Blood Moon Mate

Chapter 3

(Unedited)

Chapter 3

Pulling the arrow back as I inhaled deeply, focusing on the red bullseye about a hundred feet away from me. Lining the arrow next to my chin before releasing it in the winter air, only to hit the white area next to it. I dropped my head in a deep sigh knowing that once again, I wasn't able to hit my target. How was I going to defeat the beast if I couldn't hit a red circle that was an unmoving target?

"You know, if you brought your arrow up just a little more than you would have hit the center." I heard an unknown male's voice say from behind me. I glazed over my shoulder to see the young man from the governess village behind me. He had changed out of his personal tailing clothing and was now in a more peasant sartorial. A pair of brown slacks with a white cotton shirt made him look to be more from our village than the governess. "May I?" He asked, holding out his hand, "I can show you how it's done, if you like."

I handed him the bow while he leaned down to pick up one of the arrows next to me. I watched him line the arrow along the middle of the bow as he pulled it back. His transient brown eyes focus on the bullseye in front of him. Then he turns his head and locked those spell bonding eyes on mine as he releases the arrow into the air while smiling at me.

As I blink to try to get myself back into focus I turn my head to see his arrow was indeed in the middle of the circle board right in the center of the red bullseye. "How did you do that? I've been practicing this for the past two years and only being able to hit the white area around it." I reply walking away from him to go look at the arrow I wish I had shot and not him.

"It's rather simple. You just keep both eyes open focus where you want the arrow to go and it will most likely hit it." He stated, walking up behind me. "But I have to ask, why a girl is trying to learn how to shoot. The hunting should be for the men of the village not the women."

I turn to face him to see him standing right behind me looking down at me. I was used to guys being taller than me, but something about this mystery man made me feel like I was a small child. "It's not like that. I don't plan on becoming a hunter of the village, it's for another reason."

"Which would be?" He asked, stepping even closer to me. "What reason does a girl have to learn to shoot if it's not for hunting?"

I took a step back from this guy when I notice his eyes were starting to turn a dark shade of brown and not the light brown tint they were when he had first arrived. "It's nothing really. I just want to learn, so I'm able to fight off the beast during the Blood Moon is all." I confessed, "Please don't tell my Pa, no one knows about this besides my friend Peter."

It's seemed my confession was humorous to him as he started laughing, "You plan on killing the beast? That's the rash thing I've ever heard. Even if I believed in this beast everyone seems to be frightened of, I don't think you could take on such a creature."

I became baffled by the idea how someone couldn't believe in the beast, but then again this man was from the governess village and there was the chance the beast didn't terrorize them. "You don't believe in the beast?" I found myself asking.

"No, it's just some made up hoax to get people from not entering the forest during the Blood Moon." He answered, smiling down at me.

"Then how do you explain the girls that have gone missing or all the others that have been killed?" I inquired. I didn't want to, this stranger to know that the beast was without a doubt real and that I had seen it. I rather hear his explanation about the Blood Moon Sacrifice.

"That's an easy one, Hunters." He answered without having to think about it. "They disguise themselves so the girls don't notice them. They go into the forest and find the girls, when the girls try to fight them off the hunters kill the girls."