Lingering Shadows-Chapter 37

Notes:

• Woohoo! Two chapters in two days! 🥳

• To clarify, the raid talked about here happened months before the one in previous chapters.

• Nyoken, Ryith’s right hand man, is also the guy that was reporting to him and the messenger that has a particular dislike for Aro for various reasons not yet revealed.

• Previous Chapter

Chapter 37-Warrior

A little over a year earlier…

Aro knelt behind a sand dune just outside of the Wanderer’s current camp, another archer his age next to him. He fitted an arrow to his string and stood, releasing it and then letting out a short laugh of exultation when the arrow sank deep into the center circle of the far off, makeshift target the two had set up earlier. The boy next to him groaned playfully to see Aro make yet another perfect shot. 

“How do you do it,” the boy grumbled. “I’ve been training two years longer than you,” he finished.

 Aro smirked, a little ruefully.

 “We are the same age, you know,” he said, pulling another arrow from its sheath. 

“That doesn’t account for it,” the other boy said. Aro just smiled. The truth was he had had his hands on a bow as long as the boy next to him, despite not having been training to be a Warrior. There was hardly a spare moment in the last five years he hadn’t spent practicing alone. 

He glanced over towards the camp, and something held his eye. Ryith was walking towards his tent with his second in command, Nyoken. They were speaking rapidly, clearly in a heated discussion, but Aro was too far away to hear them. Nyoken glanced up at him, meeting his eyes across the wind-swept stretch of sand between the camp and the training area and smirked at him. Even from that distance, Aro could see the vengeful look in his eye. 

Immediately, Aro realized that whatever Ryith and Nyoken were talking about in the moment definitely was not going to go well with him. 

His thoughts scattered in a hundred directions as he watched them enter the chief's tent. He searched for something that he could have done wrong in the last couple weeks, but to his confusion he couldn’t think of anything. Actually, things had gone surprisingly smooth for him lately. It was just his luck that something would happen now, especially since the first raid he and the other warriors in training would go on was about to take place.

He turned to the other boy, who was watching him curiously. 

“The Weaponsmith said I could only stay out an hour after training. I’d better head back to camp,” he lied without missing a beat. The other boy shrugged. 

“See you later then,” he said, handing Aro his sheath of arrows. Aro nodded his thanks and half ran-half skidded down the sand dune, barely catching himself from face planting when he reached the bottom and tripped, taking a few wild, staggering steps to regain his balance in the deep, shifting sand. 

He slowed down, moving towards the Weaponsmith’s tent, dark with the stains of smoke. He went around behind it, but didn’t go in. Instead, he turned around and crept behind a few of the other tents toward Ryith’s. 

He glanced up at the training area when he was about to cross an open space, but the boy had his back turned. He silently ran across the final stretch, grateful for the sand that made him silent. He glanced at the position of the dark, sharp shadows cast by the blazing desert sun and slowly moved to the back of the tent, where the sun wouldn’t outline him against the thick canvass of the tent and where Ryith and Nyoken wouldn’t see him when they came out. 

He eased down, grateful that Ryith’s tent was set against the upward slope of sand that surrounded the tiny, sheltered area. Between the canvass and the sand dune, he wouldn’t be found in this position. He waited a moment for his breathing to slow to a regular rhythm, then he tilted forward slightly and listened. 

“-the raid. We’ll be heading out in two days. The boys will be coming with us. Its past time for those who have been training for a few years now.”

That was Ryith’s voice. Low and steady as it always was. He continued. 

“Small as it is, it is a raid. Tonight you’ll prepare Aro, Jaid-” Listening, Aro’s heart beat quicker in excitement. 

“Not Aro.” Nyoken’s gravelly, harsh voice cut Ryith off. 

“Oh?” Aro could almost see Ryith’s expression, head cocked slightly to the side, his cold eyes beginning to spark dangerously down at the warrior who had both interrupted and contradicted him. 

But Nyoken was probably one of the only people not afraid of Ryith. 

“He’s not ready to go on a raid,” Nyoken answered. Aro’s excitement immediately vanished, replaced by frustration and a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

“Yesterday, he failed the evaluation with the other boys his age. He hasn’t reached enough skill to go on a raid,” he finished, barely masking his satisfied tone. Aro leaned further forward, his eyes immediately blazing with anger. He had passed that test. Barely, because he had gotten into a fight with another boy in the middle of it and both of them had fallen behind the others, but he had passed. He had even finished before almost half the other boys. He wanted to storm around to the closed flap at the front of the tent to tell Ryith what a lie that was. 

And he would have if he had been anyone else. But he wasn’t, and as it was, if Ryith decided to verify the story, plenty of the other warriors would be happy to make it look like he was lying. Besides, Ryith was sure to take Nyoken’s word over his. And…if he did that he would have to admit that he had heard the conversation, which meant he would have to admit he had been eavesdropping outside the chief's tent. 

So he stayed crouched behind the tent, hot with anger and glaring down at the ground as he waited to hear Ryith’s answer. 

How long can that man hold a grudge? He thought furiously, wishing Nyoken would just disappear off the face of Aerwiar. 

“Then he stays,” Ryith decided, and Aro realized he had only stopped to think for a few seconds. “A raid is for our warriors,” he continued, and his voice was cold. “We won’t have anyone coming who would endanger the mission.” 

Aro seethed with frustration. He waited while Ryith and Nyoken finished talking and left the tent, and then he silently crept out from behind the tent and back up to the now deserted training grounds with his bow still in his hand. 

He started shooting, trying to take out some of his anger on the unoffending targets. It didn’t work. He finally tossed his sheath to the ground and walked further away from the camp. 

He was supposed to be going on that raid. He had passed the tests, and if it weren’t for the fact that Nyoken hated him for something that had happened three years ago, he would be going with Jaid and the others. He far surpassed most of the young warriors in archery. He belonged in that raid. 

Furious, not quite thinking straight, that was when Aro decided he was going on that raid, whether or not anybody knew about it, whether or not he was supposed to. Just to defy Nyoken and prove him wrong, and show Ryith that he was just as much a warrior as the others.