"So your first is finally making you do things, huh," Costia said. Lexa was sitting by the fire. It was just after dinner, and they had finished eating. Ophus and Reed were fighting and the other seconds were cheering and yelling. Now that Lexa had proved herself, the other seconds respected her and actually talked to her. Costia included.
Lexa liked talking with Costia. She was a young girl, same age as Lexa, ten. Their whole group was. And yet Costia seemed much older. She had light, caramel brown hair that hung straighter than Lexa's curly mess could ever imagine, and soft blue eyes. She was taller than Lexa (perhaps that was why Lexa thought she was older). Like the other seconds, she was barefoot as well, her feet bigger and longer, her toes thin. Her feet were made for running. Costia pulled out her knife and started tossing it to herself.
Lexa nodded. "I'm making a bow. Anya says that a bow is the first weapon you learn to use, excluding your knife, but she says that doesn't count because a knife is a tool used for self defence, not a weapon."
"Milo says the same thing," Costia said. "He's teaching me how to use a sword."
Lexa couldn't help but be a little bit jealous. "That's cool," Lexa said, trying to be supportive. Costia smiled, glowing.
"But I mean, a bow is useful to," she said. "You can't hit someone from far away with a sword. Unless you disarm yourself. Which is about the dumbest thing anyone could do."
"Yeah," Lexa agreed. "But I mean, a sword does more damage. You can't chop someone's arm off with a bow."
Costia nodded, and then grew more solomn. "Milo told me about this one grounded, Kira. She only ever used a bow in combat. But she had made it so that the tips of the bow had little knives on them, and each pinpoint was filled with poison. So when she was in melee combat, she would use the bow like a sword, and every prick of the bow would make her enemies fall to her knees, trembling."
"That is so cool," Lexa said, feeling slightly stupid she couldn't say anything else.
"I mean, obviously she was using a mirabeetle, that's where you'd get poison to paralyze your enemies. But isn't that cool? Just fighting with a bow?" Costia said. "Maybe I'll do that when I'm gedakru." Costia mimed pulling a bow up to her cheek and drawing the string.
Lexa stared into the fire. "I want to use a sword when I'm gedakru. But it'll be a long time before Anya teaches me how to use a sword. They're the purest of weapons. We'll have to do everything else before we use swords, she told me."
Costia nodded. "I mean, you didn't even have your first for the longest time, Anya was testing you. None of us got that. So now you know how to teach yourself things."
Lexa nodded, proud. She felt a surge of blood to her cheeks and her chest felt like it was going to explode.
"Lexa!" Reed called, Ophus on the ground. "It's your turn!"
Lexa stood up to fight one of the other seconds, Ruble. He was one of the middle fighters. She had pinpointed his weakness a long time ago (his hair was so long that it got in his eyes sometimes; his first would probably make him shave to counter that). The fight was over in a few minutes, Ruble on the ground. Lexa added a second rock to her pile. Even though technically she had only two rocks in her pile, making her tied with Kirsch, the other seconds acted like she was one of the top fighters. And not to brag, but they were right.
Lexa sat back down again next to Costia as two more seconds stood up to take their turn. "Hey," Costia said, tapping on Lexa's shoulder. "Come on."
"The fights aren't over," Lexa said.
"You and I have both done our turns," Costia said. "They won't make us fight again tonight since we've both won ours. Come on, let's go."
The two girls stood up and left the circle, the dusk settling in around them again. Lexa's eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. "Hey," Costia said again. "I know where we can go."
Costia grabbed Lexa's hand and the two took off into the woods, darting among the trees, jumping over roots. "Costia," Lexa said. "Does Milo ever disappear into the tops of the trees?"
"All the time," Costia said. "I wish I knew how to do it."
"Me too," Lexa agreed. "Anya does it whenever she wants me to do something alone."
They continued deep into the night. Lexa wasn't afraid of the dark, but she did cringe a little bit when she thought of the animals that awoke during these hours. But they were still far to close to the village to have any fear. And besides, they both knew what they were doing in the woods. It wasn't going to be a problem.
Costia stopped short, and Lexa nearly ran into her. "This is it," Costia said, grabbing Lexa's hand again. "Come on!"
They tiptoed their way through the next band of trees, and the forest opened up into sky. Far below the cliff ran a river, and then the forest continued on below, stretching out into the horizon. The mountains scattered on the distance, peaks that were so tall they were still covered in a light dusting of frost.
Lexa looked up and saw millions of stars twinkling in the sky. A river of them ran across the middle, twinkling so very far away.
"I know what that is!" she said, pointing to the river of stars. "My mother told me. That's the milky way."
"The milky way?" Costia asked.
"It's the edge of our galaxy. Back before...anyway, back when they had the technology, people learned that we live in a thing called a galaxy, and the milky way is the edge. Beyond that are millions of other galaxies. And they're all floating around each other. And nobody knows where it ends."
"What if there are people like us out there?" Costia said, pointing at a star. "Over there, say. People living over there, looking out at the stars and wondering the same thing we are."
"Imagine if," Lexa said.
"Check it out!" Costia said, pointing. "That star is moving. That bright one, right there. What is it?"
"I don't know," Lexa said. They watched in silence as the star floated across the sky. All too soon it had disappeared on the horizon.
"Aren't you supposed to wish on stars that move?" Costia said. "I feel like people used to do that."
"I don't know what I would wish for," Lexa said. "I have everything I want right here."
"You know what I would wish for?" Costia said absentmindedly.
"What?" Lexa asked.
"I can't tell you!" Costia said with a bop on the nose. "Otherwise it won't come true!" She sat back on her hands and leaned her head on Lexa's shoulder. They watched the stars in silence twinkle.