MAGICAL WEAPON TESTING

I tapped my toes and rocked on my heels, waiting for the long convoy to leave our driveway. We had to all stand there till they were properly out of sight too.

"Where's my bow?" I asked the moment the last car turned and disappeared behind the woods. Our warrior wolves would see them all the way to the borders and make sure they leave. Hahaha. Meanwhile, I could barely wait a minute longer.

"Hoo Boy, Sam." Beta Lucas found his voice again, "Didn't you hear? The bow doesn't work."

"Where's Wolfgang?" And then I quickly added for Bell's sake, "I want him to tell me how this thing works."

I held up my right hand and tapped the metal rings together so they could see the metal melt and solidify again. I grinned at their astonished faces, "It's magic, right? It has to be! Come on Sabre, do you wanna come too? Since you helped me pick it, I'll let you come watch."

"Oh, Sam… I don't know…" Mum was immediately worried.

"Are the detainees here yet?" Dad checked his watch.

"Not yet, Alpha." Beta Lucas answered, "But they're on their way. The Deltas are waiting for your leisure."

"I suppose 10 minutes wouldn't hurt." Dapper Dad grinned, "Someone call Sir Wolfgang down. Let's see Sam shoot."

"Yay! Dad's the best!" I exclaimed.

"Don't you forget it." Dad said.

Wow, my Dapper Dad… and again, no one, not even Mum remarked on Dad's personality change.

Mum only pressed her lips down, "Very well, but Baby, stay close to Mama."

Like what? Did Mum think I would accidentally shoot Sabre? Please! Hadn't she heard what a talented archer I was? Or at the very least, give me credit for having enough sense not to notch my arrow with my bow pointing at someone!

"How was your meeting, Son?" Dad asked casually. He clapped Bell on the shoulder and once again steered him away from me. Sigh my Dad, dapper or not, was still stubborn and overprotective.

We made our way to the open space behind the Alpha House. Ki and Wolfgang would meet us here. This would probably be safest place to shoot anything, especially since no one would step on the Alpha's lawn (backyard applies).

"Ki! Wolfgang!" I waved at the two men on our porch the moment I saw them.

I noticed a movement from our upstairs window and waved. Savy and Lizzy opened their window.

"What are you doing, Sam?" Lizzy asked.

"Shooting an arrow!" I yelled back.

A window opened from the side wing, EJ's red head popped out, "Oh, wait for me! I want to see!"

After a while, there was a small audience on the back porch.

Wolfgang had taken whatever instructions given to him too seriously again. He was wearing a full set of archery gear. It was different from the type my school used. Wolfgang's bow had wheels on either ends and looked really complicated.

"Is that your bow?" I was immediately curious, "I've never seen one like this."

"It's a modern hunting bow." Wolfgang answered, "It's more convenient for a casual hunt."

"A gun is more convenient." Ben corrected, because Ben always had to show off his bad attitude like that.

"Unfortunately, it is the only bow I brought with me." Wolfgang shrugged off any possible hope that we might go hunting.

Ki had gotten Barry and Ink to help him hang up several target boards in the trees.

Oh well, it was probably dumb to rush into a live hunt with a weapon I only think will be very likely to work.

"Do you know about my new bow?" I didn't want to waste any time, "How does it work? Where should the string go? What kind of arrows can I use?"

I looked around, what happened to my bow?

Harvey produced the case from my side.

This was becoming a bad habit. I was so used to someone holding stuff for me, I had stopped noticing where my own stuff went.

Wolfgang nodded a polite bow, "Pardon me, princess."

I stepped aside for the fire wolf to take the bow out. He looked it up and down with a frown, and then he shook his head, "I'm afraid I've only read of such a bow, and not enough to know how it operates."

He handed the bow to me. Despite the heavy bronze coloring, the bow felt like it weighed nothing. I was beginning to see why Alpha Solomon's treasure experts thought that it might be a stage prop.

I held it on its grip, and the moment I did that, my hair flew up in the air and magic like the wind gushed out from nowhere and into the bow.

Suddenly the bow gained weight.

"Cool." I said.

There was still no string on the bow, nor any arrows, but I still pointed it at one of the targets.

What if, and I'm only saying it with a very big IF, what if this was one of those legendary bows in Lycan legends? The kind that shot magic, not arrows. Not that I would know how that worked, but what if?

I raised my right hand and plucked where the bow string should be. The moment the thumb ring touched the other two finger rings,the metal melted, and this time, I felt a quite solid arrow between my fingers. It was already in the nook. Like a magical automatically loading bow.

The moment I griped the bow between my fingers, a red line of light appeared where the arrow should be.

I could feel the tension of the invisible bowstring, so I drew it as far as I could and let it loose.

The red line flew out, hit the wrong target square in the centre, and then it exploded into flames.

Lizzy screamed from the upstairs window.

"Someone get the hose!" Harvey ordered.

"There's water in the pool too!" EJ pointed.

"There are pails in the garage." Ki added.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" I exclaimed to whoever hadn't left to get the hose and pails.

"Can you do that again, Sam?" Dad asked.

Mum frowned, and Dad amended, "This time without the fire?"

I looked down at the rings on my hand. The one on my index finger had a red stone.

"Are you looking for these, Alpha?" Harvey showed me the section of the case where the finger tabs were stored. There were more rings here, all plain silver colored index rings, each with a different colored stone.

"Okay, let's try another stone." I looked at the selection and then back up to Wolfgang, "Which do you think might be a safer color?"

Now it was Wolfgang's turn to consider the different stones, "Maybe blue."

Yeah, blue was always my lucky color.

"It is probably water." Wolfgang said.

Oh, so red was fire and blue was water. It was like a cliche Lycan legend color code.

I switched my ring to the one with a blue stone. Again I lifted my bow and the magic gushed in, only less this time because the last shot didn't use up much magic.

A blue line appeared in place of the arrow this time. I shot it and it put out the fire.

The arrow landed on its mark like a bucket of water threw up on it.

"That was excellent, princess." Wolfgang applauded, "Your accuracy is impressive."

Yes, about that... I wasn't usually that good. It was probably something to do with the bow or magic.

Someone hooted from the other side and I realized the deltas were watching from the packhouse windows too.

The other guys clapped too. Dad clapped loudest and Sabre shouted, "Do another, Sam!"

Even Mum was smiling.

"Try another ring, Sam." Ben said, "Try all of them so we know what they all do."

So I did, wondering when my "true aim" would reveal its flaws, but every single time, I would hit the same target. The poor tree.

So the red one set it on fire.

The blue one doused it in water.

The white one froze the water.

The green one was interesting - it injected "life" into the branch and the tree burst out of the ice and doubled in size on that particular branch, then because of the weight of the hulk branch, the tree creaked and snapped at the truck and fell over. Opps.

But by now everyone was too into it to think about the destruction of the poor tree. A whole bunch of people have come down to watch from the side where it was still the Packhouse yard. (Because far be it for them to be disrespectful enough to step foot on the Alpha's grass.)

The transparent stone threw a shield that rammed into the fallen hulk branch - its impact was like driving a car into it, and happened with quite a loud crashing and splintering sound.

The yellow stone did nothing... At first. And then the branch petrified so that the wood turned into a black charcoal thing. What the hell was that?

And the purple stone shot out and hit the large chunk of charcoal. Nothing happened.

"What do you think that was?" I asked.

"It might be poison." Wolfgang guessed, "But this is an educated guess at best."

Because by elimination and color coding in its most cliché Lycan legend way, purple was probably poison. We wouldn't know since it's not like you could poison a piece of charcoal.

"Hoo boy." Beta Lucas said, "I guess we have BBQ supplies."

"The poison, Dad." Ben reminded him, "What if burning it releases the poison into the air?"

Beta Lucas shrugged, "Or the fire can cure the poison."

Ben groaned, "I'm not going to be responsible for a mass gassing at a BBQ party."

There were slots for more rings but that was it. 7 rings. This bow was OP.

"Can I have a go?" Ben asked.

"I thought you said a gun was more convenient?" But even as I said so, I handed the bow over.

"Oof, it's heavier than it looks." Ben said when the bow transferred hands.

I shrugged it off. I mean, before I joined the archery club, the fact that a bow had weight had never occurred to me either.

"You need these for it to work." I took off the rings and helped him wear them. We decided on the blue water ring because it was the least destructive one.

"Hold it here." I said.

Ben was having trouble with the stance, and I was useless at teaching him.

It was Wolfgang who told him, "Waist down, it's almost like holding a rifle."

Ben could manage that, but the waist up was hard. The lack of bow string didn't help.

He could get the metal to melt easily enough though, "Cool. It's like metallic slime."

I had no idea what that was.

He handed it back to me after failing to grasp the bowstring at all, "Never mind, Sam. I'll stick to guns."