Survival

“Listen up! We’re striking first by arrows aerially. Marion will lead the group to the battlefield and the first half of you will stay in the sky firing arrows. The rest of us will go down straight away and start hand-to-hand combat on the ground. Once our position is secure, archers can come and join us,” Tobias explained in his booming voice. We were on the training island, dressed and armed for yet another battle against the humans. “It may become possible and necessary to invade their ship. We’ll only do this is we feel safe enough. Otherwise, we’ll just head back and stay unscathed. Hopefully the first attack can do enough damage. Head out in one minute.” It sounded like a good strategy to me. There were no pointless risks being taken, and each step was logical. Most Kasiens were spending the last minute sharpening weapons, but I walked over to Tobias.

“Do you really want me to be in the front, leading everyone?” I asked in slightly disbelief. I knew that he trusted me as a warrior now, but I felt like that was a pretty big responsibility.

“Yes,” he replied simply with a small shrug. I awkwardly looked away when I realised that was all he was going to say. “Marion, you’re going to be be fine. You’re a great archer, and that’s why I gave you that task.”

“Adara’s a good archer too,” I remarked.

“I prefer you,” Toby said, his eyes focusing on something behind me. His expression changed to surprise and I saw his eyes were getting teary. I spun around and saw Cassius was coming to a rough stop on the edge of the island. Toby pushed past me and ran over to his friend. I followed and joined everyone in the middle of the commotion.

“Well, I’m supposed to start flying short distances to try and help the healing, so I thought I’d see you off,” Cassius was explaining as I joined Loukas’ side. “Marion, are you fighting?” He seemed a little shocked, but it was definitely in a good way.

“Oh, yes,” I smiled, glancing over at Toby. He wasn’t paying any attention to me, just focusing on supporting Cassius. “Tobias is letting me lead the archers in to battle today.”

“Wow… That’s a big step forward,” Cassius teased his friend before coughing very roughly. “And more tattoos too! Who did them? Oh that’s a lovely craftsmanship…” I moved a little closer to show them to him, seeing Toby was smiling and enjoying the moment.

“Loukas and Sylus did them,” I answered.

“Well I’m glad to see you’re doing well,” he said with a smile.

“I’m glad to see you’re doing well too,” I admitted.

“You should take flight and lead the first of the group away now. It’s been long enough,” Tobias suddenly said.

“Oh, right! I’ll see you later,” I told Cassius.

“Fight well,” Cassius said while I started to walk away. I left him with his male friends and dove off the cliff. Others followed me and soon there was a cloud of Kasiens shadowing my flight path. When I looked back, I could see everyone was behind me, and there was a lone Kasien flying back towards the spaceship, who I assumed was Cassius. I turned my attention back to the task at hand and looked out for the typical landmarks. My nerves were getting worse, despite how much I tried to control them. Logic said I’d be fine, that I had trained for this and was completely prepared. We had fought a few battles since Tobias had started to train me, but this time I was going to play a bigger role in it. He trusted me to do well, so I had to. I wasn’t even scared of losing; I was afraid I’d let Toby down.

“Archers! Arrows ready!” I shouted as we soared across the treetops that led straight to the human spaceship. I reached into my quiver and grabbed an arrow, loading it efficiently into my bow and taking aim. We reached the clearing and instantly I spotted my first target. A female with a basket of apples was strolling back to her spaceship, but sticking to the treeline. At least they were becoming smarter and learning about our techniques… Before she spotted us, I fired the arrow, but only hit the basket. She dropped it and looked to the sky before screaming loudly. And the rest of them were alerted immediately.

More arrows flew to the ground as the humans rushed to their spaceship, a few even attempting to take cover under the trees. Our archers circled around with me and I watched as Tobias, Sylus, Loukas and other males landed in the clearing. They spread out and started to attack humans, forcing them backwards, which only allowed for more room for other Kasiens to land. There was just one more opportunity for me to fire another arrow, and that hit my target directly. The human crashed to the ground and I saw red spilling out from underneath them, indicating it was a crucial strike. I landed near to that human, alongside of the last few archers that had stayed in the air. It was easy to admit that I was feeling proud of myself right now; that shot I had taken was such a great improvement! Tobias was up front by the human’s spaceship, peering in with a few others. Their guns were pointing straight into the doorway, and others had their hands readied on knives.

“What do you think?” Tobias asked Sylus.

“It’s risky…” Sylus said with a wince. Everyone seemed a bit anxious, probably because of what happened last time we went in, but how else were we going to attack the humans?

“We should go,” I piped up as I moved closer to Tobias.

“Get away!” he hissed at me. I instantly backed away, though I was a bit puzzled. I was a warrior now, which meant I had to fight and contribute my thoughts. “Stay at the back Marion! I don’t want you getting hurt!” I gritted my teeth to hold back a snappy comment. If he still didn’t want me to get injured, then why did he let me come here? Why did he train me and let me join the army?

“We could go in and take it slow. Guns first,” Sylus suggested, looking across to his leader for approval.

“It does look a lot safer this time. They’re not panicking as much,” Tobias remarked.

“Don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing…” Sylus added. Then there was the shrill sound of a gun being fired multiple times, and Sylus was suddenly moving out of the way. He used part of the door as cover, but there was still a scratch on his arm. A bullet had nicked him. “I’m fine! Just shoot that human!” On Sylus’s command, the closest Kasiens shifted and started shooting inside the ship. Tobias jumped up and inside the door, and others followed quickly. All I could do was just stand there and wait, watching my race’s army slowly disappear into the enemy’s territory.

“How bad is it?” I called out to Sylus, noting he was just standing there grasping his arm. It could be much worse than I had originally thought, considering he wasn’t rushing into battle alongside Tobias.

“I’ll be all right…” he muttered, seemingly shaking it off and leaping up into the spaceship. “Bring up the rear with me.” I gladly followed him, bow slung securely into place on my shoulder, and dagger in my right hand. Together we moved slowly around the corridors, watching for any signs of danger behind the large group. I could hear screams and cries of pain, as well as lots of guns going off, though I couldn’t tell who had the advantage. Then we came to a split in the hallway, and half of our group was heading one way and half the other. I glanced at Sylus and saw he was trying to peer above the Kasiens on the right. Since I was to his left I decided I would go left, so I started to head down that way. After a few steps I could see the tips of Tobias’ brilliantly large wings up ahead, and also heard his battle cries loud and clear. I turned back and grabbed Sylus’ attention.

“Tobias is this way,” I informed him, earning a nod as he moved to come my way. I kept close to the wall, but suddenly there were hands grabbing onto me from behind. Very quickly I was pulled backwards and almost lost my footing. I cried out in surprise, and I saw Sylus’ eyes widening as he rushed forwards. The image of him was abruptly lost and replaced by a sheet of metal. There were hands grasping for my knife, but I tried desperately to hold onto it, knowing it could be the last chance to save myself. I thrashed as hard as I could against the foreign hands, fearing it was the humans and that they were about to try to kill me.

“Marion! Marion!” Sylus’ muffled voice yelled, and I heard something pounding against metal. Why couldn’t he get to me? Something smacked into my elbow and sent a shockwave of pain through my arm. My blade dropped. I tried to turn around, but I couldn’t struggle enough. They were too strong. I was going to die… Suddenly something hard smacked into the back of my head and I felt myself falling before I blacked out.