Humanity at Stake (Completed)

Chapter 6

"We are the warriors
That built this town
From dust." -"Warriors" by Imagine Dragons

~~~~~~~

Nova made her way down from the showers towards the cafeteria, a fresh, crisp white bandage on her neck. She hummed an unknown tune as she navigated through the nearly empty halls towards the growing chatter.

She entered in through a double door, grabbing a plate and slopping some meat and vegetables onto her plate. She grabbed a small bread bun before heading towards the group of trainees she had sat with since the beginning. She sat down, and her friend Serena gestured towards her with an erratic hand.

"And there the crazy girl is! Where did you take off to so fast?" she exclaimed, gaining the attention of the other two girls. Nova smiled sheepishly as she dug into her vegetables.

"I just figured I should probably get a ride in before getting cleaned up. You know how dirty you can get." Serena rolled her eyes at Nova's explanation.

"Yeah, sure," she said doubtingly. "What happened to your neck?" Nova let out a noise of irritation as she thought back to the event, and she swallowed her food down in the process.

"A bee stung my horse on the neck. It reared up, throwing me off its back. When I fell, a piece of debris from a fallen building sliced into my skin. There's a deep gash there, but the nurse said it didn't need stitches," Nova explained. "I'm okay though," she added in at seeing the trainees' horrified faces.

"You better be! If you had moved your head at all you could have been impaled or something!" Another girl sitting with them, Justine, cried out.

"I guess I'm just lucky," Nova spoke with a teasing smile. Serena chuckled, sending Nova a knowing nod.

"You wouldn't believe the luck she has, Justine! Griffin barely gripes on her when we do running, even though she was the slowest by a long shot for so long! Now she brings up the rear! And she still doesn't get yelled at!" Serena told Justine, giggling to herself. Nova grinned slightly, knowing she didn't know anything about her history. She knew that was why Griffin was going easy on her.

"Well, maybe if you didn't run so slowly, you wouldn't have Griffin up your ass all the time. I've made excellent progress since I came here!" Nova teased, jokingly boasting herself.

"Oh, har har," Serena said sarcastically. Nova laughed before biting into her bread.

~~~

A little bit to the right... She murmured to herself internally, nudging the front of her bow to the right of the target a bit. She released the arrow, receiving a solid thump in the bull's eye. Nova breathed out heavily, grinning largely. She grabbed for another arrow on the ground, knocking it before drawing the bow, focusing back onto the spot where Nova had shot the last arrow from.

"Your form is flawless," an impressed tone scared Nova, causing her to shriek and releasing the arrow. The arrow flew past the target, flying into the woods behind it. She sent a mean look towards her instructor Levi, who grinned at her innocently. Levi was a soldier who, at twenty-two, surpassed the previous teachers in archery. The Colonel made Levi the new instructor, and he had been teaching for a year now he said.

"You scared me! What are you doing out here?" Nova complained loudly. Levi chuckled slightly.

"I should be the one asking you that. I came out here because I saw some lights lit out here." Nova strained her eyes past the man, seeing that the town clock read close to eleven at night. She looked back at him and noticed he carried a bow in his right hand.

"I like coming out here at night to get some practice in. It's a time where I can clear my mind and just shoot," she explained. Levi hummed in response. He picked up an arrow, drawing the bow back before releasing it. The arrow landed right in the middle of the target. Nova sent him a confused look.

"What are you doing?" she asked him. He grinned looking up at her as he picked up another arrow.

"I'm keeping you company," he explained, releasing another arrow. It split the first one in half, landing square in the center again. Nova let out a soft breath of awe as she took in the arrows.

"I want to be able to do that someday," she spoke wistfully. "Now I'm going to feel lame with my archery skills when you're doing that next to me!" she whined. Levi laughed at he sent another arrow through the first two.

"It's all about being relaxed. And positioning of course. Here." He set his bow down, standing behind Nova. She stiffened. "Pull the bow like you normally would. Also, relax." She followed his instructions. She drew the bow back, lining things up before pausing, waiting for his instruction.

"All right, this looks good, but it's going to be a little too far down. Move the tip of your arrow up a bit. Perfect. Now release." Nova complied, landing an arrow right in the middle, splitting the last one. She made a mental note of where she had the arrow tip at.

"Now try to mimic what you just did," Levi instructed. Nova did so, drawing her bow back and resting the arrow tip where she had it last. "No, no. Move it to the right a hair. There." She released the arrow, and it whizzed quickly through the air, piercing right through the middle of the last two.

"How did you know that I was off a bit?" Nova asked him in shock.

"It's all about paying close attention to where you're focusing your arrow tip. It gets easier the more you practice. I have full belief in you that you'll be able to stack many arrows on top of each other one day." A blush tinged her cheeks, and she let an embarrassed smile show.

"Thanks, Levi."