A Place To Bloom

Gifts

Daren, that burly, hairy, bear-clan man who was now in charge of training us, handed me one of the native bows. He and the Tobori kid each had six—enough for every man in our unit.

I didn't take it. "I have a bow."

Daren barked, "you need to learn this one. Them important assholes was talkin' that we ought to leave the eupins here when we go out..."

Jame stepped up and soured his face. "I'm not leaving my bow with anyone!"

I pulled mine close to my chest and glared at the man. Malchuk, the Goloagi man with the scar down the center of his face, chuckled and refused one as well. "I don't know what them two said, but that's not a bow—it looks like a big dessicated turd."

Jame and I laughed. I shouldn't have allowed that; it was the same kind of bow Miyani used.

Oh, she was gorgeous! The Elder of Elders told me she needed to make sure Miyani understood a few things, and that she may choose not to pursue a relationship with me because of it. And I had to be OK with that if she did.

My heart stabbed me from within at the thought, despite being now closer to talking with her than I'd been that morning.

Who was I kidding? I didn't know anything about her. What interested me was her sweet face and her sublime, muscular arse. Ahmi was right; how could I appreciate anything about who she was as a person when neither of us spoke the other's language? I probably should have deferred to common sense, but instead thinking about her made my dick hard.

Malchuk refused to take one of the native bows. Daren stood staring at the man holding it out for him, but instead Malchuk displayed the Imperial standard-issue longbow he'd brought with him. "I'm good."

Daren cleared his throat and answered in Goloagi, "today we learn the ways of the enemy."

Faren took his bow and studied it as if he'd never seen a weapon before. Ales tried pulling at the string a little, then winced at the pain of his wound. Rock took his and pulled the string back, peering at Northstar with one eye open as he took aim with an imaginary arrow, then snapped the string hard. Northstar ignored him, standing at attention and holding it at his side.

Malchuk sucked his teeth and continued to refuse, while Jame and I joined him.

Then Daren walked over to the Tobori kid and took the rest of the bows from him save one. The kid then drew back an arrow and placed it into a dummy dead-center without taking a second to aim.

I hadn't thought he had muscles enough to draw the thing.

Jame clapped his hands slowly and spoke with absolute boredom. "He hit a target scarcely twenty yards out. So impressive. So impressive. We should all celebrate. Yay."

Malchuk grinned and joined in slow applause. I clapped with the same lack of enthusiasm, "so amazing. Truly."

While Malchuk laughed, Jezi glanced between the three of us. "Can you with bow this you do?"

Jame sucked his teeth and grinned, then took one. He nocked an arrow and gave a nod to the Tobori kid. "What's your name again?"

"Jezi."

"Jezi?"

The kid nodded. Then Jame loosed. His arrow flew off to the right and twisted around to land in the grass beyond the dummy. Jezi smirked but Jame excused himself, "the balance is completely screwed!"

Then Jezi took the bow from him and drew another arrow, and again without bothering to aim, placed another arrow in the dummy close enough to the other that the shafts touched. "Seems fine to me."