The pigeon fluttered out onto a branch, twittering.
Came a quiet twang, followed by a whizzing sound.
The pigeon was dead before it knew what had hit it.
Ejelitha stepped out of the foliage and walked noiselessly over. She picked up the carcass and plucked out the arrow that had impaled the bird in the exact center of its chest, wiping the tip on a leaf. She left the limp pigeon on the ground for the scavengers—if she’d taken it home, her twin sister Elithinya would have shrieked fit to wake the dead. Ejelitha rolled her eyes. All her kills were clean, neat, and precise; she couldn’t understand how some people—namely other girls—could be so squeamish.
She slid her arrow back among its fellows and strode silently through the forest. Soon there was no evidence of her ever being there but for the motionless pigeon on the ground and the smear of blood on a leaf beside it.
* * * * *
Ejelitha was an archer. Some might call her a huntress, but she was an archer, and could do more than just hunt; although these other skills hardly ever came into use. Ejelitha could pin a fly to the wall from fifty feet away and remove its wings within ten seconds. Not that she would. There was just no reason to pin flies to walls.
Added to the fact that the wall would probably blunt the arrow and she’d have to sharpen it all over again.
Ejelitha made her own equipment and wouldn’t let anyone else touch it. She had taught herself archery, in fact. Few people were experienced in such a skill; and one look at their garish, fur-decorated crossbows had convinced a ten-year-old Ejelitha that she wasn’t going to learn anything from them. Crossbows were so easy to use, anyone could do it in her opinion. She wanted to be unique.
She had gone through every storeroom in the hopes of finding something, and her search wasn’t entirely futile. In the corner of one room she’d found an old, discarded bow nearly longer than she was tall. It was cracked, dusty, and unusable, but Ejelitha was delighted. She took it home and immediately began designing her own bow.
Her present weapon was the finest she had ever made. It was made from carefully selected, seasoned wood and stood a few inches taller than Ejelitha herself. The grip was carved to fit her hand exactly and lined with a thin layer of suede. The wood arched back gracefully and curved slightly forward at the ends, where the bowstring was fastened. The entire length was smooth and carefully polished. There were no decorations or identifying marks; it was a thing of deadly beauty all in itself.
Ejelitha also made her own arrows. All were crafted carefully; the tips razor-sharp, the shafts smooth and straight, the feathers fletched for precision balance. She had three categories of them: light arrows, which were generally used for small game; deer arrows, which were aptly named as they could take down an animal of that size if fired carefully; and war arrows, which were the most powerful type and had sharp barbs just beneath the arrowhead. This last variety had never been used, but Ejelitha had a strange feeling that she would need them someday, so she kept them in good condition.
All of this was kept carefully locked up in Ejelitha's room when not in use. Her younger twin brothers, Eorenli and Ereonli, had a habit of wrecking anything left out in the open and snapping her carefully tuned bowstrings. She kept the only key to her room around her neck on a thin strip of leather. So far no one had been able to damage her prized weaponry. Yet. Someday those twins would find a way around her lock, and Heaven save them if they laid a finger on her longbow or her arrows.
Most people mistook her for a hunter mainly because of her attire. Ejelitha was usually found in the clothing appropriate for a huntress. A quiver of arrows was always slung low at hip-level for easier reach, with the bow either held in one hand or strapped to her back. She wore a loose, long-sleeved shirt of deep green, the sleeve-ends tucked into leather wrist-guards. Over this shirt she wore a tight-fitting tunic of thin leather, laced up the front. Her pants were dark green as well, the ends folded into the tops of her boots. This footwear was made of supple leather, the soles padded but still resilient. They enabled the wearer to move almost soundlessly. She sometimes wore a hooded cloak that was woven with strange threads and seemed to change color in the light from brown to green to grey.
Ejelitha’s build was lean and strong, and her height added to the effect. Her straight chestnut hair went halfway down her back and usually pulled back from her head in a tight bun. Her slightly slanted eyes were a clear green, large and very perceptive. Ejelitha had inherited her father’s elven ears as well as the eyes, though her skin glowed a healthy light tan and not the usual pale peach as her sister’s was. She had her own subtle kind of beauty which was different from the more obvious type vaunted by her twin. However, Ejelitha mostly shunned human companionship and hardly ever spoke a word to anyone. She preferred the language of the forest.
* * * * *
It was that same language that made Ejelitha suddenly cease all movement. There was fear in the air. Several birds burst out of the trees and flew away. There was something very large up ahead; she could tell by all the rustling and snapping noises. Or perhaps it was an injured animal—but it couldn’t be, since she could hear no footfalls.
Ejelitha slowly drew out a deer arrow from her quiver and nocked it. She moved toward whatever-it-was with her bow held ready. The noise had subsided somewhat. She looked out carefully through a screen of branches and leaves, catching a glimpse of sunlight gleaming on something.
I know you’re there. Come out, silly. We wouldn’t hurt you.
