The Last Elementalist

Chapter 29

The clang of metal on metal filled her head as she busied herself with each one of the many guns, trying to find one with the right feel to it. After each gun was tested, and none felt right, Zena left to get lunch and she sat on top of a crate. At least my aim has improved, she thought glumly. Their quick break was silent and rushed, both of them eager to find her skill, but Evie secretly worried that nothing would suit her, that she just was not a fighter.

She fingered a crossbow and left a small grease stain. She lifted it and wiped hastily at the spot, but she accidentally fired and she tipped backward off her box from the strength of the blow. Zena started laughing hysterically, causing apple juice to come out of her nose and mouth. She turned away and cleaned herself with a napkin while Evie sat up sorely, rubbing the spot on her back that she had landed on. One look at her disheveled hair and face, where she tried her best to hide her pain, was enough to send Zena into another fit of giggles. Evie just stared until she had gathered herself together enough to say, "I think you need your stylist back, Miss Prim and Perfect."

"What stylist?" she growled.

"I really needed something like that," she gasped.

"And I did not need to see juice coming out of your nose," she emphasized.

"Aren't you supposed to be super professional?"

"I'm supposed to be a lot of stuff that I'm not. Like I'm not supposed to be in here with you, but I am. I'm not supposed to talk about what people think about Lielle's message, but that doesn't stop me. Professionalism doesn't bother me a bit."

"Well, what do people think about Lielle's message?" she urged.

"Daniel thinks that they showed her something or told her whatever that persuaded her to say that, but she hid a secret meaning in it. He thinks that she is trying to give them information or whatnot. Ray thinks that she is genuine in her meaning. Rumors around here say that she is being mind controlled which is crazy. Probably from Lei or one of his gang, if you ask me."

"What do you think?" she pleaded.

"I think that she's not being mind controlled and it definitely doesn't have a secret meaning, but something was wrong about how she sat and looked. She had one of their army jackets which makes me suspicious that she had sided with the enemy, but she was sitting too straight and her expression was sorry while her eyes seemed sad, even fearful."

"Um, well, I didn't really think that far into it, but I think that you are right. Something was off and I- I just want her back," she sniffed.

Zena moved in to comfort her with a promise, "We'll get her back." Evie felt the nerves building up inside of her chest and her stomach began to feel queasy. It made her feel as she did before her first public speech. As she had felt the first time she went on an airplane. How she felt when she had watched Alastair's murder. Now she realized how her life was poisoned by all these things that young eyes should never see, and for the first time in a while, she felt like the small and insignificant nine-year-old she was. She no longer had to deal with all of the troubles that had kept her from having a normal moment in her life. She was free.

Out of spite of her pitiful life, she yanked free a small metal bow and a sheath of arrows and fired repeatedly until the sheath ran out and she took a moment to look at each one of the twenty arrows now embedded in the target that lay forty yards away. She caught Zena in momentary astonishment, mouth hung carelessly open, before she resumed her regular posture and attitude and marched over to Evie, confiscating her bow.

"Young lady, that was unbelievable. Tell me that wasn't you. You may need to teach me weaponry skills. That was mad!"

She grabbed back her weapon and another sheath of arrows, but only held it out in front of her. "I don't know how I did that. It was surreal, even for me. I've only ever done archery once with Connor and Mother almost killed me when she found out." Replacing her shock with a smirk at her overachievement, she added, "But I could help you out. Maybe teach you aim. You need it."