“C’mon, slowpoke. I want to get there before this torch burns its way down to my hand,” Viren called from up ahead, the dancing flame he held illuminating the darkening forest.
The trees cast long, stretched shadows, looking as though they were trying to escape the setting sun. “Shut up, I have much shorter legs than you. I also have to lug this target and this bag of straw balls you insisted I carry, along with the slingshots. Couldn’t we just have gathered stones by the field instead?”
“Stones aren’t flammable, and it would have taken extra time to collect. Time spent while this torch slowly burns. You wanna trade?” He extended the torch slightly in my direction. The emergency bucket of water in his other hand sloshed against the sides, spilling slightly over the edges.
I swear, he’d spilled half the bucket already. …show more content…
You are going to fire burning straw, not me. You were the one to question my aim in the first place. Just fire quickly and don’t burn yourself or the slingshot. It’ll be good practice for aiming under stress.”
I scoffed. “Easy for you to say. Mother would kill us if she knew what we’re doing.”
“And that’s why we’re doing this when both her and Father are occupied with cooking. You see, I’m not that stupid. Fire,” he said, lighting a miniature straw bale and passing it to me like a hot potato.
I took it, quickly pulled it back on the slingshot, and fired it at the target. Partly amazed that I hadn’t burnt myself, I watched the fiery projectile streak across the field before smacking into the target and thankfully falling into the catching tray.
Viren let out a whoop and pumped a fist into the air. “See, it worked! Nothing disastrous happened.”
“Yet. Nothing disastrous happened yet. There’s still a million ways this could go wrong,” I reminded him.
The fire glowed brightly against the shadowed target before eventually extinguishing itself as it ran out of straw to burn. A faint, dark shadow was left on the brick, along with the ashy remains of the
The trees cast long, stretched shadows, looking as though they were trying to escape the setting sun. “Shut up, I have much shorter legs than you. I also have to lug this target and this bag of straw balls you insisted I carry, along with the slingshots. Couldn’t we just have gathered stones by the field instead?”
“Stones aren’t flammable, and it would have taken extra time to collect. Time spent while this torch slowly burns. You wanna trade?” He extended the torch slightly in my direction. The emergency bucket of water in his other hand sloshed against the sides, spilling slightly over the edges.
I swear, he’d spilled half the bucket already. …show more content…
You are going to fire burning straw, not me. You were the one to question my aim in the first place. Just fire quickly and don’t burn yourself or the slingshot. It’ll be good practice for aiming under stress.”
I scoffed. “Easy for you to say. Mother would kill us if she knew what we’re doing.”
“And that’s why we’re doing this when both her and Father are occupied with cooking. You see, I’m not that stupid. Fire,” he said, lighting a miniature straw bale and passing it to me like a hot potato.
I took it, quickly pulled it back on the slingshot, and fired it at the target. Partly amazed that I hadn’t burnt myself, I watched the fiery projectile streak across the field before smacking into the target and thankfully falling into the catching tray.
Viren let out a whoop and pumped a fist into the air. “See, it worked! Nothing disastrous happened.”
“Yet. Nothing disastrous happened yet. There’s still a million ways this could go wrong,” I reminded him.
The fire glowed brightly against the shadowed target before eventually extinguishing itself as it ran out of straw to burn. A faint, dark shadow was left on the brick, along with the ashy remains of the