My giant rescue

Ch. 12 - Let the training begin

"Okay, I have thought about it and this is my proposition." he said after we finished breakfast. I was sitting on the table set from the garden he had moved to the dinner table. "I'll start of small, see how you do and you know if I'm see that you are doing well then-"
"You will let me outside!" I yelled out too exited to let him finish. 
"When I know you can take care of yourself."
"I already can but fine," I mumbled to myself. "So when are we gonna start!"
"Today actually," he said while cleaning up. He saw my excited face and smiled warmly at me. 

"Okay the first thing we gotta do is make you a weapon. I would like you to have a long ranged weapon. But no matter what you will still need a sword, though it should be only used as a last resort. Here you go. At least until I find a more sutible one." 
He handed me a needle with a custom made handle put at the end. Lightly swaying it around gave me a fell for it. It was definitely better to stab it at the opponent if it ever came to that. It was strong though which gave me hope it would be better at blocking attacks. 
"Now for your main weapon it has to be custom made." he continued. "I'm guessing you haven't got much weapon knowledge." 
"Nope" I said. He starts fumbling around in some chest taking out a few weapons. 
"There is the classic bow and arrow combo" he spoke while testing it out. It seemed fine but would be too slow if I needed to react quickly. I shock my head.
"Then in a similar group is the crossbow." 
He showed me a single shot which hit the floor hard, piercing a hole. "That's the one,"
"Really, I mean it can be hard to reload and it requires a lot of stability and..." he said but stopped when he saw my face. 
"I think I can figure it out, with time at least. But how are we gonna make it?"
"That's the question, that's the question," he said while looking around. 
"Maybe some soft branches, a thread and a very small knife."
"Okay but you have to make it, don't worry I will guide you through it all. Come up,"

I got up his hand and together we went out looking for all the materials. The right stick, trying to trim it while not breaking it. The hardest part was him teaching me how to put it all together, while not bending the pieces in the process. After that we had to figure out what my ammo would be. A few ideas flew by but we ended  with using smaller sewing needles broken in half. It wasn't all ideal but it was the best he could since he didn't have any blacksmith equipment. 

"After days of work it's finally done! Peter look at it!" I jumped excitedly towards him. I gave it to him so he could look at the final result. 
"It's beautiful Emma, you should be proud" he smiled while giving it back. "So can I learn how to use it now."
"I guess so, come along," he sighed, picking me up and exiting outside. This is amazing! I had been anticipating this moment for days. The day has finally come. 
He placed me down on the grass and with a knife he brought along with him started to cut a shooting target. 
"Emma, I know you have been excited for this, but remember we start off small. Beginning with your stance..."

"Yeah, that's great!" he said after I shot my first arrow. Thinking about all the elements going into the perfect shot was hard but the result definitely worth it. Even though I hit the tree I was still meters of the target. This was gonna take way more time than I thought it would, but that shot gave me hope that I would one day be good. That was all I needed.