Saving Bucky (Bucky Barnes x Reader)

Chapter 101 - The Path to Healing

The Wakandan sun warms the back of your neck. Tall reeds and prickly bulrushes tickle your arms as you crouch, hidden behind their white cotton blooms. As you wait, the air thick and sweet, two little butterflies seem not to notice you as they tumble past - their green and purple wings somersaulting around one another.

"Do you see it?" Okoye hums from behind - low and quiet. 

Sugared winds whisper through the wild grasses, stirring them just enough to make it difficult to hear Okoye, and ever harder to spot whatever it is that she sees. You shift, trying to peer through the brush. But each time you move so does the wind, causing the reeds to sway.

"Go still," Okoye breathes. "Wait for an opening in the wind. It will die. But be ready - the wind will not wait for you twice."

From your back you draw an arrow, nocking it tight with a pleasant *snap*. As you do, the wind's breath on your cheek begins to wane. You raise your bow, anchoring your hand at the corner of your mouth. 

"Relax," Okoye instructs, resting her hand on your elbow. "You are too tense."

You go still as death as the wind dies and the grasses settle. When they do, through their stalks, you finally see what Okoye had spotted a half-mile back. A single antelope. Cut off from its pack. One of its squiggly horns broken in half, and limping on a bad foot. 

"You must hit the lungs or the heart," Okoye says. "Anything else will merely wound it. Aim for the-."

"Shoulder," you whisper, staring down your arrow. "I know."

You breathe in deeply through your nose, then let out half your breath and let go. The arrow flies, but with its *twang* Okoye stands and launches her spear. The antelope screams as the spear pierces its shoulder, and it falls to the ground - quiet. 

"Why'd you do that?" you frown, pushing up to stand through the burning in your thighs. "I had it!"

Okoye chuckles and marches past, traipsing her way through the valley toward the game. "You were close," she calls out, bracing the animal with her foot as she yanks out her spear. "Much closer than your attempts with a spear. Come. See for yourself."

Grumbling beneath your breath, you follow Okoye's finger to find your arrow lodged in the animal's side - too far below the shoulder. 

"You pierced the stomach," Okoye says. "It would have suffered a slow and painful death."

"Yeah," you frown. "But I still got it. Should have let me have it. I could have shot it again."

Okoye plunges her spear in the ground to clean the tip of blood. "Killing is not sport," she grunts. "It is to be done respectfully, or not at all."

"What's disrespectful about finishing the job I started?" you pout. "Besides, you know I'm not exactly new at the whole killing thing, right?" 

Okoye clicks her tongue in disapproval. "The life you lived before has no bearing on what you choose to do now," she shoots back. "And here, we treat all living things with respect. We only take life if we need to. And we only take one shot - or we do not shoot at all. Fail to abide by these rules, and I will no longer train you."

You huff, sweat-soaked and tired. "And what great big need did we have today, then? Why did you make me come out here for this? I thought we were already supposed to be at the other village?"

Okoye frowns at you.

"I'm serious!" you gripe. "You say we kill out of necessity. Fine. Then what need did we have to spend two days out here to track and kill this thing?" you say, using your foot to shove the antelope's dead body.