𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 - 𝐓𝐋𝐎𝐔

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞.

"Well, I'm certainly impressed."

"Told you I was a good shot."

Ciri smiled at the slight cockiness of the teenager. She walked up behind Ellie and placed a hand on her shoulder after she lowered the bow.

"Just one thing, however - slow it down. I know you might be eager to get your shot in but give yourself enough time to really focus on the target, breathe and then release the arrow. Follow the ten second rule. Your accuracy will increase by tenfold."

"I hit my targets though didn't I?" She argues.

"You did and you have a real talented aim but I promise you, you'll regret it in the future if you don't improve your technique. It takes talent to make a living but it takes brains to keep it." She pats Ellie's shoulder and begins walking towards the buck that she'd shot down.

Ellie sighed but didn't make a fuss out of it. She looked up to Ciri and never questioned her. She appreciated her patience more than anything, she was never strict or snappy with her any time she made a mistake.

"Can I ask you something?" Ellie follow after her.

"Sure, shoot."

"How have you got this good?" She asks vaguely, making Ciri glance over with furrowed brows.

"Good at what?"

"Everything. You never miss a shot, you can fight without slipping up once and you know so much about anything. How have you learnt it all?"

"Well, without sounding like a brag... there's various reasons why." She lets Ellie pull her arrow out of the buck.

"Peter was in the British military and then worked for the secret service where they gave him field training. So, from a very early age he taught me how to defend myself and I learned everything from him. He was quite the perfectionist but he was patient, I ended up adopting that nature too and all his discipline. It just takes practice and experience to build good habits. And I never half-ass anything."

Unlike Tommy and Joel, Ellie only knew vague details about Peter and who he was to Ciri.

"Though I think I should say I never come out untouched in any dangerous situation. I've received plenty of hits in my time. I'm far from perfect." She adds, she gestures her hand to her shoulder that had been shot.

"So was Peter like a secret agent?"

"You could say that."

"That's awesome." The teen grins as she loops the bow over her shoulder and places the arrow back in her bag.

Ciri grabs the buck by its antlers to turn it on its back before loading it up onto her shoulder.

"Should you be doing that with your shoulder?"

It had been a week since the attack on the dam. Ciri still had her stitches in, though they were ready to be taken out. Her shoulder was sore and still healing but she hated not doing anything. She'd done no work for the day after in incident, then refused to take it that easy for any longer and joined in the farming rotations with Ellie so she was doing something.

"It's fine. As long as the rest of my body is functioning, nothing is going to stop me." Ciri replies then whistles for their horses.

Ellie snorted. "Joel won't be happy when he hears about this."

"Who says he's going to?" She shoots a look at Ellie.

"I'll tell him."

"I don't think so."