A Place To Bloom

Roasted

The blazing sun speared us through the clouds. It was hot and muggy before, but now, we were being roasted. It didn't help that the practice yard was hemmed in by the high, outer walls of the city on one side with the barracks and administrative buildings on the other. We got no breeze of any kind. There wasn't even a tree to stand beneath.

Bilal's scalp glistened beneath stubble, and when he rubbed his head, droplets of sweat flew everywhere. Renou's curly hair looked like he'd just bathed, though he didn't smell that way. Even Ta'o's dark-green skin shimmered in direct sunlight, and he grew up here. "It'll get hotter once dry season sets in, don't worry."

I wasn't worried, really.

Bilal took one of the dark-brown short bows and fired an arrow across the practice yard. It flew too low and burrowed into the grass several yards short of the burlap man-on-a-stick. He sneered and stuck his tongue out at the thing.

Renou scored a headshot and needled him. "I thought you said you were in the Imperial army?"

Without looking up, Bilal nocked another arrow and drew. "Been in that prison cell long enough. I'll get it back." He lifted his chin towards Ta'o. "I'm more worried about this fool!"

Rather than pull the string, Ta'o gripped the arrow shaft behind the fletchings and tried to pull from there.

"Um..." I tilted my head to the side. "Why... are you pulling like that? Haven't you shot a bow before?"

"Hehehe!" Ta'o blushed through a big smile.

Bilal shook his head and laughed, then sent another arrow two feet left of the target that clacked against the stone wall behind it.

Renou's second head-shot popped into the dummy.

Ta'o studied his fingers and tried to copy him, but when he started to draw, the arrow pulled away from the rest. He pressed his lips together and shifted his eyes around in embarrassment.

I wasn't worried. I rested my hand on his shoulder and faced Bilal. "He can learn to shoot, but trust me, this man can wrestle a vita'o to the ground bare-handed."

Ta'o's eyes went wide. "Uh..."

Bilal struggled to contain a giggle. "What was that?"

"I was there," Renou added. "We both saw it."

We'd all watched him. Fluffy, the brown four-hundred-pound throat-ripping lizard with white spots, snapped her jagged teeth towards him. He caught the side of her jaw, trapped her neck in the crook of his arm and twisted around, pinning her talons beneath him until she chirped for mercy.

Bilal smirked at me. His eyes nearly watered from contained laughter. "You don't say?"

Renou and I glanced at one another. It was Renou who spoke. "What do you mean?"

Ta'o furled his shoulders together and stepped back as if to brace for our replies. "It was an act."

I snapped towards him. "WHAT?"

Bilal erupted in laughter. "You thought that shit was real?"

My jaw dropped. Renou and I both turned to Ta'o, who lowered his gaze. "It was an act. Fluffy and I spent months perfecting it; we made so much damned money, bro!"

I couldn't wrap my head around it. I turned back to Bilal. "And you knew?"

The man couldn't stop laughing. "I knew where to put my money the second time I saw those two in the ring together!"

Renou's eyes gaped. I needed a moment, so I gave him an assignment. I faced the smallest man on our team and took his shoulders in my hands. "You learn best what you teach."