“Anchor point, huh?” Crow echoed thoughtfully. He drew an arrow from the quiver on his back and loaded it into the bow as Penelope had taught him, balancing it on his left index finger so it wouldn’t fall. Even that was more difficult than he had been expecting. With nothing holding the arrow up except for his own hands, he had to focus hard on keeping them steady.

Once the arrow seemed stable, he pulled back on the string to test how it felt. The force it took to draw the bow was surprising to him as well. He remembered Penelope saying that the weapon weighed a lot, but he didn’t realize just how heavy it would be. After just a short amount of time, his arm began to strain against the tension, so he slowly released the string back to its original position without loosing the arrow.

[i]Eye, nose, mouth, or chin,[/i] he thought for a moment, trying to decide what his anchor point would be. However, trying to choose one without practicing it first didn’t sit well with him. He preferred to let his instinct drive him, as he did with many other things. He looked at the bow in his hands and then closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and drawing the string one more time. He cocked it back as far as he could manage and then opened his eyes again to see that he had reflexively drawn the bowstring to his mouth.

“Looks like that’s it,” he grinned at Penelope, letting the string return to its straight position once more.

[color=fff79a][b]“Alright, let’s see how your first shot goes,”[/b][/color] she said challengingly.

“You mean: Let’s see if Collin makes a complete ass of himself,” he snorted, smirking at her teasingly. “I saw that look in your eye. You don’t think I’m going to do well, do you?” He turned back to face the tree she had marked. “I’ll try to exceed your expectations.”

His expression turned serious as he focused on the carved ‘X’. Steadying his breathing, he repeated the instructions Penelope had given him one more time. He positioned the arrow against his left index finger and drew the bowstring back to the corner of his mouth, holding it there for a brief moment before he let go with his right hand.

The string slapped against the bracer on his arm as the arrow flew from the bow. It sailed towards the tree… and then shot past on the right, striking another tree trunk deeper in the forest.

Crow looked back at Penelope, shrugging sheepishly, “At least I hit something. That counts, right?”