Shut Your Eyes

I snapped the band of horse hair back from the frame of my bow, listening for any buzzing in the twang it made.

"It's….good?" I guessed.

Montoya grinned, "It is good, but I know you just guessed." He told me.

I scoffed. "At least I can aim now."

Montoya just nodded in the direction of the target ahead of me. "Show me what you got." He muttered.

I felt determination etch into my face as I scowled at his condescending attitude and strung my arrow. I'll show him. I'm not nearly as uncoordinated as the first day they gave me this bow.

I remember it clearly, because the embarrassment hasn't nearly left me yet.

-x-

"McKinley!" Montoya yelled out.

I disarmed Cas, flicking his fake sword over his shoulder before stabbing his leg once more for good measure and wandering towards Montoya.

Cas was protesting the whole time, of course, but I chose to ignore it.

"What?" I called out, shoving my wooden sword into its holder- a block of wood with slots in it for all our swords.

"We want to try something with you," Montoya replied, "Since you're kind of special."

I grimaced and stuck my hand on my hip, "Yeah, special." I replied.

Montoya grinned and turned away from me, walking towards a strange looking old man. He was stout and his clothing was odd and elaborate.

"This," Montoya gestured to him, "Is Doctor Cornelius."

Said man smiled at me, his long, silvery beard swaying with the slight inclination of his head. I smiled back briefly before turning back to Montoya with a glare.

"And why exactly am I meeting a doctor?" I asked him.

Montoya just kept a stupid smile on his face. I almost growled at him, but I stopped myself. Sometimes I do act normal, alright?

Doctor Cornelius, aware of the awkwardness of our situation, stepped in and offered his hand to me.

"I am not here to use my medicinal knowledge, Miss McKinley, although I'm sure were the situation like so, you would certainly be most healthy in all estates." He stated diplomatically as I shook his hand and probably looked stupid.

"Oh." I answered, unable to reply intelligently.

Monotya snorted and made that idiotic clicking noise with his tongue that he does when he's impatient.

"Well, McKinley, the Doctor here is the only Telmarine who knows how to operate a bow and arrow, since you seem to have problems operating a crossbow, we're trying you on a bow instead. Got it?" Montoya stated, giving me a stern look.

I nodded and watched as he gave a satisfied nod and started yelling for the other trainees to start their crossbow practice, walking towards them.

The Doc cleared his throat as he turned to a deep ochre bow hanging behind him.

"This bow was made especially for females," he held it out to me and gestured to the curves in it's structure, "Can you tell me why I know this?"

I stared at it. "It's smaller than most bows?" I guessed.

Cornelius nodded, "And lighter. It's built aerodynamically, and for longer distances."

He handed the bow to me and turned back to the equipment, pulling a matching quiver from the wall the bow had originally hung on.

"It's also built for adolescent females, such as yourself Miss McKinley." He told me with a smile, gesturing to the bow and myself.

I glanced back down at the bow in my hands, piecing together what he meant.

"No, no, NO, this is too pretty and dangerous for me." I replied.

Cornelius chuckled, "You must learn to use a bow for long distance fighting, or you will be defenseless in such a case." He retorted.

I scowled because I knew he was right.

"How do you use this thing." I grumbled, holding the bow up awkwardly.

Cornelius smiled and held his arms up like he was holding a bow, stretching his left arm forward strongly and bending his right while aligning his feet under his hipbones.

I stretched my arms to mock him, but when I tried to pull the twine back with my other arm, it went a pathetic couple of centimeters before I couldn't move it anymore. My arm wobbled under the strain.

"You just have to practice a little to get it." He told me gently, pulling an arrow from the quiver he set down earlier.

"Try it. You just place it between your index and middle fingers, and use them to pull the twine back from the frame."

I took the arrow from his outstretched hand, and placed it in my hand experimentally as he described.

"Yes," He said encouragingly, "try it!"

I pulled the band of twine back as hard as I could, "Where am I shooting?" I asked, voice shaky. The Doc gestured to a target on a tree nearby. I turned to it.

"To aim, align the arrowhead with your target." He told me.

I held the bow closer to my face, concentrating on the center of the target.

I took a deep breath and lined up the arrowhead. I pulled back a little harder, I could feel my face scrunching up as I concentrated.

The twine suddenly snapped, slicing the side of my collarbone and sending the arrow shooting out at a ferocious speed….right into General Monotya's ankle.

-x-

I stepped into position, right foot forward, knees locked and shoulders flexed. I strung my arrow and pulled the horse-hair(the twine clearly wouldn't hold…) back to almost reach my face on its own.

I aligned my sight and the arrowhead out of the corner of my eye, snapping the bow to let the arrow fly into the second ring from the center.

"HAH!" I cried out, victory!

Montoya raised an eyebrow before turning on away to glance at the rest of his 'worms' (as he oh-so-affectionately calls us) before muttering "Meh."

I visibly cringed.

He turned back to look at me, eyes assessing, "You've still come a long way, McKinley. Keep working."

I nodded, "Yes sir."

Montoya turned back to the rest of the trainees and called out "Lunch break!" before walking off to where ever he goes when he isn't ordering us around.

-x-

"Char!" Cas called out.

I turned away from the sandwich I'd been considering to come very close to Caspian's face and as cheesy as it sounds, got lost in his soulful brown eyes.

I stared for a good five seconds before getting a small bit of composure and averting my eyes, muttering "Whaddya want…" while my cheeks heated.

Cas smiled and reached around me, leaving a warm trail where his arm brushed mine and making my heartbeat stutter.

"Guess what?" He asked, taking a bite out of the muffin he'd grabbed from the lunch bar.

I turned back to the lunch bar and took the sandwich, walking past Cas to find a table which didn't have any of the annoying shrieky girls sitting at it.

As I sat down, Cas jumped (literally, jumped) into the chair beside me, bouncing his legs and shaking the entire table.

I sighed, "What is it?" I asked.

Caspian broke into an adorable grin and I vaguely remembered the first time I'd been puppy dog eyes'd by him. Little did I know…

"We get special training after lunch break!" He exclaimed, nearly knocking the table over in excitement.

"….We have to get special training? Why?" I asked.

Cas smiled even wider, shaking me by the shoulders, "Because we're advanced!" He retorted gleefully.

"Cas, I'm pretty sure 'special' just means 'slow'." I replied, unwrapping my sandwich.

Cas reached in front of me and grabbed half my sandwich-thanks for asking bub- "No! We're actually advanced with swords and General Montoya himself is gonna teach us a trick or two that are-"

"You need to calm down!" I interrupted.

Cas stopped demolishing half of my sandwich and closed his mouth to chew and swallow, "I'm just happy, you know? Maybe I won't be such a horrific King after all." He replied.

You know those simple sentences random people say every once in a while that change how you see something completely? This was one of them for me. That's right, he's the crown prince. He's gonna be King someday. Wow.

"Char?" Cas waved a tan hand in front of my face, "You okay?"

"Mhm," I replied, "I'm just having an epiphany."

Caspian gave me a funny look before digging into the other half of my sandwich and suddenly realizing that it wasn't his.

"Oh…" Cas muttered, swallowing the chunk of sandwich in his mouth.

I laughed a little, to be honest.

Okay, I laughed a lot. His face was priceless.

"I'll get you another one…" He stated, wandering towards the food bar.

-x-

Side step, dive, duck and roll. These were the ways we learned to avoid getting an arrow in the butt. What Montoya was telling us now?

Complete. Rubbish.

"I'm completely serious." He replied patiently.

I felt my eyes narrow and mouth drop open in a sarcastic expression.

Caspian's eyes flickered back and forth between Montoya and me. He stepped forward, clearly the peace-keeper in said situation.

"What do you mean, use your sword?" He asked.

Montoya smirked, unsheathing his pride-and-joy fancy sword and gesturing to a weird slingshot-like machine.

"I'll show you!" He replied simply.

Cas and I stepped back out of the way of this machine as Montoya turned it on.

"This device will shoot arrows that won't hurt, and stick to you." He explained.

Montoya leaned forward, arms up in a defensive position.

An arrow shot out at break-neck speed, and Montoya spun his sword in front of him with a skilled flick of his wrist.

He turned back to us, sword held up with an arrow stuck to the centre by a suction cup tip.

"WHAT!" Caspian exclaimed, an excited grin decorating his angular face.

I just stared in complete shock.

"You use the broad part as a shield." Montoya replied simply, "Now you try!"

Caspian ran to Montoya's spot, launching himself over a log.

"FIRST GO!" He yelled.

I just walked to the log Cas just vaulted and sat down on it. Montoya took a seat beside me and watched the hyperactive chipmunk bounce around until a couple arrows bruised his ego. He nudged me after a while.

"You try now." He muttered.

I grimaced and stood, gesturing to Cas to switch.

He walked by, an odour of sweat permeating the air around him. I made a face.

"It's not as easy as it looks." He told me ominously.

I sighed and pulled my sword out.

"I just swing it clockwise?" I asked Montoya. He nodded. Helpful.

I walked to the machine, turning to face it, heart beat picking up in anticipation.

It shuddered before shooting an arrow out at me. I swung my sword around, but knew I failed to hit it as the arrow hit my neck with a bruising impact.

I made a noise as it hit me, staggering back a step.

"I thought these didn't hurt!" I exclaimed, ripping the suction cup arrow off me.

Montoya just grinned while Cas rubbed his obviously sore shoulder.

I sighed and turned back to the machine.

"You hit it." Montoya called out.

I whipped my head back to face him. "What?" I exclaimed.

He nodded at the arrow by my feet, "Should've hit your face, your got it on the edge of your sword and changed the path instead of blocking the attack." He replied.

I shrugged, nearly falling over as another arrow impacted, hitting me in the hip this time.

Montoya choked back a laugh as I scowled at him.

"What am I doing wrong?" I asked, giving him a dirty look.

I turned back to the machine, readying myself.

"You're forgetting to align your feet." He replied.

I looked down, and sure enough, they were about two feet apart instead of under my hips.

Another arrow hit me (ribs this time) and Montoya laughed again. This is going to be a long day.

-x-

I sank into my downy bed with a sigh of pure joy before my lovely moment of solitude was over. Somebody whispered my name from my door.

"Charlotte!" It was probably Glozelle.

I ignored him.

"I swear to God…" He muttered, sneaking past my door.

"What?" I replied, already cross with him.

He stooped near the doorway, motioning to follow.

I sighed and rose from my bed, stomping over to my shoes.

Glozelle grabbed my ankle and muttered "Be silent."

I rolled my eyes but obliged, dropping to his level and resting on my ankles.

"You'll thank me later." He replied, a mischievous grin on his face.

We crept through the halls through back entrances and secluded sections until we somehow came to the court stables.

"Unlatch the bolts on the chicken gates!" Glozelle hissed, creeping to the cage of said birds.

I reached for them before hesitating, "Won't the chickens get loose?" I asked.

Glozelle shrugged, "They may." He replied.

Now already thoroughly amused, I reached for the bolt and unlatched it as Glozelle somersaulted to the other side of the gate and did the same.

"Sopespian may also be nearby and secretly deathly afraid of chickens…" He muttered.

I almost died, swinging the door silently and holding a hand over my mouth to keep from bursting into belly-aching laughter.

The chickens swarmed out, heading straight out the barn doors. Shrieks of terror followed immediately after.

Glozelle and I high-fived over the chicken gate while sneaking back towards the back door we came in.