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“Ashe, may I ask something of you?” Annette asked as she slid her food down across from Ashe in the dining hall.
“Yes, of course!” Ashe replied cheerfully, happy to see one of his friends.
“Since you are the best marksman in our class, I was wondering if you could teach me how to shoot a bow? I have never used one before and I am trying to expand my weapon knowledge as much as I can outside the range of magic at the moment.”
“Absolutely! You will learn a lot faster with the help of your classmate, when do you want to start training?”
“How about after lunch?” Annette asked taking a bite of her food.
“Oh, sure! No problem, I’m done now anyway, so I’ll head off and get everything set up for us.” Ashe said standing up, as he began to clean up after himself.
“Thanks, I’ll meet you there!” Annette exclaimed as she continued to eat her food, eating faster than normal, so that she could get to training as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Ashe was busy getting the archery range set up, he had three different training bows for Annette to try out and decided to take the extra time to practice himself before Annette showed up.
“I made it!” Annette exclaimed loudly once she had finally made it to the archery range. Her voice startling Ashe and causing him to miss his shot.
“Haha, I’m glad you made it.” Ashe chuckled, embarrassed of his missed shot.
“Let’s get to work!”
“Okay, so you stand here,” Ashe said taking Annette by the shoulders and moving her in front of him so that he could perform a demonstration for her. “let me give you a rundown of the basics and then I will let you take a practice shot and we can go from there. SO first of you are going to hold the bow with your non-dominant hand, and pull the string back with your dominant hand as you breath in, like this.” he said demonstrating with his usual bow. “Now when you pull the string back, you want to make sure that you place your hand- like this. Then, from there you should be able to look down the shaft of the arrow, and aim using the tip. When you have your aim set up, then you are going to breathe out and release, gently. You do not what to disturb the string you want it to naturally return to its position.” Ashe took a deep breath, demonstrating the perfect shot for Annette.
“Looks easy enough!” Annette said, grabbing one of the three bows that Ashe had set up.
“All you should have to do from this distance is line the tip of the arrow up with the centre of the target.” Ashe said watching Annette intently as she took a deep breath pulling the string of the bow back as her lungs filled with air. She concentrated on the target, thinking of Ashe’s words. Tip of the arrow. Center of the target. The tension of the bow weighed heavy on her arm, she lined up her target. She breathed out, releasing the string of the bow, the feathers of the arrow grazed her face upon release and the arrow flew forward. She winced at the outcome of her shot. Not only did the arrow not hit the centre of the target- the arrow had somehow seemed the miss the target completely as she had instead seemed to shoot the ground.
“How… How did I go so wrong?”
“Uh, Maybe the bow’s tension is too much for you. I have another one here that might be a bit easier for you, how about we try this one instead?” Ashe said, taking a different bow off the rack and trading with Annette.
“Okay, here I go.” Annette said putting her full concentration into the shot, the tension on the bow was a lot nicer and made it easier for her to concentrate on her target. Breathe in. Breathe out and release. “UGH!” She had missed again, this time landing a shot above the target and to the right. “What did I mess up this time?”
“Try raising your back elbow a bit more and making a smoother release.”
“Like this?” Annette asked, demonstrating for Ashe.
“That's a little bit too much on the elbow,” Ashe said, reaching out to adjust Annette’s elbow into the correct position, “Perfect!”
Once more Annette pulled the string of the bow back and took aim. “Breathe.” She whispered to herself quietly, before taking the shot. “I did it!” She squealed, even though the shot was nowhere near the centre, she had finally fit the target.
“That's a good start.” Ashe smiled. “Try out the other two arrows in front of you and see if you can get a closer shot.”
“I bet this next shot will hit the bullseye!” Annette exclaimed before taking the shot and missing. “Okay, then this one will.” Barely making it onto the target once again. “Ashe! How do you make this look so easy?”
“It just takes lots of practice!” Ashe encouraged as he went to go retrieve the arrows so that Annette could try again, setting the arrows in their resting place. Ashe moved behind Annette, as she raised the bow, to take aim for her next shot. Before she knew it Ashe’s chest was pressed against Annette’s back and she was suddenly finding it harder to breathe.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Annette stuttered out.
“Helping you with your shot.” Ashe replied calmly, placing his hand over Annette’s as she pulled back the string of the bow, “Raise your elbow. Lower. Perfect. Now pull the string back more. Right here.” He said adjusting the placement of her hand on her face as she struggled to hold back the string. “Now, Take your aim. Breath in. Out and release.”
“We did it! Bullseye!” Annette turned around jumping up and wrapping her arms around Ashe and pulling him into a sudden hug.
“I knew you could do it!” Ashe exclaimed hugging her back before he knew it Annette had placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
“Sorry! I was just really excited.” Annette said following a loud gasp.
“You can do it again if you want.” Ashe mumbled shyly before Annette smiled pulling him in for another kiss. To which he was able to return this time. This concluded the first of many archery training sessions together.