Whoosh-
An arrow flew through the air, but before it could land…
Whoosh-
The sound of another arrow being shot could be heard.
A tree, roughly 80 metres away from the shooter was the intended destination of the arrows. Covered in an innumerable amount of scratches and dents, the tree had clearly been used as a target countless times before.
Arcing towards their target, the arrows flew undisturbed by the wind, that is, until two thumps could be heard as the arrows penetrated through the trees bark.
Lewis stood at the edge of Eston holding his bow and one more arrow. He wasn’t using sharpened wooden shafts anymore, but instead had turned to using his other arrows with metal tips and feather fletching. The wooden arrows simply lacked the penetration power to pierce the trees bark once he’d started to increase the range he shot at.
A year and a half had passed since Lewis’ first birthday, making him now two and a half years old, and with Gerald as his teacher, Lewis had improved his archery skills significantly. No longer did Gerald even try to teach Lewis anything, he’d reached the point where the only thing he could do to get better was practice.
With his last arrow in hand, Lewis loaded it into his bow, drew the bowstring back, and released. The arrow made the familiar whooshing sound and flew through the air towards his target.
‘That should be enough for today.’
The arrow hit its target with the usual thump, and Lewis started his walk to the tree to collect his arrows.
Unlike the previous schedule Lewis lived his days by, he now was free to wander about on his own. So long as he stayed near Eston and didn’t enter the forest he effectively had free rein over what he did everyday.
Due to Lewis’ astounding maturity his parents were very willing to let him wander about on his own, but naturally it came with a couple restraints to ensure he stayed safe. Lewis had no issues obliging though, freedom didn’t come without cost, and it was a very small price to pay from his point of view.
Arriving at the tree, Lewis took a look at his arrows. Each of them had cut through the tree’s bark with ease, and were lodged close to 4 cm into the tree's trunk. Considering the distance he’d shot from, it was an impressive amount of force, and the fact Lewis was only 2 and a half years old made it all the more impressive.
However, Lewis’ archery skills were still far from perfect, and even further from matching Gerald’s own abilities. The arrows were scattered around the tree’s trunk in a seemingly random pattern, and it had been like this ever since Lewis made the jump from practicing at 70 metres, to practicing at 80.
Lewis had nailed a square piece of timber to the tree’s trunk, and on it had scratched the outline of a small circle with a radius of around 2 centimetres to act as a makeshift bullseye. Although it wasn’t perfect it worked well enough for his purposes. In his practice once he reached the point he could continuously hit within the bullseye, whilst still shooting as fast as he could, he would consider extending the distance he shot from.
Speed, accuracy, and distance. Those were the things Lewis wanted to improve, and this method allowed him to do them all at the same time.
Pursuing improvement in all three of these at the same time may sound silly, but in Lewis’ head, there was no other option. After the talk Lewis had with Gerald on his first archery lesson he no longer believed he’d drawn the short straw, no, he’d drawn the longest one of them all.
‘This is my chance to change, to redeem myself, and live life to the fullest,’ is what Lewis had thought at the time.
With two loving and understanding parents, Lewis effectively would be able to pursue whatever he liked, and he had no doubts that no matter what he pursued his parents would support him, despite their families economic deficit.
However, that wasn’t the only reason why he rushed to improve.
Ella had given birth to another child six months ago, a baby girl who they’d named Luna. With the cost of taking care of Lewis already pushing his family's income to its limit, Lewis was fully aware there would be monetary issues with the addition of another family member. The only method Lewis knew of that he could use to help his family was to hunt, if he could help feed his family, he could help alleviate monetary issues his family would face.
His parents wouldn’t allow him to enter the forest on his own where all the animals stayed, and hence he couldn’t help yet. However, if he could improve his abilities and make his parents trust he would be safe, he may be allowed to hunt on his own.
Having checked his arrows and removed them from the tree, Lewis started to walk home as the sun went down.
‘Hopefully my parents control their urges a bit better, our family really can’t afford another child.’
Truth be told, Lewis didn’t even know how his parents found the time to fulfil their needs since they were working most of the time. Of course he had no intention of enquiring as to how they found the time, such a conversation would be far too awkward for Lewis, and probably his parents as well.
Nearing Eston, Lewis took a look around. Compared to the wreckage it had been when Lewis was born, a lot had changed.
There were now 6 square wooden huts which all faced inward towards the center of the village. The huts were all the same, and had just one room with a floor space of 4 by 4 metres and walls at 2 metres. Each hut had a tent-like thatched roof and so the ceiling height was a bit higher than 2 metres at some points.
‘Looks boring as usual, the only good thing is the big campfire in the middle.’
Indeed, the only thing about Eston which stood out as unique was the large campfire in its centre. The fire was lit during the night to help keep animals away whilst everyone slept, and worked quite well as it also worked as a source of heat and light during the night.
Walking towards his family's home, Lewis spotted a middle aged woman with the same brunette hair and dark brown eyes as his mother standing by the campfire.
“Ah, Lewis! Haven’t seen you in awhile, I heard you’re getting quite good at archery?” said the woman.
“Oh, hey Maria, I’ve been practicing every day so I guess you could say I’m alright at it,” said Lewis, preferring to stay modest.
The woman Lewis was speaking to was the same woman who had helped deliver his birth, and wasn’t an actual member of the village. She lived in Raydin, but occasionally came down to Eston to check on the village and its populace.
“Haha, be a little prouder than that Lewis! I heard from Gerald that it’ll only be a year or two at most until you surpass even him,” said Maria, refusing to let Lewis downplay his skills.
“I’m being serious I’m not-”
“Tsk tsk tsk, ” - Maria waved her finger in the air moving it left and right with each tsk - “you need to be more confident Lewis! If you behave like that you’ll always get overlooked,” said Maria, taking a short pause to think. “and you’ll never get a girl around your arm either.”
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Lewis rolled his eyes and sighed, it wasn’t the first time Maria had said such a thing.
‘I see where my dad gets it from.’
Maria Wulf was Gerald’s mother, and by nature also Lewis’ grandmother. Although Maria was only around her mid forties, so didn’t look very old for a grandmother by Lewis’ standards.
‘Guess everyone has a family much younger in this world,’ is what Lewis had thought when he first learnt who the woman was.
Ella herself was testament to what Lewis had thought, she was only in her early twenties and so was Gerald, and hence Lewis would’ve been born when Ella was still very young by his own standards. His mother was practically around the age he would’ve been if not for his death, which made him feel a bit odd whenever he thought about her and Gerald as his parents.
‘I’m pretty sure that any girl I can get around my arm at this age is basically committing a crime… so no thanks.’
“Thanks Maria, I’ll keep that in mind,” said Lewis, the sarcasm in his voice all too obvious.
“Haha, it’s a big world out there Lewis, you gotta at least try and leave your mark! Your father was just like you once, you know? But being my son I got him into shape, and now he’s got your wonderful mother to keep him company,” said Maria, proud of her achievements.
Lewis had to admit, Ella was an amazing woman so it was quite an achievement.
“Okay I get it, I’ll keep it in mind,” said Lewis, he was honestly getting tired of having this conversation with Maria as she always brought it up when she visited.
“Perfect! Now I think your mum is calling for you so I’ll see you some other time, goodnight Lewis,” said Maria.
True to her word, Ella was standing in the doorway to Lewis’ home waving her right hand to get his attention, and signal him to return home.
“Goodnight Maria.”
Lewis and Maria parted ways, there was a spare hut in Eston used by visitors that Maria stayed in. This also effectively meant it was used only by Maria since no one ever visited Eston.
Stepping through the door to his family's home Lewis greeted his parents whilst putting his bow and arrows down beside where he slept. His parents were sitting around the table in the middle of the room, and on the table were 3 bowls, one for each person. Luna didn’t eat solid foods yet and so there was nothing for her.
“I’m back, how are you Mum and Dad?”
“Oh we’re fine, just the usual day, how about you Lewis?” said Ella, responding for herself and Gerald.
“Same here, usual talk with Maria on my way back as well,” said Lewis.
Gerald snickered, knowing exactly what the talks probably involved.
“Ah, well Luna is sleeping right now so it’ll just be the three of us for tonight,” said Ella.
“You’re not going to wake her?” said Lewis, taking a look at his sister sleeping in the corner of the room.
“Definitely not, you know how hard it is to get her to sleep.”
Lewis hadn’t noticed earlier, but Ella seemed to be quite tired from taking care of Luna today. Unlike Lewis his sister was normal with regard to her development, and hadn’t started talking yet; however, she was also harder for Ella to manage because she behaved her age and wasn’t able to take care of herself like Lewis could.
“Good point.”
Lewis sat down beside the table and everyone started eating, his parents had waited for him before they ate.
They all ate in silence, the day proving to have been quite tiring for everyone. Gerald had been working as a lumberjack with the rest of the villagers a lot more, and so was also physically very tired.
Only the light of a single candle on the table which illuminated the room kept them entertained, and when they all finished eating, the candle was blown out, signaling the end of the day for the Wulf family.
Well, it should have been.
At the dead of night, a voice snuck into Lewis’ ear, pulling him from his slumber.
[Wake up.]
On command, Lewis’ eyelids crawled open, and covering his mouth with his hand, he quietly yawned. ‘It’s morning already? No… it’s too dark. Who woke me up then?’
[Come outside.]
Lewis tried to look around the room but couldn’t spot the speaker. Having been awoken in the middle of the night by an unknown voice, he was alert.
“Hello…?” said Lewis, warily.
There was no response.
Lewis’ family hadn’t woken, though he doubted they would anyway. The voice he heard was just that, a voice only he could hear. Although he didn’t have the time to think about this himself, he wasn’t sure if waking his parents up would be a good idea. ‘What if my parents get hurt?’
Unsure of what to do, Lewis decided it would be best to wake up his parents. If he was just hearing things, then they’d just console him, but if he wasn’t, then whatever was outside he doubted he could handle on his own.
[That won’t work, I have already secured our conversation.]
‘What the fuck do they mean by secured?! They haven’t hurt my parents have they?!’
[Sorry -] - the voice stopped before they said their next word, choosing to omit it, - [I had to ensure everyone in the village stayed asleep, which included your family.]
Lewis was stunned, had the person speaking to him just responded to his thoughts? He decided to take a gamble and try the same thing he had tried a while ago, except slightly differently.
[Hello…?] said Lewis, in his thoughts.
[Good, you pick up on things quickly, now please come outside.]
[Why?]
[Would you rather I come inside?]
Lewis got the feeling that the threat was a bluff, but he couldn’t risk his family getting hurt.
He didn’t even consider using his bow. Although he had confidence in his abilities, he didn’t think he could beat someone in a real battle. Especially when he didn’t even know what he would be fighting. Thus, his options had run out.
[I’m coming out, ok?] said Lewis, whilst opening the door.