塞下曲

卢纶

林暗草惊风，

将军夜引弓。

平明寻白羽，

没在石棱中。

Gilbert suddenly opened his eyes as an especially strong gust of wind swept over their tent. He blinked a few times at the darkness and glanced swiftly over to Daniel. Or was it Lizzie? He still couldn't tell if Daniel/Lizzie was kidding or not when he/she had told him he/she was a girl. Wow. Way to ruin someone's childhood.

Another gust of wind whistled its way through the trees and fields. What the hell? How could Daniel sleep through this?

Gilbert slowly unzipped the tent to take a look outside.

The field of grass seemed to be shivering from cold and from fear. The forest to the right was gloomy, and Gilbert could see the tips of the trees swaying wildly in the wind. Talk about creepy. The sky was cloudy, too. He hoped it didn't rain.

Just as he was about to go back in the tent, something caught his eye. He froze. There was something in the woods. A big something. Gilbert squinted, but he couldn't see it any clearer in the gloom. It wasn't moving. Maybe it was readying to pounce. Maybe it was sniffing out their scent. Gilbert froze all over.

After a staring contest between the thing and Gilbert, only interrupted by the howling wind, Gilbert slowly reached for the bow in the tent. Slow and steady. Don't scare the creature, or it might attack.

He carefully drew an arrow, pulling on the string so hard that his hands began to shake.

Careful aim. A little bit to the left of the thing as the wind was blowing right.

And he released the goose-feathered arrow. A second later, he lost track of the arrow's progress. He couldn't see anything now as slow raindrops began to pitter patter down.

Gilbert prayed to God that he and Daniel would survive to see the morning, then he went back in the tent and into his sleeping bag. His heart was still pounding and his mind was still racing.
Eventually, he fell asleep.

When Gilbert woke up in the morning to the sunlight creeping through a crack in the tent (which also was leaking in quite a bit of water), he felt relieved, though he didn't know why. Then he remembered the incident last night.

Now in the light of day, his irrational fear seemed silly. If the creature had decided to attack them, he would have obviously defeated it with his awesomeness. Still, he sent a silent thank you to God.

When Gilbert had figured out the details of his new and improved story on how he had defeated a giant bear last night, he began vigorously shaking Daniel's sleeping figure.

"What do you want?" Daniel moaned as he slowly rubbed his eyes. "Give a girl her beauty sleep..."

Gilbert looked at Daniel a little weirdly. How long was he going to play the joke of being a girl? He then decided to start yelling Wake Up! to dispel his confused feelings.

When Daniel was sufficiently conscious, Gilbert launched into his story.

"... And I like shot this huge bear and basically saved your life so you should bow down to me and call me master!"

"Pshhh, yeah right." Daniel smirked, pulling on his shoes. "Let me see this supposed dead bear."

Gilbert turned white. Like more white than his usual pale skin. Daniel looked up.

"What? Afraid of me finding out the truth?"

Gilbert gave a shaky smirk. He must have hit the creature, right? No way would his awesomeness allow him to miss. That thought gave him courage and he stood up confidently.

"Follow the awesome me!"

And they were off, Gilbert marching and splashing mud all over the place in the front, and Daniel slowly trudging behind, still wiping his tired eyes.

"It was somewhere here..." Gilbert said as they reached the forest. "Help me find it."

They spent another 15 minutes searching for the bear that Gilbert supposedly shot with an arrow. The sun shone down on the two children, filtered by the leaves of the trees.

"Um... I think I found your arrow..." Daniel called uncertainly after a while. Gilbert became a little nervous at Daniel's tone of voice.

"Wow, Daniel, you're good at finding things... kesesese..."

"Lizzie," the brunette replied automatically. "And come here, right now."

Gilbert slowly walked over to Daniel (Lizzie?). What he saw he categorized into two things: Good and Bad.

Good news: He had hit the thing he had seen last night with the arrow. In fact, the arrow had sunk in so deep, only the feather could be seen.

Bad news: What he had hit was a rock.

Gilbert bit his lip, wondering if he would survive the teasing that would surely ensue.