"Hey, watch it Gabrielle!" Lila
rubbed up upper arm as she dropped her weapon. "That
smarts!"

Gabrielle placed a hand on her hip,
"Listen Lila, we are going slow. Maybe the staff isn't
your type of weapon." Gabrielle twirled her staff.

"Show off."

The two sisters laughed and Hecuba smiled in
spite of herself. *It's been so long. I never thought it, but I
miss the sound of you two arguing.*

"So what weapon do you want to try
now?"

"What weapon haven't I've tried?
Maybe I'm just a lover and not a fighter."

Gabrielle shook her head. "Oh no, you are
not getting out of this so easily. Every Amazon has to learn to use
a weapon proficiently, including an Amazon Princess. Besides if I
had to, you do too." She tossed her staff to her sister and
watched as it hit the ground with a thud. "Lila!"

"Okay, okay. So maybe the staff is not
the weapon for me. How about the bow?"

"Fine, let's start our lesson
then."

"Who's going to teach us?"

"No one is going to teach us. I'm
going to teach you."

"What?! When we were kids you
couldn't hit the side of a barn with a rock."

"Lila, we aren't kids anymore, and as
Amazon Queen, I had to learn to use the weapons of the Amazons,
including the bow." She placed her free hand on her hip as a
smug look engulfed her face. "And I have you know that I was a
natural at the bow. It took me less than a few candlemarks to get
it down to an art form."

Lila mocked her sister as she looked down at
her fallen staff. "Do I really need to learn about all these
weapons?"

"Not all at once. For now, you need to
pick one and become good at it. You never know when you are going
to need it." She picked up the staff and handed it to her
sister. "There is another thing you should know. Weapons can
be classified in two categories: ones whose primary purpose is to
kill and those that aren't.

In other words, if the bow is going to be your
weapon, be prepared to kill. One doesn't usually shoot an arrow
at someone in order to maim." She looked Lila right in the
eye. "You think you can handle that?"

Lila looked down at her hands. "I
don't know."

"Good answer." Gabrielle began to
separate the staff. "Well, we better get over to the target
field."