Faced with this sudden outburst and the barrage of questions, Bamsı paused for a moment. He had no idea how to explain the situation, and quite frankly, he was too lazy to give a long-winded speech. So, he simply skipped giving an answer altogether and stood up. He walked over to his loyal horse, Bora, who was barely standing due to the venomous scratches he had taken, his legs and entire body trembling violently. Quickly grabbing his bow and quiver from the saddle, he called out to his steed with a voice that was affectionate yet undeniably firm.
"Bora! Take cover, boy! Things are about to get messy!"
Understanding his master's command, Bora forced his trembling, weak legs to take a few laborious steps toward the sheltering rock where Elladan and Elrohir lay, before heavily collapsing to the ground to rest. Elrohir, however, had no intention of giving up; he repeated his question, his voice ringing out a notch louder.
"I AM ASKING YOU! WHAT DID YOU MEAN?"
Bamsı turned to look at him for a brief second, bow in hand, and then dismissively shrugged his broad shoulders, cutting the conversation short.
"You can ask him yourself, my lord. It is not my place to discuss such matters."
Tossing the gossipy side of the business aside, Bamsı moved to the vantage point overlooking the cliff that Elrohir had just vacated, establishing a solid firing position. He narrowed his eyes, rapidly scanning the terrain below to assess the situation. The moment he locked eyes on a Dark Elf crossbowman trying to take cover at the foot of the slope, he drew his bowstring back and let the shot fly; after dropping the man with a single, lethal arrow, he instantly pulled his head back, shrinking behind his cover. The very second he withdrew, several crossbow bolts whizzed viciously through the exact space where his head had been just a heartbeat prior.
Now, with his back pressed firmly against the stone, Bamsı waited in utter calmness. He knew that thanks to his final shot, the Dark Elves wouldn't dare move from their positions for a little while longer. Truth be told, this was not what Bamsı wanted at all; he was itching to leap out into the open, to clash swords and savor the intoxicating thrill of this brawl to the very end. But with two incapacitated, wounded elves behind him who couldn't even move, he had to grit his teeth for now and protect the lives entrusted to him. If he surrendered to the euphoria of battle, abandoning his defensive post, and the enemy slipped past him to reach the twins, Bamsı would surely die on the spot from sheer grief and shame.
Frustrated by this stagnant stalemate, his hands tingling with the undeniable urge to fight yet unable to leave his post, Bamsı let out a deep, sorrowful sigh. When the sounds of weapons momentarily ceased, he turned his head and looked at Elrohir with openly curious eyes.
"So, how did you folks end up in this mess?"
Right in the dead center of a life-or-death crisis, Elrohir could only stare blankly at this warrior who seemed so impossibly relaxed and unserious. While Elladan's condition beside him wasn't immediately critical, it was by no means good, and he was far too exhausted to even speak. Yet, amidst all this terrifying chaos, Bamsı had casually started asking for their life story, acting just like a nosy neighborhood kid who had stepped out onto his porch to play.
At that exact moment, Doğan was crouched right next to Ciri, providing her with ranged fire support against the encroaching Dark Elves. He darted out from behind the rock, instantly loosed an arrow, and snapped right back into his safe cover without wasting a single second. Then, with inquisitive eyes, he turned to Ciri, whom he had only just met.
"... so, what is our plan, Lady Ciri?"
Ciri, having just fired her final crossbow bolt and wounded a Dark Elf in the process, leaned her back against the stone once more. She stared down at her empty bolt quiver, let out a deep, troubled sigh, and shifted her gaze to Doğan.
"You must keep them busy for now. There are still archers among them; engaging them in the open would be suicidal. As you might have noticed, their aim is extraordinarily deadly."
Hearing this, Doğan turned his head slightly to inspect his own shoulder; his leather armor had been torn right there, a hair's breadth away from his flesh. Just as Ciri had observed, the marksmanship of the Dark Elves was truly lethal. Because of this, he didn't dare expose himself from behind cover too much or linger in plain sight for long. As for his horse, Toz Kıran, Immediately after removing the heavy quivers from the saddle, he senf his horse to the safe zone next to Shadowmane. He couldn't just throw caution to the wind and charge the peak of the slope alone like Bamsı would. He had briefly considered it at first, but upon seeing Ciri's scratch-riddled clothes and completely depleted ammunition, he couldn't bring himself to leave her defenseless here. He turned back to Ciri and asked curiously.
"Lady Ciri, do you know how to use a bow?"
Ciri hesitated for a moment. She looked at the four brimming quivers of arrows Doğan had unloaded from Tozkıran, and the spare bow resting off to the side. For a fleeting second, she wanted to reach her slender hand out toward that bow, but her hand froze in mid-air as she remembered her terrifyingly poor accuracy with it, unlike the crossbow, which was her absolute best ranged weapon. Her face darkened with a faint flush of embarrassment as she mumbled.
"No, you keep going... I am not very good with a bow."
Hearing this, Doğan practically ignored the woman's objection; he snatched the spare bow from the ground and tossed it directly at Ciri. Ciri caught the airborne weapon with a sudden, innate reflex. Doğan asked in his usual, unflappable tone.
"So you have some training, right?"
Rather than answering immediately, Ciri remained silent for a moment, then slowly nodded in confirmation. Both her grandmother, the Lioness of Cintra, and old Vesemir had personally taught her the fundamentals of archery, but Ciri had never quite managed to be talented in it; by her very nature, she was far too impatient, always preferring the solid feel of a sword's hilt in her palm. Doğan continued speaking to encourage her.
"Then grab a quiver and put it to use. Accuracy does not matter; just shooting and keeping them under pressure will be more than enough."
Hearing these words, Ciri stood frozen for a while, the bow in her hand, consumed by hesitation. But as she quickly weighed the situation in her mind, she realized Doğan was right; yielding to logic, she sighed and nodded. Taking a deep breath, she reached for one of the quivers on the ground, drew a smooth arrow from it, and nocked it onto the bowstring. However, seeing her stance and how she gripped the weapon, Doğan felt the immediate need to intervene and correct her.
"Your grip is wrong, Lady Ciri. You should hold it like this... and place your hand like this..."
Right in the thick of battle, Doğan carefully gave Ciri a rapid, practical lesson on how to properly hold the bow and draw the string. Then, refocusing his attention on the skirmish, he checked the enemy line from the edge of his sheltering rock. Locking onto a Dark Elf, he let his arrow fly. But the Dark Elf noticed Doğan's movement at the very last second and shifted position with an agile maneuver; the arrow whistled past the enemy, missing by mere inches. In that fleeting moment Doğan had exposed himself to shoot, the other Dark Elves rained arrows down upon his position. Doğan violently threw himself back behind the rock, narrowly escaping death.
Watching Doğan's fluid and cautious movements intently, Ciri filled her lungs with air, trying to calm her racing heart. With slow, deliberate steps, she slid toward the opposite edge of the rock. She peeked her head out just enough to see the surroundings and scanned the battlefield. To secure a clearer vision and extra agility, she began to tap into the dormant powers within her. The black veins around the edges of her eyes bulged and became starkly pronounced. As her eyes glowed faintly in the gloom, her irises narrowed into thin, vertical, cat-like slits. Her sclera slowly blackened, and her senses sharpened to a monstrous degree; she now perceived the world with crystalline clarity.
After carefully sweeping the area, she picked a target and drew back the bowstring. Taking one final, deep breath, she popped out from behind the rock, released her arrow, and threw herself back into cover with explosive speed. The moment she was back in, three arrows slammed viciously into the earth exactly where she had just been standing.
Right then, an agonizing scream erupted from the enemy line across the field. Hearing this, a sudden surge of joy and burning curiosity filled Ciri, and she peeked her head out slightly from the rock to inspect the battlefield. Her powers were still active, and she could see everything with absolute perfection. But the sight that greeted her left her completely and utterly dumbfounded. Her eyebrow began to twitch in intense irritation. As she pulled back behind the rock once more, her face had completely fallen, her expression turning incredibly dark. She glared sullenly at the bow in her hand as if it were some sort of defective tool. It was then that Doğan chimed in with deep curiosity.
"Lady Ciri, it seems you hit someone, but why do you look so gloomy?"
Ciri paused for a moment before answering, then let out a heavy sigh and mumbled with profound embarrassment.
"Yes, I hit someone..."
Ciri extended the bow in her hand toward Doğan, holding it out as if she never wanted to touch the accursed weapon ever again. Doğan took the bow in sheer bewilderment, his uncomprehending eyes fixed on Ciri's sullen, downcast face. Ciri continued her humiliating confession in that same gloomy, defeated tone.
"But... I was aiming for the one twelve meters to the right..."
Hearing this, Doğan was absolutely dumbfounded. He blinked rapidly, staring blankly at Ciri for a few long, heavy seconds. Unable to find a single word to say, he silently placed the bow he had just taken from her onto the cold surface of the rock beside him. Without uttering a single comment, acting entirely as if their brief conversation had never even happened, he seamlessly retook his firing position to rain arrows upon the Dark Elves.
Doğan's profoundly silent reaction utterly shattered Ciri's pride. His unspoken resignation, however, violently stoked the roaring fire of the stubborn, rebellious girl hidden deep within her. Gritting her teeth, she made a fierce, unwavering promise to herself.
'I am definitely going to practice my archery more!'
---
(3654 words)
Author's question: There have been no comments for the last 3-4 chapters, only user red550 is leaving end-of-chapter comments, and I thank them for that. A few people are leaving power stones, and if it weren't for the site statistics, I'd say you've all stopped reading. Dear readers, are you still reading? How did you find the "Ambush" chapter?