Hunt

Chapter 55: Fundamentals

I make sure to pick Reyna up early. The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon as I make my way up the stoop. Knocking on the front door like I had many times in the past.

The door clicks open as I'm greeted by a young man who I recognize from the peace meeting, one who decided to not join the others in training. Reyna's other younger brother James.

"Oh. It's only you." He says grumpily.

"G'Mornin James. Is Rey—"

"She's getting ready." He says, cutting me off.

We remain in an awkward silent stalemate for what felt like an eternity. Awkwardly shifting my weight side to side as I stand on their front porch. We don't exchange another word until Reyna arrives, shoving him back inside. Shutting the door behind her.

"Hey! Sorry about that," She apologies. "Hopefully James didn't give you a rough time, he's not much of a morning person."

"Or maybe he's just not my biggest fan," I say with a halfhearted laugh. "It's fine. We should get going, we're burning daylight."

Leading Reyna back to the car I open the door for her. A catch the beginning of a blush and a smile form across her face sits. Trying to look cool and impress her I slide across the hood back to the driver side action movie style, trying to save a couple seconds. I only get about halfway before I get stuck, having to take the walk of shame the rest of the way, wasting time and not looking cool. Reyna's giggle was audible from inside the car.

"Good effort!" She says with a laugh as I open the door.

Trying to hide my shame I quickly turn the key in the ignition. Where we were headed was a bit of a drive, which is why I decided to go this early. I just hadn't told Reyna yet.

"So where're we headed to?" She asks as we're pulling out of her neighborhood, almost on cue.

"There's a little place I know of down south. It's a little out of the way, but we should have the privacy to practice without any distractions." I reply, pressing further on the accelerator.

The drive would take around a half hour. It still gave us more than enough time to go over today's game plan. I had a simple lesson plan in mind for how I'd go about teaching Reyna the ropes. 

"Okay, I think we should just focus on the fundamentals for now. This is just basic safety training after all." I say, turning the radio down. "Have you ever held a gun before?"

Reyna shakes her head from the passenger seat. "Nope, never. My only experience is having them pointed at me."

"O-oh... Right... I see." I mumble before biting my tongue, remembering that I had held her at gunpoint not all that long ago. Silence falls over us as I fail to find the right words to cut through the sudden awkward tension. I'm wracked with more guild the longer the silence lingers. Eventually I force myself to speak. A small voice escapes my lips. "I am really sorry Reyna."

"That was a different time, different circumstances. It's alright Kyle, trust me. I'm not mad at you." Reyna responds almost immediately. Her hand rests on top of mine on the gearshift, squeezing gently.

We pull off the paved road, turning down onto  a heavily rutted out dirt path. Just wide enough for my car as I struggle to keep the wheels from falling into the grooves left by years of erosion and smaller vehicle traffic.

After a few tense minutes and a lot of hushed cursing we break free of the dirt road and find ourselves entering into a large gravel clearing surrounded by dense, thick trees. Quickly shutting the car down I make a lap of the vehicle. Performing a quick inspection to make sure there wasn't any significant damage done that would come back to bite us later. Only once I'm content with the results do I begin unpacking.