"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" My father called out boisterously as the ramming of a spoon against a metal pan startled the living daylights out of Varis and me.

I screamed as the metallic clanging jolted me upwards, and Varis yelled as he scrambled beneath his bedding while Father laughed.

"What the heck!" I whined; I was having such a nice dream too. I was older, prettier, casting spells, and playing with a cute person… everything was going so well. I shook my head and sighed as Father placed the spoon and pan aside.

"It's time you two get up, get dressed, and meet me outside in fifteen!" He ordered in his usual drill sergeant tone. "Up! Up!"

Both Varis and I groaned as Father left the room, and the two of us rolled out of bed. "Couldn't he have just woken us up normally?" I whined as I began to slip out of my one-piece.

"I guess not," Varis said with a low groan. "I swear, if he's going to make us do chores, I'm going to be so mad. I already need to shovel the snow later."

"Well, he said he wanted to show us something, not make us do something." I sighed as I groggily stepped out of my clothes and then stopped.

"I'm already looking away," Varis said, and I sighed with relief as I continued to get changed. Today I opted for a similar outfit to the one before, though this time I chose a dark blue dress and vest with white trimming, the skirt of the dress stopping slightly above my ankles. Beneath the dress I wore two layers of black stockings, and calf boots and to top everything off, I grabbed my heavy-hooded cloak and turned to Varis.

My brother was wearing thick overalls, which covered his black buttoned-up shirt, and over that, he had his large, brown winter coat and fur scarf. He placed a matching flat cap on his head and side-eyed me, his green and blue-hued eyes reflecting the light from the lamp nearby. Something about him seemed different today; had he gotten taller, or did I shrink?

"Something wrong, Luna?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, I just think you look nice today." Playing the cute card, which made him blush faintly.

"Th-thank you; you do as well." He took a deep breath before suddenly squaring off! "Race you down the stairs!" He bolted out the bedroom door.

Oi, what does he think he's doing?!

"Hey! No running inside!" I yelled behind him as I scurried after him.

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I nearly tripped down the steps and stumbled over the rocking chair in the living room, following behind Varis, my dress doing me no justice in trying to keep up with him. Thankfully, our ruckus hadn't woken up our mother, who was still asleep when we made it outside to our backyard.

The space was large; about a few dozen feet away was the cabin Mother always snuck off to, which was also her bakery, and I knew that was where Madam Soza stayed; beside it to the left was an outhouse; and the rest was just a wide open field with a small wooden fence. I did see one new addition: a small, makeshift table that my father had set up by stacking two columns of rocks and placing a board over the two of them. On that board was an array of metal cans he'd laid out.

He had just finished placing one down when he turned to face us and said, "About darn time you two got out here!" He stuck his hands in the pockets of his large, dark trench coat. "Made me almost think taking the day off of work would've been a waste with how slow you two are." He teased.

"Luna was fussing over her underwear, that's why!" Varis joked.

I scoffed. "No, I wasn't!" I puffed my cheeks as Father came over to us, shaking his head.

"Well, anyway, glad to see you two munchkins out here. So, are you ready?" He asked us.

I blinked and cocked my head to the side. "Ready for what?"

Without warning, Father reached into his back pocket and pulled out what looked like a revolver, and my heart froze. A vision of people rushing out of the gas station screaming and the man in the white hoody turning to aim his gun at me caused my breathing to escalate, and I nearly fell back.

Varis turned and grasped me by my arm, stopping me from falling over. "Luna, what's wrong?"

Quickly, my father stuffed the gun away and raised his hands. "Luna, Luna, it's okay; it's unloaded. What's wrong?"

I shook my head, snapping myself out of it, my little heart racing faster than ever. I took a deep breath and said, "N-Nothing… nothing… I just… I just… don't like." I coughed. "I don't like guns."

My father looked ashamed, not of me but of himself. "I'm sorry, Luna. I didn't know; I should've warned you," he sighed. "Well shit…" he muttered. "That's not what I was expecting."

Now I couldn't help but feel bad. "Don't worry, Father, I-I'm okay. What did you want to show us, the gun?" Judging by the context clues, I take it that he was going to show us how to shoot. Even in my past life, I never shot a gun before, so this was going to be interesting.

"I was going to show you two how to shoot so that maybe we could go out hunting in the future." He explained as he stepped back. "Are you sure you're okay, Luna? You look faint." He placed his hand against my forehead checking my temperature. "Well, you feel fine,” he muttered to himself.

"I am, Father," I said. "I just had a couple nightmares before, that's all."

"You get into reading my war books again?" Father looked down at me, his eyebrows cocked. "I warned you not to read those; they're quite graphic."

They are; I've snuck a peek at a couple of them. Reading about a man having his blood frozen inside of him by an ice magister was quite brutal.

'No." I lied. "But I'm okay; I am. I want to learn how to shoot!"

"Me too!" Varis pumped his fist next to me. "I always wanted to feel what it was like!"

Father beamed and nodded excitedly as he turned around and motioned for us to come over to his makeshift shooting range.

"I already warned your mother and Isa about what we're doing this morning, so don't be afraid when things get loud." He chuckled. "Now, Varis and Luna, stand right here. I'm going to give you the rundown first.

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As Father gave us the rundown on firearm safety, I wasn't too surprised to hear that weapon safety in this world is pretty much the same as back on Earth. A gun is a gun no matter where you are in the universe, that is if I'm even in the same universe. The weapon Father presented us did make me incredibly anxious; it was a revolver, like the very one that had killed me in my other life. Though in this world it's not called that, instead it's referred to as a "Cycler" simply because it cycles through the chambers. Or at least that’s the closest translation from Maurich to English I can get. It’s on a one-for-one.

Honestly, a ton of words are like that. One word can mean like fifty different things in Maurich, even a slight change to a word’s enunciation can change its entire meaning. That was, and still kinda is, the hardest part about learning the Maurich and Common language. Having mastered the basics of the language it’s quite fluid and very efficient, but my inner American still has the occasional moment of stumbling when speaking.

If I ever get a job to translate Maurich or Common into English. The pay better is worth it.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, right guns.

When I said the Cycler was like, yet different from a revolver what made it unique was that the weapon only had four chambers rather than the usual six. Not only that when Father pulled out the bullets to show us my eyes widened at the sheer size of them. One round was about half the size of his thumb and was as thick as it. The bullet proved to be made out of some sort of silver casing, yet the actual tip of it was not made of lead. Instead, it was some kind of red crystal that glowed faintly.

"These here are .44 elis hardened mag rounds." Father explained, "Big boys that can punch through even the toughest of hides and armor. It’s said that it can even bring down a charging yogi."

When he mentioned mag, I was a bit confused at first, as I thought he meant magnum. "Father, what does mag mean?" I asked.

"Mag is short for magrite. These bullets are made from depleted magrite crystals, the same crystals that run the lights in our home."

"So they're magical bullets?" Varis asked, and Father thought for a moment before nodding.

"Essentially yes. The weapon draws what little power is left and uses that to propel it forward the projectile forward. Which is the energy stored inside." He stuffed the bullets back into his pocket. "Speaking of which, when holding a gun, always keep your finger off the trigger; make sure this safety switch is on; it stops you from pulling the trigger; and keep it pointed at the ground. Never, under any circumstances, point a weapon at anyone, or yourself, of course. Unless, and this is the only exception, someone is coming to hurt you." He looked at Varis, his expression serious. "I mean it. If I ever see or hear that the two of you pointed a weapon at someone, even if it's unloaded, I'll unleash the hells upon you."

I nodded my head silently along with Varis, to which Father said again, "No, no, don't nod your heads. I want to hear it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Father," we both said in unison.

Father smiled and said, "Good. First things first, we're going to start with you, Varis." Varis pumped his fist once again out of excitement as Father chuckled and motioned for him to step up.

Father stood, turned his back to us, and opened the cycler to make sure it was empty before kneeling and walking Varis through how to properly hold it as well as pointing out areas of interest on the weapon.

Stolen story; please report.

I shifted nervously off to the side, anxiety and excitement coursing through me. As mentioned before, I never held a firearm in my prior life. I shot a crossbow once, but that was back in, like… sixth-grade camp in elementary school. Which was so long ago. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I watched Father take the gun away from Varis after the small explanation and turn his back to us. It looked like he was reloading the weapon before turning back and handing it to Varis.

He knelt back down and showed him the safety switch before pointing at a nearby can. "Take a deep breath, calm your breathing, hold it with both hands, line the sights with the can, and gently squeeze the trigger," Father explained as Varis, who was shaking with what I assumed was a mix of nervous excitement, squeezed the trigger of the gun.

He let off a yelped cry, scaring me as the gun jerked upwards, but… nothing happened. No blast, no smoke, no crack of the round ripping through the air. "Wh-what happened?" Varis asked, confused, as he looked to Father, who smiled and shook his head.

"Nothing; that's exactly what I expected to happen. There's no bullets in the gun. When you pulled the trigger, you expected the kick, didn't you?" He asked.

Varis nodded his head. "Yeah."

"And because of that, you flinched and yanked the gun upward." Father jutted his thumb up in the air. "If that was really loaded, you would've completely missed that can just a couple dozen garos ahead of you. So you need to get used to pulling the trigger without flinching." Father took the gun from Varis and loaded it again in front of him. "This time the kick will be there, but don't be scared. Brace yourself and focus on the can."

This time, as he handed the gun back to Varis, I watched as my brother lined up his shot, took a deep breath as Father instructed, and focused. A few tense seconds passed before finally an immensely deep and loud pop caught me off guard. A red and blue fire erupted out of the gun and its gas ports, followed by a red energy-like bolt that shot forth from the gun for a split second, striking the first can. There was a bright flash as the metal where the bullet struck exploded in a spray of molten metal fragments and the can flew back spiraling in a way I hadn't expected.

Magic bullets, I guess, I thought my eyes wide as I watched the smoking can sink into the snow a few feet away from the table. The gun sounded like a mix of a Star Wars blaster rifle and a hand cannon.

"Excellent!" Our father cheered. "See, it isn't that bad when you're expecting it. As long as you don't flinch and focus, you'll be a crack shot in no time. C'mon, we got three more shots. Let's see if you can hit the others."

Varis shuddered with excitement and was beaming with joy as he nodded and began to line up the next shots. A few more tense seconds pass before once again a loud, deep crack and energy erupted from the gun, unleashing another red bolt which struck the second can, then the third, and finally forth in quick succession.

"Adda boy!" Father exalted and applauded.

Varis cheered, jumped in the air, and high-fived Father before turning to me. "Luna, did you see that?" He asked as I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah! You really knocked them out!" I gave him a small fist pump.

"Would you like to give it a try, Luna?" Father asked as he took the gun back from Varis and began to unload the spent cartridges.

I thought about it for a brief second. There's no harm in trying it; besides, it might be fun, I thought to myself. I nodded. "Yeah! I'll be right over." Lifting my skirt a bit, I trudged through the snow over to them.

Father motioned for Varis to step back as I took his spot. "Varis, actually, why don't you go grab some of those empty cans over there and stack them up?" Father pointed towards the outhouse where he had spare empty cans lying around. Varis nodded and ran over to them while Father turned back to me.

"How are you holding up?" Father asked me in a low voice. "Are you feeling more comfortable?"

I nodded. "A little. It's just a bit scary." I admitted.

Father nodded. "It can be, though it doesn't have to be. Once you get used to it, I can see both you and your brother as dead eyes in the future."

"Are you one, Father?" I asked him, to which he pulled back a bit, seemingly not expecting that question and I swore for half a second he cringed.

Yet as quickly as he did he recovered as his mustache then lifted a bit as he smiled a little, his cheeks blushing. "Well, heh… I don't like to brag, but." Oh, he's going to act full of himself now. "I actually met your mother by impressing her at a shooting range when I got first place in the province." He looked at me smugly.

"Is that so?" I said, at which he looked back at me.

"What do you not believe me?" He frowned, acting as if he were offended, and I couldn't help but giggle.

I shook my head. "No, no, I do. Where did you learn how to shoot?" I noticed his expression change again as if he wasn't expecting this question.

"Oh, uh… oh boy, how long has it been?" He said it out loud. "I started way back when my father first got a gun for the first time, some eighty years ago."

Wait, eighty? I thought to myself. I blinked a bit, surprised.

"Eighty?"

"Yeah, why do you sound confused?" He looked down at me. "Hasn't Soza taught you about us elves yet? We live pretty long lives, Luna. You have such a long time ahead of you. Hence, it's best we learn this kind of stuff now." He chuckled.

"Cans are ready, Father!" Varis called over as he rushed back over to us.

If father got his first gun some eighty years ago, how old does that make him? I decided to ask, "Father, how old are you?"

Father gave Varis another high-five as he got back and turned to me. "Well, aren't you just full of questions this morning, Missy?" he teased and hung his head back in thought as if he had to remember such a thing. "If I’m right, uh, I should be about a hundred and ten this year, in, uh… two weeks, actually."

"Oh!" Varis squeaked out. "How old is Momma? She never tells me when I ask her."

"Oi, that's because you never ask a lady her age." Father said sternly, though a mischievous smile crossed his face, and he cupped a hand around his mouth and whispered, "But don't tell her that I told you two that she'll be a hundred and two this spring, so you both better get ready for her birthday."

My eyes widened upon hearing this. A hundred and ten and a hundred and two? My parents look no older than… thirty if I had to guess. How old do elves live in this world? How old am I going to be?

I glanced at Varis, who nodded excitedly before saying, "Speaking of birthdays, isn't Luna's coming up too?"

"I think so," I said. I haven't paid attention to the calendar.

Father remained silent as he stared off into the distance. "Papa?" Varis poked him.

"You forgot, didn't you?" I say bluntly.

"No." He lied as easily as he breathed. After a second, he shook his head. "How about we get back to the task at hand, Luna?" Father motioned for me to come closer as he began to point out how this weapon worked.

It was nice to learn the steps on how to properly open the cylinder of the revolver and load it, as well as the safety features. The gun itself was surprisingly light in my hands. It was a bit big; I had to hold it with both. What I was really scared about, though, was the kickback. I can recall all those old YouTube videos of people firing desert eagles and 44. Magnums, and due to them holding the weapons wrong, they always give themselves black eyes or inadvertently throw the weapons.

Yet after Father was done doing the once-over of the gun with me, he took it, and like Varis, he turned his back on me. I already knew he was going to do the same trick, and because of that, I thought I was ready for it. He's going to try and make me look like a fool by freaking out when shooting the gun, I thought, or maybe he knows that I already know that he's going to fake reload it, and because of that, he's going to load live ammunition into it?

Father turned back around and handed me the “loaded” gun. "Here you go, little lady; be very careful." He placed a hand on my shoulder, with the other pointed towards the can on the furthest right of the makeshift table. "Line the sights up with that can, take a deep, steady breath, and as you exhale, pull the trigger slowly."

I nodded, held the gun up, and did my best to align my swaying arms so that the iron sights overlapped with the can. I took a deep breath, and as I exhaled and my arms stilled, I pulled the trigger and yelled as my arms jerked upwards and the gun almost went vertically into the air, yet nothing had happened.

Fuck, I still fell for it! I whined and whimpered as Father sighed and smiled at me.

"It's okay; that's to be expected."

"You tricked me." I whimpered.

"I did, but it was for this exact reason." He chuckled. "You saw your brother; he flinched too, and like him, you would've shot some poor bird." He smiled. "Now, c'mon, let's try that again. You need to get used to pulling the trigger and not flinching."

Unlike Varis, I wasn't so easy. How he was able to master this in pretty much no time at all, I had no clue. Father and I spent multiple minutes practicing dry firing the gun while he gave me some tips and helped me grip the gun easier. After about twenty minutes, Madam Soza joined us as she came out of the cabin dressed in a cute, long flowing dress with a heavy black cloak over it for warmth.

"So you are the one who's making all the ruckus out here," she said in a tired tone, though her purring was evident as she watched us practice.

"Yeah!" Varis said he was practically bouncing up and down. "You should've seen me, Madam Soza; I shot all the cans in one go!"

Our teacher smiled. "So I heard. That means you're the one who woke me up." She smiled widely, her fangs showing, as Varis laughed nervously and backed away.

"Y-Yeah, sorry."

Father chuckled. "I did warn you and Cailynn about this," he said as he loaded the cycler in front of me with four live rounds before handing it to me. "Alright, Luna. You got a little better, but now we need to test with the real thing. Just like before, line your shots and grip the gun hard, and don't try and compensate; just point, aim, and shoot. Breathe deeply, and pull the trigger on your exhale."

I nodded as butterflies began to build in my stomach, and now that Madam Soza was off on the side watching, I felt like I had a whole audience before me, and stage fright was settling in. Yet as I raised the weapon and followed my father's instructions, I lined my sights, exhaled, and squeezed.

I felt the force of the gun's kick ride down my arms and jerk me back just a bit as the weapon lifted only about an inch or so upwards as the recoil hit. My ears rang slightly, but even then I could still hear the sharp ping and tiny explosion as the energy bullet struck the can and sent it flying with an array of sparks and shards of molten metal.

"Fantastic!" Father cheered.

"Good shot, little one!" Madam Soza praised me as she gave me a little golf clap.

'Nice one, Luna!" Varis bounced up and down. "Bet you can't hit the other ones!"

"Oh, shut it!" I said over my shoulder and quickly went to turn to the other one, though my father stopped me.

"Whoa, whoa, not so fast." He said he was guiding my arms gently. "Take your time. Don't rush shooting, or else you'll make mistakes."

Releasing me, he allowed me to aim once more on my own. After repeating the same steps, I pulled the trigger. Crack! The shot struck the second can. I turned to the next, breathed, squeezed, and cracked; the third one was sent tumbling down. Onto the last can I aimed and fired, but nothing.

The bullet whizzed over the can and into the distant rolling hills. "Darn it!" I sighed.

"You swiveled a bit too fast on the last one there," Father commented. "But three out of four is still excellent."

"Ha, told you!" Varis teased me, and I glared at him from over my shoulder and he stuck his tongue out at me.

"Hey now, this isn't a competition." Our father chided. "At least not yet.” He winked. “Maybe as you both get better, we all can a family contest. But for now, this is just practice."

I nodded and sighed. "Can I try again?" I asked.

Father stopped and thought for a moment before reaching into his trench coat to pull out his pocket watch. "Your mother should be waking up now if she hasn't already, and I'd like to see her. Why don't we all eat breakfast, and afterwards we can come out and shoot some more?"

He looked to Madam Soza. "Would you like to shoot with us? I have a lever rifle you could use; Isa. If memory serves me right you are quite the markswoman."

"Wait, what?" Both Varis and I said.

Madam Soza blushed. "That was long ago; I haven't fired a rifle in many years. But if you're offering, I wouldn't mind." She smiled as her tail swished gently.

"You mean our teacher used to shoot guns?" Varis said out loud as he looked between Father and Soza.

Soza chuckled and said, "There is a lot I haven't told you two. But as I said before, story times can come later; if you remember to ask, I'll tell." She purred. "But now, I am hungry. Let us go eat."

"Agreed. C'mon kids." Father said as he motioned for us all to follow him inside to enjoy a fine breakfast before a day's worth of practicing.