Bows and axes (Suselle ship story)

Chapter 3

((sorry for being so late with this new chapter update ^^; I've had lots of things I've been doing lately))

"So, what is act?" I asked in a confused yet curious tone. Susie was teaching me real quick on how fighting worked. Telling me the fast ways on how to knock them down, or to use something called 'Act'.
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"Act is basically a way to defeat your enemy, but in a more... civilized way." She explained. I nodded, fully understanding and agreeing to it. That most likely would be something that I would use. "Most of the time it works, but sometimes..." she paused for a bit, looking like she was remembering something. "Sometimes, it won't... which is why you need to learn how to use your bow and arrows better." I gulped nervously by that. So I would have to fight if push comes to shove. Though, it didn't seem too bad, Susie explained before that monsters here should be more calmer then the last time she was here. She looked around and then pointed at a tree. "There, we'll train you over there." The tree looked bare and almost dead. I guess it would be good practice to aim at that instead of any creatures around here. I let her guide me over there, restraining myself from turning red in the face.

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She didn't have to tell me to draw my weapon, I was already on it. Taking my bow out and gripping it tightly while reaching for an arrow and placing it among the silver like string. I don't know how I knew exactly how to pose like this. It just felt like I've done this before and had complete knowledge of what to do. There wasn't any slight breeze in the air so that was good, I had almost full focus. The feeling of Susie staring at me did however make me feel anxious that I'll mess up though. If I make one accident she might laugh, I'd die if she laughed at me. No, it's okay, I can do this, I can try my best at least! A quick deep breath, I focused my eyes entirely on my target and drew the arrow back with the string. Staying in that position for a bit I then released.
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I honestly thought I was gonna miss. That I was going to fail so bad, but to my surprise, I hit the target. Well, close to the target. Even though I felt like I knew what I was doing, I wasn't actually good still. However, hitting at least a few inches or so near what I was aiming for felt amazing! Hopefully Susie was impressed as much as I was. I looked over to her and grinned, she was smiling too with her hands on her hip. By that pose I could really feel how much she felt proud of what i did. It did shock me a bit though to see this side of her. To see a side that felt so out of the ordinary and didn't fully feel like the regular Susie I grew up with. "I can't believe I actually did that!" I finally blurted out too break the small silence. "I knew nothing about using a weapon and somehow when i drew the arrow back i felt like I knew."
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Susie nodded, grinning still, replying to me in a slight chuckle. "yep, this place somehow makes you feel like you already know how to use the tools assigned to you here." She drew out a large ax, and swung it at the tree, leaving a giant gap in it. I jolted back and stared at the wound in the tree before turning my gaze towards her. I was taken back by how much power that swung gave, yet she looked still full of energy I knew she probably didn't use her full strength. She rubbed her nose and placed her ax back where she drew it from. "Alright, I think you know what your doing to defend yourself. You can just scare off the enemy by shooting an arrow near them, and if that doesn't work just stay behind me and I'll take care of it." I replied back with a nod and she immediately started walking, making me have to speed walk a little to catch up with her.
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She had big steps, but of course she was much taller so that wasn't a surprise. I just had to walk much faster so I didn't trail behind. The area we were in was starting to change slightly as we continued to walk down this path. I don't know if I was just seeing things, but I think I saw a sort of castle in the distance. Susie must of seen it too and started to pick up the speed, this made me freak out a little that I wouldn't keep up with her. The glowing mushrooms started to become dim, making it get much more and more darker. I gripped onto Susie, feeling a bit terrified that we would get lost, or that something would come out and pull me into the dark and eat me maybe. No sure if it actually happened or not, but I could of sworn I felt a little jolt from her when I gripped her arm. Though, that didn't seem to affect the speed of how she was walking. "S-Susie, are you sure we're going the right way? I'm... I'm honestly really scared."
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Susie looked at me then pointed at the castle, she didn't stop walking though, The castle becoming more in view. It was possibly the only light in this place so far now that the mushrooms were gone. Why were we going there though? Did she know what this place was? Well obviously she might, she'd been here before.
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Once we were finally near the castle, we walked into what seemed to be an abandoned village. Strangely lopsided house's from left to right that showed about zero sings of life, so basically a ghost town. I let go of Susie's arm that I had still been holding onto, wanting to look around a little. Didn't go that far of course, since the idea of getting lost and getting yanked into darkness was still on my mind. These house's had windows with no curtains covering them, so maybe I could see if it was really abandoned. I looked into it and of course, nothing, I could see a toppled over table and chairs, dust covering counters, and spider webs. How sad, it felt like something tragic had happened here. A sudden sneeze out of nowhere had me jump and swirl around, I felt like I was an inch close to having had jump out of my fur. Susie was rubbing her muzzle, "Dang dust." a sigh of relief came out of my mouth, it wasn't a random monster. She looked over at me and must of noticed I got scared, cause she started to slightly chuckle. "oh, shoot, I'm sorry for that. Anyway's, come on, I have someone here who I want you to meet." she held out her hand, wanting me to hold it so she could guide me to wherever she wanted. My face felt like it was turning red as I placed my hand in her hand and her fingers wrapped around it.
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Please stop my beating heart, its not that romantic. I tried to keep telling myself as Susie took me to the front entrance of the castle. The place was much smaller then normal castle's that I've seen in stories or history books, could it still be classified as a castle. The door had a symbol that I felt like I've seen before but couldn't put my finger on it. There wasn't anything fancy to see, it was a full black brick castle that had no placement of flora in front of it. I was confused on why we came here though cause just like the village this place looked abandoned as well. Susie walked up to the big double doors and knocked on it hard before standing back and folding her arms over her chest. I stared at the doors, holding my breath, wondering what would open those doors if they do open.
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After a couple of minutes, Susie having to knock again from being inpatient, the doors started to slowly open. I quickly hid behind Susie out of habits, but I did peek out from behind her to get a good look at the person coming out of there. A small goat looking boy popped his head out, looking very confused and uncertain of what was going on. He had pink small horns and glasses on, wearing a green hat and cloak with a pink scarf. In all honesty, it actually looked like Asriel, Kris's brother, but that couldn't be right...right? The goat monster spotted Susie and started to smile widely before running out and clapping his hands from underneath the cloak. "Susie! It is so nice to see you again, but what are you doing here again so soon?" He tilted his head then spotted me and had a slight surprise to his face, though it didn't erase his smile. He took a few steps closer to me, I thought about stepping back, but since Susie felt okay around him I knew it was okay. He looked me up and down and then rubbed his chin. "Strange, I don't think I've ever seen you before, and I know practically everyone in the dark world. Are you from the upper world too?" I remember Susie explaining all this, about the upper world and dark world. It then hit me in remembering who this person was. Ralsei, he was Ralsei.
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"Yes, I am," I replied back. "My name is Noelle, heh" I nervously chuckled, trying to make it seem like I was calm, but really I was still freaking out on the inside about all this. Ralsei nodded his head, seeming like he was satisfied with knowing who I was. His attention went back to Susie where he started to ask her more about what she was doing here and where Kris was. All that came from Susie was that she didn't know anything really. A bit of frustration of not knowing what was going on appeared on his face.
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Ralsei let our a soft sigh, "Well, guess there really is no explanation to it and it's getting too late to think about it any more." I looked around, this whole dark realm ha little to no light to it, how does he know the time? Anyways, Ralsei invited us inside, that way we wouldn't have to sleep outside. The place just like the outside, had nothing too spectacular about it. Though it did feel like a welcoming home from its warm atmosphere, even with the lack of furniture showing.
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We were taken to two rooms in the back next to each other. One for me, and one for Susie, how nice of Ralsei to do this! I kept telling him thank you as he smiled and kept saying your welcome each time. I looked around the room I was given to sleep in. It had a nicely shaped mirrored desk with four drawers, a huge bed with pale peach blankets on it. A rug on the dark wooded floor that helped bring out the painted pale wall. This place felt so nicely kept, even with only Ralsei living in it by far as I could see. I softly yawned and slowly took off the heavy attire I was wearing, today has been an adventure for me so far. Crawling into bed, I pulled the cover up almost over my whole body and reached over to the lamp on a night stand that was the only source of light in the room. Turning it off before closing my eyes and quickly passing out from exhaustion. Tomorrow I know we would do a lot more exciting things.

Chapter 3 end
To be continued