The Archer Princess

Chapter Two. Her First Bow.

Eight wonderful years had passed since the birth of the Mandaria Twins and the family couldn't be happier. They still lived in the same cottage which consisted of two large bedrooms, a kitchen and a family room. The cottage was situated in a large meadow and the meadow stretched out in all directions until it reached the edge of the forest which surrounded the meadow and kept it hidden.

Each member of the Mandaria family was going about their usual routine. Alena had just finished tutoring Caspian and Cassy in their daily lessons of how to read and write. Alena was now currently around the back of the cottage collecting various vegetables from her garden whilst her husband was out in the forest patrolling.

Whilst their parents were busy the Mandaria Twins were sat on the floor of the family room practicing the work that their mother had given them.

"Cas?" Cassy mumbled with a timid smile as she looked at her brother.

"What's the matter, Cass?" Caspian replied as he looked up from the book he was reading, his shaggy, dark hair falling in front of his bright green eyes as he looked at his sister with a genuine smile.

"Is this looking better than before?" She asked quietly as she indicated to the parchment that she was practicing her handwriting on.

"It looks much better than before. Just try and space out the words more and that should make it more legible." Caspian instructed.

"Thank you, Cas." She sighed happily as she eagerly began doing what he had instructed.

After a few moments of comfortable silence Cassy glanced up at her brother and smiled at the look of concentration on his face as he squinted at the words in his book. "How's the book?" She asked knowing that it would annoy him. Caspian had always been better at writing whilst Cassy's strong point was reading. She loved nothing more than getting lost in a good story... Well except that she loved one thing more...

"It's... alright, I guess?" It came out as more of a question than an answer which made Cassy giggle at how confused he looked.

"You should read mother's book of poems! They're so fun to read and much easier to read than that huge history book that you're trying to read." Cassy told him, hoping to help her best friend and only brother.

"Thanks, Cass! I'll go and find it!" He announced excitedly as he placed the elven history book onto the table and ran out of the room into the adjoining room that had been dubbed the library and study.

"Cassy!" A deep, masculine voice shouted from outside the house. Cassy eyes lit up upon hearing her father's voice. She immediately dropped her quill onto the table and hurried out of the room, her waist-length, raven black curls bounced as she ran out of the house to see her father stood a few yards away from the cottage.

"There you are, little one!" His voice rumbled happily as he grinned at his little girl.

"Daddy!" She shouted excitedly as she threw herself at him in a tight hug, her small arms wrapped around his middle as tightly as her little body could at that age.

"How's my little girl today?" He asked, crouching down so that he was at eye level with his daughter.

"Great! I've been practicing my handwriting!" She giggled excitedly. Her purple orbs lighting up with happiness as she gazed into her father's purple eyes that were identical to her own.

"So your mother has got you working again, has she?" He teased.

"Yes but I don't mind!" She laughed.

"Well I have a surprise for you..." Marcus said, loving how Cassy's eyes lit up at what he said. "I've been meaning to give you this for a while but you seemed content in using that worn out bow that I gave you a few years ago for your archery so I put off giving it to you... until now."

Marcus reached behind him and placed a large bag on the ground in front of Cassy. "Open it." He grinned at her as she began bouncing up and down with excitement.

She didn't need telling twice and quickly opened the bag as her mouth opened in shock at what was in it. Slowly, she reached into the bag and pulled out the most beautiful elven bow she had ever seen; it was large but meant that it would be the perfect size as she continued to grow, it was metal and black and had dwarfish runes engraved into it.

"What does it say?" Cassy whispered as she held the bow in her hands, her gaze raking over the bold engravings.

"It says 'Power, Precision and Pride'," He said as he ran his forefinger along one side of the bow before he turned it over and indicated to the other lot of runes, "And this part says 'the Archer Queen'."

"The Archer Queen?" Cassy asked.

"Yes. Because you're going to be the greatest Archer in the world. I just know it." He told her. "Now come on, let's go and hunt our dinner."

"You want me to come with you?" Cassy asked disbelievingly.

"How else are you going to test your new bow?" He winked as he helped her fasten the black quiver of black-feathered arrows onto her back as she continued to cradle the bow in her hands.

"Thank you, daddy." She whispered as she hugged him.

"You're welcome, little one. Now let's see if we can go and shoot something good, yeah?" Marcus replied as he picked up his own bow and walked towards the woods with Cassy following eagerly behind him.

Cassy remained silent as she followed her father deeper into the forest. Even though she was only eight years old she was smart and knew exactly how to hunt. Marcus allowed Cassy to lead the way and within ten minutes she had found some deer tracks and immediately began using them to track down the deer.

Marcus slowed down so that he was walking behind his daughter. He watched her track the deer expertly whilst he just watched and smiled at how much she was already becoming like him.

He silently watched her as she notched an arrow onto her bow so that she was prepared to shoot. She was already an expert at archery and she was only eight years old. Marcus was good at archery, he preferred his sword to a bow whilst Alena preferred her throwing knives. Caspian also loved throwing knives but Cassy immediately took to archery. And she was already a better shot that her father which made him glow with pride.

He came to an abrupt halt when Cassy did. He watched with a small smile as she aimed at the large deer that was quite a few yards away. Even he wouldn't try and shoot from that far away, there was a lower chance of the arrow hitting its mark and yet he had full faith that she knew what she was doing.

He heard the familiar whooshing of an arrow and watched as the arrow fired by his daughter struck the deer perfectly causing the creature to cry out but fall to the ground nonetheless.

"I knew you could do it, little one!" Marcus clapped happily as he hurried over to the deer with Cassy laughing happily as she followed him.

"Did you see that? I hit it dead on!" Cassy said excitedly as she hugged her father tightly.

"I did. As long as you keep practicing you will just get better." He smiled.

"You think so?" She asked looking up at him with young, wide, innocent eyes.

"I know so." He whispered, before he pressed a small kiss to his daughter's tanned cheek.

Ever since that day, Cassy had hunted with her father. She was always the one to shoot what they were hunting and never missed her target, not once. And so a father/daughter tradition was started at least until she began hunting on her own. One day when Cassy went hunting on her she didn't come back with a deer or a rabbit, instead she came back with something or someone totally different.