His fingers released their grip.

He felt the elastic twang and the rush of air, the tension relaxing from the string as it propelled the arrow. Luke let the Hawkshot bow tip forward, his eyes fixed on the bullseye a little over fifty yards away. The arrow struck the target with a satisfying thud of impact that echoed across the practice field. He narrowed his eyes.

The shot looked to be a hairsbreadth outside the bullseye. He wrinkled his nose in annoyance. Still good for ten points but not quite what he'd hoped for.

"Good shot, good shot!" Coach Gore declared from the sideline. A whip of a woman with a tight bun of dark brown hair, she was encased in a tracksuit of ELU black and gold, watching the try-outs carefully. "Retrieve!"

Along with five other prospective students, Luke set off on the long walk down the range to reclaim the three arrows of his latest shoot. He tugged them loose, squinting at the target to see exactly where his shots had landed. His last arrow was indeed fractionally outside the bullseye and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

When he returned to the firing line Gabi pouted sympathetically as she stepped forward to take his position.

"Going easy on me?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Maybe next round I'll just shoot you down the range."

"Maybe then you'd actually hit something," she returned, knocking an arrow to her bow. She planted her feet, pivoting side-on to the target as the other prospective members of the archery team lined up on either side. "Remember, I'm expecting flawless notes from you."

"Oh, nothing but the best," he muttered.

"And, shoot!" Coach Gore barked, cutting off any further barbs.

Gabi released, her hand springing back from the bowstring and letting the shaft leap away, soaring down the range. Luke craned his neck to get a better look, and a devious smile crossed his face when he saw the arrow bury itself into the inner section of the red ring, a fingernail away from the coveted yellow centre. A decent shot, but only worth eight points.

"Hope your singing voice is warmed up," he called.

She shot him a baleful glare before locking another arrow into place. Her second shot improved on the first, breaching the outer yellow ring for nine points. He opened his mouth to offer some more unsolicited advice, but she already had her third arrow in place, sighting quickly and smoothly. She took a second and exhaled. Then fired. The third shaft crunched into the target millimetres from the centre of the bullseye.

Luke didn't have anything clever to say about that. He pressed his lips tightly together as Gabi looked back over her shoulder and winked.

"Keep it up, Lukey boy," she said, her voice filled with a malevolent sense of glee. "I'll let my arrows do the talking."

"No doubt, no doubt," he grumbled as she set off towards the target to retrieve her arrows. Luke tried to ignore her impish smirk when she returned, and stepped up to the firing position.

He didn't even particularly care about having to be her designated note-taker for a week. He just knew he could shoot better than he'd shown so far, and he wanted to prove it. He belonged on this team. Shaking out his shoulders and stretching his arms, he readied himself, knocking his first arrow. Coach Gore made the call, and he fired.

A nine to start off. Luke nodded to himself but resisted the urge to turn and gloat, instead sliding his second arrow into place without a word. He cleared his head, focussing only on the glaring yellow centre of the target, and let fly. The second shaft hit almost dead centre, good for ten points. He bit back the jibes that wanted to leap off his tongue and prepared his final arrow. He pulled back, sighting with painstaking care and exhaling long and slow.

"Shame Oaklynn didn't see that, huh?"

She slipped it in, just as he released. He jerked with surprise. It was only a tiny motion to the casual onlooker, but more than enough to send his shot well off course from this distance. He let the bow drop, watching in abject horror as the arrow sailed merrily over the top of the target, continued on for another twenty meters and vanished into the foliage of the treeline at the edge of the range.

"You see a squirrel out there, Arbor?" Coach Gore laughed.

Feeling heat rush to his cheeks, Luke rounded on Gabi to find her trying to contain a fit of laughter, one hand clamped over her mouth.

"God, sorry," she giggled. "I didn't really think that would work."

"You play dirty, Gabrielle," Luke replied with mock severity. "I'll remember that."

"Retrieve!"

Gabi couldn't keep the grin off her face as she stood up. "C'mon, I'll help you find it."

The pair trudged off down the range, and Luke gave her thick hair a vengeful ruffle as they walked. She let out a yelp, pawing his hand away and almost tripping face first into the grass. Straightening up, she smoothed down her hair imperiously and marched past him to inspect the target.

"Good shot," she commented, tapping the fletching of the inner-most arrow.

"Third one would've gone right down the pipe if you'd kept your mouth shut."

"Concentration is key." Gabi tapped her nose with one finger. "Now, c'mon. Let's find your wayward friend."

The edge of the treeline was a thick mess of bushy foliage that rustled in protest as Luke wriggled his way through it, looking out for the brightly coloured shaft that had to be here somewhere. Gabi wriggled through behind him, rather tactlessly using her university-issued bow to shove aside the thicker branches. Luke would rather use his own skin than scratch up his beloved Hawkshot.

With the precious bow tucked against his side he used his free hand to push forwards until he found a tiny clearing in the treeline. With Gabi trailing in his wake he stepped into it, glancing around, eyes narrow as he searched.

"There." Gabi tapped him on the shoulder, pointing.

Luke followed her gaze. "Gotcha." He dropped into a crouch, taking a firm grip on the arrow and tugging it free from the thick tree root it had impaled. Turning it in his hands, he checked it over, but the shaft seemed undamaged. "Okay, I think we're good."

"Eh ... Luke?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you look up for a second?"

"What?" He glanced back at her, but found his friend staring straight ahead, a baffled look on her face. Straightening up, he twisted the other way to see what had caused it.

When he saw it he jerked back in surprise. Just beyond the clearing, just visible through tree branches and shrubbery, something was glowing. For a moment he thought it was just a trick of the light, but as he looked closer he could see the source had to be at ground level. The way the light speared up and out of the greenery couldn't have been the sun.

Then something moved.

Gabi grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him sharply away as a shape flashed behind the light. He caught a glimpse of something bright, effervescent. Two burning eyes like supernovas bored into him for the smallest instant, but still long enough to dazzle him. He swayed; felt Gabi totter for a moment beside him. Without thinking he swept one arm back to steady her, his palm pressing against her back to stop her stumbling.

As quickly as it had appeared, the apparition was gone. Footsteps sounded for a second before being engulfed by the sway of tree branches and chip of birds. He waited. Gabi's grip on his shoulder tightened, but whatever they'd seen, it seemed to have run off. Several seconds passed before Luke let his hand drop from between her shoulder blades, his eyes fixed on the residual glow that still ebbed out of the foliage.

"Did you see that?" Gabi whispered, staring intensely into the foliage where the glow had just been.

"Oh, I saw it alright." Luke nodded. He sucked in a steadying breath and took a step forward.

"Woah, hold on." She snagged him by the sleeve. "You're just going to walk right in there?"

He shrugged. "Whatever it was, it's gone now, Gabi."

"It's like you've never watched a horror movie in your life."

"It's fine. Just watch."

He slipped loose of her grip and reached forward, parting the thick branches and peering through. At first it didn't seem like there was anything amiss, but leaning closer, he realised something looked ... off about the plants and the undergrowth. In a small, almost spherical space around him everything seemed to be sharper and brighter, as though someone had trained a high powered camera on this one area to increase its resolution.

"What in the hell?" he murmured, stepping through. All around him, up tree trunks and across routes every colour and contour carried a strange kind of vitality that ebbed away after a few meters.

"Luke? What is it?" Gabi called nervously.

"I'm not..." He hesitated, then looked back at her through the gap he'd created in the foliage. "I'm not sure."

She pursed her lips, weighing up her options. Eventually she shrugged off her apprehension and stepped forward. Before he could say anything she was through the gap in the foliage standing in the clearing beside him. She looked around; her brow furrowed.

"What is it?"

"You don't see..." Luke's voice trailed off as he turned back to face the forest, only to find that the strange shimmer of the woodland was gone. He glanced around frantically. For a brief moment he saw a glimmer in the branches and leaves on the edges of the clearing, only for it too to fade away.

"See what?"

"This whole place!" he blurted. "The plants were all shining; glowing."

Gabi raised an eyebrow. "Glowing? The plants?"

"Yes!"

"You're sure?"

"I am." Luke dropped into a crouch with a snort of frustration, examining the vegetation. Gone were the tendrils of brilliant, emerald green coiled around rich, dark roots. The lustrous sheen had faded away in the time it had taken him to turn away. "I swear, I saw it."

"Okay, okay, let's say you did. So what?" Gabi shook her head. "I'm more interested in those weird... what were they? Eyes?"

Luke bit his lip, perplexed, but he had no explanation either. What had they seen behind those trees? What had he seen? Peering closer at the ground, he could make out a couple of foot-shaped depressions in the earth.

"Well, somebody was here," he said, pointing at them with the arrow he'd retrieved.

"Or something."

"C'mon, Gabi."

"Hey, we both saw those eyes, didn't we?" she asked accusingly. "Did it look like a 'somebody' to you?"

Luke gave her a sceptical look; pointed again. "Those are human footprints."

"Oh, and you're a tracker now?"

"No, I just-"

"Arbor, Truong!" the distant voice of Coach Gore wrenched them both back to reality. "I don't know what you're doing in there but we don't have all day!"

That was enough for Gabi. Before he could protest she grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet.

"C'mon, let's get out of here," she said, glancing uneasily around the little clearing

Luke sighed, still frowning even as he turned to follow her back the way they'd come. He stepped into the clearing where they'd found the arrow and the world seemed to deaden somehow, colours muting and light fading. It didn't make sense – he knew that. It was mid-afternoon; the sun was riding high over Lasquette Bay.

Still, he couldn't resist one last glance back through the trees to their discovery. He knew what he'd seen, but the glow was well and truly gone now, the light struggling to pierce the foliage again. Doubt swelled in his mind. Were it not for Gabi having at least seen the thing beyond the branches he might of thought he'd imagined the whole episode.

They jogged back down the range with an impatient Coach Gore haranguing them as they went. Gabi skidded into position at the firing station while Luke parked himself on the bench behind her. All thoughts of playful jibes and their ongoing wager took a back seat in his thoughts, replaced by the enigma of what they'd run across.

He could see the sight had rattled Gabi, evidenced by her first arrow that sunk into the target just barely into the outer red ring for seven points – a measly effort by her standards so far. The next two weren't much better, but Luke kept his mouth shut this time, not wanting to add to her discomfort. His next three arrows flew too fast from his fingertips, his mind not fully focused.

They traded back and forth, and gradually by the end of the placement session they'd both returned to a level of equilibrium. Gabi buried her last arrow dead centre in the bullseye and he saw her whole body relax, as though driving the shaft home had released the tension she'd been feeling since their encounter.

"You alright?" Luke asked quietly as they returned their bows and arrows to the range lock-up.

Gabi nodded, sliding her bow onto its hooks. "Yeah ... yeah I'm fine. It's just, you know, do we say anything to anybody?"

"I don't know." He gave her an apologetic glance. "What exactly would we say?"

"Forget it." She rammed the arrows back into their holder with a snort of frustration. "Let's just get out of here. I'm starving."

Luke felt like he should say something more, but the words wouldn't come. In the end he just nodded and offered what he hope was a reassuring pat on the shoulder. It felt awkward as all hell, but she didn't shoo him away. They walked side by side, out of the storage lock-up and round in front of the long rows of seating set up parallel to the archery range for competition days. Normally at a practice session like this those bleachers would be empty, but not today.

"Nice shooting!"

Luke swept his head up in surprise at the familiar voice. Confusion filled him for a moment until he looked up into the stands. Had he heard what he thought?

Sure enough, perched a couple of rows up into the seating area, was Oaklynn. Her backpack sat alongside her and she wore a fleece-lined jacket against the afternoon chill that was descending on lakeside. Her cheeks looked flushed.

"Well, don't you have an admirer," Gabi murmured out of the side of her mouth.

Luke gave her a light thwack on the arm, not looking at her. "Oaklynn?"

The other girl waved and then stood up. Instead of moving along to the stairs, though, she took two loping steps down through the rows to the front, grabbed the guard rail and vaulted over the top. He watched in surprised as she deftly cleared the railing with the ease of an expert and landed lightly on the balls of her feet.

"Someone's been hiding a hidden skill set," Gabi laughed as they approached.

"Oh, that?" Oaklynn shrugged as though it was the most casual thing in the world. "High school gymnastics. Some things just stick."

"Didn't know you were an archery fan," Luke replied.

She winked, teeth showing in a teasing smile. "I think I could get into it."

Something on the edge of his vision made his eyes flick down towards her feet. He felt a jolt of worry shoot right up his spine, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end. Luke tried not to react to what he saw, instead snapping his gaze up to hers again and returning the smile as brightly as he could.

When he opened his mouth to speak, he didn't mention the shimmering tendrils of grass and dirt that clung to her boots.