Ready, Aim... (Finley)

Naomi trotted out to a clearing in the fringes of the Forbidden Forest, where she was just out of sight of the castle, but not in the Forest proper. She respected this place and its dangers and wouldn't push her luck. At least, not until she was better at magic and more able to defend herself. When she did go out, she'd definitely avoid the patch of Forest that was home to the acromantulas, although she might see if any of the centaurs would speak to her. She'd heard that they had a sort of respect for humans with woodcraft, although that might just be rumor.

With her eyes peeled, it wasn't hard for Naomi to spot the small mark she'd made at the base of a pine tree. She scrambled nimbly up through the branches to where she'd cached their (probably forbidden) bows and arrows, as well as the targets she and Finley had made. Despite the tree sap that clung to her hands as she descended, she was glad she'd chosen a pine. It's thick needles would hide their contraband all year round.

Leaping the last couple feet, Naomi landed lightly, bending her knees to take the impact and began attaching targets to a couple of trees on one side of the clearing, setting down the waterproof pouches that held their equipment.

Naomi turned when she heard Finley's shout, grinning at her fellow Ravenclaw. "I'm pretty great, thanks. Glad that I got a break in homework so we can do this. How about you?" She watched him check the bow over, apparently finding it satisfactory.

When he offered the first try, Naomi bounced excitedly. "Ok! And if this works, we can start making a second bow, so we can each have one." She rooted around in the cover for the bow string, finding it at the bottom. With a grimace at the effort, she strung the bow, plucking at the string to make sure it was tight.

"Alright, let's try this out." Naomi picked up the quiver, slinging it outer her shoulder and walked about ten feet from the target before turning around. "Make sure you're behind me," she told Finley. "I don't want to hit you." When he'd moved, she put an arrow on the string the way she'd seen in the illustrations in the book, the one that looped helpfully so she could watch it over and over. Remembering her plan suddenly, she pulled parchment and a DictaQuill out of her bag, setting them on the ground nearby. "Test, test. Ok, the date is 13th March, 2015. We're about to do our first test of bow 1.0 at ten feet from the target. Here goes." She brought the bow back up and drew the string back with a lot of effort, making sure to touch her thumb to the corner of her mouth as an anchor. Exhaling, she released the arrow. It leapt off the string and flew towards the target and down, burying itself in the dirt two feet from the tree that had her target on it. "It works!" she shouted, happy despite her failure. "Arrows appear to be heavier than anticipated," she told the Dicta Quill. "Remember to adjust for weight." Turning to Finley, she almost squealed. "Finley, it works!"

Naomi bounced excitedly in place, unable to stay still. "I think they're the right weight, I just need to learn how to shoot them better. I have to aim higher than I thought. If the draw weight was any heavier, I don't think I'd be able to use it. And look." She hurried over to where the arrow was buried deep in the ground and pulled it out. Dirt covered about a third of it's length, impressive in the still-hard ground. "There's enough power there. I'm just not the best archer." She grinned and added, "Yet."

Wiping off the arrow on a corner of her cloak, she stuck it back in the quiver before taking the quiver off her back and offering it and the bow to Finley. "Do you want a go? Just remember to aim higher than where you want to arrow to go. If we still can't get the arrows where we want them after some practice, we can look into making them lighter."

Naomi moved at Finley's request, looking on with bright eyes as Finley drew back his own arrow with shaking arms, fiddling with her arm guard as she watched. The arrow flew through the air with as much power as her own, sailing past the tree with the target and thunking into the tree beyond.

"Sorry? What for? That was glorious!" Naomi's smile grew. "Your aim was better than mine, anyway, but we both need to practice. But that's ok, because it works!" She did a little victory dance. "I can't wait until we get good enough to start throwing spells into the mix, but for now, I think we just need to focus on practicing regular archery. And I think we did a good enough job to make another bow, don't you think?" Naomi was barely able to contain her excitement; she'd never worked on a project like this before, so to have things going relatively well from the start was encouraging, to say the least.