"This one's yours, Tim," Felix said as he handed his friend a long stick.
"Seriously, what am I going to do with this?" Tim replied, causing the rest of the group to burst into laughter.
"That's easy, follow Simon over there," replied another man, picking on a slender fellow who also had a long stick. Looking at the group of over fifty men, more than half only had sticks.
He then began to understand how fortunate Felix was to be using a musket.
"Hey, you want this?" Carlos asked, pulling out a bow and a quiver of arrows. By now, most of the group was drawn to the conversation. It seemed like some hazing was about to come, so Haiser prepared himself.
"Then it's easy, all you have to do is shoot my oranges, do we have a deal?" Carlos looked pleased with himself. "If you don't, then you will owe me, let's say, five gold for every shot you miss."
"Ha, Five gold! Why don't you go rob someone."
"He is, he's robbing him."
"No one would agree to that."
Listening to the crowd whispering, Haiser could immediately tell Carlos's plan. He wanted to provoke him into a no-win situation. Being the new guy, Carlos knew that Haiser did not quite know the value of the gold he was talking about. It was also highly doubtful that he had any cash on him, after all, he'd been smooching off the Raes.
"Come on soldier boy, show us what you got," Carlos piled on pressure, and so did the others. Right now, Tim was an unknown. However, his frame and body build, not to mention his temperament, people could get the sense that he was a soldier, or had been. However, how capable was he?
The group were going for a hunt. Every able-bodied man they could spare was present. It was always a fun activity after harvest time. They would let loose, have some delicious meals, and clear out some wolves when they were at it, to avoid being overrun.
Planet Tres was originally not habitable. Hence, it did not have any indigenous population. However, once a planet was rehabilitated, as it was called, they would transport several plants and animals, giving the feel of home. This included everything from the small insects to giant whales, land and sea.
Humanity has already spread to various parts of the cosmos, but they still wanted to maintain their original home's feel. Earth was the Republic's capital city. Once, all humans were under the Earth Federation, but it broke off in the time of the great wars, and for a time humanity was ruled by corporations, before the three universal powers took over, the Kingdom, the Empire and the Republic.
History lesson aside, Forest view settlement was quite remote even on planet Tres. There were bustling cities that were quite advanced. This settlement was far removed from that, though they had frequent trade deals with them.
Hunting was also a secondary form of earning an income. If they shot down some game, they could sell of its hide to certain merchants in the city. The wealthy sometimes liked to wear wild animal hides. This was where settlements like their came in.
Forest view settlement was named because of the Clear lake forest that they bordered. Clear lake was a massive lake that spread from deep in the forest. Even the nearby city was named after it, calling itself Clear Lake City.
Clear lake was named thus because of some specialty minerals called possits. When used, they could purify water which was why the lake was always clear. Industrially, they were used to harden metal such as steel, increasing their durability.
While this was good mining substance, it wasn't exactly rare. There were specialized drilling machines underwater, which would excavate the possit ores for processing. Clear Lake city was not very big, but it was the closest city to the settlement.
Back to the story.
Haiser decided that since he was going to stick around for a while, he was going to show then his value. He'd considered playing it cool, trying not to stand out, but he quickly dismissed that thought.
"He actually agreed to it,"
"Wait, this noob has balls. It was obviously a trap, Carlos did not even conceal it, yet he took the bait."
"Hey, don't be quick to dismiss him, he might be something. Remember, he is a soldier."
"Be that as it may, I would even consider supporting him if that was a gun or even a phaser. These guys usually train with them, right? However, that's a bow, and his ammo is arrows. Wake up, who even trains for that?"
"What's more, that's Carlos we are talking about. Remember last year at the moon festival, I swore to never bet against him."
"Are you talking about what happened behind the tent of Old Kigen, haha, I still get goosebumps every time I think about it."
Clearly, this Carlos was not a great man. However, Haiser had a small smile. It had been a while since he'd used a bow and arrow, he hoped he wasn't too rusty.
He then took the weapons and steadied himself. Everyone gave way. Smugly, Carlos walked with a swagger as he sent a small boy. The boy went more than a ten meters away from Haiser. He then planted a small stub and placed an orange there and distance himself. From the look of it, this was a common thing.
"Taking bets, odds are one-to-one that he's find the mark, after all, it's only ten meters away." Carlos shouted, and was immediately smarmed.
"Ten copper on the soldier."
"Five copper against."
"twelve copper for."
Bets came flying in. Seeing this, Carlos then nodded at Haiser and shouted: "Alright, soldier boy, show us what you got." This was followed by a loud applause by the crowd behind, all clamoring for some entertainment.
With a smile, Haiser nocked his arrow and aimed.