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The bowstring snapped from Kali’s fingers. Her arrow sailed across the green, a straight line into the target. A spray of sand, as it struck and buried halfway through. A solid hit, though not quite enough to breach the target entirely and leave her mark on the wall behind, as so many Mjauzi had before.

Significant progress, nonetheless, in the two years that had passed.

With more coin in her pockets, and in the landlord’s, since completing her apprenticeship, Kali had more time for training. Almost every night, she was up in the Mjauzi yard with Mikora—even some nights without. And all her training, her dedication, had paid off. She now successfully fired one of the last training bows on the rack, one step from the Mjauzi bow she sought. Soon, even the solid bags of sand wouldn’t stop Kali’s arrows.

Kali turned an ear, hearing an identical snap of a string at her left. The arrow didn’t fly as straight or as hard as Kali’s had, but it still landed at the center of the target. Only towards the right, where Samirra often listed. Kali grinned, regardless. “Not bad.”

Samirra scrunched her nose, showing the tips of her teeth. “Don’t start with that. I know it’s off.”

“I was being serious!”

Samirra scoffed. She pointed at Kali’s target. “You try shooting straight when you’ve spent the last two hours chopping vegetables. Then you’re not gonna be half as impressive.”

“You can’t always use vegetables as an excuse,” Kali said. She set her bow into the dirt, using it to lean out across the grass. Her gray tail lifted and curled, showing every ounce of mischief that also glinted in Kali’s eyes. “I don’t think they’re going to accept that on the test.”

“Well, I shouldn’t be chopping vegetables, then.” Samirra grimaced. “I hope.”

“What will you be doing, then?”

“Hopefully bossing everyone else around. That’s what a sous chef should be doing. They just have to put me through my paces first.”

“Through your vegetables?”

Samirra sighed. “Yeah.” She reached for another arrow, plucking one from the quiver at her hip. Though she didn’t move to nock it, instead idly spinning it around in her fingers. “Didn’t your staff do the same thing?”

Kali smirked. “The crew? Not especially. That’s what the apprenticeship is for.” She straightened up, dropping her tail when she heard a purposeful stride leaving the stables. Talons clicking as they followed. Dogging on the softer steps, as Melganzi always did, their skull hovering over Mikora’s shoulder even as they walked onto the grass.

Some things had changed in the couple of years. Some things hadn’t. The way Kali felt her whiskers tugging back, almost into a snarl, when she saw Melganzi’s haughty skull certainly hadn’t.

“I’ve finished brushing them out,” Mikora announced, with a pride brimming her whiskers, like this had somehow made Melganzi look any less haggard and worn than they did before. “They’re ready to ride.”

“Samirra can go first.”

“What?” Samirra chirped. “Hold on. Why me?”

“She’s got a shift in an hour,” Kali said, addressing Mikora rather than the dagger-like eyes boring down on the side of her muzzle. “I can wait until Darshan and Grynkeel get back. I’m not in a rush.”

Mikora huffed. The ruse didn’t glide over her ears as easily as Kali hoped it might, instead twisting aside in annoyance. “You’re lucky you’re right,” Mikora said. She stroked Melganzi’s mane one last time, then waved Samirra over. “Well, Melganzi is ready if you are.”

Samirra shot one last glare at Kali. “That’s so dirty,” she whispered.

“But I’m right.”

Samirra flashed her teeth with a silent snarl. She shouldered her bow and trotted over to Mikora, tucking her tail closer to her legs when she was within biting distance.

Kali picked her bow up, flicking dirt off the end. She strode over to the targets, yanking out her and Samirra’s arrows from each.

She paused there, as she dropped her arrow into her quiver, and glanced at the hallway. Some stray voices pulled her ear for a second. None she recognized, or she was particularly interested in. Something of a habit which happened now and then, though it and happened more often years ago.

When she would check the palace halls more frequently, in case she caught sight of a familiar brown colorpoint pelt, which she once lusted after.

She didn’t think as much about what once was. Rinzaan, though the name brought a slight pang to her chest, didn’t fill her with unrelenting sadness the way he once had. Over time, that wound had healed, and only a faint scar remained. One left often by that first love, and that first loss, that Kali shared with plenty of other cats. Even Samirra, who sometimes reminisced about the cute stable hand, their single fling in the stall after which he had abandoned the palace for a job on the docks. Kali saw him occasionally, though she never brought it up.

Maybe Samirra saw Rinzaan when she carried serving platters across the palace. Maybe she even delivered a meal to him once or twice. But, if she did, she never mentioned that, either.

An unspoken agreement often made between friends. Because those scars were best left alone, unfestered as they were.

“Kals, move clear!” Mikora shouted. “Or do you want an arrow in your pelt?”

Kali scoffed. Archery while on one’s own feet was one matter, but while riding? Even Kali hadn’t come close to mastering that yet. From what she’d heard from Darshan, even Symas still had half his arrows bucked into the sand. “If Sam could land that shot, I’d be impressed.”

“I’m right here!” Samirra said. She leaned over in the saddle, past Melganzi’s shoulder, but a short hiss made her jump back into her seat. Her tail still tucked close, wrapped against her leg, where Melganzi couldn’t as easily reach.

“Then prove me wrong,” Kali said. She stepped back from the targets, to the edge of the green, leaving more than enough space for Samirra and Melganzi. Worried more about the latter, since she wouldn’t put it past the Bryburkel to trample her, if they had the chance.

She watched their first pass. By some miracle, even while nearly being thrown by Melganzi’s rowdy gait, Samirra’s arrow nicked the target’s edge. Perhaps goaded on by Kali, with how Samirra twisted around with the smartest grin on her muzzle. An smile that reached Kali’s whiskers, too, with an added laugh, when Melganzi took the chance to kick their legs and throw Samirra sideways off their back.

Mikora, of course, was aghast, as if she’d never seen Melganzi behave that way before. Despite the number of times Melganzi had done the same to Kali. Samirra was lucky Melganzi didn’t turn around and nip at her tail.

They were on slightly better behavior, with Mikora nearby, helping Samirra up from the grass. Fussing more over Samirra’s technique than Melganzi’s spiteful maneuver. Kali covered her muzzle with a hand, laughing through her clasped fingers.

Something that came far more easily to her now than it did some time ago, when she still checked the hallways often for a pair of awkward brown ears. It took time, but eventually she stopped looking back at what she had, at what she lost, and she turned forward again. The same way Samirra did now, as she reluctantly climbed back into Melganzi’s saddle.

Kali raised her muzzle up to the star-covered sky. The shades were drawn back to let hazy blue light flood down on them all, as they were on most nights they trained together. The cool breeze rustling across her fur, swaying the short grass at their feet. Samirra falling, yet again, when Melganzi bucked her from the saddle. A wonderful night in Mjau, beneath that starlight, like so many others before, where Kali continued moving forwards towards her future, that bow hanging on that wall, even if she had to do so alone.

She would never forget Rinzaan, their precious moments together, but she would still continue forward, seeking whatever new future awaited her. One step, one arrow, at a time. Kali would continue striving towards the end she sought, with those memories behind her and all they meant to her. She would reach for that bow as long as the stars shone as they did in the cloudless sky, no matter what shadowed wings might cross them.

END