¤ Giving Up

The archery range of the Ellinia Library was vacant, at this time of the day when Ad Lib apprentices were either long finished their scheduled practices or too busy with their assigned duties to be able to use it. Peace reigned there in the long rectangular room, a snug kind of quiet guarding the lanes and the target boards lined up against the far wall.

Metres away from the target boards, a line of wooden cradles and tubes stood empty for now, the bows and arrows that they served as holders for kept neatly on the racks. Together with a shelf lined with neatly arranged coils of waxed bowstrings, the two flanked the range’s single entrance.

Peace, but for only just a moment more.

Loud footsteps sounded and Silver stormed into the archery range, minutes after the little incident at the lift pod lobby. Who gave those airheads the right to judge anyone! A raging voice ranted inside her, giving her temper and making her steps louder.

Still seething inside, Silver stared for a moment at the row of bows arranged neatly on their racks and picked up the Asianic on impulse. Selecting one coil of bowstring, Silver started to string the bow up with short jerky motions.

However, even that practised manoeuvre proved difficult for Silver; the Asianic resisted her efforts all the way, not bending under her force. She knew then, that the large yellow bow was beyond her ability to draw it comfortably.

But she didn’t care. Comfortable was the last thing she expected anything to be now.

Damn gossipmongers. Can’t they just bloody hell give it a rest! It’s been at least one year! Carrying the Asianic, Silver stormed down the narrow area behind that line, still nursing that raging voice in her, only stopping to face the line of target boards when she reached the lane at the end of the walkway.

Loading a Soul Arrow onto the bow, the Asianic dragged heavily at the huntress’ hand even as she lifted it upright. Her hands trembled a little as she pulled the bowstring backwards, her arm and shoulder muscles screaming in protest at the strong resistance the bow put up. Unable to hold the bow steady, the target bobbed up and down before the bow’s sighter, making aiming difficult for Silver. She simply let go.

The glowing Soul Arrow flew from the bowstring, a streak of golden light in the still air. It thudded into the target board and stayed there quivering, its lethal point landing just barely on the edge of the board, leaving a slight scorched mark there before dissipating.

Huffing angrily, Silver nocked another Soul Arrow on the bow, and drew the Asianic again. I’ll be damned if I can’t get a proper shot in, she challenged herself, just as she had done all those years ago while driving herself to achieve her second job advancement and to complete her Project, all in a bid to forget her hurt.

And it went on for half an hour, the huntress loading and drawing the difficult bow repeatedly, firing Soul Arrow after Soul Arrow until the target board was dotted with scorch marks placed seemingly at random in the wood. As Silver pushed herself harder, the muscles in her right arm started to ache, an unwelcome reminder of her old injuries.

Instead of stopping her though, the pain only spurred her ever further onward.

Yet, not one of her arrows hit bullseye; the closest she ever got to the centre was one forlorn mark sitting on the third ring from the inside. But still Silver continued, working herself to that silent and satisfyingly exhausting stage where soul and sinew worked flawlessly in concert.

‘I thought I’d find you here.’ Silver had a Soul Arrow on her bow and ready to fire when a low voice interrupted her. Startled, concentration broken, her hands jerked the bow as she accidentally released the Soul Arrow. Spinning around in infuriation, she saw the person that had spoken, and her grey eyes narrowed immediately in a cold glare.

How did he come in so silently that she had failed to notice his arrival?

‘Nice shot,’ Brandon pointed behind her from where he stood at the other end of the narrow walkway. Automatically, Silver jerked her head to see that the stray arrow had somehow found its way to the coveted bullseye.

‘That’s none of your business-’ Annoyed that she had only done it with his “help”, Silver started to say. But when she looked back to her fellow Adventurer Librarian, she found that he had taken that chance to move closer to her. ‘Get away from me, Brandon.’

‘Why should I?’ A smile appeared on his handsome face, but it did not quite reach his coal black eyes. Silver backed away, a Soul Arrow appearing on the Asianic bow as she gained the space to draw her bow.

‘I said before, Brandon, I will send this arrow through you if you don’t leave me alone. You should know better than to approach me when I have a weapon.’ However, even as she spoke, she could feel the exhaustion from her training session making her hands shake unsteadily. Her right arm started to throb anew. Balrogs, I should have settled for an easier bow at the start.

‘Should I?’ Brandon regarded the flickering light of the Soul Arrow coolly. ‘But you can hardly draw that bow properly, Silver my girl.’ The smile still on his lips, he stepped closer to the sharp arrowhead. ‘Come on, shoot me.’

Unnerved by Brandon’s reckless taunt and unsure of herself, Silver backed away some more. Just then, to her mortification and shock, her strength gave out and the Soul Arrow disappeared on the bowstring with a hiss. ‘Just as I expected,’ Brandon laughed softly, his smile becoming positively predatory now.

‘I can still bash your skull in with this,’ Silver gripped the bow in her two hands tightly, her heartbeat quickening.

There was a short pause, then. ‘You’ll need the space first.’ With that, Brandon lunged forward in one smooth movement. Silver ducked backwards, barely escaping Brandon’s grasp, but she found her back against the wall instead. Bloody Bains. There was indeed no space to swing the large Asianic, and Silver doubted that she had the strength left to get in a good swing. Thinking quickly, she threw the bow towards Brandon and tried to duck sideways.

Her move would have worked, but the walkway was too narrow and Brandon’s warrior reflexes too quick. He nimbly sidestepped together with Silver, avoiding the bow she threw at him and blocking her way again at the same time.

Finding herself trapped again in the corner, Silver gritted her teeth in frustration and brought her hand up and about.

But her efforts to hurt Brandon were foiled again by his superior reflexes; the warrior easily caught Silver by the wrist as her hand descended. His other hand shot out to catch her other hand too as it swung wildly. ‘Ooh, touchy.’

Brandon pinned both of Silver’s wrists to either side of her head, stepping closer into her space as he grinned wickedly at her struggle to escape. ‘Come on, Silver my girl. I just want to talk. I did ask nicely, but you kept refusing. We needn’t come to this. You know I always get what I want.’

‘Do you?’ Silver spat, hissing like an angry cat. ‘Help me out if I don’t seem to see it then.’ She continued to babble, trying to buy time as she searched desperately for an escape route. But there was none, she realised and cursed silently; her hands were useless, trapped in Brandon’s strong grip and the man stood too close for her to be able to kick out at him without losing her balance.

‘You don’t agree then.’ His smile widened as he pressed closer to her. ‘How can I help change your mind?’

‘Then tell me about that time when I beat you to top honours with my Project?’ She laughed bitterly as she saw the falter in Brandon’s smug grin. ‘I beat you then, Brandon, and I’ll beat you again.’

‘That was just a small setback, you know what I mean?’ Brandon recovered quickly, the grin back on his face. ‘I don’t care about such petty things now, Silver. I just want to get back what we had last time.’

‘Oh, that’s new. Since when did Pigs learn how to fly?’ Silver tried to pull her hands free, but Brandon tightened his grip, making her wince in pain. ‘Let me go, you brute!’

‘Relax, Silver, you always enjoyed this in the past.’ The next thing the girl knew, Brandon’s mouth was at the side of her neck, trailing kisses down to her collarbone. Shocked, she struggled even harder as she swallowed a scream. She would not give Brandon the satisfaction of hearing her scream! She shrunk closer to the wall to put what little distance she could between herself and her attacker, at the same time redoubling her efforts to break free.

Brandon only pressed his tall frame up against Silver to trap her beneath him, now crushing Silver’s mouth with his in a painful kiss. She felt one of his knees dig between her thighs and a voice in her head shrieked in fear and nausea, a scream that she could not, refused to!, give voice to as she pressed her lips hard together to keep Brandon out.

But a familiar derisive voice laughed at her foolish attempts to struggle, cutting through the panic in her like an icy cold blade. Stupid girl. Brandon would never give up until he got what he wanted.

And she realised that it was true.

Then, it seemed as if even Silver’s spirit gave up the fight. Brandon felt her yield beneath him, the girl ceasing to struggle as her lips parted reluctantly under his demanding ones and her hands becoming limp in his. Pleasantly surprised, Brandon forced Silver’s mouth wider, hungrily deepening the kiss before finally breaking off slowly.

‘There, isn’t this much better?’ He leant back a little to gaze down at Silver, and smiled at the look of despair in her eyes; she seemed utterly resigned. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.’

Silver only closed her eyes in response. It was the only way to escape that unbearable smirk on his face.

Brandon kissed Silver again, a triumphant one no less forceful than his first. Confident now that she wouldn’t struggle, he released his grip on her wrists. One of his hands slid down to her waist while the other continued to grasp her by the shoulder to press the girl hard against the wall.

A barely audible sigh of surrender escaping her, Silver responded slowly at first, her freed hands now moving up to the back of Brandon’s head as if to hold him closer…

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Feeftee Faive, w00t. 😀 Somehow, I really like this number.

Random fact: This chapter was written waaaay even before Chapter Forty-six. 😛 Some inspiration.

Oh and, a ‘Mature Content!’ warning placed a little too low down the blog. XD

On other matters… nothing much. I’m all tired and stuff from work. *flops* Who’d know that going through forty essays full of grammatical errors and the butchering of the English language would be that bad? Not me until a month ago. I swear, my brains is rottening- I MEAN, my brains ARE rotting.

So there’s not much writing being done on this side, but ah well.

Chunky Almonds Cookies for thee, reader~