A soft smile creased Marin’s face, and he said, "All right, I’ll teach it to you."
Rion’s face brightened in joy, and his lips parted. However, before he could say anything, Marin added, "But... for that, you’ll have to create a squad within the next twenty-four hours."
"What?!" Rion exclaimed with a stupefied expression.
"How would I find someone to teach me within that little time?" He asked, his voice louder than before.
Marin shrugged and stated, "I missed the part where that’s my problem."
Rion gave him a deadpan stare and turned around with a single thought, ’I’ll make sure to kill any spider I see within the next twenty-four hours.’
Marin watched him leave with a warm smile and muttered right after he left, "Do you think he is planning to run away from the tribe?"
"He probably was, but he can’t do it any longer because of the purple fog forest," Varok said as he stepped out from the dark.
Marin nodded and turned his head toward him to ask, "By the way, why do you have to stand in shadows and all? Can’t you hear our conversation from the lord’s cave anyway?"
Varok didn’t reply and left.
"Haha!" Marin laughed, turned his head to the right and mumbled, "That would be a problem..."
Rion dashed toward his training chamber, and just as he had expected, Karhun and Yuura were standing there.
"Kahrun! Yuura!" He called out.
Both of them turned their heads toward him and replied at the same time, "Rion!"
They walked over to him, and Kahrun asked flatly, "You a squad leader now?"
Yuura looked at Kahrun with a deadpan look and spat, "Why are you saying it like it’s a bad thing?"
Kahrun turned towards him with a frown and explained, "I didn’t mean that..."
Rion facepalmed himself and exhaled deeply.
Karhun and Yuura once again turned their heads toward him and muttered at the same time, "So?"
Rion turned around, "I can’t be a squad leader because I don’t know enough." He answered and stepped forward.
Yurra walked beside him and asked, "You are going to join a squad?"
Rion shook his head and explained, "No, I will be a sub squad leader."
"Sub squad leader? What’s that?" Kahrun asked while walking to Rion’s right.
"Vice lord wants me to learn whatever I have to from a squad leader with a squad under me," Rion explained.
Karhun and Yuura looked at each other before focusing on the path.
A few moments later, the three stood before a hut in the Redwood Den.
"Are you sure about this?" Yurra questioned with a nervous expression.
"What are you acting all scared for?" Rion questioned with furrowed brows.
"Just think about it — you beat Zukah like two hours ago, and now you’re standing in front of his squad’s hut asking about Dora. Do you not see what I’m trying to say?" Yurra said, pointing back and forth between Rion and the hut.
Rion shifted his eyes between Yuura and Zukah’s hut for a moment before he stepped forward and knocked at the door.
Tkk! Tkk!
Yurra cursed, "Mother—"
But stopped midway as Rion glared at him with his sharp blue eyes.
Creak...
The door creaked open, and Boro peeked out with his bald head shining the sunlight back on them.
’So bright!’ All three of them exclaimed inwardly, and Boro asked in a sharp tone, "What do you want?"
"I want to see Dora," Rion replied flatly.
Boro stepped back in and answered from inside, "She isn’t here."
Rion frowned and asked in an annoyed tone, "Do you want to get the same beating as your squad leader?"
Boro peeked out from the door with sweat rolling down his face and said, "I am telling you the truth, she isn’t here."
Rion lifted his right hand, and silver flames appeared around it.
Boro waved his hands and muttered, "I-It’s the truth!!"
Rion stared at him for a few seconds and lowered his hand. He turned around and warned, "If I find out it to be a lie, I’ll make sure to award you for your bravery..."
He walked away and thought, ’Did she go back to her parents’ hut?’
Once a trainee became a squad member, they could live at the hut of their squad leader, and that was what most chose to do because it allowed them to spend more time with their fellow squad members.
***
Dora closed her eyes and took a deep breath, ’I can do this. I can’t allow Rion to get hurt for me.’ She encouraged herself with clenched fists.
She slowly opened her eyes and gazed at the hut before her.
It was a hut with arrowheads and arrows fletching dangling to its roof hide.
She stepped forward and knocked on the door with her breath stuck in her throat.
Tkk! Tkk!
A few seconds later, the door creaked open, and a pair of bright green eyes looked at her and asked, "Dora? What are you doing here?"
She looked into the green eyes and asked with shaky lips, "Can... can you teach the bow to me?"
The door opened further, and Jura looked at her with a frown before turning back with a mutter, "Get in."
She heaved a relieved sigh and stepped inside.
Just as she stepped inside, he asked, "What makes you think that I will teach the bow to you?"
She shook her head and replied in a low voice, "Nothing..." She raised her head, locked her determined eyes with his and muttered, "But I will make you teach me."
An amused smile appeared on his face, and he questioned, "How would you do that?"
She took out a fang necklace with blue cracks all over and said, "Over a decade ago, I heard the prophecy that Nena made about Rion a few days after his ritual of youth."
She tightened the grip around the fang and added, "and when my old man had drunk too much zirua, he had mumbled words about you... and about her."
Jura’s amused expression crumbled, and he muttered, "... make sure to come early tomorrow."
~~~~
A/N: Zirua is an alcoholic drink brewed from rare herbs found in the Red and Black Mountains.