The training court was deserted due to the scorching heat of the overhead afternoon sun, except for two occupants who were still practising out of sheer diligence.
One was a little girl, who in reality, was only ten, but was taller for her age.
The other was a tall hefty young man, with a sinewy frame.
Both of them were training since morning. Covered with dust, sweat and grime from the sparring, hair tousled and sticky.

The man, as he stopped for a breather, looked at the girl across the compound. To say he was impressed would be the greatest understatement. He had taught her a portion of the skills of archery just a week back, and she already had a probability score of 50 per cent, which meant that she always had a fifty-fifty chance of hitting the bull's eye. Simply looking at her persistent training made his heart swell up in satisfaction; it was so natural that it seemed that she had been doing this since her birth. His lips curled up in a rewarding smile and he wiped off the trickling sweat on his forehead with his sleeve, as he picked up his bow and slung the quiver across his taut torso.

He could hear the light 'thuds' as the girl shot arrow after arrow. The sounds of leaping footfalls echoed as he realised that she was trying to shoot along with overcoming hurdles at the same times. All of the hurdles moved unpredictably and were controlled by magical energy. They could move in almost any and every direction, sometimes the action so sudden, that one collided with them head-on and fell flat. The girl grunted and used her core energy to leap higher, and whenever she bumped into them and fell back, she went back and started again. It didn't matter whether she had been thrown to the floor or whether she had crashed into the wall. She got up to start again. And so the leaps, gasps, thuds continued tenaciously.

The man smiled with his back towards her, at her incessant efforts, and fitted five arrows to his bow. He aimed and also noticed that the noises from the other side of the ground had stopped. His eyes which were as sharp as a hawk stared at the bull's eye. He stretched the loaded bowstring and let it go with a piercing twang.
The five arrows hit the targets perfectly.

His keen hearing caught the sound of barely audible footsteps from behind him. Also the rustling of robes along with the faint clink of metal. He smiled again.

'This girl,' he thought, amused.

Just then, a leg wrapped around his leg, a hand sharply yanked his arm and pinned it to his back. Another leg tried to kick his leg from under him.

He was ready and thus he didn't resist, purposely. When he let himself fall, the other leg of the attacker wrapped around his waist and hoisted herself on top of him.

The girl was about to rejoice over her seeming victory, but then, on seeing the quizzical smile of the man beneath her, she realised that he had not fought back on purpose. Her duchenne smile dissipated and an angry pout took its place.

"Aiyaa, Zhang Gege... You tricked me," she punched his chest lightly. "Why didn't you fight back?"

"You're too young, Little Mistress Ruan," the man addressed as Zhang chuckled.

"Hmmph, bitter gourd," she muttered, as she climbed off him.

Zhang got up and held a water bottle to her lips. "Have some water, Little Mistress Ruan." He chuckled at her miffed up face again.

The girl gulped down some water.
"Hey, what's so funny? Firstly, I am not little. I am ten years old," she rubbed the bridge of her nose, speaking in a very important voice.

" I beg your pardon, Second Mistress Ruan," Zhang bowed.

"Ahh, you're calling me Second Mistress again, hmmph."

"What should I call you then, Second Mistress Ruan?"

"Hehe, that's easy. Call me mèimei!"

"Huh?!"

The girl pursed her lips at his surprised face and just raised a perfectly arched eyebrow.

"O-okay, Mèimei."

"Yaaaayyy!!!" The little girl hugged his waist.

Zhang smiled at her adorable reaction.

"Gege, teach me that. I want to learn it too!" the girl pleaded.

"Which one, Second Mist-, I mean, mèimei?"

"The way you shoot so many arrows in one shot."

"Heh?! Uh- I taught you how to shoot only a week back, didn't I, mèimei?"

"Hmm hmm, you did."

"Practise that then. Go ahead."

"Gege, I have been practising every day from dawn to dusk."

"Huh?"

"Whose arrows do you think those are?" the girl pointed to the place where she had been practising.

That's when Zhang noticed something else that he hadn't noticed for the past three days. All the arrows that she had shot for the past three days till today, had hit the bull's eye.
His sterling grey eyes became wide with surprise.

"Th-that's great! I mean... Woah!!" he exclaimed, the entire thing felt so incredible to him. He was amazed.

"Gege?"

"Gege?"

"ZHANG GEGE!!"

"Huh?!?!"

"What happened? Are you feeling sick, Gege?" the little girl asked, concern and worry etched on her features.

"Ah... Ah no no! I'm fine, mèimei." Zhang replied.

"Then? I have not done well, right? It's bad, isn't it?" the girl had such a woebegone look, that if she weren't royalty, he would have hugged her. But sadly, he didn't have that authority.

"No, no, not at all!! It's very good, believe me!"

The girl craned her neck to look at him. "Really?" she asked, a hopeful smile on her face.
Zhang kneeled to come down to her level; that made conversing easier.

"Yes, REALLY," he smiled affirmatively.

"YAAAAYYY!!" the girl squealed in joy and clapped her hands, as she pranced around him, her revered teacher and mentor.

While the said mentor sat down on the ground, not minding the dust as his grey robes were already dirty, and basked in the joy of the little girl in front of her, his most meticulous student, the little Second Mistress Ruan, who had currently occupied the place of a little sister in his lonely heart.

He had never had a family, living abandoned on the streets, till the previous Clan Leader Ruan adopted him at the age of 10. Since then, they were his family. He had no memory of his parents except for a silver pendant hanging from his neck. He didn't mind though. He had heard various possibilities of how his parents died, some said they had been eaten by ghouls, some said they died in a fire. Anyhow, he didn't care.

"ZHANG GEGE!!!"

Startled, he blinked his eyes only to find the yell coming from the girl again.

"Why are you yelling?"

"I called you so many times, shook you, snapped my fingers in your face, but you didn't answer me. So I yelled," the girl answered.

"Oh, I am sorry. Were you saying something?"

"Yes."

"Sorry. What were you saying? Tell me, I am listening."

"I was asking you to teach me how to shoot many arrows together." the girl smiled earnestly.

"Uh..."

"Zhang Ge. Caihong," a soft melodious voice chimed from the flight of steps that lead the way from the quarters to the training court and vice versa.
Both of them turned.

A youthful lady, wearing the traditional green and golden robes of Ruan Sect, stood there, with a warm smile on her face. Her emerald eyes twinkled. Her ebony hair was tied neatly.

"Jiejie!!" the girl exclaimed. She jumped up and enveloped her in a tight hug.

"Mistress Ruan," Zhang solemnly bowed.

"Zhang Ge, please teach my little sister Caihong whatever it is she wants to learn," the lady requested, returning the bow. She pinched the end of Caihong's nose, making the latter giggle.

"Come here, mèimei," Zhang held out his hand to her.

"Go now, naughty little Ruan Caihong," the young lady smiled, releasing the hug.
Caihong raced over to Zhang and pulled him over to the shooting range, beside herself with joy that she was going to learn something new.

"Okay. So now I will teach you how to shoot multiple arrows at the same time. This saves a lot of time and energy, as you have already known," he said, positioning himself behind Caihong, in a kneeling posture.

"Hold the bow like this, yes right, horizontally, in a perpendicular line to your body. That will help your balance. Now hold these arrows between your fingers, I am teaching you with three arrows today. Okay? Yeah alright. With time and experience, you will be able to increase the number on your own. Then you won't need me."

"But I will still come back and show you," Caihong mumbled, with an awed look in her tea coloured eyes.

"Fine, you will. Alright? Now. Focus on the targets. The rest of it is the same. Straighten your shoulders. Relax. Relax your shoulder. Tighten your arm, pull the bowstring," Zhang explained, moving away.

Caihong stood in that pose. The lady looked on with interest and anticipation.

"Aim. Shoot."

TWANG!
WHOOSH, the arrows whistled through the air, almost at the speed of light.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

All three arrows hit the targets. Bull's eye achieved.

Caihong's eyes which had become as big as saucers began to glow like sparks of fire.
Her lips first broke into a smile of awe, then broadened into a gleeful grin and finally she burst into full-throated laughter, leaping in joy.

Her elder sister joined her and clapped her hands enthusiastically. Zhang folded his arms and smiled at the two of them.

Caihong practised this on her own, without Zhang's help for three hours straight. She missed a couple of times at first, but that was expected. She simply tried again.
Twang.
Thud.
Twang.
Thud.
This went on and on.
She improved drastically soon after, and it was mind-blowing how she could learn anything at first glance.

Ah, well, okay, haha, almost everything.

"RUAN CAIHONG!!!" a voice thundered.

Caihong froze.