Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene VIII

Princess Liofia let the arrow fly. It whipped through the air with speed, but sailed past its target.

"You need to relax a little, and adjust your arm a bit," advised Julen, moving her shoulder slightly with his one hand, as he grabbed the bow with his other.

"I don't need guidance, I just need practice," cut back Liofia, beginning to get annoyed with the eagle-eyed counsel. "I've only been doing this a few weeks, obviously I'm going to miss more often than not. I haven't been doing it since I was a child, like you have."

"I'm only trying to help," responded Julen, woundedly, "The sooner you pick it up the better. Plus, no one was stopping you from learning when you were younger."

"Yes, I was handed the royal bow the minute I turned seven.."

The mood between Julen and Liofia had soured somewhat since the first heady few months under the starlit forest. Overfamiliarity had brought with it ups and downs, with the frequent arguments usually being followed by seesawing periods of moodiness and warmth. It annoyed both Box and Goola. The gang of four that had arrived in Once Woods was now a more disjointed arrangement, with Julen and Liofia calving off into something somewhat distinct and separate. Their paired-up chemistry severing the chemistry they all once had as individuals. In counterpoint however, they'd also grown to know the various half-tail clans and families they'd been living amongst much better too. Though Goola in particular still struggled to remember all the names, so many were there, especially the younger ones.

"Dorsa; Airah; Applea; Lellet; Galoolal; Florizel; Marsa; Mopsa; Jasley; Celalah; Allakat; ..," Box reeled all these off, and more, trying to remind her. As if recalling a school lesson by rote.

They'd both been practicing their arrows too, and were further on than Liofia, especially so Box. Though even she was now rather tentative about using a bow given the current situation. The ever onward encroachment into the forest by the Northern Kingdom had quickened the pace of violence once more, and the cat and mouse forest warfare that never truly stopped was heating up again. The half-tails knew the forest well, and were wily in their resistance, but the Northern Kingdom forces were simply relentless. Hungry as they were for ever more wood to fight the ever on-going wider war. The half-tails more a nuisance, though a deadly one, than an official enemy.

Box, Goola and Liofia all felt an obligation to take part, but through lack of skill and lack of stomach so far hadn't. Julen, in contrast, had found his element. From the canopy of the trees he'd taken out three assailants so far in the various skirmishes. Which, in turn, had bonded him well with those he was fighting alongside in a way it hadn't the others. Warfare by arrow suited Julen much more too. Being so far removed from his victims didn't give his actions quite the same realness or consequence, and the memories of Patina were far removed from his mind. The half-tail loses he'd witnessed on his own side, along with the destruction of homes and habitat, further giving a sense of justification to his own barbarism. Had he more time to consider his actions it would no doubt have weighed heavily upon him, but with the fray of war a daily concern he was only focused on the practical. And was now eager that Liofia, Box and Goola could be equally effective in the fight.

As he left Liofia to practice, not daring to annoy her more, he shuddered slightly in the cold, as odd spots of rain began to penetrate the leafy cover of the forest trees. Further to the west a small boat was arriving on the coast, from the same direction as the rain. The mist of the sea casting across the green of the Northern Kingdom.