~Serana⚜️

There was a thought itching at the back of my mind. Ever since I learned of what the lavalieres actually were, I couldn't stop repeating the same questions over and over in my head. Why had Vavi stolen the lavaliere? And if he was really with the rebels, then why did he give it to me and tell me to keep it hidden?

I was supposed to be training but my mind wouldn't shut up. I had been able to push the thoughts to the back of my mind over the past couple days, but now there was nothing to really distract me from them.

I released the bowstring and watched the arrow fly and hit just shy of my mark. Growling at the damned thing I snatched another arrow from my quiver and was about to ready my bow when a voice interrupted me.

"Can I join?" It was feminine and the husky growl to it meant the owner was probably lycan.

I glance over my shoulder to see Racktou's mate. "Sure." I nod happy for the distraction.

The guards had confiscated their weapons before they were allowed in the city. Mira had them taken to the royal armory once they agreed to help. None of the lycans were allowed to carry weapons in the castle, outside the training yard, but they could take them into the city while they looked for the sapian weapon but that was it. To their credit none of them complained and seemed to understand our caution.

The lycan woman had an odd quiver that was strapped diagonally across her back and was no more than a deep leather tube with an open end and the large arrows just sat in it. I tried not to make it too obvious that I was studying her attire and the way she stood as she drew her bow back.

Unlike angelo, her shoulders rolled back and her firing arm was out behind her, parallel with the floor, and the bow was completely vertical. I would have never been able to pull up in that position, my wings would scrunch and get in the way throwing off my shot. I also noticed that she used the pads of her fingers to hold the string instead of her claws.

When she released the arrow I watched in mild awe as it sailed through the air and pierced straight through the target center. I huff and stare at the large wooden arrow for a minute before drawing my bow back again.

I held my bow at a diagonal, resting the arrow between my top knuckle and the bow-shaft, my left arm tucked into my side and my right extended the bow as far as it could to pull the string back. Angling my head down I took aim and fired. The corner of my lip quirked up when the arrow nailed the center.

"How do you shoot like that?" My furry companion asked staring at the arrow in my target.

"How do you shoot like that?" I fire back, before heading to my target to pull the arrows out.

She laughs and walks down the range to retrieve her arrow as well. "Touché." She chuckles.

"To- what?" I ask stopping mid pull on an arrow to give her a confused look.

She laughs softly again. "Good point." She clarifies.

"Oh." I mutter yanking out the stubborn arrow.

"Mama." Another voice calls from the other side of the room.

I turn and look back down range to see the woman's son and the same lycan girl from yesterday that looked strikingly similar to the one beside me.

"What is it Sonja?" The woman beside me calls, standing up straight once more.

"Pinerak wanted to practice with you." The girl, Sonja, answers physically holding the little toddler back.

I furrow my brow and mouth the name. "Sonja." Pretty. I conclude, pulling out the last arrow and clipping it back in my quiver.

"Do you mind?" The woman turns to me and ask.

"Not at all." I assure. "Hey, what's your name again? I'm sorry, but I forgot." I ask smiling a bit awkwardly.

She smiles kindly in return. "Nikvim, but Niky is what most call me." She answers.

"Niky, got it." I mumble, more to myself than anything.

When we reach the end, Sonja loses her hold on the boy and he tries to tackle his nani. She laughs and scoops him up. He somehow manages to get turned upside down and grabs at the bow she slipped on her back. The string of the bow went across her front holding the wooden shaft to her back. Well isn't that handy? I comment internally.

I turn to the young lycan woman, she had to be young being only a couple inches taller than I was. "Hi, I'm Serana." I introduce myself holding out my arm to take hers.

She frowns and hesitates before sticking her own arm out. I smile and grip her forearm firmly.

She seems to shake it of and looks up at me. "I'm Sonja." She says politely.

"Hey...hey winged lady." The youngest lycan calls putting his hand on my thigh to push me and get my attention.

"Pinerak!" Niky growls in a scolding tone.

I just smile and glance at her to make sure she knows I took no offense. "Yes?" I ask turning my full attention to the boy.

"Can you fly and still hit a target? Sonja said I was silly for thinking you could hit a target while moving. But I know ya can, why else would ya need bows if you can't use me while ya fly?" He rambles earnestly trying to convince me that I could fly and hit a target.

I laughed at his adorableness. "I can hit a moving target while flying." I boast.

He looked down right giddy at this admission. "Can I see?! Can I?! Can I?! Can I?!" He was bouncing up and down with excitement.

I was grinning from ear to ear but looked up at his nani to see if it was okay. She smiles warmly at me and nods her permission. "Alright, but we'll have to go to the outside range." I tell him.

"Okay!" He starts to run for the door but seems to realize that he doesn't know where he's going. "Wait why do you have two ranges?" He ask turning to look at me.

"This one is for interior combat training. For when we have to fight within buildings or on the ground. The outside training yard is for arial combat in open space and between obstacles." I explain walking out of the room and leading them to the exterior yard. I had spent a lot of my spare time at the castle flying around the coulombs and hitting the various targets.

When we arrived I notice that the yard was completely empty the same as the interior had been. With all the work lately, the guards weren't able to get much training in and they had very little down time other than when they slept.

"Ready?" I asked once we reached the yard.

Niky and Sonja were looking just as eager as Pinerak by this point. Skies, please don't let me mess up.

Gripping my bow tightly I got a bit of a running start at the flight platform. Planting my foot on the slanted top, I spread my wings and leap into the air.

I hear a few howls and hoops at my take of. Grinning I climb higher and make a wide arc to come back around. I looked down and saw all three of the lycans watching me with slack jaws.

I remembered that lycans lived on the forest floor, and that they saw our shadows more often then they actually saw us.

I got far enough away that I could unsling an arrow and ready it by the time I got close enough to the targets. I picked the closest one to them that they could see from their place on the ground.

Taking aim, I release the arrow and had to make a hasty dodge to avoid hitting a coulomb. I assumed I hit the target judging by the hoops and hollers that followed. Circling around the other way I find another target that was nearly impossible to see from the air but easily spotted from their view point.

I dropped into a dive dodging beams and dangling ropes until I got low enough that I could hit the target without a problem. I had already pulled out the arrow and had it ready to fire, dodging a wooden wall I turn sideways and shoot the arrow as soon as I leave the other side. Again I couldn't watch the arrow as I folded my wings and dodged under a wooden beam.

I pulled back up and managed to get out of the cross beams without so much as a feather out of place. These thin wooden beams that stayed perfectly in place were nothing compared to the roaming mountains of home. There you had to watch which way the rocks were moving while dodging more and keeping an eye on your prey. You didn't want to lose your dinner and you didn't want to run into a rock or get squished between them as they crashed together.

I completely zoned out as I pulled out another arrow and circled back around to find another target. I spot one that's a bit hard to see from the ground but was easy enough to pick out once an arrow was sticking out of it. Ducking under a horizontal sheet of wood I fold my wings and dive through the ropes that were meant to imitate vines. I learned the hard way what happened when you flew through vines with open wings. I had to spend the next month with my wing folded sideways in a sling after I tore it out of socket, one of the worst mistakes of my life.

Once I was on the other side I had to wait a beat to get through a narrow space between coulombs before opening my wing, dangerously close to the ground. I pulled up sharply and just managed to get high enough to pull the bowstring back and fire at the target before I passed.

I continued at this until I ran out of arrows. Sighing I circle for the last time to come in for a landing. When I looked down I noticed a group of roughly ten to fifteen lycans, and just as many guards, standing near the platform watching me.

I dropped in and landed on the platform with a solid thud. Hopping off I turn to the gathered group scattered all around me.

"That-" Pinerak starts looking at me with wide eyes. "Was the most amazing thing I have ever seen." He tells me in the most serious voice I have ever heard a child use.

"Um... thank you." I respond glancing around at the others watching me.

One of the guards finally broke and actually started clapping. Looking closer I notice it was the woman who kicked my tail on my first day of hand-to-hand training.

I watched in mounting horror and embarrassment as the rest of the group joined in. The lycans were howling like a pack of babbo and stomping their feet in place of clapping.

I smile nervously and waved my hand in acknowledgement. I walked over to Niky and her two children who were joined in on the howling.

Niky stopped and smiled at me broadly. "That was a truly remarkable display of Angelo skill." She praises.

"I knew you could do it! See?! Told ya Sonja." Pinerak cheers, his claws clicking on the cobblestone as he jumps up and down.

Sonja bares her teeth at him but turns to me with an apologetic expression. "Looks like I was wrong. That was incredible, even by your standards it seems." She comments looking at the Angelo that had gathered.

"Miss Vynox." Someone calls for me.

Turning to look over my wing I spot a guard holding my arrows. He offers them to me with a nod before leaving and heading back to do whatever he was supposed to be doing.

I fold my bow and put it on the ring before pulling my wing around to start clipping the arrows back into the quiver.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" Niky ask while I'm focused on the arrows.

"I grew up hunting in the Shattered Mountains. If you think that was impressive, you should see the elder hunters. I'm only a hundred and seventeen, I'm no where near as good as they were." I answer clipping the final arrow back in place.

When I turned to look at them Sonja and Pinerak were staring at me like I'd grown an extra set of wings out of my head. Niky looked mildly shocked but not nearly as much as her children. Glancing around I noticed similar looks on a few other lycans that were standing within earshot.

"What'd I say?" I ask, looking back to Niky.

Her ears drop a bit in a mildly embarrassed expression. "Lycanthrope only live two centuries at most, it sometimes catches us off guard to hear of how long you live." She explains.

"I heard Angelo can live to be five hundred years old." Pinerak spoke up, his ears standing tall and his chest puffed out with pride at his knowledge.

I couldn't help but chuckle at his statement. "Most Angelo live for fifteen centuries before our time catches us." I correct him as kindly as I can.

His jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out. "You live for..." He trailed off trying to do the math in his head.

"Fifteen hundred years." Sonja supplies, with dropped ears and a look of confused astonishment morphing her features.

Pinerak's quickly dropped to match hers along with a good majority of the other lycans around us. "Alright enough gawking." Niky chastises, swatting at her children before doing the same to the lycans nearest us. "We all have something we could be doing, now go do it." She orders.

The lycans quickly disperse, some disappearing into the barracks to train others made a beeline for the castle, the only ones that stayed were Niky and her kids.

"My apologies, they-" Niky starts before I cut her off.

"They're fine. I didn't know lycans only lived for two centuries either. It makes sense you wouldn't know things about my race considering how little I know of yours." I state matter of factly.

She sighs and nods her head in gratitude of my understanding. "I don't suppose it would be impolite to ask you to lunch would it?" She jokes motioning to the castle.

Smiling back in return. "Lunch sounds fantastic, I'll have to go drag Mira out of her study first to make sure she remembers to eat something." I motion to the opposite end of the castle. "Hold on a second and we'll meet you by the doors." I call over my shoulder before turning and sprinting for the flight platform.

Niky yelled an affirmative after me as I took off for Mira's study.

Dropping between the two outer walls I hit the balcony rail and hop to the ground. "Mira, come on we're eating lunch with Niky and her kids." I inform the woman still engrossed with the paper on her desk.

"Who?" She ask finally looking up at me.

"Chief Racktou's mate." I explain. "Where's Etria?" I ask noting the vyx' absence.

"One of the maids offered to take her to the garden to play and keep her in shape." She answers flippantly.

"Oh. Well are you coming? Because I may have already agreed to go, but I told them I had to make sure you ate." I asked pointing over my wing.

"You told them I forget to eat?" Mira questions with a glare.

"Uh-well... That came out wrong. What I meant-" I fumble to explain as Mira stands and walk over to me with a neutral expression.

"Breath dear, or you'll faint." She mutters flicking the tip of my wing. "I assume we're meeting them at an outer door?" She questions jumping off the rail.

I quickly follow suit with Ovah close behind. "Yeah, closest entrance from the barracks training yard. Not the infirmary though." I add the last part as an afterthought.

She doesn't respond but tweaks our course. Coming over the roof we spot them just outside the doors.

I give Mira a wide berth as we land so I don't get clipped by her massive wings. Pinerak was watching us with no small amount of awe as we landed. Most of his attention, along with the two female lycans, was on Mira. I couldn't blame them she was a sight to behold, more so when she was flying.

Landing on the ground I trot over to join Mira. As soon as I'm near she slips her hand under my wing and pulls me closer.

"Nikvim." She greets the eldest lycan.

"Just Niky, if you would your majesty." She corrects kindly.

Mira nods in assents before her attention is drawn to the youngest lycan. The younge boy seemed absolutely taken with the queen. "Hello your majesty." He greets his tail waging back and forth as he hops over to stand beside her.

She chuckles at his behavior while his nani adopts a look of distress. "Good evening Pinerak." Mira greets him back.

I had never seen a more perfect picture of giddy pride than that boy right then at having the great queen of the Angelo greet him by name. It was a bit hard to imagine that a couple months ago, I thought the absolute worst of the woman beside me. Now looking at her and the way she lit up whenever kids came around wanting to talk with her or that giant soft spot she had for animals and watching the way they both seemed to gravitate toward her. I saw no trace of the woman I first met and the one I had hated my whole life. There were times where I saw the mask of royalty take over her features and persona, but I now knew the reason behind the mask. And I was starting to learn about the woman behind it as well.

As we enter the building and Pinerak talks animatedly about this and that, I lean into Mira's side and purr lightly. She diverts her attention to me for a moment but upon seeing that I was fine she went back to listening to the young lycan. I could feel her purring softly in return and her hand slipped all the way across my back and under the opposite wing to grab my waist and pull me flush to her side.

When we reach the dinning room and join the ones already seated for the first lunch shift Mira leans in to me. "Are you alright? You seem preoccupied." She whispers.

My thoughts travel back to my questions about Vavi and the lavalieres at her words. "Just thinking. Don't worry, it's nothing." I assure her.

She still wore a look of worry but left it be. Her wing shifted and covered one of mine. She turns to the plate set in front of her and talks with Pinerak and Niky, but her jaw was tight and she leaned towards me more than usual.

I turned to my own plate and listened to their conversation, interjecting my own opinion every now and then. My mind whirled with thoughts and broken memories but I pushed them aside. Now was not the time to ponder over the past and things that could not be changed. I needed to think about the future and what else to do to get through what lie ahead, I could think on my past later, hopefully.