TW: impalement (nondescript), mentions of character death
My eyes narrowed, staring down the shaft of the arrow. My fingers unfurled. The projectile hurtled through the air.
I huffed as the arrowhead embedded on the rim of the target, which was attached to a person-shaped wooden frame and was being jolted around by some mechanism that Nya and Jay had concocted. I reached for another arrow and prepared my next shot, regripping my clammy hand around the polished wood of the pretty bow I had claimed as now mine.
"- and I dunno," I heard Naomi's voice chime from where my phone was on the ground of the training yard, on speaker. I tuned back into the conversation and sucked in a breath. "I love my family but I'm definitely getting claustrophobic. My grandparent's home just isn't big enough for all of us."
I let my breath release and with it, the arrow went sailing.
"You've been gone for two months, right?" Chen asked.
"Yep."
"That's a pretty long time to be cooped up without your own room," he mentioned. "When are you leaving for college?"
I exhaled heavily through my nose as I watched the arrow pierce on the lip of the bullseye. It was good, but I needed to be perfect. Only being 'good' could get me killed. I readied the next shot.
"What do you think, Y/n?" Naomi's question cut through my concentration and I dropped my arms with a sigh. "Y/n?"
"Yes, sorry, I'm here," I answered. I released my grip on my bow and grimaced at the creak of my fingers when I straightened them. "I'm just training."
"Training?" Chen's static-peppered voice asked curiously. "Training in what?"
"Archery," I replied as I raised my arms and stared down the arrow once again. Release. Thud. Almost.
"Why are you practising archery?" Naomi asked, perplexed.
"'Cause 'ninja don't use guns,'" I mocked.
"Who are you quoting?" Chen asked.
"Dunno," I answered with a shrug as I hooked the next arrow into the string. "One of them. What was the question?"
"I was asking if you think I should do honours," Naomi said. I pursed my lips and hummed in thought. The arrow hit the middle of the bullseye.
"If you feel that it would be beneficial to you and you enjoy studying, then sure, why not?" I answered. I would rather not do honours, I decided, because I found that I despised living away to study.
That doesn't mean it wasn't a good opportunity to broaden my mind and gain a degree, because of course it was. I just felt homesick all the time, even with Chen and Ambrose there to remind me of the city.
Though, I still had no idea what I'd do after I got my degree. I'd be let out into the real world with expectations on finding a career, floundering in place, lost in the bustle of responsibility and maturity that I didn't think I had quite a grasp on yet.
My neck prickled as I picked up my next arrow and inserted the end into the string. Somebody was watching me, but I was too focused on getting these bloody bullseyes to turn and look.
The arrow embedded just outside the target. I let out a short huff in annoyance.
My eyes caught sight of the edge of Garmadon before he disappeared. My brows furrowed.
"Garmadon's been really quiet recently," I murmured as I placed the bow down and stare at the arrows in the target in disdain. "He seems distracted." I didn't like it when Garmadon got like this. It made my anxiety skyrocket.
"Maybe he's just jittery because Lloyd's home?" Chen mentioned.
"I don't know," I sighed. "It takes a lot to get that old man worried. I think it might have something to do with the prophecies. There's been a lot of foreboding comments recently."
"Really?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah," I said as I yanked out the arrows and checked the heads. "It's fucking creepy. Skales said something about 'utilising my perceptiveness' at the meeting today, too. I have no idea what he means, but it's scaring me. It feels as if something big's about to happen."
"Probably because it is," Ambrose called from Chen's phone, jumping in on the conversation. I paused.
"What do you know about the prophecy?"
"Jack shit," Ambrose promptly answered. "But I can sense all the fuckery that happens before a prophecy takes a dump on your lawn."
