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Shooting Range [Monday afternoon]

Katniss made her way to the shooting range on Monday afternoon, her bow and a quiver full of arrows slung over her shoulder. After Friday's Marksmanship class and her frustration with the rifle, the idea of learning to shoot alternate weapons was all the more appealing.

So she warmed up as she waited for Wesley, setting up targets and shooting them in the head (actually, precisely where their left eye would be, if they were real) neatly. It was excellent stress relief, particularly after the weekend.

Though, when she thought about Rue, her aim faltered just a bit, so she quickly banished any thoughts of her small, lost friend.

[she's waiting for Wes, but it's an open range! :D]

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Wesley had been watching eagerly and attentively throughout the demonstration, so he was pretty emphatic when he replied, "I'd like to try."

[jesus christ, that's committment. good job!!]

She grinned, handing him the bow and a new arrow. "Okay. Try and stand the way I did, and I'll correct your form as needed." And remembering the double meaning to that word again, she blushed. Just a bit.

[mmm, search engines. Making me seem as smart as my characters since 2005. :D]

Wesley didn't notice the "form" thing this time, which was probably for the best as he'd be tomato-red once again. Instead, he tried to imitate Katniss' form as requested, mimicking the stance he normally used to shoot but positioning his hands according to Katniss' specifications. He tried not to get frustrated with lining up the arrow with the notch, but it required more precision than he was used to in a weapon, so he did his best. The string was what concerned him - he brought it back almost to his jaw, but it felt overly stretched to him, like it was going to snap. Yeah, yeah, newbie archer wants it to feel perfect the first time. "Is this - acceptable?"

[hee. too bad for me i temporarily have no computer and thus no tabbed browsing. google is way too hard to do from my phone, so i'm relying on kindly midwesterners. ooh, did you see we were "flirting awkwardly" according to the radio? cute!!]

Katniss studied the way he was holding the bow, and ventured a hand up to adjust it just a little. "May I?"

[I approve of kindly Midwesterners, considering I'm from Michigan as it is! :D And I DID see that! So adorable. <3]

"Oh, certainly," he said, relaxing his hands so as to be adjusted.

Was he a little bitter that he wasn't perfect right away? Yep. But he liked learning more than he liked being right, so he let it go.

"Just relax a little," she instructed, moving a hand up to shift the hand holding the arrow a bit for him. "You've got the string about where it needs to be, but the last thing you want is for it to be so taut it actually snaps and hurts you. But you've got your shot lined up about perfectly, and it doesn't need to go so far, so just hold it where it's comfortable."

This was all pretty much praise, as far as Katniss went.

Wes nodded and relaxed his hands as directed. Then he stared hard at the target before he finally settled on the positioning and released.

The arrow shot down and hit the target right about the middle of its stomach.

It was all Wesley could do not to huff in disappointment.

"You hit the target!" Katniss, for her part, was actually very impressed. "That's not bad at all. If that had been a person, they'd have a really nasty stomach wound."

That didn't stop Wesley from grumbling, though. "If it were a demon, it could simply extract the arrow and come after me," he explained. "You said you aim for the head, correct? Most demons - at least, those with which I am familiar - can be injured by wounds to the heart or parts of the head. Sometimes the neck. But arely the stomach."

Mm, yeah, perfectionist much?

[k, I'm on pacific time and I'm dead tired, so I'm gonna sleep. Continue in the morning? This is super fun, btw.]

"I aim for the eye," she corrected. "When you're hunting, it'll make for an instant kill, and then you have the animal's entire body to work with, rather than something with puncture wounds." She pursed her lips, and said, "Would it slow it down so you could reload, at least?"

[np! I'm up waaaay too late, myself! And yes, I love this. :D]

"On some, yes," he admitted begrudgingly. "Others have shells protecting their stomachs that would cause the arrow to simply bounce off."

"I don't mean to waste your arrows, but might I try again?" he asked hopefully.

"The nice thing about arrows is that you never waste them," she assured him. "Because they're reusable. Go ahead and try again. That was really good for a first shot."

Oh. Well, duh. He probably should have figured that one out.

He picked up the bow again, set up his arm as he'd been instructed to, took careful aim, and shot. This time the arrow zipped right above the target, missing it by about three inches.

"Bugger," Wesley groaned. God, he sucked at this.

"That's still very, very good for a beginner," Katniss offered, biting the inside of her cheek before jogging over to retrieve both arrows. "You might want to watch your angles? Your arms and fingertips control where the arrow actually goes."

Wesley nodded. "All right."

He placed another arrow in the bow and set it up, glancing back and forth from his arm to the target. As far as he could tell, it was lined up properly, but what did he know? He checked and double-checked his fingertips and their angle as well as the angle of his arm before asking frustratedly, "Do you suppose this is about right?"

"Does it feel right?" she replied. "You look fine, but if you feel tense or it feels awkward, it's probably wrong. Loosen your fingers on the string a little."

"It feels - uncomfortable, but I suspect that's more to do with the unfamiliarity of the bow," Wesley guessed, still staring at the target. "I suppose it feels fine enough."

Tentatively, he moved his finger and released the arrow. It zoomed forward and, once again, missed the target.

"All right," she said, watching the arrow zoom past, "you have one thing really going for you, and that's steadiness. Your arrows aren't wobbling or going up in the air and they fly really straight and far. Just...not at the target. I think that's honestly just going to take practice with aiming with a different weapon."

"I'm rather incompetent at this," Wesley corrected her dryly. "It's perfectly all right to make that observation."

Katniss hid a smile. "I don't like letting people give up," she admitted. "But maybe archery's not your strong suit. Yet," she couldn't help but add.

"Oh, no, I intend to continue training," Wesley assured her. "I simply doubt that I'll end up being especially prosperous today. But I would like to maintain our training regimen. Mutually, if you'd like."

Katniss nodded eagerly. "I want to learn about those little guns you favor," she replied. She paused, adding, "I have a few other tricks in my skill set that I could teach you, if you don't want to just stick with archery alone. Survival skills, that sort of thing." She shrugged. "I'm teaching another girl -- she was here before you."

Wesley nodded eagerly. "Oh, certainly, I'd love to." Then he offered, "I could also teach you fencing, if you'd like."

[Yes! Something I know how to do!]

Katniss' eyes went a little more round. "Sword-fighting?" She'd never been any good at that, but oh, it'd be useful. "I'd love that. It would be very, very useful for me to know how to fence."

[omg yay!]

Wes beamed. "Splendid," he said decisively. "Then we'll continue. Perhaps several times a week?"

'Cause he really, really wanted to get good at this.

Shooting Range [Monday afternoon]

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