Hey -here Hellsig,
First of all, before I let you get on with the story, I would like to thank the one to have written the Guest Review. I truly loved reading what you thought, and although the chapters were already written by the time I got your comment (which made me grin like an idiot for a good fifteen minutes) I hope you'll forgive me for putting Hiccup's chapter of angst a little bit later than what you would have, maybe, liked. Thanks though! I hope the rest carries on entertaining you!
The Archery Aim contest took place directly after the Weapon Wielding, due to the fact that beside Rezef, only one other person had put their name down for the Horse Riding event, said person having been killed in the Tournament. Therefore, Rezef won this area of the Tournament by default, which left a bitter taste in her mouth.
She wanted to fight for her victory. Not to have it served to her on a silver platter!
Archery had always been something Rezef hadn't been at ease with. However, with time, she had learnt how to handle a bow and arrow and she had become rather famous upon her return from the Wild for her technique, "Poison Rain", which consisted of sending a wave of arrows, generally three or four in one go, whose tips were coated with poison. Fired in rapid succession, the shower of arrows could take out a small party without a problem.
Every year, the archery competition changed. People came to the amphitheatre not to see people win, but rather to see bloodshed and war. They came to feed on the rasp of the dying, and a traditional archery contest rarely offered this. Therefore, the organising bodies of the competition made sure to create something as bloody as spectacular year after year. During the previous tournaments, Oliphants had been let free in the arena, and each archer had to kill the others, very much like in the final of Weapon Wielding. However, they had to be careful of the Oliphant. Each archer had been given the exact number of arrows, corresponding to the number of participants. There wasn't room for mistake.
Rezef had missed one. He had been squashed by an Oliphant as her arrow was released. This year, she would kill them all.
For this event, the organising body had outdone themselves. Great wooden palisades had been placed through the whole arena, separating the entire space into a labyrinth. From the sounds she could hear, Rezef guessed hungry desert beasts had been let free in the maze, such as Southern Sphinxes, or Coastal Chimeras. Those anthropophageous beasts were vicious, and even though Rezef had fought them before never had she with a bow and arrow.
This promised to be an interesting event.
There were only five competitors for the Archery Aim, seven other having been killed during the Weapon Wielding or the Hand on Hand. The Assassin was led to one of the many entries to the labyrinth and handed a bow. She watched the man with the arrows come forward and recognised him as a councillor of her 'Uncle'. Rezef was given one single arrow.
The labyrinth's door opened.
Before rushing in, Rezef tested her bow. She tried the tension in the string, pleased to find it strong and sturdy. She drew the weapon with little problem, her muscles used to the heavy resistance of blades through bodies. Satisfied with the simple, black painted bow, Rezef silently moved inside the labyrinth. She quietly watched around her, estimating the height of the walls to be at two and a half metres.
They were clearly made to be climbed.
Rezef squeezed herself against the side of the opposite wall, judging her running start to be of about two metres. She coiled against the side of the corridor, before shooting off, across the floor in one jump. She kicked the side of the labyrinth, which shook, and was sent flying across the two metres she had just ran towards the top of the starting wall. Her fingers securely hooked over the edge, and she grinned as she pulled herself up.
Quickly, the Assassin pressed herself flat against the ten centimetre thick planks. She was only too well aware of how noticeable a silhouette was against the Haradrim skies. Quietly, she watched the lay-out of the labyrinth, committing it to memory.
From where she laid, Rezef could make out the top of three people's head. This meant that a fourth one was missing. She could also spot the tip of three beasts' wings –most likely sphinxes and the flat reflection of the sun on one chimera's head. Rezef was about to start crawling in the direction of one of the men, when she heard shouts of pain coming from the eastern side of the labyrinth.
The fourth man was no longer a threat.
The Haradrim Assassin clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Rezef quickly calculated there were one beast per competitor, meaning most likely that each beast would stop moving to fest on the flesh of each man it had killed. Rezef supposed that was why each person was only given one arrow. Either you won and could take the arrow out of your beast or you died.
She however, didn't plan to play by the rules.
Rezef slowly began to crawl across the wooden planks, keeping the three remaining heads in her vision. Silently, she snaked her way nearer and nearer to the only holy warrior to have entered this event. His bold head was shining with sweat under the sun, and Rezef could see his arrow still in his hand. He hadn't come across a beast yet. Perfect.
The man didn't stand a chance against the Assassin. She crawled as near as directly above his head, a god given shot she could not miss. She didn't. The arrow imbedded itself in the man's neck, piecing the nervous system in the spinal cord and killing him instantly. He fell down into the sand without a sound. Quietly, she snuck down her perch and retrieved both her and his arrow. Armed now with two, Rezef pulled herself back up the planks.
The two heads were still where she had left them, having stopped moving when they sense the aura of death. Rezef however did not mind. If they no longer moved, then they became easy, still targets. She drew her first arrow and, carefully breathing in and out in a controlled way, comfortably installed herself on the planks. Rezef closed one eye, the other looking along the length of the arrow, directly aiming it at one of the men's mop of black hair. She waited, silent, until he turned around to be facing her and she shot. The arrow found its mark, embedding itself so deeply into the man's skull only the feathers at the end were visible. The Assassin fell to the ground with a cry of pain, alerting the other man still in the labyrinth.
The last warrior spun around himself, panicking slightly as he heard a sphinx's shrilly scream echo through the air. He began to move frantically, breaking into a sprint. The Assassin smirked at his idiocy. He was running straight towards her. She had a free shot of his face on about five metres. From where she stood, he appeared to be entirely still.
In one movement, Rezef grabbed her last arrow, drew, aimed and shot.
She watched it sail through the air, cutting the winds with careless grace as she black feathers spun and vibrated. She looked on, morbidly fascinated, as the brutal arrowhead mercilessly made contact with the man's eye. It drove through the ball, imbedding in the brain and Rezef watched the young boy –for he was no older than her, run for a few metres still before he crashed down onto the ground, driving the arrow further in, and didn't get back up.
She had won.
Rezef didn't attend the party this night either. Rather than having to cope with the endless chatter, the sideways look from people and the reprobate glances from the Vikings, the young girl decided to take food from the tent and directly sitting on the sand itself, to enjoy the cloudless night and recall the stories of the stars.
Toothless was sitting next to her spot by the dune, when she emerged from the tent with food for two. She tossed the dragon a nice, raw fish and placed her own cooked salmon onto her plate. She had a few dried fruits on there, one or two root plants from the desert and a lot, a lot of salted, dried meat that had been conserved all year round for this occasion. She also had a tankard of ale and a bowl of water for Toothless. She didn't doubt Hiccup's ability to take care of the dragon, but she knew how harshly the sun of Harad could shine during the day and a little bit of water was never refused.
Silently, the Assassin buried herself into the still warm sand and looked up to the dark fabric of the universe.
Many stars stretched there. Crux, Leo and Scorpio dancing together, as the Centaur seemed to loom so low on the horizon. Rezef had missed them, ever so much. Her eyes turned to the "W", silently welcoming Cassiopeia back into her life.
The first time she had learnt of Cassiopeia's fate, Rezef had been four. It was customary for all children of Harad to learn of the stars, as it was their only way to navigate the immense ocean of sand. She recalled being fascinated by the stories of ancient worlds, where gods still listened to humans.
Cassiopeia was a queen of a faraway land, a long time ago. She was married to a kind man, the king of a land called "Crete". Cassiopeia and her husband had a daughter, most beautiful girl whom they named Andromeda. However, with great power often comes great foolishness. As Andromeda was sixteen, becoming a woman and blossoming into her full beauty, queen Cassiopeia had the audacity to proclaim that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Nereids. The Nereids were daughters of the sea god, women whose hair was as smooth as the waves, as ondulating as sea weeds in the current and whose voice was as the singing on the sea, calm and peaceful yet able to roar and crash ships. They were some of the most beautiful Naiads, and their father was by no mean humble. Therefore, when he heard what the mortal queen had spoken, this god of sea entered a fearsome rage and from the deepest recesses of the abysmal ocean set free a sea monster; Cetus. He sent the giant sea-serpent to flood the lands of the king, eat the travelling ships and break plumes of blinding spray against the Bronze gates of the capital. Soon, the country of the king was in famine and he and his wife had no other choice but to seek the council of the Oracle of Delphi. They set forth for the journey, reaching the Oracle who told them Cassiopeia's words had angered the sea king, and his beast would not be calmed by anything other than the blood of Andromeda, their only daughter. The child was to be tied to one of the rocks outside the gates of the city and left there, naked, for Cetus to eat. Only then, would the monster be satisfied and go back to the deepest recesses from whence he came.
Their broken souls had no other choice but to agree to the bloody solution, Cassiopeia faced with the harsh consequences of her thoughtless actions. Andromeda was stripped of her garments and tied with golden chains to one of the rocks outside of the city, left alone at Cetus' mercy.
But fate willed it, that she would not die that day.
A man, a hero named Perseus was flying on Pegasus, making his way back from killing the Gorgon. He held the creature's head in a bag, which he had clutched in his hands for the Gorgon Medusa's eyes had retained their deadly powers of petrifaction even after her death. As he was flying above the troubled waters of Crete, Perseus saw the white skin of Andromeda against the dark, wet stone. Her golden hair was flying in the wind as the elements beat down onto her. Taking pity of the stunningly beautiful woman, Perseus stooped down low on Pegasus and freed her from her golden chains. As he was saving her, the great sea-serpent Cetus rose from the sea and bared its mouth, ready to swallow the two young heroes. Perseus drew Medusa's head out of its bag and one glance was enough for Cetus to be petrified and turned to stone. Unable to sustain its weight, the statue of the monster shattered and sunk to the deepest recesses of the sea. The skies cleared and the waters calmed, as Perseus flew Andromeda back to her parent's city and palace in order to ask for her hand in marriage.
Their happy ending was granted.
However, the god of the sea felt as if he had been cheated by those mortals, for Cassiopeia did not, in the end, lose her daughter. Therefore, he brought his case before the assembly of gods and it was decided that, rather than making the daughter pay for the mother's deeds, Cassiopeia would have to answer of her own actions. The queen was tied to her throne and cast high in the sky, so that she would have to spend half of the eternity upside down in the cosmos, bound forever to remember her pride.
And thus was the story of Queen Cassiopeia.