Ready, Aim... (Finley)

Guest

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.

Guest

In the weeks that had passed since originally meeting Naomi, Finley had found himself happier than he'd ever been at the castle. Still his nervous self, but happier. When they weren't studying for school work, Naomi and he had been looking at ways of making bows and arrows. After a week of research - because Ravenclaws did things properly - they had agreed to set about making the bows and arrows.

Which was a lot harder than they'd first thought it would be.

But after several attempts, they'd managed to make a working bow, and a quiver full of arrows. Now, they had to learn to be able to shoot. Finley had known it wouldn't be easy, after all, everything took practice.

It was a free afternoon that Finley stole out of the castle, making sure to stay away from teachers and prefects alike. Naomi had said to meet her down at the forest, and Merlin he hoped they wouldn't be going in to the forest now, because that sounded completely terrifying. However, Finley was quite sure that Naomi wouldn't ask him to do such things.

And he was right, as he drew closer, Finley noted the witch and smiled to himself. "H-hey!" Finley called out as the witch pulled the last target in to place. "H-how are you?" He asked, taking out the bow from it's protective pouch and checking it. Honestly, he didn't really know what he was looking for, but everything seemed to be okay.

"You c-can go f-first, if you l-like?" Finley told the witch, because it was only polite to let girls go first, he'd been taught. "T-then we can t-try charming the arrows..."

Guest

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!"

Guest

Finley was glad to hear his best friend was alright, in such a short space of time, Finley had become quite fond of Naomi. They shared a lot of interests, and the interests they didn't share, Finley found quite interesting - deciding to try a few things out himself before he wrote them off. "I'm e-excited!" Finley responded with a warm smile to the witch, which was so very true.

The idea of making a second bow sounded great to Finley. But there wasn't any point having two now because they didn't know if they had gotten it right yet. It would waste resources doing too much too quickly. "W-when this one w-works." Finley agreed, hurrying behind the witch as she asked him to, making sure to stay out of the way of the arrows that would be moving quite soon.

With a DictaQuill in place, Finley just set to watching the witch work. Drawing the bow, and holding it relatively steady. The flight of the arrow, from where Finley stood, was smooth enough, just not aimed quite right. However, Naomi's comment to the quill was probably more accurate. With the bow now empty, Finley moved to Naomi's side. "D-do you think that w-we need to make the a-arrows lighter, or the bow s-stronger?" He asked, before bettering himself. "Or b-both?" He added, because both would make everything better. However, the latter he wasn't quite sure how to deal with.

Guest

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."

Guest

The information that the weights were right in the younger Ravenclaw's opinion, Finley nodded, listening to her words and hoping that she was right. Working out how to lighten the arrows would probably take time, and Finley didn't want the witch to lose interest, so the notion of just changing the aim they were using was probably the best option that they had right now. With the information that the force of the bow was enough, Finley felt a lot of relief as he watched his best friend clear off the arrow and put it back in the quiver.

But being offered the bow, Finley's eyes showed he was a little bit scared of trying. Though, he really did want to try, he didn't wish to look silly. Reaching out to the bow, Finley took hold of it and shouldered the quiver. "S-stand behind me, p-please." The boy insisted, raising the bow. It was evident, if you ever watched Finley, just how nervous he was, because his hands shook more than they probably should have. Knocking the arrow in to the bow, Finley drew it back (with a little difficulty). Looking down the arrow, Finley aimed higher, letting go the arrow flew over the target, in to the tree behind it.

"Oh..." Finley breathed, looking to Naomi. "S-sorry." He managed, hurrying after the arrow.

Guest

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.

Guest

With Naomi telling him that he didn't have to be sorry, Finley smiled shyly. It was an automatic response when he did things without the 'right' outcome happening afterwards. Of course, this was not a healthy thing to do, but the habit was so deeply ingrained in to the boy that he didn't even realise he was doing it until someone told him not to apologise.

Finley was a deep shade of red when he was told he'd done well though. He never, ever got told he was good at anything, so hearing it wasn't something he knew how to deal with. Except with embarrassment. "T-thank y-you." Finley managed a moment later, not knowing what else to say that.

The idea of keeping up practice had the older Ravenclaw nodding. "W-we can. A-and we can d-definitely make a new b-bow!" Finley insisted, because he most certainly didn't want to give this up. "T-then perhaps we can f-figure out the m-magic." Finley added, though he didn't know how that was going to work with his awful track record.

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