SHDYCF2 Chapter 14: Friends Forever

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Friends Forever

Out in the fresh air, she wandered aimlessly for a while, thinking heavily about her nightmares; they'd been getting more frequent now and she worried about what that might mean.

Along her route, she could see the construction cranes standing still and seemingly abandoned, but at a couple of the sites furthest along her route, she could see a handful of pickup trucks and cars in parking areas and construction workers checking over the machines and prepping them for work.

Well, at least one crisis is solved. She thought morosely. With luck, the rest of the sites would be up and running in a couple of days.

She turned up the block to her house, pondering the meaning of dreams when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Sylvie! There you are!"

It was Taryn, and she was standing by the front door in her own buckskin costume and idly holding her war-spear in her right hand. Her hair had been done back in a ponytail and on her back she wore a set of saddlebags.

"Hi Taryn, what's up?" Sylvie asked curiously.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. I thought you'd like to go to the range today."

Sylvie blinked, surprised. I haven't thought about that today, but it would be fun! Mom and Dad wouldn't be home until late, anyway.

"Sure, it sounds like a plan. But what's with the spear? That's not something you shoot at a range."

"You never know." She shrugged. "Besides, I was trained with the spear, not the gun. It's…more natural for me, I guess."

"Hmm." Sylvie grunted noncommittally. Personally, she felt her gun would be more useful; everyone these days had them, and most opponents wouldn't want to close to range with you but prefer to stand at a distance, blasting away. A spear required a great deal of skill and strength to use properly, but it also required more time than a gun to use.

Well, it would be what it would be, she thought.

Together they walked back down the drive and out to the range. Sylvie had been there a couple of times over the past couple weeks, but this would be Taryn's first time there, she realized.

The two walked to the entrance, intending to get in line for tickets, but the crowd saw them coming and immediately clustered around them. Some shouted for autographs, and others for pictures, and some wanted to hear them talk about themselves, and even more wanted a chance to pet them.

The girls begged out of pictures and autographs if they could, and warned off anyone that actually wanted to touch.

Fortunately, Alfred hurried up to them and without a word, escorted them past the front gates.

"Sylvie! Taryn, it's great to see you." He beamed at the pair.

"Thanks Alfred." Sylvie said, still feeling the hands touching her, trying to see if she was real. Taryn must have been feeling the same, because she barely mumbled her own hello.

Sylvie felt sorry for her; in her own way, she'd become used to the attention she got at the range, though most times the locals would surround her to keep back the outsiders, but there were few of her friends here today.

"How does the range look today?" she asked, indicating the long row of shooting benches and open ranges.

"Pretty good." Alfred said dryly as he walked them to the ammo counter. "There's been people as far away as Washington coming to the range hoping for a chance to see you shoot."

Sylvie nodded, she remembered seeing a lot of out-of-state license plates in town as she walked around. It would be good for business, but it was still a pain to be constantly gawked at.

"Will we be able to squeeze in today?" she asked.

He snorted. "I should think so." He pointed around. Most people, having learned that they were here, had abandoned their stalls and stared at them in wonder or hurried off to find a seat in the waiting area that would let them see the whole field.

Some time ago Alfred had gotten some of the school's unused mobile bleachers and set them up behind the main range. Now they were packed to overflowing, with people standing alongside or bringing chairs in from their vehicles to watch.

Sylvie sighed. "You'd think they'd get tired of the trick shots." She commented.

"Never." Alfred declared. "Sylvie, you can pull off things with that gun I never thought possible. I don't know who taught you that weapon, but there is none finer then I can think of."

Sylvie winced at the unthinking comment. Halls may have been a fine teacher, but her methods were…harsh.

"That could be." She said to cover up the awkward silence, "but even so, I could only stand watching so much. Besides, I won't be able to today because the paintballers are out." She gestured to the far side of the range, where the paintball course had been set up.

"I know. They'll just have to settle…" Alfred began.

"SURE SHOT SYLVIE WILL BE SHOOTING IN TWO MINUTES!"

The intercom blared loud enough that for a moment Sylvie wondered if it had been heard in the city center.

All at once, people hemorrhaged out of the woods like green-and-khaki blood from a wound, rushing to the sidelines. In moments, the last man raced across the grounds and paused next to the stands.

One of Alfred's men ran into the woods to do a search, running out just as Sylvie finished accepting her ammunition from the counter with a resigned air.

Sylvie set the boxes on the table and unholstered her rifle. The sleek, gleaming piece seemed to take the ammunition eagerly as she loaded ten rounds. A glance at the stack told her she'd be able to reload eight times.

Briefly she wondered if she should shoot speed active or focus on more difficult shots. With the amount of ammunition, she decided she'd do a little of both.

I'll speed shoot six reloads, then go for the tougher stuff after that.

With that in mind, she sized up her target on the range. It had been set at two hundred yards and seemed distant and tiny to many of the people gathered. Binoculars were raised and focused, some on her and some on the target, waiting.

"Taryn, you want to time me?" Sylvie asked, trying her best to make it seem as if they were the only ones on the range.

"Sure." Taryn said, turning to Alfred. He handed her one of the range's stopwatches and she put the loop over her neck. Nodding to show she was ready, she carefully put earplugs in to protect her sensitive ears. Sylvie did the same and then raised the rifle.

Immediately she assumed the near-mystical sense of calm and razor-sharp focus she attained whenever she picked up the rifle. She called it the Void, after her favorite author's descriptions, and felt able to do anything.

She signaled she was ready and Alfred bellowed, "GO!"

Before he'd finished speaking, Taryn hit the timer and Sylvie opened fire.

Popopopopopopop! Pop! Pop! So fast did the initial barrage fly from her gun that it sounded like machine gun fire. The last two were staggered a bit to take into account the shivering target, but it barely had time to stabilize before Sylvie had reloaded her gun and sent another ten rounds flying down at it. Again, the wood around the ten spot flew as lead sped through it. She burned through the sixty rounds of ammunition in fifty seconds, stunning the crowd to silence again.

Her speed trial over, she set about on practicing her ricochet shot (much to the delight of the crowd), as well as some reflection shots and some off-hand shots, practicing drawing her rifle from the sheath as fast as she could and firing at the hip or shoulder. With the speed it wasn't as accurate, but she felt she was improving.

When she stepped away from the booth she realized she was sweating. A trail of blue smoke wisped from the hot barrel as she carefully set it down to cool.

"Great job Sylvie!" Taryn congratulated. "You really were something."

"Thanks Tar." Sylvie said, speaking louder as the roars of excitement and approval started. "I was hoping to improve a little more on some of that, and it looks good. I'll keep practicing, and maybe I will be as good as they say I am."

Taryn laughed. "Perhaps!"

She turned to Alfred. "Hey Alfred, mind if I take a shot with my spear at that hundred-yard target over there?" she pointed.

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Uh, are you sure you want to try that? It's pretty far." He observed.

"Yeah." Taryn insisted.

"All right." He agreed.

Taryn hurried over to the stall with the hundred-yard target. Frowning at the close walls, she stepped back a little behind that.

The crowd, noticing her antics, hushed expectantly, the people caught standing up dropping to the benches.

Taryn ignored them with every bit the grace that Sylvie had done herself, she noticed admiringly. She watched her friend size up the target and switch her grip to a throwing one.

"KI_YI_YAH!" she screamed unexpectedly! She threw on the triumphant finale of her warcry. The spear arced high into the air, hovered a moment at the apex of the arch, and dove into the bulls-eye of her target.

Once more the crowd erupted! Feet stamped, hands were waved and the air was filled with screams, shouts and chants of, "SYLVIE! TARYN!" over and over.

Sylvie whooped, feeling giddy over her friend's accomplishment. She ran over and gave her a hug.

"That was awesome Tar!" she said.

"Thanks! I just hoped I'd get close to the target." She confessed quietly.

"I don't think it could get any closer." Sylvie chuckled.

The two went out on the field to collect her spear. Sylvie noticed that the point had been driven into the earth past the head.

"That is pretty cool." She pointed. "You've definitely got the throw down. What about the close in stuff though?" she asked.

Taryn laughed. "Well," she said mischievously, "Let's find out."

Sylvie watched her pull the spear out of the target in one smooth motion and ran through a series of forms so quickly she couldn't keep track of them all. The tip seemed to blur into a semi-solid bar that twisted sinuously in the air. Twice, she felt the head dart past her cheek in a feint, before being pulled back so quickly it was all over before she had a chance to register it.

Sylvie was deeply impressed. "That's amazing Taryn!" she cheered.

"Thanks!" Taryn laughed.

Sylvie frisked on the field, feeling cheerful and energetic all of a sudden. With a grin and laugh, she turned and raced towards the stands, sod flying from her hooves as she ran. She could hear Taryn beside her, running flat out with her spear in front of her in guard position.

The crowd stared, transfixed. Sylvie saw Alfred's eyes bulged out and his mouth touching his shoes.

Swinging along the table, she shouted and pranced, while behind her Taryn whooped and hollered. For a moment, Sylvie felt…free. Happy. She was Doing Something for herself without anyone telling her to do anything. It was a good feeling.

They stopped at the far end and Sylvie gave a short bow with Taryn, then they cantered off the field.

As they passed the (now) wildly cheering crowd and started to walk towards the exit.

"Thanks for the time Alfred!" she hollered.

"You're welcome Sylvie, Taryn!" he shouted back, finding his voice again.

The two of them left the range giggling and laughing, ignoring the surging crowds around them. Behind them came excited, eager people discussing what they'd just seen while in front of them people ran up and turned away, disgusted and disappointed, the moment they saw that she'd finished her fun for the day.

"What are you going to do now?" Taryn asked once they'd cleared the noise and were walking along a quiet stretch of road.

"Well, first thing is to go home and clean my rifle out, and then I was thinking of just chillin' and watchin' a movie or two; maybe McClintock or something like that."

"Mm. What about Guardians of the Galaxy, or Captain America?" Taryn asked.

"Those movies are good too." Sylvie shrugged.

"Want some company?" Taryn asked.

"What about your mom?" Sylvie asked.

"She's out shopping." Taryn replied. "Josh will be coming over, but that's not for a while yet."

Sylvie grinned. "Well, why not invite him over to my house instead? We can have a mini party there, I guess. I'll clean my piece while we hang out."

"Okay." Taryn said eagerly. "Let me call him!"

She fished her cell out of her bag and dialed. A couple minutes later she hung up.

"He'll be there." She said.

"I kind of gathered that." Sylvie laughed. "Now come on, we need to get home and prep the house for three centaurs!"

#

Once back home, they set about getting ready for Josh's arrival. They vacuumed the living room and scattered cushions. Sylvie pulled the movie from its place in the cabinet and set it up in the player. Taryn went to the kitchen and fixed a huge salad she placed in the fridge for later and poured everyone tall glasses of water.

Sylvie took brought to the room a stained, ragged white sheet she placed on a small table. On the sheet she placed her rifle-cleaning kit, her tools, and the rifle cleaning kit.

While Taryn settled comfortably against one of the kitchens and proceeded to whet her spear, Sylvie expertly and rapidly broke the rifle down to its components and began the arduous job of cleaning the fouling off.

They'd only just begun when Josh walked in, his heavily muscled frame covered by a brown shirt with familiar ghostbuster symbol on the front and the phrase "We're ready to believe you!" below.

"Yikes!" he laughed at seeing them. "Talk about predatory females! This place is dangerous!"

Sylvie laughed. "Hey, we can go hunting later if you'd like. You get to be the prey."

"No thanks!" he said quickly, to general laughter.

"So, what are we doing?" he asked as he walked over to the cushion.

"We're already doing it. You are going to start the movie." Sylvie told him.

"Sure thing." He looked around quickly and spotted the remotes sitting in a basket next to the TV. He walked over and got them and went next to Taryn to settle, bending over to give her a kiss on his way by.

"Talk about a drive by!" Sylvie laughed.

"The best kind!" Taryn rejoined.

"I know!" Josh said pompously. "I'm the one that gave it, after all. Hey!" he squalled when Taryn bopped him with a pillow.

"Shut up and start the movie, dork." She threatened, shaking the pillow again.

"All right! All right!" he quickly turned on the TV and started the player.

In a few minutes, the opening scenes of the movie were starting to roll out, and Sylvie split her attention between the show and her work.

She finished before the great battle in the dead god's head. Quickly assembling the rifle, she placed it back in its sheath and set it nearby. Picking up the sheet, she folded it carefully, ignoring the new stains it had picked up, and put it away.

Coming back to the living room, she saw Taryn had gotten up and grabbed her salad bowl. Josh had already paused the movie and stood in the kitchen, refilling drinks and grabbing silverware.

In a few moments they had whisked the bowls and glasses out to the living room and resettled to finish the movie.

"That was great!" Josh commented as the credits started to roll.

"Yeah. Thanks for the salad Tar." Sylvie agreed.

"Yeah, same here." Josh said quickly.

Taryn grinned. "No worries. I was getting hungry. Come on, what should we do next?"

"How about Twister?" Josh asked.

The two girls stared at him and he blushed. "Umm, no I guess that wouldn't work, would it?" he said abashedly.

"Probably not." Sylvie agreed dryly. "How about something a centaur could play, like Clue?"

"Monopoly?" Taryn suggested.

"Mille Bornes?" Josh asked.

"I could go for that." Sylvie agreed.

"All right." Taryn nodded.

"Sounds great." Josh nodded. "Do I need to run home for my pack, or?"

"No need, I think we got one here." Sylvie said, pulling the box from the game center.

The game quickly built into a bloodthirsty free-for-all between the three of them, with Sylvie winning the first two hands, Josh winning the next, and then Taryn winning three more.

Sylvie shuffled and dealt the cards, barely hearing her mom walk in through the door.

"Hi mom! How's it going?" she asked.

"Not too bad hon." She said, putting her briefcase away and coming to sit at the table. "Most of the smaller cases are finished, and many of the big ones too. That just leaves about a double handful left. The good news is that with all the work I've put in, I'm making a couple of bonuses with each paycheck."

"Cool!" Sylvie exclaimed. "Can I get a couple of pistols?"

Her mom hesitated, then nodded. "Sure. I don't see why not. Something ladylike, that you can tuck into your purse…"

Sylvie laughed. "umm, I'm more of the colt six-shooter style girl mom."

Her mother sighed heavily and shook her head. "You are definitely your father's daughter."

"I should hope so." Her father laughed, stepping in through the door.

"Daddy!" Sylvie exclaimed. "Your home early!"

"Yep. Things are finally starting to settle down at work, so hopefully I can start being home on time more."

"Cool! Come on and join the game!" Sylvie invited.

"Um, I'm kinda tired of Mille Bornes." Taryn said hesitantly.

"You're just saying that because you're winning." Sylvie laughed at her. "But all right. You won this match, but not the next! We'll play Clue!"

#

They played for three hours or more; none of the assembled wanting to go to bed. When the last game had been played, Sylvie realized it had gotten very late.

"Hey guys, did you want to spend the night? We could dig up a spare mattress for you, Josh."

"No, that's all right." He said, glancing at Taryn, then her parents. "I've got to go home and help mom around the house. She needs a tall person to help out with some of the cabinets and things."

"Tall is right up your alley." Sylvie agreed.

Her parents bid him good night, with her father offering to drive him home with a flashlight, but Josh said he would be fine. "I'm big enough most people don't bother me anymore." He told them.

With a lingering goodbye to Taryn, he left.

"Well, I guess you should call your mother, young lady, and let her know where you are going to be." Sylvie's mom said.

"Right, Missus Mathison." Taryn nodded.

"I'll get the beds ready." Sylvie told her.

"Okay."

Sylvie quickly prepared the mattresses and bedspreads for them, fluffing the pillows and laying down some blankets for their upper torso. She wiggled into her pajama top, hanging up her coat and buckskin shirt carefully.

Taryn walked in, nodding cheerfully as she went to her own trunk and pulled out a nightshirt for herself.

"It's amazing," chuckled Sylvie. "Here you are with a trunk full of your things at my place. It's almost like we were married."

Taryn laughed.

They stayed up talking some more about the range and Taryn's ability with the spear.

"Have you thought about finding someone who can teach you more?" Sylvie asked.

"Today." Taryn admitted. "I mean, Halls taught me well, but I think her own experience with spears was limited. She used a couple styles of stick fighting to teach me, which I'm thinking might not be a bad idea, it shouldn't be too hard to translate other styles into spear fighting, and it would give me a handy defense and offensive edge in close quarters." She said seriously.

"Right. Is there anyone in town that knows much about spear fighting?" Sylvie asked.

"Not that I know of." Taryn admitted. "I don't think there's a dojo here, or even a black belt. I'd probably have to use the trailer." She made a face, and Sylvie shuddered.

"Well, it might be worth it in the end." Sylvie said at last, loathing the idea of riding around in the horse trailer. "Finding someone to teach you more about stick fighting. You're a natural at it."

"Thanks." Taryn's voice turned thoughtful and Sylvie cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What?" Sylvie asked her. "You've got that look in your eye."

Taryn laughed. "Well, I was wondering how we could have such natural talent in these, our particular arenas. You were an okay shot before, Sylvie. You had, what, a two-foot grouping?"

"One foot," Sylvie said a little defensively. "though that was on a good day."

"Right. And I knew nothing of waving a stick around, didn't even take baton class at school, remember? Yet here we are, under Halls, picking up this stuff easily."

"Not easily." Sylvie shuddered.

"Okay, not easily, but faster than anyone I'm aware of. I mean, we are using fairly advanced forms here, and your shooting improved to the point of impossibility."

Sylvie looked at her, thinking about what she said.

"Well, what do you think it could mean?" she asked at last.

"Well, I can't help but wonder if there's some sort of magic inherent in our change that let us pick up these particular skills." Taryn postulated. "Centaurs are supposed to be really good with math skills, so perhaps that's how you can suddenly shoot better, you can predict automatically where the bullet is likely to go."

"What about your fighting ability?" Sylvie asked, intrigued.

"I'm…not sure." Taryn sighed, frustrated. "I haven't figured it out yet, though most centaurs were supposed to be really great fighters, according to Greek mythology. Maybe some of their skill came with the costume?" she shrugged helplessly.

Sylvie pondered that for a while, trying to rectify it someway with what she'd heard from Dr. Merrick.

The thought came that she should tell Taryn about her deal, but she uncomfortably stayed silent.

I vowed, she told herself.  

The moment over, the two girls talked very little now and were soon fast asleep.