," to the horse, then louder, "Whoever is shooting, show yourself and you will not be harmed." Sounded like Arroe to him so Aldrian let out a little irritated huff of air and made his way out of the forest, bow hanging at his side.

When he saw the man perched regally upon his horse Aldrian called out a greeting of sorts, "Jeez, you're such a buzz kill."

"Aldrian?"

"Yeah, who else would it be out here?"

"Someone else," Arroe answered cryptically. He watched the youngling inspect the two arrows he had shot into the clearing. Aldrian picked an arrow up and pulled a leaf off the end then put it back in his quiver. He picked up the second one and repeated the process.

Arroe couldn't believe this kid had been shooting at leaves. Shooting and actually hitting them. Most of his men were more proficient in the art of swordsmanship and even his great archers were only trained to hit the red and yellow sections of the target proficiently. How long had this kid been shooting to get so good? He decided he had to ask Aldrian just that. "How long have you been shooting?"

He watched as the boy's face warmed to a light shade of pink. "Umm... today?"

Arroe sighed, he supposed that response fell under the ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer rule. Why would he care how long Aldrian had been shooting today? "I'm sorry, I phrased the question badly. How many years have you been practicing archery?"

Aldrian gave him a strange look before answering, "Today is the first day I've ever used a bow and arrow."

Arroe's eyes grew wide. How could this kid just pick up a bow and shoot leaves out of midair? Just how good was this kid? Arroe decided to find out.

The other night during his chat with his mother she asked him to take a small break from his duties and focus on relaxing and getting some good quality meals. He begrudgingly agreed to lay low for the weekend.