Where there was growth, there was decay.
Where there were mountains, there were abysses.
Where there was training... there were trials.
Feeling strength coursing through his body and confidence filling his head, Annan took his "children's bow" and stepped out of the training hut.
He saw two elves standing in the clearing. Annan nodded to them, then glanced around suspiciously. The Forest seemed unusually lively today... or was he imagining it?
"Am I shooting at targets again?" Annan asked.
"No."
Eliana exchanged a glance with one of the elves. He stood about twenty-five meters away, holding up an apple.
"Hit it, and you pass the first test."
Annan refused. "You might be willing to gamble with your own people's lives, but I'm not."
"They're only illusions."
Illusions?
Annan sensed the male elf more closely. Sure enough, he felt none of the tangled emotions he would expect from a real person.
"That makes things easy."
Reassured, he nocked an arrow and drew the green children's bow almost to its limit.
Annan held his breath and closed one eye. A few seconds later, he released the string.
Whoosh—
The arrow became a blur and struck its distant target dead-on.
Beyond the training clearing, faint whispers rose:
"Looks like it wasn't him..."
"Then who was it?"
"Could there be a Traitor...?"
"Maybe he's disguising himself..."
Thud—
The apple fell and rolled several times. The elf, an arrow buried in his forehead, toppled backward with his eyes wide open.
"How was that?"
Watching the elf dissolve like a bubble, Annan turned to Eliana for praise.
"What did you hit?" Eliana asked, her face expressionless.
"A vital spot on the enemy! What, am I supposed to shoot apples in a real fight?" Annan replied, entirely confident in his reasoning.
Eliana stared at Annan for several