[SWOOSH]
Just like that, they were gone, and I immediately missed him. Good luck, my love.
Anna teared up a little now that her Dad was gone and couldn't see her. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Three days, and he'll be back. Two nights, really."
Saying it out loud wasn't just for her; it calmed me as well. Three days, yes, but only two nights. She nodded without a word and buried her head in my chest.
"Aww." I looked toward Mother, embraced by Eli. She looked nervous and in love. Good luck to you too, Carlos.
Alright, the keyword for the next two nights is busy! Let's make lists and follow his orders. Hmm, I loved him all commanding. It's been a trigger for a long time now.
Anyway, training. I turned to the Revel brothers fidgeting in the back.
"Ciren, why don't you take Anna and help her training?"
It was a fifty-fifty shot whether this would work.
"Okay. Big brother always said I need it for self-defense."
Anna wiped her eyes, and Master Ilianna reared her head. "I guess I can take on one more. Mom, we will be off until dinner. Take care of Sir Dog."
"Sure thing, go on, but be careful. Take it easy on her," I whispered at the end, making sure she wouldn't need Granny after her first real day. "...Remember how much we love her."
"You worry too much. Let's go and find the others."
She took off, followed by an already panting Ciren.
Saam and his brother Fipna were waiting for me, as Mother went with Granny and the Emils. Demelza and Eli joined as novices.
"Alright then, teach us."
Saam, the more talkative of the two, stepped up.
"Let's go and gather the other four first. We might as well make a training plan for all. Is that alright?"
He seemed nervous when he glanced at me, and it made me wonder what Zephyr could have said to scare them so much. Whatever they went through was nothing like his fun trips with the others who ended up wanting more. These two were traumatized, and the only thing they would say was that they were 'taught a lesson.'
"Yes. Go bring them. Master Lucian will take you, and we will prep and wait in my backyard." I didn't wait around since they knew Lucian, and Zephyr was right: these people were living in our home rent-free; the least they could do was train the future defenders.
"They really play hard to get, aye?" Demelza walked ahead inside the house to grab the bows picked out for them.
"I think it's more like fear. Stay or go, Zephyr's reaction just terrifies them." I smiled, thinking of my own time being 'trained.'
I would ask Zephyr when he returned for an explanation, but for now, our new training regimen needed to be set.
"I want a bow like yours, Sisi, and you need to teach us—"
"...Nothing. We have qualified masters now, you can ask. May I remind you that I need to shoot an apple off my husband's head?" I cut her off quickly.
She shook her head, almost pitying me. "You will choke. Dem? Bet me a silver?"
"I'll take that deal. Lylly, you are fine. Even if you miss, I doubt you can possibly hurt him."
She placed a coin against me and had zero faith in my ability.
"Tell me, how are you going to keep up with training and running the tavern?"
She shrugged. "With Miri and Setil there all the time helping Seline, they'll be fine. Besides, this is important as well. I want to change just like you did, Lylly."
"Change?"
"Look at you..." She and my sister watched as I changed into training clothes—Zephyr's clothes, really—and wrapped my hands for a better grip. "Six months ago, you just flailed around like a fish out of water. Now, you've been acknowledged by the man who has been training harshly. Martial arts, sword, and now the bow. You changed from night to day in more ways than one."
"She is right, Lylly. We decided to join the archers because of your efforts," Eli took over.
I did put in some effort, but soon it didn't feel like effort. It felt calming and natural. I couldn't believe how I lived without it.
We walked outside and took a few practice shots. The dummies were updated and placed inside makeshift armor to make it more realistic and difficult. Even my shot bounced off the iron plates on its chest, helmet, or shoulder guards.
"This is incredibly frustrating," Eli missed the target from thirty feet, ten times in a row, and just jogging back and forth searching for the arrows and collecting them took more time than shooting them.
"My arm hurts. This is hard," Demelza complained. The girls both had growing pains.
But I was frustrated as well. The armor threw me off a little, and more and more shots missed or were weak and just bounced off.
The others arrived just in time before I started snapping the arrows in half.
We were gathered, and Saam took the lead. Fipna barely talked and mostly hid behind his scarf.
"First of all, you all need a few core exercises. As archers, being muscular is neither here nor there. Core strength," he lightly punched his stomach, "is a different kind of strength."
He stepped closer to his brother. "Take Fipna, for example. He is about a hundred pounds or so, yet I saw him throw a man twice his size like a rag doll. He doesn't look muscular, does he?"
The man was so embarrassed by being put on the spotlight that we could only see his eyes and the top of his head. He looked more or less like a shy maiden. His bashful look didn't help the image. But yes, this core strength, whatever it was, must be essential.
"There are various exercises and techniques we ourselves followed since childhood, and it comes from a thousand-year-old scrolls left behind by Dharma Grandmasters. The first Popes."
Fancy.
"First... resistance bands." He showed something I had missed until now: a long, brown leather circle. He pulled it and took aim. "You all will be very familiar with this one. Your ability to hold or draw a bow, taking aim, it's almost impossible to have full control for novices."
He took aim a few more times, stretching the material, which never ripped.
"Training with resistance bands increases the load just enough to push you out of your comfort zone so that when you take them off, you'll feel stronger and more relaxed." He shook his hands a little and smiled.
"For now, we should stick with this."
They looked at me, including the six archers and my sisters.
"Sure." I nodded slowly.
It won't be easy... the way of the bow.