From Your Tower ➛ OUAT

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

When Rapunzel had imagined being helpless, she had imagined a kidnapper tying her up, killing people in front of her. She would be screaming, trying to break out of the ropes, but she couldn't do anything but watch the terrible happening. She would be completely helpless. She feared to be powerless more than anything.

But there's not only the physical helplessness, there is also the mental.

With that thought thought finally making an appearance into her mind, she figured out that the inevitable had happened.

Had been happening.

She's been helpless her whole life. Though she didn't know it before, she never chose her own choices, never helped herself. For her whole life, her life was paved out by her mother.

"Rapunzel, you have to pay attention." Peter says quietly, holding out a bow and a quiver of arrows for her.

She looks at it confused before remembering what this was all about. Once she woke up from the sleep she finally got, he told her he wanted to train her. She warily takes the quiver and slings it over her shoulder, and the bow in her hand.

"What's the point of this thing anyway?" Rapunzel asks, pulling on the string and letting go, making it zing and vibrate quickly back and forth.

"It's to shoot someone from a far length. You have to learn how to use it, for it's going to give you an advantage of surprise."

"Ah. And why all of a sudden you want me to learn this?"

She knew the truth, she just hoped he would tell her.

But Peter just looks down to his feet and shrugs. "Just teaching you defense."

It's really about the war that she knows is going to go on soon enough. Her and Peter versus Gothel and Hook. The small amount of lost boys against the huge amount of crew members. There's a voice in her head yelling at her that it's a suicide mission, but she tries to ignore it as best she can.

The worst part about it: Pan is still inside of Peter. Whenever he sleeps, or gets too weak to function, Pan will take over, and it is almost obvious who's side he will be taking.

Peter clears his throat. "So, um, what hand do you write with?"

It's been so long since she's been able to write. The stories she had written of happy endings, still sitting in her locked drawer. She looks down at her hands, and holds up the right one.

"Okay, stand here." He motions for her to stand perpendicular to the target, and positions her left shoulder facing the circle of different colors. "Hold your feet shoulder width apart." He instructs, and she obeys, fixing her stance to his directions. "Loose the tension. I wouldn't make you do anything that would be a bad idea."

His words comforted her, to a point where the tension in her shoulders lessened, where she is still standing upright but she is no longer tense.

"Hold the wooden part of the bow with your left hand and point the bow towards the ground." She does what he says, and he smiles. "Now get an arrow out." With her free hand, she reaches over her shoulder and grabs one. "On the back of the arrow is a groove. Put the groove around the bow string." Rapunzel wearily does what he says, still slightly afraid on what is to happen with this. "Now hold the part of the arrow that's on the bow string in between your pointer and middle finger, but also hold it with your thumb on the other side."

He wouldn't make her do something stupid, Rapunzel tries to convince herself. But she knew what this was about. Once she learned how to use this bow and arrow, she could injure people. She just hoped she could have pushed it back as far as she could, but he's teaching her defense. Even if he won't admit it, he knows what is to come.

"Now raise it vertically, keeping the same position you have, with your arm on the place it is exactly at now, and your fingers as well. One quick movement." She listens to what he says, holding it in the way he says, trying not to make her shaking noticeable. "Aim for the middle. Then just... let go."

And she does. The arrow goes slicing through the air, and watched it go through the hair with a hand over her eyes to block the sun.

Then it lands in the tree, so far away from the target that it confused her. She hears a lost boy scream, and she quickly yells out, "Sorry!"

"It's alright!" He answers back. Relief flooded through her when she realized she hadn't hurt him.

"Okay..." Peter says quietly. "Here, uh, let me help."

Rapunzel nods and grabs another arrow out, going through the process she had already told her until raising it. She kept it raised, waiting for him to go on.

He fixed parts of her stance, pushing an arm up and down here and there. She tried hard to ignore the tickling her stomach felt upon this. Then he stood behind her, reaching around her to help her hold the wooden part of the stick and the other hand to hold his finger over her own. "Being able to shoot an arrow is the anatomy of complete and utter control. You have to be able to control your feelings and emotions to go through it."

"I'm not very good at that." She admits.

"Then ignore the bad stuff for just a minute. There has to be something good in your life. You have to find that something and hold onto it. Keep it in your mind and thoughts, make sure you know it is there always. Imagine it being your control."

She breaths in, imagining the one thing that she has actually found herself to actually care about on Neverland. She forced herself to think of nothing but it.

"Great," Peter encourages, taking his hands away from the position before. "Now, just... Let go."

She let go. There was almost a relieved feeling as she let go of it, almost like there was a deeper meaning to what she just allowed herself to do. As the arrow went hurdling through the air, she found herself having loving the feeling she felt as it hit right into the middle of the target.

"Excellent." He whispers. "That's awesome. You're a natural fighter."

Her smile at the thrill of the achievement died down into a sullen frown. "I don't want to be."

"Good at fighting?" He asks confused.

"Yeah." She nods, holding the bow under her arm. "I am doing things that shouldn't be possible for a girl who's never gotten out of her tower for sixteen years."

He doesn't answer at this. She wished she could know what he was thinking at that moment, what his dark mind is thinking of this situation. It couldn't be much worse than what hers is.

She wanted to talk to him about what Pan had brought up with her, but how could she bring it up? How could she possibly just tell him that her hair may or may not be magical? It is only so much that he will deal with before he is done with it.

So instead of telling him of the magic, she said: "So, what's next in defense?"