Kiena felt even less confident about her new squad after hearing their comments about the Orc raid. Rafael seemed a little jumpy to her. Of course they were all at least a little nervous, so she didn't blame him. The Orcs could ambush them at any moment. She shifted her gaze to Astiroth. She couldn't read him very well underneath that dark hood, but from what he said it sounded like he didn't want to be on this mission to begin with. The way he hid his face from everyone also made her a bit leery of him. What did he have to hide that he couldn't share with his squad? She doubted he was the type to be self conscious of his looks. And then there was Riki. At first, Kiena was pleased to see she wouldn't be the only girl in this new group. Until she found out Riki had the balls to be a man, herself, that is. She was probably a seasoned fighter, but the girl was much too bloodthirsty and headstrong. That would get her into some serious trouble if she wasn't careful. Lastly, she turned to Decado. He gave her a flicker of hope that this squad wouldn't be a complete disaster. He seemed to know what he was doing and even offered Arthur some advice, which showed he had confidence.
Maybe there's hope for us yet.
She definitely wanted to believe it.
Kiena followed along after their squad leader as they began to move again, eyeing the trees around them in case the Orcs somehow knew they were following and turned back to attack them. Luckily that didn't seem to be the case. She spotted them resting in a little clearing up ahead, completely unaware of the group's presence. At Arthur's instruction, she silently edged around to flank the Orcs on the left. She drew her bow and loaded it with an arrow, her green eyes flickering between the Orcs as she tried to decide which one she would make her target. There. One of the Orcs had its gaze fixed on something on the ground. With it's head turned downward, a small chink was revealed at the base of its neck between its helmet and gorget. From where she was standing, she had a perfect shot.
Kiena glanced at Astiroth across from her, flanking the Orcs on the right. She had to time her attack with his or else the Orc would move and she would miss her opportunity. From his posture, it looked like Astiroth was about to fire his bow. She aimed at the exposed bit of flesh... There was a soft twang of bowstring as Kiena let her arrow fly. In the next second, the Orc was on its feet howling in pain and grabbing at the arrow lodged in its neck. It only succeeded in snapping the shaft and getting the arrow stuck even worse. No point in hiding now. Kiena let out a battle cry and leaped from behind a tree, charging the wounded Orc with her sword drawn.
