Young Writers Society

Evaline scoffed when Jerica leaped down to the branch she was just at, annoyed that they earlier had to fight to sit on the previous branch when she was just going to go back down anyways. She decided to grit her teeth and not say anything, but then silently crawled back down to the branch below for better stability.

It seemed that Jerica was going to kill the wolves with the bow and arrow. Perfect. She wasn't going to intervene.

"C'mere puppy," Jerica said sarcastically, then softly whistled. One of the wolves whirled around and lunged towards her, mouth open.

Jerica released the arrow, sending it through the back of the wolf's throat. Another leapt at her. She sent the arrow through its eye. She grabbed another arrow and took down the next and then the next.

She made it through 9 of the wolves in only a few more seconds than that, then snapped her head around, searching for the last two. They weren't coming after her. But they had to be around.

Evaline didn't have a clear view, but she watched Jerica whiz one arrow after another, doing so silently and -- she assumed -- in success. She heard some of the wolves grown then suddenly whimper in pain. It appeared she truly was the "General of the Archers" or whatever. She didn't doubt her abilities; she was just glad they were finally able to leave this area, as bizarre as the solution was.

Suddenly Jerica paused, but still appeared to be attentively looking around.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"There's two left..." Jerica answered, pushing herself up on the branch to walk forward -- still not holding on to anything. "And I can't find them."

And enemies that you couldn't see were always far more dangerous than the ones you could.

Evaline lowly hummed in thought, slowly taking out the whistle in her pocket. She thought it was useless since the item would attract predators if blown, but it seemed that was exactly what she needed right now.

"I'm going to blow the whistle to attract them," she announced, but didn't wait to hear Jerica's response.

She placed the items on her lips, blowing on it. No sound came out, verifying that this was either a useless item, or it truly was a whistle.

Jerica glanced up at Eve, wondering what she meant, blowing the whistle. What? Nothing even happened. And--

A wolf darted out of nowhere and leapt towards Jerica's ankles. She stumbled backward as the wolf bit through the narrow branch instead, breaking it, but not able to yank it all the way off. Jerica sank an arrow into its eye. Almost before Jerica could get the last arrow out of the quiver, the final wolf was upon her.

It jumped on the corpse of the wolf before it and threw itself at Jerica. She had nowhere else to go. She scuttled backward, then leapt off the branch, stumbling back to catch her balance. The wolf turned towards her and dove forward. She sank the final arrow in its throat, then turned in a quick circle to verify that she'd counted accurately. Her entire body was heaving for breath.

So maybe Evaline should have waited for Jerica to be at a higher branch before she blew the whistle. Well, at least the whistle worked. And she was okay. And also seemed to kill all the wolves. Good for her.

... She did feel a little bad, but it was fine.

"You okay?" she asked, not having moved.

"Yeah," she answered gruffly, mostly by habit. She was still scanning the area for more wolves but didn't see any. She swallowed hard and tried to meter her breathing as she walked forward and yanked the arrow out of the wolf. It was bloody now, but it'd be helpful to have for future threats.

Too much adrenaline was still blocking any questions Jerica might have in a minute. And blocked any snarky thoughts towards Eve, since she couldn't be bothered to think about her at all. It was all survival mode in that instant.

Evaline slowly started to inch down, landing on the branch below here where Jerica was at all night.

"Did you get all of them?" she asked.

Eve's stupid question helped pull her out of her instinct-filled daze. Why would she be standing on the ground if she saw more wolves? It didn't even make sense. If Jerica hadn't gotten them all, she would either be shooting -- or climbing. Not standing down here panting. "Yeah. I did. You can come down now, highness."

Evaline rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore Jerica's last comment as she started to make her way down the tree. About a minute passed before she was able to safely jump off the last branch. She glanced around with a dismayed scowl, noting the bloodshed around them.

"That's, um," she said not even sure what to say. "That's a lot of wolves."

Jerica resisted the urge to comment on how slow Eve was climbing down. She also resisted the urge to make a jab asking if Eve still didn't want to be rescued or if she thought she could have taken them on herself.

Derik said she was a bad winner.

She was working on it.

"Yeah," Jerica said gruffly. She strode forward and yanked another arrow out of the wolf in front of her. "Eleven."

Evaline was quiet for a moment, biting back any comments she had about fragile moment as her eyes drifted on each dead wolf, one-by-one. It was strange how horrifically aggressive they were one minute, and innocently lifeless in their own pool of blood the next.

"...Thank you," she said, barely audible as she crossed her arms and looked up at the sky. It was early morning now.

Jerica stopped abruptly, surprised. Had she heard her right? This must have been what Aerik felt like the first time she thanked him. Completely unexpected. She glanced at Eve, then went back to retrieving the arrows. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure... I'm just glad we're down, now... and that we have a bow. This is gonna make our lives easier."

Why did Evaline almost prefer the thick tension between them last night? It felt so wrong to be open and grateful in front of Jerica, but she knew she just had to swallow her pride and admit it, especially since Jerica saved her.

...Again. Ugh.

"...Yeah," she said, then cleared her throat even though she had no idea what to say. She squinted out towards the horizon with her arms crossed. "Um. Yeah. You can get changed and we can -- yeah. Go that way."

With her head, she pointed down the path they didn't take yesterday. The dragon's path.