The Realm of the Sun

Strength and Eye and Heart

             At mid-day, when Tara reached the new training ground, there seemed to be more soldiers than she had briefly traveled with. She was more than relieved to have found them after her feet ached from miles of walking. Rows of sheepskin targets were lined up in the distance and three soldiers fired their bows into each one. Beyond them, she could see small tents and piles of wood for fire. Tara drew stares, curious and rude, and bumped into several burly young men, apologizing each time. Wandering around the crowded base made her aware of what little space she did occupy.

          "Excuse me," was her clumsy offering as she nearly tripped over a bundle of rope.

          "What are you doing here?" Cú Chulainn appeared before her, perplexed as sweat beaded on his forehead. Her expression changed immediately from one of supreme exhaustion to extreme relief and excitement to have found him so easily amongst this sea of young men in uniform.

          "Cú Chulainn!" she exclaimed. When his countenance did not return a quarter of her enthusiasm, her shoulders sunk and her smile flattened. "Look, I'm sorry for following you here, but I had to leave that village. I realized that I...I'm different from them and..." she attempted to explain.

         "Well, of course you are, Tara, you're the most 'different' person I've ever met, you were raised by trees," he practically spat, frustrated that she was there and that his clever and convenient arrangement with Saoirse had failed. Then, a new realization crossed his face, "Did you walk here?"

          She nodded, her eyes equal parts determined and desperate. He stared at her in disbelief and she only smiled with pride and ease as though her ankles didn't ache and her heels were not bleeding into her little leather shoes.

          "What is it you want, Tara, I've already done my best to try and help you..." he finally sighed, slinging the suede strap of his arrow sheath over his shoulder.

          "I want to join the Ultan army," she announced, with unwavering seriousness. Before he exploded into laughter, his eyes widened in shock.

          "Can you be serious?" he exclaimed, and then smirks and pockets of laughter erupted from some surrounding knights who had overheard, "Tara, you're not serious."

          "I'm very serious," she replied, noting the other men as they scoffed at her. She shook her head and looked back to Cú, planting herself firmly on the earth. The brash morning sun had burned her cheeks and she was exhausted from the journey, but she knew she had to appear strong now more than ever before.

          "Look, Tara, I don't know what to tell you. You have no fighting experience, you're very...small, you—you don't know how war works. It's not a game. If you saw what it was really like, you wouldn't be able to handle it...we were lucky our last wasn't attacked," he tried to reason with her, "You couldn't lift a sword even if you wanted to." Acting on a fleeting impulse, she snatched the arrow sheath from his shoulder and marched toward the target range.

          "W-What? What are you doing?!" he hollered and then laughed sympathetically, exchanging weary glances with the other men. Tara's confident stride and the fact that she held Cú Chulainn's finest bow caused many of the soldiers to turn their heads. It was not long before the audacity of the tiny sixteen-year-old girl drew the attention of nearly the whole army. She could feel their stares and their leering as she approached the shooting line across from the target. A mark had been made in the grass and she mounted it with feigned assurance.

          Once she realized just how many narrowing eyes were fixed on her and her bleeding ankles and her shaking hands, she momentarily regretted letting the adrenaline from her walk control her actions. But it was too late now. She dropped the sheath and selected an arrow from the bunch and picked up a strewn bow from the grass nearby. Glancing around at her massive crowd of onlookers, Tara swallowed as she made eye contact with Cú, his arms folded in front of him and his mouth in a straight line. His impatient glare sent a chill up her spine that both frightened and encouraged her.