Accidentally Falling | Narnia

28 | distractions

"I really don't understand why you're excellent in swordfighting but hopeless at this, Peter." Susan threw her hands up in the air as she looked in disbelief at another arrow flying fifteen feet away from the dummy yet again.

They had been at it for a while now but the blonde-haired King really couldn't seem to hit the dummy. Nor at least, not let his arrow fly at fifteen feet away from the said dummy.

"It's simple really," Peter mumbled in annoyance. Although Susan was far behind him, he knew that she could hear him but he didn't care. "I love swordfighting. I hate this."

Peter didn't want to hurt the Daughter of Eve's feelings. She had brought him here to help him get away from his troubles. And he knew that archery was her area of expertise and that she felt strong passion towards it as he felt with fencing. But he couldn't help his irritation. He had been trying hard to hit that target for almost two hours now but to no avail. The stupid arrows wouldn't work with him. He was, and she was right, devastatingly hopeless.

And Susan was of no help at all. She kept criticizing his stance and laugh at the way how he hold the arrow on the bowstring. True, she had already showed him the proper way to these things. But could she blame him if he was more focus on her than on how to hold an arrow on the bowstring properly?

The thought made Peter even more annoyed.

He wondered what Edmund was doing now. The black-haired Pevensie was probably mad at him now after he promised to meet him at the courtyard but never showed. He could only hope Edmund would forgive him once he'd find out that he was only here at the behest of his own sister. After all, he knew firsthand how stubborn and annoying Susan Pevensie is.

Peter and Susan were in a vast field outside of Cair Paravel. Wild grasses that almost reached their knees surrounded them. Up ahead, the sun was almost on its way down to the west, drenching them in a warm light. Cair's huge turrets towered were on their right and the vast forest spread out on their left.

The place was truly relaxing, Peter had to admit that. Now he understood why Susan seemed to love to practice archery there. The sounds of the rustling blades of grass around them and the lapping waves down by the shore on the other side of Cair seemed to chase away all the exhaustions inside him.

Peter heard an arrow whizzing past on his right. Half a heartbeat later, a red-feathered arrow was embedded on the dummy's forehead yards away.

Peter looked behind him. Susan stood there calmly, her bow on her hand, her eyebrows raised at him as if telling him See? That's how it's done! He rolled his eyes at her. "Show off," he said.

"Oh, please," Susan snorted, settling down on the ground and tucking her legs beneath her. She placed her bow gently beside her. "Even a baby could hit that dummy in the forehead."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not some certain raven-haired lady out who is apparently the greatest archer Narnia has ever seen."

Susan went red at that.

Ever since that ambush in Lantern Waste a month ago, Susan had been called the "the greatest archer Narnia has ever seen" which she thought was crazy, ridiculous, and a huge overstatement since all she ever did was swing her bow around and shoot her arrows at any enemy she could her eyes on and hope she wouldn't miss. She knew it was because of her thirteen Dwarf companions that day and the Narnian army who came to their rescue. They were constantly praising her afterwards about how well she fought in the forest, how they had never seen anyone fight with a bow like that before, and thought it fit that the whole country knows of her heroinism. It took all of her willpower not to burrow her head on the beach the next day when she couldn't even walk ten feet around the Great Hall without hearing whispers from the courtiers about her bravery. Edmund couldn't stop making fun of her after that.