Part Ninety-One: Zen Banshee
Distraction.
His friends were as good as street magicians at the fine art of distraction. He would have to remember to thank them one of these days.
It was a wonder he'd survived the week, what with one thing or another, and then the phone call late last night from Teal. His flight had been over-booked; the airline had offered cash for anyone willing to give up their seat for the next flight. Apparently a lot of cash. Teal took it, he said, because he didn't have much available right now. He and Dael would be two days late arriving.
Heero took in his glum expression this morning and called Inazuma.
"You need to do something that will take your mind out of itself," he counseled the Banshee. "Go out and practice with Zuma before you explode."
Since he didn't feel cheerful enough to stay in bed all day, Duo had agreed. Heero would take the opportunity to fly his territory in detail, something he hadn't done since Duo's abduction.
So... Archery, it was then, on a sunny Saturday morning.
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Duo flexed his fingers on the gracefully curved grip, settling the bow comfortably in his hand. An arrow was nocked, one finger above and two below the bead on the string, not actually touching the arrow, the forward end of the shaft resting lightly on the small curve of plastic above the grip of the bow. He took his stance, side-on to the targets and rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension. Two more golds and he would have his first perfect end at this distance with this bow. Piece of cake.
He brought his arms up, the gleaming recurve bow perfectly vertical, the slim target arrow just as perfectly perpendicular. He pulled his shoulders down and made sure to roll his elbow out of the way – he was wearing a guard, but it was still bad form to let the string slap – and brought the bow down, drawing the string at the same time until the tip of the arrow was sighted to land on the gold center of the target and his fingers curled under his chin, the string itself kissing his nose and chin. He drew a deep breath, let it out halfway and went still. Some people described it as turning to stone or freezing for a moment, but either of those things implied a certain tension, and tension would cause the arms to tremble and the fingers restraining the string to quiver, which would in turn translate into a poor shot. Duo was not tense; he was completely relaxed. He did not strain to hold the bow at full draw; he relied on the utter immobility of his muscles to maintain his stance until he was ready to release the string and send the arrow on its way. He held the full draw for five seconds in absolute stillness.
Then the fingers that had curled gently over the string flashed open and the kinetic energy imprisoned in the drawn bow was released. The bow, held loosely in his hand, ‘wheeled' with the reaction and swung from the leash about his wrist; the hand under his chin did not move, though the fingers were now straight. The arrow flew straight and perfect and slammed into the gold of the target. Only then did Duo relax, lowering his hand and his bow.
"That was beautiful!" cried Inazuma. "I think you're going to make it this time!"
"I wobbled a little," Duo muttered.
Inazuma sighed. "You've only had that bow three days; another three days and you'll be freaking perfect!" He took up his own bow and joined Duo on the line. "Your stance is great; you've got your elbow under control and you don't snatch at the string. You're doing fine, Duo." He shot the Banshee a sidelong glance; he would have liked to ask about Duo's startling revelation of the previous day, but curious as he was, he didn't want to risk the Wyvern's wrath. And really, he told himself ruefully, who in the world would *want* to talk about something like that? Surely, Duo would prefer to just forget; Inazuma knew *he* certainly would.
The Banshee stepped back to give Inazuma less distractions. "Teal said that Caz's bow is a 60 pound draw; do you think I'll ever get to that?"
The River Elf raked an appraising eye over the slim Banshee. "I think so. You're stronger than you look. If you were to work on your shoulders and back a little in between, it might come more quickly. But it's not how heavy a draw you can pull; it's whether you can hit your target." He shook out his hands. "Better to draw 45 pounds and hit the gold every time than to draw 75 and miss more often than not." He glanced up at his friend. "It *is* a weapon, Duo; there's no point to it if you miss."
"I know," Duo sighed. "You make it look so easy."
"I'm an Elf; of course it's easy for me!" he snickered.
"Okay; just for that, I'm going to start working out and I'll beat you with your own bow one day."
"Ha! You just keep dreaming, Banshee!"
Something flashed across the sky and they looked up.
"It's the patrol," said Inazuma tracking the half dozen Wizards and Witches on brooms. "I wonder what's going on."
Duo looked in the direction the Magical Humans were flying. Something was out there; way out there. He sensed rather than saw something coming from the west.
"Can you tell what it is? Right there..."
Inazuma shaded his eyes and peered into the western sky. "Still too far out; at least five miles. But it's moving fast, whatever it is."
Duo unfastened the bow leash from his wrist, laid the bow on the stand and took a few seconds to set the quiver full of arrows next to it. He couldn't do much magically yet to defend his home, but he could at least back Inazuma up if necessary.
"It looks like... like birds," said the Elf after a few minutes. "I can see wings."
"Birds?" Pretty damn big birds, Duo thought. But something niggled at the back of his mind. Birds...
Holy shit...
Nah....
Well, maybe....
But....
"It is birds!" cried the Elf. "I can see them flapping! Geez, they're *huge*!"
"Zuma, those aren't-"
A dark blue shape barreled out of the east.
"Heero!" But the Wyvern was moving too fast and with too much purpose to notice. "Shit!"
Inazuma turned. "Duo? What is it?"
"It's not birds," he whispered slowly, eyes wide.
"But... what else...?" His hand went to his mouth. "No... They wouldn't come here. Would they?" the young Elf gasped.
Duo shook his head mutely, staring at the now-visible smudge in the sky. He could see Heero halt, wings flexing strongly, waiting for them, as the patrol circled anxiously. They had never visited Heero. Only once in a great while had any of them ever visited western lands until Heero came here. And yet they had come now. He knew why they were here, but he didn't believe it and he tried his best to come up with a logical reason that didn't involve him.
And then they were landing, morphing as they touched down... A dozen brilliant, vibrant, breath-taking Wyverns, all flowing his direction with Heero at their fore.
Duo swallowed and blinked and then the IchiBan was gathering him into a hard hug.
"Duo! Angel!" she cried. "I had to see with my own eyes that you are all right!"
The Banshee could not manage words; he clung to her instead, tears running down his face.
Family. Ichizoku. Shinseki. Ohana. His Clan.