Chapter Two: Of Guiding Arrows

Five days. According to Taro, Rika only had three more. The outcasts would be told to pick the fruit two days before the festival, instead of just the day before, as was normal. That way, 'Although this is a sad time, we still have a chance to pick the fruit and celebrate! It's what she would have wanted! Not for us to cry for her when she gave her life for our fruit!' as Clarke put it so eloquently every time.

Teriph closed the chest labeled with the silver warning from her grandmother, bothering only to put one of the locks on. Now there was a set of five.

Teriph leaned back into her chair, and took a deep breath, expelling it, and hopefully some fatigue. The magical gypsy had finished. She had a set of five to give to Rika. But the Gypsy felt like she'd run seven miles, swum across the Great Inland Sea of Kilfa, and then run another twelve.

Rika would come in about three hours, after lunch as she always did. A chance to sleep, a chance to recuperate, a chance to will Rika's survival into existence, even if it was only through dreams. The gypsy's heavy, bag laden eyelids slid smoothly into sleeping position. Her tent's opening had been pinned shut with a single, polished redwood spike, positioned perfectly down the rift in the canvas to keep the entire flap slot closed, as it had been the day before. Rika was worried about the gypsy, but the gypsy was far more worried about Rika.

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A chance to run

A chance to fly

A chance to swim

Away from life

And it's crimes.

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Rika had been wandering through the forest's fringes atop her mare, a lovely painted horse, some kind of work beast, although neither the girl nor her family knew what kind, the white and black horse's prowess in the fields made her well worth all the food she consumed.

Rika listened to the sounds of a forest in summer, all kinds of birds chirped to one another, be it warning or love song Rika didn't care, for they all sounded so lovely. Light shot through the canopy rippled with the shapes of leaves in some places and ridged bars of light in others. Rika loved the smell of the forest at all times, but mingling with summer warmth her eyelid's felt too lazy to open fully and Rika was also indulging in the light hearted feeling of the forest, it was like an infectious disease, but it wasn't nearly as horrible, it telling her to enjoy herself, so she didn't feel like putting her eyes in line.

Shara had asked her daughter to go get some meat for dinner. Meat, a food that the duty of obtaining was often neglected while the men were sowing their seeds and tending to fields full of lush green food, so Shara was apt to put her first daughter's skills with a bow to use.

Rika only had her mare, Ralia, because her mother wanted big game and also that the fields had been plowed the week before. Rika had barely begun to dismount from Ralia, having only slipped her feet from the stirrups and held her bow in her hand, so she wouldn't smash it on impact with the ground after she dropped, when she saw a moving streak of brown. A deer. As she steadied herself back atop her mare and just after she had her bowstring bent like an acrobat's back, having whipped an arrow from a small quiver she kept on her thigh, it held only three or four arrows comfortably, but was useful, she realized that the deer was a young buck, all the better, it meant handles on the trip back to her home. As soon as she had fired the girl had jumped off of Ralia, having already unhooked her feet from the leather stirrups on either side of the mare when she had prepared for the dismount and the long fall down before. Barely before she had hit the ground, so thankful she had strung her bow before she had set out, the buck crashed off its course, its own speed and the arrow's force pushing it off its path and into the underbrush.

Rika trusted Ralia wouldn't wander off while she was still in scolding range.

Having caused a very uncomfortable feeling in her knees, and having unnerved herself from leaping off a beast as tall as Ralia, Rika rather speed-shuffled, or as some might see it, slowly jogged, towards where the buck had fallen rather than having run, dizzy from the sudden height change.

The would-be sacrifice was slightly disappointed by her aim, although she was far from complaining that she'd hit the beast through the head, but, alas she'd aimed for its much larger, and easier to hit, neck.

Rika grabbed the runty antlers that protruded from the creature's skull, the arrow going through the braincase and much too hard to dislodge at the present time. Some of the men could carry these beasts back to town, Rika could not, and would not, Roan believed it was because she was a girl and therefore weak, but Rika had confided with her mother the real reason she liked to have Ralia along to bring back big game. The beasts smelled awful, and they would often get blood on her clothes. Saddles where much less trouble to clean, or at least the way Rika did it, lazily wiping it down with a soaked rag.

Thock! The young stag had been alert before, but the arrow that had slammed into the thick trunk of a forest giant only a few feet from the animal had sent it off faster than most would have believed that a deer could run.

Cawel cussed openly and loudly as he raged towards the tree his arrow was caught in. He'd been silently stalking the animal for awhile until he had a good shot at it, and then his stupid arrow goes and misses! Half way to his missile's resting spot he heard something crashing through the underbrush only to abruptly stop. Cawel ran at his arrow, grabbing hold of the shaft and leaning back to dislodge it quickly, only to come out cussing, once more, at his headless arrow before discarding the fletched shaft to the ground and hurrying towards the sound, the stag had been in a hurry, perhaps it had fallen and broken a leg!

The sight the flustered hunter came upon was not what he expected to see, nor what he wanted to see.

"YOU!" Cawel's face was so distorted from his anger he looked akin to a demon. It was that stupid girl again who had stupidly stolen HIS kill. She was always showing off her skills with a bow or how she could ride that monster horse with such ease. She was so… so… Awful! He hated this girl, and although he wouldn't admit it, he was intimidated by Rika, four years younger than he.

Rika looked up from her task of dragging the buck to her Ralia at the sound of the upset nineteen-year-old's outburst. Rika's eyes narrowed at Cawel. She'd been in such a good mood seconds before. This loser which stood before her with his features screwed up with undiluted anger, it was always so hard to deal with. He was easy to anger, and he'd blame anything that happened on anything or anybody else, especially if it was himself at fault.

Once when he had kicked over a bucket of water by accident he was so mad at the wooden bucket he lit it on fire later that day. You could hear his parents yell at him from three houses over. Somehow he ended up blaming Rika for that one. Something he was apt to do when he couldn't find anybody or anything to blame but himself.

Rika dropped the buck and unfolded her back and adjusted her bow which was hanging over her shoulder.

"Cawel. What do you want?" Rika's words were spoken darkly, suggesting for him to leave rather than actually answer. Well, the ass was quite stupid.

"That's my deer! You stole it! Give it back!" Cawel pointed to the unfortunate animal, but glared at Rika.

"Yeah, right, Cow. This is my buck which you better not try to steal. And the only way I'm giving you my little buck here is if you pay me, I know that I can go get another one. Don't know about you though."

Rika's first insult made "Cow"el flush even deeper red, the only reason his color didn't change as she continued the battery was that if he got any redder he had a chance of exploding.

Cawel's mind raced with incoherent insults, which he would hiss towards Rika every couple of seconds, the depths of his dislike for her was turning into a bottomless pit of hate. She'd always do stuff like this, just like this. He wasn't thinking clearly, but one thought got through. That this girl was going to reap what she'd sown.

Rika looked at him, a look that made him feel like dirt. That's what she thought of everybody else, and she wondered why she had no friends?

Cawel's sudden actions from insults to reaching to his shoulder, his quiver took Rika by surprise, but she had him pinned, her bow arced, an arrow ready to be a message sent at his right thigh.

"What exactly did you think you were about to do? Huh Cawel?" Rika wasn't afraid to let her arrow loose on the elder teen, and hopefully, if Cawel had even half the intelligence that Rika thought he had, which was less than most termites, mind you, he would see it in her eyes.

The teen with anger management problems was awestruck. How was she so fast? He had only wanted to scare her, maybe hit a foot, with any luck, he'd barely lifted his hand from rest, his bow only had moved a fraction of a noticeable amount when she had jerked her shoulder, her bow popping off of her body and into her hand, an arrow was suddenly from her leg to her bow, and an angry point of an arrowhead was pointed at him.

His gaze slowly moved from the sharpened black rock pointed at him to Rika's eye. She wasn't aiming to scare, she was aiming to hurt. It wasn't fair. Why was this little girl so much better than him!? His eyes stung near the his nose's bridge. He wasn't about to cry in front of her! Abruptly he broke her gaze, made a grunting kind of snort and run away towards town.

What a pain in the ass. Had he ran away crying? Oh well, he wasn't worth the worry. Rika relaxed her bow and pocketed her arrow into its mini-quiver home, re-shouldered her bow and resumed dragging the deer-corpse, Ralia too busy grazing to come to Rika's whistles.

"Hey, beastie, kneel," Rika elbowed the mare behind her front leg with enough pressure to get her to look up, "Come on, kneel or I'll kick you in the knee." Whether or not the horse understood the threat she got onto her knees, the only way Rika would be able to fling the dead animal atop her. "Now up my beastie."

Ralia gave a snort and heaved her large mass upwards until she was standing. Evidently she wasn't all that happy about having one of her animalistic kin, dead, upon her back, but she obeyed Rika when she tugged on her reins to lead her home. Although home had oats and other sweets if she was lucky, so there was an alternative motive for her obedience.

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Lies will hurt.

No matter how light

Or dark hearted.

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Rika pulled the meat off of Ralia and dropped it on the ground, pulling the work horse into her stall to remove her saddle. Rika would brush Ralia later, sniggering to herself about the shadow of a saddle still sitting on her beast's back.

"Mother, I hope you like this buck, it ruined my arr-" Rika was half dragging the deer corpse around the side of her home, on the fringe of the village's southern edge, holding onto the dead beast's hide to keep most of it off the ground, when she came upon Shara standing in the doorway. She did not look happy.

"I can't believe you, Rika! Why would you do such a thing?" Shara started out strong, but her voice diminished with her pride in her daughter.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Rika was startled, and was looking around for the cause of her mother's distress.

"You're going over to the Marul's house and apologizing!" Shara pointed an accusing finger at the deer, which Rika had just dropped onto the dusty ground.

"What am I apologizing for?" Rika's fist was shaking. What lies had that stupid Cow spread in such a short time?

"Rika, you know what."

"Humor me, mother, I want to know what Cawel said I did."

"Rika… You stole that deer from that boy, you know you did. He said you were going to kill him for it! Although, I would hope that such isn't true."

"Well, you should know that this deer was never his, too! I shot it then he comes up and tells me I stole it!" Rika's voice broke, how could her own mother believe anything Cawel said? She knew he hated her.

"How do you know it wasn't his arrow that brought it down!"

"Because he doesn't fletch his arrows with crow feathers!" Rika dramatically gestured to the arrow protruding from the beast's head, its end decorated with black feathers.

"… Rika…"

"I-I can't believe you don't trust me!" Rika had pointed her bow at Cawel, but that beast was her kill. What was that ass' problem with Rika? What had she ever done to him? It wasn't fair. The fifteen year old took off, not in teen rebellion but because of the absence of trust her mother had in her. Or perhaps it was the amount of trust that the mother had in Cawel.
"Rika! RIKA!" Shara cried after her daughter.

The village only had roughly two or three hundred people living within, so it took awhile before the girl was out of sight of her home, but she had stopped running and was walking. Sulking.

She was astonished at how her mother had believed her daughter to be the one in the wrong, especially with the story coming from Cawel. Cawel. Everything was Cawel's fault; the only wrong she had ever done to the boy was walk around a corner into him, accidentally pushing him into a puddle from the previous night's rain. That was ten years ago, when Rika was only five.

Rika looked up, after drying one of her eyes with a finger, and froze. There was Cawel, no doubt spreading his lies to a girl from the village and one of his friends. …Who would want to be friends with him?

Cawel's buddy saw Rika before he did, nudging him with his elbow. The Cow looked up, and his eyes got big. The look on his face saying 'Oh shit' Rika started towards him, wanting to punch him, or rip his eyes out, or something! Half way there she stopped. It wouldn't be worth the ensuing chaos.

"You stupid lying coward! You-you're such an…" Rika trailed off, everything before her distorting from tears ready to jump from her eyes. She made some sort of pitiful sound before running off stage left through the space between a pair of buildings.

Cawel was stunned. Rika was crying. He'd never imagined she could. She was the kind of person he would have imagined to have come up and punched him, or ripped his eyes out, or something. Not call him a lying coward and run away sobbing into the air.

Cawel looked from the corner of the building that blocked the sight of the fleeing Rika, to his friend and his girl. He recoiled, they both looked at him like he had just slapped the both of them.

"'Lying coward'? People don't put on an act that well, especially her, Cawel, what'd you do?" Ranni asked. He didn't dislike the tomboy, but he didn't really know her that well. But, from what he did know, she was a horrid actress, singer, and dancer, and from what he knew, hadn't cried since she was a baby.

"Woah! How did you get RIKA to cry? I wish I could do that!" the girl shrieked in laughter.
Ranni looked aghast by his girl's reaction. "That's a horrible thing to wish for, Yula," the teen turned and began to walk away, Yula's expression having immidiatly fallen from his words.
"Ranni, you're not angry at me are you?" she asked desperately as she followed him like crows did death.

The two left Cawel looking ashamed. Why had he done that? Because she'd deserved it! The answer rang back into his head. But this time through, he wasn't so sure.

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The list of things you should never do is very long.

For all you guys out there,

making a girl cry is very

near the top.

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"Ooooh, Rika, you're here early…" Teriph stretched casually, but paused for a moment before relaxing. But her form stiffened again when she saw Rika.

"Hon, what's the matter? Who made you cry? Wam'me to Curse 'em for you?" the gypsy craned her neck like a corkscrew, trying to get a look at Rika's face which she had hidden behind a veil of dark brown hair which had fallen from it's place while Rika looked at the ground.

"It's not fair! Nobody trusts me, nobody even likes me…" Rika thought she sounded horribly immature, but in her mind the current events had warped to be worse than they truly were, and this had taken down her defenses that were built through age and tribulations.

"Ohh, don't say that, we don't hate you, especially the rest of the band. Food equals friend," Teriph tried to lighten the mood, but it just seemed to make Rika feel worse, apparently she wasn't in the mood to hear about food. Teriph sighed inwardly, now she would feel really bad, how was she going to tell Rika? 'Oh, well actually they do hate you; in fact they're gonna go sacrifice you to some inhuman beast, but take some magical stuff an' let's 'ope you survive!' That'd didn't sound all that comforting, she'd have to calm the girl down first.

"Here, hon, take a seat and tell me what happened."

Rika took the offered seat, and in a small, soft, and quite dismal voice told Teriph what had happened in the last while or so.

Teriph looked thoughtfully at the grain of the wood that made up her table, thinking of hexing Shara and giving Cawel a nasty curse. What kind of mother takes somebody else's side before even hearing her daughter's story, and what kind of pig goes around lying like that for no reason other than to be mean?

"Well, hon, you're free to stay here until you want to go make up with your mother."

"… I don't want to make up with her. I want her to tell me she's sorry."

"Yes, but being a woman, I know that you're gonna want to sulk before anybody says sorry to anybody."

"Heh."

A silence hovered in the air, broken by a monstrous sigh from Teriph.

"Rika, there's something you should know. It involves your survival." Rika looked up at Teriph, who wouldn't meet her eyes. Her attention taken from her hurt feelings, why was she suddenly so serious? And what was she talking about?

"In three days you'll be given a red cloak. Then you'll be sent into the forest to collect those Ruby Fruit." Rika perked up, she was going to pick the Ruby Fruit? But, why? And how did that concern her survival?

"There's a monster in that forest, and with that red cloak it'll hunt you down, and kill you. No, don't say anything 'til I'm done. Taro, you know him, right? His daughter was the last outcast. He asked me here to help you, Rika Winral. I was intrigued, so I came. I have five enchanted arrows here. Any beast they hit, even if it's just a graze, will die almost instantly. It's what I have been working on; it's why I've been so tired. I finished today and ah want you to 'ave them. I also want you to do sumthin' else. That bow you leaned against that stack of trunks, I want you to go onto the path to the south of the village and put it out of sight, somewhere you'll be able to get to it and not be seen from the village. I want you to do the same with tha arrows." Teriph took a large breath, she hadn't let Rika speak, not pausing once. But now she did, to slide her secret drawer out from the table's lip and after a few moments of fumbling with the gifts pulled out five, slightly glowing arrows, each one a work of art, each one covered in emblems which glowed brighter than the surrounding wood iron or feather. The Rika recovered from Teriph's words, which had stunned her quite nicely, and spoke.

"So, is that what happened to that girl? I remember, when I was little, the whole town was sad, they told us wolves ripped apart the girl who had gone to collect the fruit."

"Heh, you're awfully accepting," Teriph placed the arrows on the table, the ball of crystal that normally sat upon it hid under the woodwork today.

"No, not particularly. I'm hoping that if I don't deal with what you just told me, it'll go away." Rika gave Teriph a stare. Contemplating. What she said was pretty far fetched. But not impossible. The gypsy also had no reason to lie to Rika, especially give her the small mound of shimmering and glowing arrows that lay beneath the gypsy's hand, they were obviously worth a lot of money, and money was something Teriph was hard set upon giving away. But…