A Rose To The Flames

Chapter 7

I wake up on Rowan's chest. Rowan not awake yet, I listen to his heartbeat rather than wake him by moving. Eventually, he wakes up.

"'Morning." His morning voice sounds.

I scramble away as usual, but very reluctantly.

"So, I can come to training today?" I ask eagerly.

"Yeah." He sighs, sitting up.

"Thank you!" I shriek excitedly and wrap my arms around him in a tight hug.

I quickly realize what I'm doing and awkwardly rush away.

"Are you usually this peppy in the morning?" He jokes and I look away blushing.

"Only when I'm excited." I tease back. I grab a shirt and pants and rush into the bathroom to change. I put the clothes on and then arrange my hair to look like I have a pompadour haircut. I then put my hat on, to cover as much of my hair as possible.

I come out of the bathroom and nearly run into Rowan. "Wow, you really look like a man. I mean- not in a bad way..." He stumbles.

"Thanks!"  I say cheerily.

I wait a few minutes for him to get changed, he walks out and I open the door and we walk out together.

I follow him to a place I've never seen before. It must be the training fields. "Gentlemen. We have a new trainee joining our ranks. He was here in time for the first training day, but was unfortunately injured." Rowan announces importantly.

"My name is Ross." I say simply in my man voice. The other eagles look uneasy.

"Alright, Men. Today we will be working on our archery." Rowan commands.

Great, my worst weapon. Couldn't he have chosen anything that I am good at for my first day.

The eagles all jog over to a bucket full of bows. I do the same, following them to an archery practice range. I pick a spot on the end, isolated from any of the other men.

A scrawny man walks up to the target next to me and starts shooting.

I try my best to hit the target, but the closest I get to a bullseye is the yellow circle.

"Hey. Try to do it more like this." He says to me and demonstrates. He hits in the innermost circle but not a direct bullseye.

I try my best to repeat what he did and get halfway to the middle. I shoot some more around there.

Rowan walks around occasionally helping an eagle that's struggling with their own archery. Eventually, he makes it to me. I feel him watch me shoot an arrow. This one actually makes it relatively close to the middle.

He walks up to me and helps me out. He puts one hand on each of my hands, he stands behind me, almost touching me.

"You want to aim a little bit above the target to account for travel distance." He says softly into my ear.

He goes through the motions with my hands and hits a bullseye, and then he takes a step back. I can't help feeling a little cold when he backs away.

"Now you try by yourself." He says gently.

I repeat the steps, just like he did them. I pull the bowstring back and let go of the arrow. It hits in the innermost ring but doesn't quite make a bullseye.

"Nice job, Ross." He says and waits for me to shoot another one.

I pull the bowstring back, aiming above the target. I pull the bow back a little further and immediately double over in pain. Dropping the bow to clutch my side.