Chapter 5

Tayan stretched the bowstring until it was parallel to her ear. She held the bow steady and aimed the arrow at the center of the target. She let fly, and watched as the arrow hit the ring next to the center.

“The problem is your breathing.” She started and turned to look at Raidon in surprise.

“Oh, hi Raidon-kun. I didn’t hear you come up behind me. Um… what are you doing at the archery field; I didn’t think you were in the archery club?”

“I’m not, though I do come out here for meditation every now and then. Archery helps me to calm myself. I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”

She smiled and shrugged. “No it’s ok. I’m just killing some time. We’re going into town later today. Is it a free-day for upperclassmen as well as freshmen?”

“It is, but I’m not going into town. My group has a mock mission scheduled for today. Enjoy yourself though, it isn’t often they let first years go to the town unsupervised. They don’t know if they can trust you see, so be careful of what you say. There are ‘inquisitors’ planted among the regular townsfolk who will try to get you to talk about your time here at the school.”

“Thanks for the info. I’ll be sure to watch what I say.” She looked at his watch. “Oh my gosh, is that the time, I’m late!” She hurriedly retrieved her arrow and replaced everything where she’d gotten it. “I’m sorry to rush off like this, but I promised my friends that I’d meet them at the gate, and I still have to go down the stairs.” She made a disgusted face.

Raidon laughed. “It’s no problem. I’m meeting my group soon anyways. I’ll see you again later.”

“Yeah, I’d have had to chase you out if you weren’t already planning on leaving. You’d interrupt our mission briefing.” James, Tayan’s cousin stepped from the path back to the school and into the clearing. “Didn’t you say you have somewhere you needed to be?” He asked somewhat pointedly, smiling to take the sting from his words.

She blinked at him a couple of times before understanding lit her eyes. “Oh no, I’m still late! Bye” and she rushed off

“Still late?” he cousin said, staring at her retreating form with one raised eyebrow. He looked at Raidon, who shrugged.

-

By the time Tayan made it to the bottom of the stairs, her friends were exasperated. They were also the only ones there, as all the other students had made their way into town.

“I’m so sorry! I forgot the time, and I was at the archery range, and I was talking to Raidon-kun, and my cousin kicked me out, and I’m sorry that I’m late!” She said in a rush, not even taking time to breathe.

“Sure you did. You were probably trying to come up with a reason to ditch us.” Drystan kidded her.

“I was not!” she exclaimed before realizing that he was joking. “What are you waiting for, let’s get going.” She turned and walked through the gate, the others trailing behind her and shaking their heads in amusement.

-

Their first stop was a jeweler’s shop that Nola had spotted when they’d first arrived on the island. Cyric and Drystan had come up with some ideas of ways they could use rings in missions and the like.

“Ooh, I think I’m getting this one.” Regan stated. She had picked out a lithe school ring design that had a star shaped out in rubies, with a solid white gold band.

“That is gorgeous!” Nola was modeling her choice of ring, a solid gold band with a heart shaped crystal, for Drystan. The boys had already chosen theirs, going with jock like school ring designs; Drystan’s had a peridot stone, and Cyric’s had a sapphire. Both rings boasted thick gold bands.

Tayan paid for her ring, a silver band that was shaped with multiple eternity symbols, and had a translucent crystal set in the center of one of the sideways eights, while listening to the conversations going on behind her.

There was nothing written on any of the rings that could be traced back to the school or even to their specific owners. All of them had decided to have something engraved, but they all chose things that had personal meaning to them, and would mean nothing to others. Tayan had chosen a short poem that she’d written during high school. Nola had hearts engraved on the inside of the band, while Regan had chosen to go with a saying she’d fallen in love with. The boys didn’t tell anyone what the words they’d chosen meant.

“So where to next?” Nola asked. They were all sporting their new rings, trying to get used to wearing them.

“How about bowling?” Drystan suggested. “I haven’t been in a long time, and I hear there’s a pretty good alley here.”

Tayan nodded her head. “Yeah, my cousin said there’s a pretty good one near the edge of town. That sounds good to me.”

Since no one disagreed, they decided to split up for a little while, then meet back up for lunch before going to the bowling alley.

Cyric was planning on checking out some of the shops that dealt with electronics, while Regan wanted to find a music store to look for a couple of new CD’s. Nola and Drystan wandered off together, they didn’t say where they were heading.

Watching everyone head off, Tayan spotted a bookstore. “And that’s my destination.” She said to herself, heading to see if there were any interesting stories she could get lost in. “The perfect place to kill some time.”

So here's the next chapter, waddya think?

Sorry that it's taking so long to update... I'm kinda busy, plus I have so many ideas for stories, i feel bad cutting any of them down...

please review, I'd love to know what you think!

so I just realized that I changed Tayan's name about halfway through this chapter... that error has now been fixed.

EF