Alkar ana Her Majestime!
Indigo Zap strolled through the corridors of Crystal Prep Academy with her hands behind her head. She knew that today was going to be another snoozefest for her, but she still tried to keep a grin on her face. She didn't want any of the other students to see her otherwise.
As she turned the corner, she saw Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare ahead, both of who were looking through a large group of other students. Through the storm of purple uniforms and plaid skirts, it was hard to see who or what was at the center of the crowd. Lifting a brow, Indigo lowered her arms and walked forward.
"Hey, girls. What's up?" Indigo asked, squeezing in between Sour and Sunny.
"Indigo. You haven't seen it yet?" Sunny turned to face her. "Practically everyone else at Crystal Prep's in a state of shock!"
"Still better than having a day packed with Mr. Svengallop's lessons, if you ask me." Sour Sweet crossed her arms.
"Let me see." Indigo pushed through Sour and Sunny and peaked over the crowd. "If it's something that's got everyone worked up, then it's gotta be good." She let out a gasp at what she saw.
Right in the heart of the ring of students, there was a throne made entirely out of tree branches and leaves. Four teenagers dressed in nature-themed clothing stood at the corners, right over sticks that were used to move the throne. But that wasn't what caught Indigo's attention. What did was the person sitting on the throne itself.
Lemon Zest sat upon the throne, wearing a pair of brown high heels with twigs bursting out of them, as if to resemble a pair of wings on each side. She wore green trousers fashioned out of ivy and a breastplate that seemed to be carved out of solid oak. She wore a belt with an acorn acting as the buckle with more sticks bursting out of it. Her shoulders were on full display and only a pair of bracers were worn around her upper arms, with another one around her neck. There were yet more branches popping out of her back. Her hair had been shaped to look more like a sheep's coat of wool and her headphones had been swapped out for a long, curly set of bull horns. Finally, her ears were much pointier than usual and there were some markings above her eyebrows.
"Lemon?!" Indigo rubbed her eyes and blinked repeatedly, trying to see if it was all some kind of strange joke to her. Unfortunately, no matter what she did, the image remained the same. "Is that... really you?"
Lemon slowly pushed herself up from the throne and stepped forward towards Indigo. The crowd fell deathly silent as she stopped, mere inches away from her friend's face. At long last, she finally broke the silence. "A pleasure ana cen- tye símen, Indigo Zap."
"What? What the heck are you saying, girl?" Indigo just stood there with her mouth still wide open. Of all the things she was expecting to see today, this was not on her list whatsoever.
"Ah, c'mon, Indy. You don't speak elven?" Lemon smiled and gave Indigo a playful nudge. "I was just saying hello to you."
"Hello? It sounds like half of that was in another language!" exclaimed Indigo.
"Her majesty's tongue is hard to comprehend outside of the kingdom." One of the students standing by the throne put a fist to his chest. "Be that as it may, she may also speak in the language of mortals as well. It is said to ease your kin."
"I don't even know what to make of any of this!" Indigo stared back towards the four teens carrying the throne. "First off, I didn't know you were into LARPing, Lemonade; second of all, I don't know how or why Lemon Zest is the queen of all things; and third, WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
"Pray tell. What is this LARPing, you speak of?" Another student garbed in greens spoke up. "We have not heard such a word in our kingdom before."
"Diwata, you're not fooling anyone." Sunny Flare raised a finger. "And why are you all with Lemon Zest on this? It's pretty unorthodox. Not coming in dressed in uniform, I mean." She pointed at their grassy clothing.
"Sacrilege!" Diwata hissed and jabbed a finger back at Sunny. "Thine queen takes offense at that remark!"
"Chill, Diwata. They're not dangerous." Lemon turned back to her subject and patted her on the shoulder. "Indy's been my closest friend for years now and I know that she'd totally be in on it too if I just told her."
"Your majesty, they are but commoners from another realm." Lemonade shook his head. "They would never life prosperous lives as elves, nor would they truly enjoy our traditions."
"Guys, guys, guys. Let's just all relax for a second." Lemon Zest pushed her hands out and returned to her throne. "Indy, Sunny, and Sour aren't bad. They're just... difficult. Try not to think about it." She clapped her hands and her four chair-carriers reached down and hoisted the throne up into the air. "Well, it was nice meeting you three again, but I must be off. Important business to attend to as the new Elf Queen of Canterlot. Forward march, my brave soldiers!"
"Alkar ana Her Majestime!" The elves all called together like they were soldiers in the military and walked through the other Shadowbolts, carrying the throne off with them.
Indigo, Sunny, and Sour just stood in silence as the throne passed them all by. The three of them blinked rapidly and tried to say something, but Lemon Zest and her elves had left them all lost for words.
"I..." Indigo lifted a finger. "What just happened?"
"I... think Lemon's finally lost her marbles," added Sunny. "Either that or she's serious about this whole LARPing in school hours thing."
"Either way, she's gonna be in real trouble once Principal Cadence finds out about this..." Sour Sweet crossed her arms, but a devilish smirk quickly washed over her face. "This should be fun." And she followed after the elves.
"Sour, wait!" Indigo chased after her. "I'm sure that Lemon's just going through some kinda phase. Just wait 'til tomorrow. She'll have forgotten all about it by then..."
"Man. Lemon's acting awfully weird today," one of the students in a group of friends said. "I mean, her outfit's not that bad and all, but she's really going off the deep end with this elf queen act."
"I know," said another student. "Just this morning, I saw her and her new friends chanting some kind of weird hymns in class. Must've been some kind of polish."
"Nah. It was definitely some form of gaelic." A third student nodded.
"You girls do know that Crystal Prep doesn't teach those languages, right?"
The students all turned to see Sugarcoat standing before them. With a book slung underneath her arm, she pushed her glasses closer to her face.
"Whatever Lemon Zest is up to, it's not really in our best interest to interfere." She opened up her book. "She'll get punished by Cadence for violating the dress code and the rest of her friends will fall suit."
"How can you tell, Sugarcoat?" one of the students asked. "She and her 'elves' are going around like they own the place. And it's not just her throne-carriers."
"Yeah. Some of the geeks, nerds, and even the sports-lovers are really getting into this whole LARPing thing." The second student pulled out her phone and showed off a picture to Sugarcoat, which showed Lemon and a group of other elves standing outside in the track and field area.
"Trust me, girls. Lemon Zest is in way over her head. Nothing she does has any sense of value or impact." Sugarcoat just flipped through her book's pages, completely tuned out from the rest of the world.
Before anyone else could say or do anything else, an arrow shot Sugarcoat's book out of her hands and pinned it against the wall. Everyone jumped at how rapidly the book was impaled and knocked out of her hands and turned to face the attackers.
"Got it!" A male elf fist-pumped. "A fine shot from one of Her Majesty's finest soldiers."
"What the heck, Slipstream?!" Sugarcoat snapped her head towards the elves with a look of bloody murder. "Do you know what damage you've done?"
"Trust not in what you see in pages, scholar! Her Majesty has all of the answers and shall be happy to assist you in your work!" Another male student bowed before Sugarcoat.
"Listen, punk." Sugarcoat's brows lowered. "The day I get help from Lemon Zest is the day I run around Crystal Prep completely butt naked." She pushed her face into his. "Just give up this foolish charade and get back to your classes."
The second male gasped. "It is just as she foretold. Tis the nefarious Dark Wordscribe!"
"Legends have told of how she can demoralize entire armies just from her voice alone! Our last king barely stood a chance against this heathen!" Slipstream turned towards his compatriot. "We'd better report this back to Her Majesty! She'll know what to do!"
"Good idea!" The other elf nodded.
"Yeah! You'd better run!" Sugarcoat seethed as she watched the elves dart off down the corridor. She took a deep breath and turned back to the others. "Anyways, she's not going to last an hour like this. Principal Cadence will come down hard on her like a pile of bricks. And if she doesn't..." Her hand clenched into a fist. "God help her and all of her elves." A fire blazed in both of her eyes.
"Hey, uh, Sugarcoat?" One of the girl students lightly tapped her shoulders. "You're kinda scaring us. Could you tone it down a little with the whole angry thing? It doesn't really work well for you."
"Lemon Zest has thrown down the gauntlet. I can't back away from her threats now." Sugarcoat turned away from the others and walked down the hallway, leaving the remnants of her book behind on the walls. "She's not going to destroy one of my books, deny me a valedictorian, and humiliate me in front of the other smarter students and get away with it..."
As Sugarcoat stomped off down the corridor, the three students she had been chatting to just turned back to the book and pulled both it and the arrow that had pierced it off of the walls. They peaked through the hole and saw just how much knowledge had been struck down.
"I give the elf kingdom twenty-five minutes..." One of them said before walking off to the next class. But before she could leave the others, she peaked back at the book one last time. "Maybe fifteen. Give or take a few minutes."
In the cafeteria, Lemon Zest and all of her elves had taken over the mezzanine. The tables, walls, and even bannisters were decorated in Lemon's regalia. From hand-crafted bows and arrows to trash can lids acting as shields. The throne sat at the very back of the upper level, with Lemon Zest being the only one eating at it. All of the other tables were occupied by the rest of her loyal subjects, who were all eating, drinking, and being merry with their friends.
Down below, Indigo Zap, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, and Sour Sweet all gathered themselves around a table with their own respective lunches. They all stared up at Lemon and her kin at the top of the stairs instead of eating, though.
"I don't believe it," said Sunny Flare. "It's lunchtime and those elves still aren't disbanded yet? I was sure that Lemon would've had an earful from Mr. Svengallop by now. That or Principal Cadence must've seen it and 'Her Majesty' promised she'd be on her best behavior."
"I think it's just ridiculous." Sugarcoat cracked her knuckles and glared at the mezzanine. "Surely, diplomacy and discipline have failed to reach them. This could put Crystal Prep on a darker path if an inspector or news reporter comes around..."
"Girls, I keep on telling you that it's just a bit of a phase." Indigo shook her head. "Lemon's not really the evil type. Leave that to Cinch and whatever monster she made Twilight into back at the Friendship Games."
"A phase, Indigo? You think this is just a phase?!" Sour slammed her fist into the table. "This is how it starts, y'know. First she starts off all sweet and innocent and ooey-gooey with her friends—" Her little smile burned away into a frown "—and the next she's plotting for all of our executions! Her Majesty must be stopped right now, before it's too late!"
"But how can we stop her?" Indigo turned Sour's head towards the elves above. "She's got, like, a quarter of Crystal Prep on her side now! We can't stand up to that many students at once!"
"And we're still gaining more!" Lemon Zest called out, hanging her body over the banisters. "Hi, Indy!"
"Hi, Lemon!" Indigo waved back.
"Why are you saying hello to her?!" Sour grabbed Indigo by the cheeks. "Don't you know she's only going to turn into a tyrant queen and stab you in the back?"
"Sour. Take your meds." Indigo pulled herself out of Sour's clutches and pointed to her pockets. "Seriously. You've gotta find a cure for that split personality deal of yours, girl. It's not healthy."
"If it wasn't a mandatory thing, I'd show you the meaning of unhealthy, Indigo Zap..." Sour grumbled and reached into her pocket and pulled out a pill tube. She spun the top off and popped two pills in her mouth, then washed them down with a swig of her water. "Now. Where were we? Oh yeah. Complaining about Lemon Zest."
"Look. You girls really need to back off of Lemon." Indigo put her elbows against the table. "She's not a bad girl. I know she's not a bad girl. If she were, then I wouldn't be friends with her." She turned towards the elf queen and saw the smile on her face grow ever more. "I know that whatever she's doing right now is a bit weird, but she'd never try something like chopping off our heads or mounting some fancy-schmancy rebellion against Crystal Prep. She's not really got the guts for that, y'know?"
"So... you're saying that you're going to join these elves?" Sugarcoat crossed her arms. "That's a terribly bad move; even for you, Indigo Zap."
"I must agree with Sugarcoat on this, Indigo, dearie." Sunny nodded. "These elves are not like us. They're completely rebellious. I saw them at the archery pitch and instead of just aiming for the targets like normal, the elves aimed to the sky and pulled off something you would see in a movie." She shuddered and recoiled back, looking down at her sides. "I fear for the poor souls they hit with those things..."
"Oh, I saw that. It makes me sad to think that they go to the same school as us." Sour harrumphed and took a bite out of her food. "If they had pulled those shenanigans at the Games, then CHS would've won without a single problem. And we would've been really angry about it."
"Technically, Cinch would've been angry about it. We would have been disappointed and a bit unsettled and demoralized." Sugarcoat pushed her fingers against each other, hearing slight cracking noises as she brought the balls of her palms together. "But I do agree that this has gone on long enough. Lemon Zest needs to be knocked off of her throne and we need to do something about it right now."
"Uh, no. YOU need to do something about it." Indigo stood up and took her tray away. "I'm going to hang with my friend, weird elf-shtick or no weird elf-shtick. You can keep on ragging on and on about Lemon all that you want, but I'm not about to do something bad to Lemon. You don't ruin a friendship; especially not one where we were both six years old..."
"Dammit!" Sugarcoat slammed her fist into the table. "First those elves take down a book I was reading and now they've assimilated Indigo Zap as well! That's it!" She smashed her fists against each other. "Someone NEEDS to stop these elves!"
Indigo didn't listen to the rest of Sugarcoat's little rant and instead walked up the stairs with her tray of food in hand. She was about to make it to the top, but two elves stood by the top of the stairs and barred Indigo off.
"Halt," said Lemonade. "What business do you have with the elves?"
"My name is Indigo Zap and I am one of Her Majesty's best friends," she said. "If it's all the same with you, can I come in, please?"
"The queen has a very busy schedule and she doesn't accept any outsiders into her regime." Diwata shook her head. "If you know what's good for you, then I advise that you turn around right now and leave."
"Diwata, Lemonade. Stand down and open up." Lemon Zest walked up to the elves and pulled them apart. "Indy speaks the truth. We are friends. And any friend of me is a friend to all elf-kind. Now be good for your queen and open up, will ya?"
"B-But your Majesty! She's a non-elf!" Lemonade whined and pointed at Indigo's flat ears. "She knows not of what we do!"
"Yeah! You can't expect an outsider to just waltz into our kingdom like she's just one of us," said Diwata. "Indigo Zap is just a human from another world. She would be overwhelmed by—"
"Oh, you two just need to lighten up." Lemon chuckled and pinched their cheeks before stepping past them. "Now then, Indy. You wanna join our kingdom, is that right?"
"Yeah. Sugarcoat, Sunny, and Sour are being real mean about this whole thing and saying that you need to be stopped and all that junk. I'm not just gonna sit there and support them about it." Indigo glared down at her former humans and pierced Sugarcoat's eyes. "So instead, I'm gonna hang with you and your new friends."
"The Dark Wordscribe does have a way of painting us like the bad guys." Lemon Zest tutted at Sugarcoat and the others. "If you could break out of her dark clutches, then I'm sure that we can take you in. All you need to do is close your eyes..."
"Close my eyes?" Indigo stared blankly for a few seconds, but did as Lemon told her. "Alright. What now?"
"Winds -o i forte, cemen -o i hyarmen, ar flames -o i foraime, heed mime esta-..." Lemon Zest closed her eyes and rubbed her hands together. Diwata and Lemonade stepped backwards and let her proceed with her work. "Care- mime nur ar moriquende, faila ve us ilya." She reached into her breastplate and pulled out a pair of ears, sticking them onto Indigo's. "Alright. Open your eyes, Indy."
Indigo opened her eyes and looked around. "Huh. I don't feel any dif—" She felt the back of her ears and how rigid and sharpened they had become "—Oh my gosh, Lemon! I have pointy elf ears!"
"Yep!" Lemon gave a little grin and walked Indigo over to the other elves. "Welcome to our little kingdom. Why don't you sit down, meet your new friends, and have some fun? Come talk to me if you need anything."
"Thanks, Lemon." Indigo smiled and headed on over towards a nearby table and set herself down by her new kind. It didn't take long before she wound up in a conversation after that, with her and her fellow elves talking about all sorts of things, mostly about their kingdom and what they could do together.
Sour Sweet took a deep breath as she picked up her bow and loaded up an arrow into the string. She made sure that it was properly secured and that the elastic was aligned before pointing the tip towards a target across the lawn. The wind blew from her back and a small smirk crossed her face as she finally let go. The arrow flew for a split second before piercing straight through the target's center.
"Gotcha!" Sour fist-pumped and loaded up another shot. She wasted no time in securing the shot and aiming at the next target down the line.
"HO! Many greetings, fabled markswoman!"
Sour jumped and let go too early, causing the arrow to drift along the grass and puncture the area just underneath the target. Scowling, she turned back and saw Indigo and some more elves approaching her.
"Lemon! You're not supposed to be here!" Sour spluttered and turned towards her invaders. "Especially not when I've got such a good tailwind going!"
"Thine archery lands are not yours alone, eagle-eyed one." Another male elf walked forward and took up his own bow and arrows. "Plus, thine must remember that the realm of Crystal Prep Academy is not ruled by anarchy and tyrants."
"We are all freely allowed to take up our mantles and practice our own archery." A student with green hair stepped up and loaded up her arrows, firing swiftly into another one of Sour's untouched marks. "If war were to befall Queen Lemon Zest's kingdom, or the Friendship Games started happening every one year instead of four, then we would need to be prepared."
"War? Th-th-tha..." Sour just squatted and clutched her head with her hands. "No. Y'know what? No. NO!" Sour stomped forward and pushed the elves away. "That's IT! That's the last straw! I challenge you to a battle!"
"Thou dare threaten the queen?!" called one of the elves.
The soldiers dressed in their twigs and oaken armour pointed the tips of the arrows in their bows directly at Sour's throat. All of them stepped forward and made Sour bend back so much that she fell onto her back. From there, they hunched over her face and aimed for her eyes.
"Sour. You really shouldn't have done that." Lemon came over and whispered into her ears. "My elves are a little bit... feisty. Stop this attack now and let us go on with our day and we might just pardon you. Or... well, let's just say, you won't have to come into CPA anymore."
"Sounds more like a blessing than a curse to me." Sour spat in Lemon's face. "Anything that gets me away from all of your 'subjects' is a good thing."
"Oh. Okay. Then I'll... just, uh..." Lemon scratched her chin and turned to some of her aggressors. "Guys, help me out here. I don't have something bad to say to Sour. What do I do?"
"Do not worry, Your Majesty." A male elf nodded and pushed down harder on his right leg. "Just say the word and Sour Sweet becomes a human pincushion."
"Halt, fiends!"
Everyone turned to see Sour Sweet dressed in black and purple robes with a silver tiara around her head. Her glasses had been painted black and had horns poking out of the edges. She had another book in her hand with a protective sleeve around the hardback.
"This. Ends. Now." Sugar stomped her foot hard on the ground and flipped through her book's pages. "I shall end this madness once and for all. Friends or no friends!"
"Why, it's the Dark Wordscribe!" A female elf backed off of Sour's body and stumbled backwards.
"Her words can bring down even the mightiest of foes!" Another elf hid stood in front of Lemon and threw his arms around her. "Protect the queen!"
And within seconds, everyone climbed off of Sour's body and formed a defensive wall in front of Sour Sweet. Raising their bows and arrows up high, they watched as Sugarcoat stepped forward, closer and closer to them.
"First you destroy the book I was using, then you lull Indigo Zap over to the dark side, and now you threaten Sour Sweet with a rain of arrows?" Sugarcoat stopped and opened her book. "Your words are an invitation to disciplinary action. Allow me to deliver upon thee a verbal decimation!"
"Sugarcoat? What are you doing?" Lemon tilted her head.
"She's preparing to curse us with a hex, Your Majesty!" Another student pushed Lemon backwards. "Get out of here! Don't fall to her wicked words!"
"And it was upon thee that the elves themselves erected a shield, to defend their queen until the bitter end," Sugarcoat began reading, though her eyes were completely fixated on a complex diagram of a jet. "Through their heroic act, they found themselves using physical weapons against an entity of a higher astral plane. They tried to open fire on the being, but it was able to render their fighting spirit to nothingness." Sugarcoat put her left hand on the ground. "Their loyalty to Lemon is undone! Your true selves you shall become!"
Silence fell across the field for a few seconds. No-one moved an inch from their spots. Sour Sweet just stared at everything cock-eyed while Lemon and the elves gazed at Sugarcoat's bizarre pose and the contents of her book.
"Oookay?" Lemon tilted her head, breaking the silence. "What was that all about?"
"The temptress's magic has gotten to us..." Lemonade fell to his knees and twitched his arms and torso. "I feel... I feel my loyalty to Her Majesty slipping away from me! G-gah!"
"Why?!" another elf collapsed and punched the ground. "What is this dark magic?! What have you done to us?!"
"No! Alkar ana Her Majestime! ALKAR ANA HER MAJESTIME!" A third elf fell, along with a group of others. "You can't do this to us, Sugarcoat!"
"Oh, please. What are you, the drama geeks?" Sugarcoat came over to the elves and started plucking the ears off of their heads. "Get over it. This novelty has run its' course."
As the other elves quivered and shuddered at Sugarcoat's feet, they felt like everything that they had been taught in the past day was beginning to disappear. Their armour began to feel weird to them and their ears grew cold as they were de-spiked and reverted to normal. Lemon Zest was the only one who was still standing as Sugarcoat finally walked up to her.
"Sugarcoat, why'd ya have to do that?" Lemon blinked. "You totally ruined our good time there, dude."
"Lemon Zest, as much as I do enjoy the odd roleplay every now and again, this is really starting to wear old." Sugarcoat took the horns off of her head. "Not only are you jeopardizing multiple students at Crystal Prep with your dress code violations, but you've also destroyed something of great value to me and disrupted the general peace of the academy. That is something that I just cannot allow."
"Sugarcoat, girl. You... do know what a prank is, right, girl?" Lemon Zest lifted a brow.
"No. And quite frankly, I don't want to know." Sugarcoat turned her head away. "If a prank involves destruction of property and a group of people acting like idiots, I find it uncultured and a waste of time, whether it's online or in the real world."
"Uh, Sugarcoat? We really need to tell you what a prank is someday." Indigo Zap finally got to her feet and took the branches out of her clothes. "I mean, seriously, girl. You sounded like you were really serious about that whole thing."
"That's because I was serious, Indigo." Sugarcoat just folded her arms and stared at her. "What? Did you think I was just doing this to feed your fantasies?"
"You kinda were with that whole sorceress thing at the end." Sour Sweet lifted a finger.
"Oh, shut it, Sour. Like you haven't fought fire with fire before," Sugarcoat shot back.
"Technically, you fought elves with terrible acting." Lemon Zest looked up and down at Sugarcoat's headgear. "I mean, you can't just say that you're supposed to be a Dark Wordscribe with such a novice piece of kit like that. You've gotta really get into it! By a cloak or one of those weird perfume-filled balls or something. Y'know, something that really brings out the inner witch within you."
"Lemon, I'm not going to continue this little prattle." Sugarcoat pointed towards the doors. "If you're lucky, you can go up to Principal Cadence and ask for a replacement uniform. I'm sure that some half-baked excuse'll reduce the number of misdemeanors you caused today."
"Sugarcoat, aren't you the least bit happy about this prank?" Lemon asked.
"No. No I'm not, actually." And she walked off back inside. "The only thing you did get right were your costumes. As for everything else, I'm afraid that I wasn't really feeling that elven-fantasy vibe from you or any of your friends." She went back inside. "Good try, though."
"Hey, lighten up, Lemon. It was good while it lasted." Indigo came up to Lemon Zest and patted her on the back. "Who needs her opinion? She's Sugarcoat, after all. All she cares about is the honest truth. She's not really the imagination type."
"Yeah. I guess so." Lemon sniffled.
"Look, Lemon. I know that there's gonna be people out there who're gonna think that you're bad. All you need to do is just ignore them and have fun with it." Indigo stretched her arm out to the other former-elves. "We all liked it and got into it. So what if she totally trashed it?"
"Yeah, Lemon. I gotta agree that it was fun for the most part." The green-haired student stood back up. "You really made my day so much better."
"Thanks, Garden." Lemon gave her a soft smile.
"No, really. You were awesome today, girl." Another female student clambered back to her feet. "Going against the norm at Crystal Prep? That takes guts. You deserve to be one of us for that."
"Plus, you must've worked really hard on that elf language." A third student came up and gave Lemon a handshake. "You're not usually one to do research most of the time, but it's good that you did for this."
"Thanks, guys and gals." Lemon Zest's smile got bigger and bigger as the other students came up and gave her their congratulations. "I'm glad you all enjoyed this. Makes my day much better." She pulled out her headphones from a secret compartment underneath the throne and slipped them on her head. "Now let's get the rest of this day over with so we can go party hard!"
The other students cheered and resounded, following Lemon Zest back into Crystal Prep Academy, leaving Sour Sweet just standing in disbelief behind them all.
"So... is nobody going to bring up the fact that I was nearly shot with bows and arrows?" She asked thin air.