A Show Of Power

"Bulls eye!" The guard yelled for the umpteenth time, waving the red flag high above his head.

I swallowed as I put my bow down, trying really hard not to pay attention to the whispers behind me. I thought I could get out of this but turns out I couldn't. Immediately Killian saw me, his face broke into a grin and when I tried to tell him I had an upset stomachache to get out of it, he pleaded and there was also a fact that he called me a chicken, looking for an excuse to get out of the game because I cannot take not losing.

So I joined it, along with Adrianna and Celeste. Killian spent few minutes explaining how to nock an arrow and the stance to take to Adrianna and Celeste. I on other hand tried to feign ignorance as if I hadn't played it before and I really tried to be terrible, or pretend just like Heather had said. But when I released the first arrow and it actually hit the target I knew it was going to be a problem.

Then the second hit the bulls eye and then the third, and fourth and the least just kept going till murmurs of the lady of the house beating a duke in archery began to circulate and before I knew it we now have a crowd.

"You said, you weren't good?" Killian asked as he stared at the arrow before he turned to look at me.

"Yeah, I'm not." I said with a nervous chuckle, "Or at least, I think I'm not."

"Well, you lied." I heard a sharp voice say accusingly.

And here comes the trouble, I was hoping I could avoid! I thought dryly as I turned to face Adrianna who stood beside Celeste, both stood at me with their arms crossed. "Well, I didn't lie." I said giving them a tight smile, "I only said I wasn't good at it because it had been so long I practiced."

Celeste scoffed at me, "Yeah? Then how did you get so good at it?"

"I have a brother." I replied.

"And I have two!" Adrianna retorted as she stepped forward, "That doesn't make me good and believe me they made me practice."

I gave her a tight lipped smile, trying to deflect the tension. "Guess you were not a very good student as you thought you were then."

Adrianna's eyes were filled with anger, her nostrils flaring as she took a step towards me. Killian seeming to sense the cat fight that was about to happen, stepped forward.

"Alright, you both have brother's that's good. I'm an only child so I guess I'll never know what that feels like." Killian interjected, "But the reason why we are doing all of this is because I wanted us to fun, so let's not forget that, okay?"

I could feel the heat of Adrianna's growing anger as she continued to glare at me in anger, looking oast Killian's shoulders. There was tension between us and I saw her hands balling into fists but she calmed herself down.

"Fine, but let's do something else." Adrianna said, throwing her bow down on the ground, "Archery sucks!"

Finally, an outing, thank the gods! I thought to myself as I dropped my own bow and quiver. From my peripheral vision, I could see Killian looking at me but I paid him no mind. Instead I walked towards Heather who had a grin so big on her face, I was afraid she was going to strain a muscle.

"You can relax now Heather." I said handing her my bow and quiver.

"Did you hear what they were saying?" Heather hissed at me, "Such outrageous things but most were really only wondering how a princess got really good at shooting an arrows."

"A husband for a knight and a prince who has won many battles for a brother." I replied sarcastically as I grabbed a cup of cold juice.

I emptied down the content while Heather grabbed a towel and began to dab at the sweats on my forehead. Around us the crowd were already dispersing, I didn't miss the way some of the servants gave me looks, as if they were trying to figure me out. They were going to be having a hard time doing that though.

They may have seen a side of me today but they shouldn't try to look beyond it, or they won't be as fortunate as Heather! I muse to myself as I grabbed a strawberry macaroon and took a bite out of it when all of a sudden, I heard a yell.

Heather and I both whirled around to look at the source. Standing with her hands on her narrow hips and face beet red with anger and embarrassment was Celeste and kneeling down right in front of her was a male servant who was holding a glass of spilled juice.

"How can you be so stupid?" Celeste yelled in a shrilled tone.

"My apologies my lady, I just felt tired all of a sudden and…"

Before the boy could say another word, Celeste raised a hand and slapped him hard across his face. The sound of the slap echoed through the air causing everyone to immediately fall silent. The servant's face tuned to the side on impact, angry red handprints showing on his cheek and I decided that I couldn't take it anymore.

So I decided to intervene. Setting my glass down, I approached Celeste who was still fuming with anger as she took another step towards her. "What's the matter here?"

"He spilled drink on her dress." Adrianna stated, her gaze cold as she glared at the servant, "Can you imagine his incompetence?"

Killian stepped forward, "I think he's learnt his lesson now, so perhaps if you would be so kind as to let him go."

"He ruined my dress!" Celeste screeched.

I arched a brow up at the way the small stain that was on her clothing. "Yeah, it doesn't look that much to me."

"I'm so sorry miss, I didn't mean to_" The boy tried to apologize again but Celeste hit him again, causing him to fall down to the ground.

"Celeste!" Killian yelled at the same time, I went to the boy.

I inspected his face only to see he was already bleeding from his lip. But before I could do so further, Celeste grabbed him by the collar of his clothing and raised a hand up to slap him but I figure out that I've had enough of this.

Before she could hit him, I grabbed her hand halting her movement. "That's enough!" I said my voice cold and unyielding as I glared at her.