Pinpoint Aim//Finnian&Kirkley
"Yes, I’m quite safe, thank you very much," Finnian chuckled, but he nodded solemnly at his friend’s tip. He would have to admit that being told his nerves were actually a good sign made him feel a little bit better about it enough to then aim to put it to good use. Respect, but not fear — he repeated the phrase in his head once more before shifting his attention to Kirkley, who then had taken his bow and was drawing it.
Finnian turned back to the target and let out an audible breath, this time clearing his mind to great effect that he never really noticed himself drawing the bow and aiming. He had managed to stop thinking about the instructions and let his body move like how it remembered and had not thought of anything else other than following Kirkley’s countdown beside him.
At ‘Three!’, Finnian let the feather fletchings slip through his fingers and watched his arrow sail, breathing out just as the arrow had finally hit the target. It was far from the center, but it reached the target nonetheless, and Finnian could never be more glad to see such a poor shot, as if it had been a winning one. He certainly felt like he had won something, though he was crediting it more to luck than actual ability. At least for the moment.
Squinting at the target once more to verify that there really was an arrow embedded just right outside the outermost ring, he then could not help but pump his fist to the side. Not even Kirkley’s horizontally-centered shot made him feel less about his own. “Whoa,” was all he could say.
At seeing Finnian’s arrow strike the target, Kirkley let out a victorious “Aha!” to add to Finnian’s fist pump. “Nice! You hit the target! Better than I did when I first picked up a bow!” Kirkley chuckled. He looked over at Finnian’s outstretched fist and couldn’t help reaching his own fist over to tap the Selkie’s. He made sure to just barely touch Finnian, not wanting to hurt his friend, but still wanted to congratulate Finnian.
“Now,” he said easily, glancing over to the target again, “we see how well your sights are. The key to archery, or at least it is for me, is to know how the bow shoots. But I can’t teach you that. You have to practice it. So we start by having you just shoot the target again. Try and hit the same place consistently. If you don’t, we’ll go from there.”
Kirkley put his bow back over his shoulder and turned to look at Finnian. He kept his eyes on the bow and Finnian’s hands and arms as he waited for his friend to fire again. His fingers twitched as he thought of how his fingers would be on his own bow and if Finnian were properly mirroring Kirkley’s own motions. So far, Kirkley thought Finnian was doing very well.
