The Silver Bow

Light from the lamp cast shadows along the icy walls. Tightly bundled up in her quilt, Aayla slowly wrote down each word on her notes. She had left the journal at home, but took a few pages of her transcribed notes with her.

Whether by fortune or coincidence, her textbooks for her linguistics class had some of the words that she needed. The journal's writing came from an ancient language. As in derived from a parent language that emerged long before Ancient Celes in its modern form.

That's why she found some of the words slightly familiar when she first found it. Ancient Celes was at least partially related to whatever language the journal was written in. Still, translating even a sentence could take hours, if she could even finish.

The more she translated, the more she found that the content was familiar. The pages that she had focused on the basic elements. Some of the content was shockingly similar to the textbook from last semester's basic introduction to magic class.

The first experiments were simple enough for Aayla to do on their own. Aayla had practiced them on her own while a certain idiot was out terrorizing the forest and no one needed to record any points. To her pleasant surprise, her bracelets responded much better to the method of mana manipulation in the journal.

No modern wizard would be caught dead using this relic-of-the-past method to control mana. Just like how no modern person would speak Old English to talk in daily life. Aayla tapped her pen against her icy bed and looked at the silver cuff.

Something had changed since she started the experiments in the journal, but she didn't know exactly what. Aayla looked at the snow cave's entrance. A small pool of light had formed. Clearly dawn had already broken. Not a lot of time was left if she wanted to experiment with the silver cuff outside.

Aayla quickly put away her papers then pulled on her boots. She needed much more than her textbook if she wanted to make any more progress translating. With so little time left before the training ended, the competitors would be in a rush for points today and tomorrow.

The outside air was crisp under the golden glow of dawn. Aayla cautiously looked around, then walked as quietly as possible away from her camp. Aubrey should be holding the morning meeting right now. Not that anyone would really notice if Aayla was missing until much later.

While she walked towards her hidden practice grounds, Aayla played with mana in her hands. She had gotten much better with both the fire and water elements. Still, no matter how hard she tried Aayla just couldn't summon the wind or earth elements. It was a bit disappointing, but Aayla wasn't too sad about it. After all, it was already a miracle for her to have two elements.

Just as the sun completely emerged from the ground, densely packed trees blocked Aayla's way. She crawled her way underneath to find a rocky outcrop overlooking the Havrevel River. No one should bother her for now.

The Tigurum camp was on the completely opposite side of the hill, while the Nafriton team had a preferred trail much closer to their camp. She could see smoke from campfires rising across the river. The Olafssey team should be up. However, they too stayed away from the river.

Aayla started some exercises that she made based on the experiments in the journal. Using mana, she slowly pushed and pulled on the snow, like how the moon would create the tides on Terra. This method may or may not have been inspired by a certain children's T.V. show involving a young boy, his friends and a flying bison saving their world from a power-hungry empire.

Before she ran out of energy, Aayla decided to try working with the Full Moon Bracelet again. When she focused, a shield appeared around her wrist. Swinging it around like a crazy person didn't seem to do anything but make her look stupid.

The shield always refused to come off her wrist, so she couldn't throw it like a certain superhero captain or an amazon. That was always so disappointing. Aayla pouted. That would have been so cool! What she could do was change the size and shape.

Aayla discovered this little trick earlier when experimenting with the silver cuff. No matter how it changed, the overall weight and hardness never changed. Once again, she tried to change the shape of the shield. Once again, she failed to find something new.

Just pouring more mana wasn't working. Aayla carefully checked the cuff again. The silver cuff had tiny warriors dancing with weapons on it. At first, they weren't very distinct, but overtime a few of them started to stand out.

The one with the shield was very distinct. The next one was a warrior with a bow yet no arrows. The others were still a bit to indistinct to make out clearly. Aayla thought for a moment. She had tried forming the shield into a bow shape for a while now. The shield just wouldn't change.

A loud horn bellowed in the distance. Sounds like the Tigurum camp was starting their hunt for the day. Aayla decided to try one more time before she went to work. She focused on the silver cuff and focused all of her frustration on the tiny warrior with a bow.

She sighed when she opened her eyes and there wasn't a bow in her hand. Why would they engrave other warriors on the silver cuff if it could only make a shield? Aayla's eyes widened. Where were the other warriors? No, where was the bracelet?

Her wrist was now bare. There was no silver cuff or shield attached. Aayla's hands instinctively went to her pockets, but came up empty. She looked around left and right. No one had secretly joined her and that familiar silver glint had disappeared.

Something knocked against her foot as Aayla stepped off of the outcrop. She jumped back on like a frightened rabbit. When nothing jumped out to bite her, Aayla carefully stepped off of the outcrop again. Her hands grabbed onto a cold, smooth object as the fumbled in the snow.

When she pulled it back up, silver once again gleamed in the sun. It an elegant silver bow. A spark of realization struck Aayla. She did it! She didn't know why or how, but she had something other than a shield. Just as she began to cheer, her voice caught in the back of her thought.

The bow was missing its string. And she didn't have any arrows. Well, a person needs to take things one step at a time.

Aayla carefully looked over the bow. The ends had two unremarkable red gems. Curious, Aayla sat back down on the outcrop. People shouldn't come to register more points so early, anyways.

The gems would faintly glow when she poured mana into the bow frame. With little mana left in the New Moon Bracelet, Aayla pushed a small boulder down into the valley below. Ice element mana drifted up from where the boulder smashed the surface.

Aayla lowered herself down and carefully perched on a ledge close to the impact site. The New Moon Bracelet greedily absorbed the ice element mana. After it had charged for several minutes, Aayla poured that mana into the bow. With a flash, mana flowed from one gem to the other, creating a string of light.

Giddy with excitement, Aayla cautiously tried to pluck it. Cool to the touch, the string felt stiff and taut. Her fingertips stayed firmly attached to her hand and just felt a bit numb. Aayla was about to stop the flow of mana into the bow, when she noticed another gem in its grip.

The gem slightly sparked to life when touched. Another idea popped into her head. Aayla's left hand touched the gem and pulled back, like she was notching an arrow. Pulling the bow string took much of her physical strength, but it was worth it.

A thin arrow of light emerged from the gem on the hilt. Aayla let out a happy hum as she looked at the fully drawn bow in her hands. She didn't notice when her numb fingers slipped off of the string. A streak of light flashed through the air towards the other side of the river.

Aayla didn't see where it hit, but she did hear a furious roar emerge from the Havrevel River. The river rippled as waves flooded its banks. Snow fell off of the hilltop and birds scattered in the distance. She tightly clung to the steep slope with a blank face.

The bow shimmered then returned to its bracelet form. Ah, that was bad. She forgot to follow some of the cardinal rules of archery. Don't point at what you don't want to shoot, and always know what is beyond your target.

Several students emerged on the other side of the river. Her heart dropped. In an instant, Aayla made a firm decision. This never happened. Aayla was never here. If she was here then she was testing the snow drifts on this side of the hill. If the shot came from her direction while she was here, then she didn't see anything.