A/N: This idea came to me because someone said Kendra would be the type to practice until she physically wasn't able to, and so i tried to make a little back story and made it a little angsty. Besides who doesn't love a little Tanu and Kendra friendship? Anyway, enjoy!
Kendra liked to practice. She relished in the satisfaction when you finally see the progress you made. When she was in 7th grade, she had gotten a lead role in a school musical. A girl who was also up for that part had sneered at her, saying she would never be able to hit a high note that Kendra's character had. In retaliation, Kendra had practiced, doing vocal exercises, running through the music over and over and over again. When it came time for the musical to hit the stage, Kendra nailed that high note every night.
Then, in freshman year, she made the high school soccer team. She had felt like she was a weak link on the team, so she had practiced day and night, on the field and off. She even bribed Seth into practicing with her in their backyard. Soon, she became one of the best members on the team, even beating out some of the seniors.
Kendra didn't care if it was piano, baking, or recently, sword fighting. She loved to practice it all, always aiming to be better, always leaving room for improvement. Practice or training was usually fun for her, tough, but fun. But not now. No, now she was practicing for a more sombering reason. Because of her inability to aim right, Warren had almost gotten killed.
Thump. An arrow lodged into a target in the most inner circle, close to being at the very center of the whole target block.
'Not close enough.' Kendra thought, nocking another arrow, ignoring the sting on her fingers as she drew the tight string back to her cheek. Aiming carefully but quickly she fired.
Thump. This one was even farther from the very center. Growling in frustration she reached back for another arrow.
"Nice shot." Someone called, as she drew the string back yet again. She sensed the person walking closer but kept her focus on the target. Breathing out, she fired. This one hit home a tad closer than the last two but still remained away from the very center.
Kendra reached to grab another arrow but a hand caught her wrist causing her to turn around to face them. Surprisingly it was Trask, she all but glared at him as he examined the bloody mess that were her fingers.
"Jeez Kendra, how long have you been at this? Your fingers are a mess." said Trask. "I didn't even know that drawing a bow could do this."
"An hour." Kendra said numbly, snatching her hand back from Trask's grasp. She turned back to the target, nocking another arrow.
"Hold up, an hour? Okay, you're done for the day, come on." He put his hand out expectantly for the bow, but Kendra only aimed around him. She needed to hit the very center, she just did. Trask stepped in front of her just when she was about to let the arrow fly.
"Trask! I could've shot you!" She exclaimed, trying to find a clear way around his body to the target.
"But you didn't. Stop trying to shoot the arrow, just give me the bow so we can go take care of your fingers." He said calmly.
"Go take care of Warren, he needs it more than my stupid fingers." Kendra muttered. Finally finding a way to duck around Trask. She aimed at the target just as she head Trask sigh.
"So that is what this is about." He said. Kendra didn't reply, instead she released the string watching as the arrow hit home. This one didn't even get close to the very center. Sure it was in the red circle where most people aimed for, but she wanted the very center of the red circle. A perfect shot.
Trask must have sensed her frustration because he then asked, "Why are you so angry? All of those made it right on target!"
Kendra shook her head. Before she could even reach back for yet another arrow, the bow was ripped from her hand. Whipping around to face the culprit she made a grab for it but of course, Trask was very much taller than her and kept the weapon well out of reach.
"Give it back." She demanded.
"No, I said you're done for the day." He said, beginning to walk back to the house, clearly expecting her to follow, which of course, she did.
"I haven't hit the target where I want it yet!"
"Don't care. You have had enough for today. Now, go inside and see Tanu about your fingers, he's in Warren's room." Trask said strictly, not leaving room for argument. Sighing she pulled of the quiver of arrows she still had on her back and handed it to Trask before walking inside heading towards Warren's room.
Kendra didn't want to face Warren. The two of them, accompanied by Trask, and Mara had gone to take Lost Mesa back. Agad and Bracken had laid the foundation, now all was left to subdue a few wandering creatures into their proper roaming areas and all would be well.
Everything was going fine until a minotaur didn't want to go back to his old roaming privileges, in fact he didn't want Lost Mesa to be put back together. The minotaur had became angry very fast and soon, the group was amidst a battle against him. They didn't want to kill him, just subdue him so they could move him, but soon it became obvious that they were going to have to go for the kill.
Kendra hadn't gone in weaponless this time, she had a bow and arrow but while she knew how to keep an arrow on target, she didn't want to risk hurting anyone, so she focused on retreating a little ways back, nocking an arrow just in case. Suddenly the minotaur focused on Warren, quickly disarming him with a brutal hit Warren's arm, clearly breaking it. Mara and Trask were trying to distract the minotaur, to get the beast to focus on them instead of Warren, but the minotaur had sensed that he could make an easy kill of Warren and easily blocked all of their attempts at stopping him. The minotaur had picked up Warren's fallen sword and went in for the killing stroke.
The next few moments happened so fast, Kendra was surprised she remember every detail. Kendra had raised her bow, aiming for the head of the minotaur. With the sword slashing through the air, Warren moved away just in time not to be decapitated, but Kendra saw what the minotaur was going to do. The minotaur shoved the sword towards Warren's vulnerable chest a second after Kendra let her arrow fly. The arrow skimmed the side of the minotaur's head, but it missed. Since it didn't hit him, it also did nothing to stop the sword from slicing into Warren. If the arrow had struck the minotaur, Warren might not have gotten stabbed.
Kendra can't remember how the rest of the fight went. Mara and Trask apparently got the minotaur in the end, but Kendra could only focus on keeping her hands pressed firmly to where blood was pouring from Warren's chest. By some miracle out there, it had not pierced his heart, but it was bad.
Using the translocator, which would be given back to Agad once they were gone here, they had swiftly departed for Fablehaven. Trask had rushed Warren to Tanu, who Kendra supposed took control and started healing Warren. She didn't know, she was too busy washing Warren's blood off her hands, feeling like a complete liability and failure. She could have prevented this.
Arriving at Warren's door, she took a breath, preparing herself, and knocked.
"Come in." Came Tanu's voice through the walls. She cracked the door open and stepped inside, keeping her eyes off of Warren.
"Trask sent me to get my fingers bandaged or something." She said, sounding a bit robotic. Tanu was applying a bandaged to Warren's chest where the sword had gone through him, but she only looked as far as Tanu's arm.
"What'd you go to your fingers?" Warren asked, words slurring slightly. Kendra stared at the wall and ignored him, practically feeling the frown she knew would be crossing his face at her lack of response. "Kendra?"
"Whenever you're free, Tanu, I'll be downstairs." She said, before turning on her heel and leaving the room.
About five minutes later, Tanu found her in the kitchen and pulled up a chair in front of her, holding a small first aid kit.
"You know, I remember once saying I wasn't the best healer, I usually rely on potions." He said, smiling. Earning no response he sighed and took her hand, looking at the dried blood on them.
"Bow and arrow." Kendra said, "I guess I practiced a little too long."
"Hard to take this much skin of by practicing bow and arrow, I actually didn't realize it was possible. How hard were you tugging that string?" Tanu asked, starting to clean off her fingers with some kind of antibacterial liquid so her could see the damage better.
"Pretty hard." Kendra admitted, hissing when the liquid stung her skin.
"Sorry, have to clean this." Tanu apologized, before placing the cloth down and holding her hand up a little more. "Well, you scraped some skin off, nothing I can't handle but you must have been going hard."
"I needed to get better." She mumbled.
"I see. Well, in my opinion, you have gotten pretty good with the bow, I don't think you need to worry about that." Tanu said, pulling a small tube out from the first aid kit.
"Not good enough to save Warren." Kendra said bitterly.
"This stuff will be better than a band-aid. It will keep all the dirt out, stop any irritation, and heal the broken skin faster." He informed her, while applying the cool gel to the injured fingers. "Now, it is not your fault you missed, sometimes that happens. It is also not your fault Warren got hurt."
"But I could've stopped the minotaur! If the arrow had hit-"
"But you didn't. There is no point in dwelling on what if's. These things happen, mistakes happen, it's just how life goes." Tanu said, letting go of her hand once he was done applying the gel. He regarded her intently.
"I just wanted to protect him for once, he always has protected me. It's not fair that he always gets hurt."
"That's all part of the dangerous game we play. Warren know's the risks, he usually chooses to ignore them, but he is aware of them. In no way was Warren getting hurt you're fault. Sure you could've helped him, but so could have Mara and Trask. I don't know why you always find a way to put more weight on your shoulders, kid. In fact I think you learned that from Warren, the martyr himself." Tanu ruffled her hair, smiling sadly at her. Kendra sighed deeply, still feeling a slight amount of guilt, but over all feeling better.
"Yeah I guess." She said, looking down at her hands.
"Cheer up, there's no reason to be sad, the sun's shining, fairies are flying and you are alive! Come on upstairs, Warren is worried about you." Tanu said in his ever cheerful voice. He stood up and hauled her to her feet as well, leading her upstairs.
"When isn't he worried about me." Kendra joked, earning a laugh from Tanu. He put his arm around her and squeezed her to his side.
"He takes his job as you're protector very seriously, I gave him more pain medicine to numb him and he starting threatening himself because he thinks you're mad at him." Tanu informed her. Kendra laughed, knowing that there was probably no exaggeration to the story. Warren on pain medicine was always an adventure in itself.
Reaching Warren's door, they could hear Warren singing to himself, Kendra recognized the tune to Adele's "Hello" and tried to resist laughing. Her and Tanu stood outside the door listening to the out of tune singing going on in the room for a bit, both of them holding in their giggles.
"We should get him a record deal." Tanu said, causing Kendra to scrunch up her face in effort to keep herself from bursting out laughing, they didn't want Warren to hear them and stop.
"I'm glad you're feeling better, you gave Adele in there quite the scare when you ignored him." Tanu said, turning serious. Kendra gave him a small smile.
"Sorry about that. I just wasn't up to seeing how bad he got hurt." Kendra admitted, fidgeting with her fingers.
"I understand, no one likes to see people the love hurt, why do you think I yell at him whenever he gets himself unnecessarily injured?"
"He does seem to get hurt more than most." Kendra said.
"Well, he is a Burgess." Tanu pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on as Warren sang the chorus for the hundredth time. "Okay, it stopped being funny, now I kinda wanna shut him up. Why don't we go in there before he ruins his vocal chords?"
Kendra nodded and started towards the door, but Tanu pulled her back and gave her one of his famous bear crushing hugs that left her feet dangling in the air.
"Just so you know, you can't be sad for the rest of the week. I can only take so much of sad Kendra, you don't want to break my heart now." He said, causing her to pull back and give him the biggest grin she could.
"No more sad, I promise. See? Happy, happy, happy!" She joked. Tanu nodded very "serious" like and set her down.
"Good, now you go convince Warren that the zombie apocalypse is here, I'll go get Seth to film it."
After Warren proved that he was more than ready for the zombie apocalypse ("Go in my closet, there's an extra sword, we have to chuck it at their heads! Kendra stop laughing this is serious!") they all settled down and watched the movie Lilo and Stitch at Warren's insistence. They all made the conclusion that Trask was Cobra Bubbles, Warren was David, Nani was Vanessa, Kendra was Lilo and Seth was Stitch. They even convinced Tanu that he was Dr. Jumba because of all the potion experiments he does.
They enjoyed themselves, trying to pick who would be the rest of the characters but always had conflicting opinions. Kendra and Warren cried at Stitch's family speech at the end. ("'It's small and broken, but still good.' Kendra, hold me I'm gonna lose it.") Seth danced ridiculously to the ending credits that played the Elvis song "Burning Love", unaware that Trask and Kendra were secretly filming him. Soon enough everyone was in their respective beds, sleeping soundly. Except one.
Kendra was lying awake on her bed, reflecting on the day. Sure, it started out pretty bad but it ended in laughter and family. Thinking back on the movie, she made one more connection, her family may not be small, but they all were a little broken. But still good, yeah, still good.
A/N: I hope that wasn't too crazy or stupid to follow along with. I have a few one shots in the works that will highlight some more of Seth because I know I have a tendency to write Kendra because she's the one I'm most practiced with, but we all need our does of sassy shadow charmer so don't worry, the next chapter will feature him. I also have a small Vanessa and Kendra friendship one shot coming up after that so stay tuned, I guess? Well, thank you to everyone who left reviews, I love you all!