Krista! Something amazing is going on in the castle. It's great, so great! I can't or rather won't tell you about it now, you'll just have to see for yourself! Enough about us over here how about you. Sorry I'm just so excited. I did some digging on the Jikan fellow. There isn't much on him, he seemed to have lived a relatively normal life. He comes from Dusk, one of the villages in Falling Starlight's territory. I was able to find out that both of his parents were enlisted in Falling Starlight's military, but both passed away in service. After that, he was adopted, but it seems the woman who adopted him also passed away at some point some time ago. Once again, stay safe, and I can't wait to see you again!
In her letter back, Krista wrote, Grand Auntie, I have a lot on my mind right now. I'm going to tell you something, and it's something I only want you to know. Please don't tell my parents! My wattiez, I have an anomalous affinity. I'm telling the truth, I promise! It just suddenly happened. I was fighting with the two new members, by the way there are two more now, a brother and a sister named Phive and Shix, and it happened. It felt like I was draining the life force… No, that's not it. Maybe the wattiez out of their bodies? I don't know, this is so weird. You deal with wattiez everyday Grand Auntie, I was hoping I could get a few words of advice?
As she wrote the letter, Krista was unsure if she should actually even send it. An anomalous affinity, could it actually be possible, or maybe she was just imagining things. The thought had made it into her mind on many occasions, yet she knew she was right about this, she could just feel it, it was like a whole new world became available to her. She hadn't even told Damien or Amelia about this, two people she'd resolved to tell anything too. She just wasn't quite ready for it.
As she was deliberating a loud voice cried out from outside her tent, "Krisha, I challenge you!"
For the last two days Shix had randomly appeared and challenged Krista to various games, javelin distance tosses, precision axe throw competitions, arm wrestling, to name a few. Krista was averse to them at first, but eventually grew to crave the distraction from the troubles she was having.
"You're so on!" Krista called as she got out of her tent, "What's the score at this point? I'm at least close to 30."
"Phive!" Shix shouted towards a nearby tree, "What's the score between me and Krisha?"
"29 to 26… with Krisha at the lead," a small voice said from underneath the shade of the tree or rather Bits standing in a treelike fashion, "Better pick… it up sis, you've already lost… three in a row."
"Just you wait, I'll blow past your score in just a couple of days," Shix shot back indignantly, "Grab your crossbow, we'll be doing some shooting today."
Damien watched the two from off towards the sidelines. He had been tending to Nightshade and Fierce, cleaning the excess sand from their fur, when he heard the words bow and shooting, his attention was caught. Damien felt somewhat disgusted with just how well Krista got along with an enemy; he had hoped it was just in order to get information, but she looked far too happy for it to just be that.
As the two shot arrow after arrow from their crossbows, Damien couldn't help but feel a little sick to his stomach. They weren't even missing too much, both women were able to hit their target with relatively good consistency. It was just their form. Damien knew shooting a crossbow was considerably different from longbow, but at least the core structure is similar. Breathing, stance, and grip. Krista at least had these things down relatively well due to some instruction from himself based off the few times seeing her shoot got so bad that he had to say something, but Shix was all over the place. That's probably why it was Krista who won their little game.
"That puts me at 30!" she shouted.
"Are you serious?!" Shix yelled back, "Who taught you to shoot like that."
"Well, my old master Kim taught me to use the crossbow, but Damien here taught me a few tricks that upped my game… I shouldn't have said that shouldn't I?"
Krista had caught Damien watching them from the corner of her eyes, and as soon as she said his name to Shix, he waved at her to stop. Even after two days, Shix was still sour on Damien, and any time she's mention him while they were having fun together, she'd immediately get angry. Now was no different.
"Is that right… Darius!" yelled Shix in a sort of sickly-sweet way.
"What do you want Shix?" inquired Damien as he walked towards them.
"Krisha here told me that you're good with the bow, and don't think I didn't notice you taking looks at me while we were shooting. You're not trying to cheat on your wife, are you?"
She was still real pissy about that point, the jealousy of a maiden with a crush. Much to his ire, "I was looking, sure, but only because of your god-awful archery skills. I'm pretty sure I could teach a toddler to do better." Damien leaned back as an arrow whizzed by where his shoulder used to be. "See what I mean?"
Shix loaded another shot, "So, you think you're hot shit just because you can shoot a bow?"
Sensing that he was in danger, both Nightshade and Fierce readied themselves to charge down Shix. A hand wave calmed them down leaving Nightshade returned to watching over Fierce. "No, I don't think I'm 'hot shit,' I know I am."
Immediately after, Damien unslung his bow from his shoulder, knocked in an arrow, and hit the large cactus Krista and Shix were shooting at dead center three times. Usually, Damien preferred to avoid these types of altercations, but with these battle types, he knew the only way to make them listen is to beat them at their own game. It definitely wasn't because he wanted to show off his own bow skills that he'd honed over the course of many years, definitely not that.
"Is that right?" Shix mocked, "Phive, come over here for a bit!"
Looking back towards Bits there was no movement, "I just got comfortable over here. I don't feel like moving. Go get Jikan or something if you need help with anything."
Shix reacted to this by walking over to her brother, lifting him over his shoulder and dropping him at Damien and Krista's feet, "As much as I would have loved to use Jikan for what I have planned, I don't think Dante would have appreciated it, and I don't feel like yelling everything at you."
"The sand… is hot," responded Phive before Bits came over to block off the sun for him again.
Shix then focused her attention on Damien, "Here's the game, I'll admit that you're probably a better shot that me, so a 1 v 1 wouldn't be worth anything. Instead, I'm going to have you hit some moving targets…"
Shix eyed her brother carefully before he tiredly spoke out, "You need the Minies, don't ya Shix?"
"You know me so well bro," Shix replied as she kissed the top of his forehead. "There are going to be three targets you can hit, but you only need to hit one in, let's say, 10 shots."
"I'd like see the targets first, if you don't mind," Damien responded with a haughty glare, "I'm good, but I can tell when a shot going to just be impossible."
"Take a gander at your feet, they're already there," said Shix as she resolutely looked up into his eyes.
As she had said, right at Damien's feet were three familiar dolls of a phoenix, a lycan, and a griffin. Each one were, of course, miniature versions of the real thing, but even the smallest, the phoenix, still had a wingspan of at least 3 feet.
"Just how many dolls does your brother have?" asked Damien as he examined the dolls.
Shix shrugged, "Don't know, at last time I counted was around 20 a year ago. Regardless, are they big enough targets for you?"
"What's the distance?" he asked unhesitantly.
"From here to that sand dune around 20 or 25 feet out," she replied as she ran down to the object she was refereeing to. She then took out her wooden sword and made a large circle before returning. "The Minies will not be allowed to leave that area as you soot or is that just too hard for-"
"That's it?" Damien scoffed. "You actually had me worried there for a sec, but I guess there'll be no problems. I thought you were trying to give me a challenge?"
Shix didn't take to kindly to his tone, "No, the distance just doesn't matter, in fact, if I gave you a hundred shots, I doubt you'd hit any of them even once. Actually, why don't we wager something, make it a little more interesting because you're so sure of yourself."
"Absolutely, I'd love to not only prove you wrong, but get something out of it too," he said snidely, "What do you have in mind?"
"If I win, you and me will trade tents," Shix responded excitedly, "I get to pair with Krisha, and you'll pair with Phive."
Krista subtlety twitched her head at this comment. While she had mostly not been paying attention, somehow she became involved in some sort of wager; one she wasn't a hundred percent sure Damien would win.
"Hey Darius, don't you think you should refrain from a bet like this," Krista said reasonably, "As your wife, isn't some private time necessary in our day to day-"
"Deal!" Damien interrupted as he held out a hand. Shix let out a high pitched but gleeful squeal as she rushed to shake his hand. "However, if I win, you'll always refer to me as Daddy."
Shix instinctively removed her hand, "What?! I'll do no such thing!"
Coyly, Damien faked dejection, "Well that's too bad. Krisha is real clingy when she sleeps, and I was thinking, even if I lost, at least I'd be able to get a good night's sleep."
Much like Emmy, from a while back, a visible vein popped on Shix's head, "I know what you're doing, but since you're gonna lose anyways, it's fine! You have a deal. Phive, if you would."
Phive sat up a bit, leaning on Bits's leg as he cracked his knuckles, "It's an older brother's… job to help his little sis… with her crush."
Damien and Krista both noticed Shix twitching her hand towards her brother but just managed to hold herself back, "I'm going to let you have that one today, since you are helping me out, but next time you say it, I'm decking you."
"But I am older… you were born a year later" responded Phive.
"Like 30 minutes later!" Shix cried angrily as she raised a hand to strike him, "Stop lying."
"I'm not though," Phive replied as he used Bits to defend himself. "I was born… on the last day of the year… and you were born on the first. Therefore… we were born in different… years."
As they argued, Damien saw that the Minies were already in place. Understanding that he and Shix never, technically agreed on a starting condition, so Damien covertly cocked an arrow and released it at the largest target, the griffin.
Shix noticed the shot out of the corner of her eye, "What are you-" The shot landed, hitting the griffin dead center in the chest, "Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y- You cheated!"
Shix was absolutely livid, she may have charged at Damien if Krista hadn't grabbed onto her. He wasn't going to miss the chance to rub this in, "Guess this makes us 1-0 me, also my name is not you, it's Daddy."
She was almost foaming at the mouth, "Again! Again! Phive wasn't ready!"
She was absolutely freaking out, but Krista wouldn't let go.
"Come on Shix, I won't say he won fair and square, but he did win, and you know it," Damien was glad to hear Krista still had his side.
"But…but." Shix stopped thrashing around and angrily stomped towards her tent, "This isn't over, Daddy !" She shuddered as she crawled in.
To Damien, this all just sounded like he broke some ground with her, but Krista did not feel the same, "Darius, was that your half-brained attempt to connect with the girl?"
"Did I do something wrong?" commented Damien.
Krista looked back towards Shix's tent, of which she was already returning from to rechallenge Damien, but it was Phive who put it into words, "No… I just hope you're ready."