The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 5 pt 2

When Renestrae had told them they were going to hate her before the day was over Evelyn had scoffed. How could she hate her best friend? However, she was now of the sound opinion that she was not only going to hate her, but she was going to hit her best friend before the hour was up, let alone the day.

Really, the only consolation prize she was getting and she did feel somewhat bad about this, was the fact that when the hour was over it was going to be Kaloria's turn.

"Draw again."

She was really beginning to hate those two words. It wasn't bad enough that the damn bow was hard to draw back but each and every time she fired a shot she completely missed the mark. So now her arms hurt and she didn't have one damn thing to show for it. This sucked.

"But it's hard to draw the string back. Isn't there some way you can loosen it?" Evelyn whined. She knew she shouldn't, knew that just the other day she had yelled at both Renestrae and Kaloria for acting childish and here she was complaining that it wasn't fair when all Ren was trying to do was help. Of course it didn't mean she was going to stop, just that she knew better.

It looked like Renestrae was thinking for a second before she answered. Oh no! If she was thinking she was probably thinking about if she wanted to provide her with the information. She did not have a good feeling about her chances.

"There are a few tricks but I won't be using them," Renestrae smirked.

Evelyn wanted to slap the smirk right off her face.

"Well, why not?"

"Because you don't have a lot of time to learn and the tighter the string the more power behind it. Just be happy it's not a compound bow."

"Why's that?" she asked through clenched teeth but she had a feeling she wasn't going to like this answer either. She had decided that while Renestrae might be fond of the damn thing she rather hated the bow.

"Because, Sweetie, a compound bow can be strung much tighter."

Evelyn wanted to curse, but then Renestrae's face seemed to soften. Maybe she was going to take pity on her. Of course it wasn't like that was likely but one could hope.

"If it makes you feel any better it gets easier the more you practice and you can can decide the strength you want when we go pick one out for you."

"Why would we do that?" she asked, still feeling a bit slighted despite the good news Renestrae had just given her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Kaloria shaking her head.

"Ev, why am I teaching you how to do this?"

"So that we can protect ourselves if this murderer were to happen upon us," she replied through clenched teeth. The woman was a damn drill sergeant when it came to this stupid weapon.

"And just how are we going to do that with one bow, Evelyn? Chances are we won't always be in each other's company and if that was the case why would you need to learn? You could just rely on my skill. Not exactly the safest bet, mind you, but you could do it."

And just like that she felt like an asshole. "So how many hearts am I down to?"

Renestrae laughed and patted her friend on the back. "No harm, no foul. Link still has all five hearts. Now draw."

Evelyn huffed in annoyance but did as she was told regardless.

"Now make sure the hand you draw back is level with your chin."

Instantly Evelyn corrected herself as that hand hadn't been anywhere near her face.

"Now extend your pointer finger if you feel you need to use that as a guide, or a sight," Renestrae instructed. "Good, now if you could spread your footing out a little bit. Now release."

Evelyn watched as her arrow sailed twenty yards to the tree and wanted to curse again when it hit about ten inches above the mark.

"Relax, Ev. That was actually pretty good."

"It was?" she asked skeptically. To be perfectly honest she thought that she outright sucked.

"Of course it was. You can't expect to be a marksman on the first try."

"But you said the whole point of this was-"

"-to give you a fighting chance if I'm not there to help you. Sometimes all you need is a fighting chance. Loose another arrow."

Despite understanding, Evelyn still wanted to curse.