Castaway

AIM AT YOUR TARGET

“Wake up. Your arrows are done.”

Devanna woke up Limo early in the morning. His legs found their strength again for a long time. He’s bedridden when he was in the hospital. Devanna agreed to teach him how to use her bow first before teaching him how to fight using his fists.

Limo went to his bathroom and fixed himself before going out. He saw Amaron and Calyx sitting across each other on a table. They looked like they just woke up and Baron appeared after carrying a tray of mugs.

“You should let Limo drink his energy drink first, Dev,” Amaron shouted.

Devanna looked at them while she was busy preparing her shooting ground. She nodded her head when Limo looked at her, and Baron handed Limo a mug of hot cocoa.

“Or do you prefer coffee?” Baron asked him.

“No, this is good. Thank you,” he said.

Limo sat on the three-step stairs on their cabin’s porch. He watched Devanna fixing the arrows and prepared another shooting board she’s been working on for days. She walked towards them when she was done. Baron handed her her mug.

“Do demons go around here?” Limo asked them.

“No, they knew who the huntsmen are. If they were, it’s like walking straight to your death bed,” Devanna answered.

“By the way, what are these demons?” he asked.

“Well, yesterday we got to fight an Abalaki. That’s why I brought Calyx with me,” Amaron told him.

“Abalaki is a demon that looks like a big black bird or most likely looked like a big crow with a pair of bloody eyes. Well, I can take care of it myself, but sometimes an Abalaka could be so strong when it’s almost a Kabal, just like what Devanna had fought when you almost wanted to die at the hospital,” Amaron smirked. Limo lowered his head, embarrassed of his foolishness. He looked at Devanna, but she looked away. He knew it was her who told them that.

“So are you saying these demons evolved?” Limo asked them.

“Yeah, demons came from people’s negative emotions. When a place surrounded by too much hate and fear, a demon surfaced. The first one is called Shadows. The newly formed Shadows can be easily taken down but the trickiest one. They don’t have forms, and you have to find its neck before you could purify them. I think you have seen one before. Ordinary people can see them sometimes,” Calyx said.

He remembered seeing one in their storeroom, though. He’s not sure if it was a Shadow. “Where do their neck locate, and what does it look like?” he asked.

“Nothing in particular, and they’re just pure mass of black with no form, but when you touched them and found a bulge, you have to cut it down immediately before it moves away. That’s their neck,” Amaron told him.

“And pour it with this.” Calyx showed him a small bottle with a cork as its cap.

“Did you steal it from my inventory again?” Baron asked Calyx.

“No, I didn’t. It’s a spare from yesterday’s mission,” Calyx defended himself.

Baron looked at him with meaningful eyes. He said, “If I find out I missed a bottle from my storeroom, I’ll make you sanctify a lot of water.”

Calyx met Baron’s eyes with a lot more intensity. “I’m telling the truth,” he said in his manly voice.

Limo took the bottle. He can’t see the inside clearly. It was a dark-coloured bottle, but he knew it contained some liquid.

“That’s the Huntsmen Elixir, a mixture of a huntsmen's blood and sanctified water buried underground for three months,” Baron told him.

“So basically, there are three demons that we need to purify with this elixir, the Shadow, an Abalaki, and the hardest demon to catch is a Kabal. It’s a shapeshifter, and the strongest one can hypnotized people with weak hearts and minds. Devanna was just pure lucky when she purified one.” Amaron looked at Devanna.

“Maybe it was a newly formed Kabal who stayed at the hospital for days. It doesn’t fully understand its capabilities and skills, yet that’s why it doesn’t know how to fight. We barely ever seen one, but that was not the first time we encounter it. Maybe the first time for Dev,” Baron shared his theory.

They stared at the trees around them when a cold wind whistled and carried fallen leaves. Baron tightened his arms crossed against his chest.

“I’ve read that there is something more powerful than the elixir that can immediately purify demons,” Baron told them. They looked at him, waiting to continue his sentence.

“The Primo’s blood,” he said.

-0-0-0-

“Don’t hold it for more than three seconds, or your arms will sore. Hold its tail without making a fist,” Devanna instructed him. She fixed his grip and posture.

“Now shoot,” she told him, and he did.

It was supposed to hit properly looking at his stance, but the arrow flew over the wooden target and struck the tree behind it. They heard Amaron and Calyx laughed from their cabin’s porch.

“At least you hit something,” Devanna said, making a tired face.

Limo scratched the back of his head. He saw Devanna picked a spare bow and took one of his arrows.

“Look at me carefully and realize your flaws,” she said.

She moved her left foot backward and stretched her bowstring. He saw everything in slow motion. He stared at her and noticed her tiny waist and perfect curves. His eyes tried to look further above her waist, but he stopped himself and tried to clear his mind and focused on her posture. Devanna pointed her aim and shot the head of their target. He saw it and realized he had a long way to go.

“Now try it again,” she said.

He moved his left foot back just as Devanna did. He straightened his back and adjusted his aim. Devanna saw how he perfectly managed to fix his posture.

“Great, you really did take a look,” she remarked.

“If only your focus didn’t go directly to my chest,” she added.

Limo lost his cool and accidentally threw his arrow without properly aiming at the target. His arrow went against the edge but managed to scratch it.

“Nice try,” Devanna smirked.

-0-0-0-

Limo came out from the kitchen holding a glass of water. Devanna permitted him to take a short break. He saw Baron went inside a room below the stairs. He saw him left the door half-open, but he decided to knock for him to notice his presence.

“Is this your storeroom?” he asked Baron.

“Yeah.” Baron nodded his head.

Limo looked around and saw a lot of bottles of different sizes and colors. They are neatly labeled and piled on a cabinet hanging on the wall. There are tables with big glass jars and dried leaves inside them. There’s also a small cabinet hanged above his working table where the books are.

“What are these books?” he asked him.

“It’s a diary about medicines written by the Feidon Princess, Feliz, the cursed princess. I read in her diary she’s really fond of herbs, especially those medicinal ones. For her, it’s like exploring undiscovered gems,” Baron told him while grinding some leaves.

“That’s quite a lot. Is that one of her works?” he asked while pointing out the book opened in front of Baron.

Baron nodded his head. Limo saw it was handwritten in an alphabet unfamiliar to him. He guessed it was an old way of how they write their words.

“How can you read it?”

“I don’t know. As far as I remember, I just happen to read it when I was five. When Devanna was born, and I received the healing gift of the princess,” he told Limo.

“It was also in her diary where I read about the Primo’s blood and its effects of purifying demons,” he added as he faced Limo.

Baron handed him a small jar that contained the herbs he was grinding and mixing when Limo entered his storeroom.

“Here, this helped Devanna and the others when they started training. It’ll help you cool down your muscles to prevent them from soring too much when you woke up the next morning. Drink it before going to bed every night,” Baron said.

Limo took it and said his thanks.

“We barely knew something about the curse. The Book of Historia was stolen from us 20 years ago. We tried to look for it, especially Devanna, but we couldn’t find it. It contains information written by the previous cursed children and their Primos to pass down their messages to the next generation.” Baron looked at Limo.

“Please, Limo. Help us retrieve it. Help Devanna,” Baron plead.