White Ghost and the Poison Arrow Read Online Free Page B

that were the case he
would not have been following the motto. And I wonder where he came
from, I thought they were all gone now." These questions will stay on Arella's mind for quite some
time. There is no logical explanation why a creature with as much
power as an auron cat would leave something that was as easy prey
as Arella was just then, but he did.

    Arella finally
climbed down from her tree, careful not to lose her footing and
fall. She took down all of her targets from the trees, put her
dagger away in her boot again and hid the target leaves away in a
bush where no one would find them. She then continued her walk
through the forest towards the clearing she saw the men from the
other tribe in just the night before. Arella has a pretty good
sense of direction, aided by the ability to follow the stars. This
is only the second time Arella has visited this forest, but she
feels as though she knows it well.

    After another couple of minutes of walking, Arella finds the
clearing. She expected to see the men already there, practising
their fighting, but the clearing is empty. The sun has now gone
down, and the moon lights up the clearing with a bright silver
night. Another cloudless sky with moonlight and stars her only
source of light. She crouches at the edge of the clearing,
listening for signs of life, for the voices of the strange men, but
she hears nothing . “I thought they said
that they would be back tonight.” Arella
thinks to herself. “ This is very
strange.” Arella knew it was a bad idea to
get her hopes up on this. There was no way these men would return.
Now she would not be able to learn how to fight.
“ Maybe I should go to their village, and
watch them from there? It can’t be too hard to find, nor too far
away. I’d bet anything it will be on the other side of this forest.
I would be able to hide in the treeline and watch them from
afar.” Arella thinks to herself.

    Just as Arella is about to walk through the clearing towards
the other side, she begins to hear voices in the distance. The men
are coming. She uses the time she has spare to get herself to a
good vantage point, high in the same tree she was hiding in the
night before. Once in the tree, Arella made sure she was hiding in
the shadows, and lifted her hood up over her head, covering as much
skin and hair as she could, and attempting to blend into the dark.
“ As long as none of the men look directly
up here and focus on where I am, I should be able to stay hidden
from them… I hope.”

    An old man
enters the clearing first, followed by the four younger men. He has
long grey hair and a small scruffy looking beard, with a belly
slightly too large for his skinny legs to carry. His skin is
withered and old, the wrinkles plain to see on his red face. Arella
has not seen a man look this old, yet so far from death. He looks
remarkably healthy for one his age. "What more can you have to
teach us Ujarak?" Red Feathered man asks. He seems to Arella to be
quite full of himself most of the time. Almost like he already
knows everything, and nothing can be taught to him.

    "Oh my child."
Ujarak says. "You know nothing of real life Nootau." He then fishes
around in a big bulky bag he carries over his left shoulder.
"Tonight we practice with these." He says as he pulls a strong
looking bow out of the bag. He then proceeds to pull another four
out and hands them to the young men.

    "Bows and
arrows are very primitive weapons Ujarak." Says the smaller one.
Arella thinks his name is Doahte. "How do you expect us to defend
ourselves with these flimsy things?" He spits. He seems very grumpy
and shallow minded. Arella is starting to like this tribe less and
less. But if they can teach her to fight, it doesn't matter what
they are like. With that though, Ujarak pulls back the bow string,
knocks an arrow and fires it at Doahte, narrowly missing the top of
his head and sticking in a knot on an old tree just behind him.

    "Young one, you
must learn. Not all