Crash

19: A two year olds work

Lyra-

"Pull!" I yelled, raising my bow.

Nathan flung three wood scraps into the air.

One. Twang. Two. Thonk. Three. Miss.

I let three arrows fly into the air, only two hit a wooden block.

"Fuck!" I growled and stomped over to the tree the third arrow had notched itself into.

"Two out of three ain't bad," Nathan called appraisingly.

"But ducks and geese fly faster. If I miss one, I miss them all. God, I've got to improve my aim," I snapped, putting all of my arrows back into their quiver I had fashioned weeks ago.

"Hey, take it easy on yourself. You're one of the best shots I know."

I felt Nathan's hand on my shoulder and relaxed a little. Maybe he's right. Ducks are pretty stupid animals anyway.

Today, we were practicing our aim for waterfowl. One of us would throw three pieces of wood high into the air and the other would launch arrows after them. We could use Nathan's gun, but the ammo was too precious to waste on waterfowl.

I'd missed one. Again. Not my best work, but it wasn't horrible. Do you know how fast you have to be to pull out an arrow, load it, draw back, aim and fire three times in a matter of seconds?

Freaking fast.

"Your turn," I sighed.

I had my bow and Nathan had his own. Mine was easier to draw and aim with because it was so simple, but his was more lethal.

We agreed to leave his bow to big game. He took my quiver before I went over to collect the wood pieces.

"Ready?" He asked and I nodded.

"Pull!!"

I threw the wooden blocks as high as I dared and backed up quickly.

One. Thunk. Two. Miss. Three. Thump.

"Two outa three ain't bad!" He grinned at me.

A light drizzle started up again. I swore and collected all of my stuff. This damned rain, it's been like this since yesterday.

Nathan slung his jacket around my shoulders and we hurried back to the cave as the rain got harder. Baine was already ahead of us, trotting to the cave quickly to avoid getting wet.

I plunked down to dig out a piece of rabbit fat to oil my bow. Water and wood don't really mix.

"Aren't you happy we put shingles on the cache?" I chuckled. Well, more like shitty strips of wood, but you get the idea of it.

"Yeah, you were right," he chuckled, taking the jacket to snag it on the rock wall to dry.

I perked up, I rarely heard this.

"What? What did you say? I thought I heard something I swear I never thought I'd hear come out of your mouth." I leaned over to squint at him with a little smirk playing on my lips.

He rolled his eyes but smiled, "You were right Lyra."

"Ah! Music to my ears!" I sang playfully.