AN: This was supposed to be a drabble for a drabble challenge: Persephone33 wanted: the four siblings in Narnia, where Peter gets embarrassed. I hope this is good enough. If anything I hope this makes you laugh.
Thank you to elecktrum for the great beta!
The One Thing Peter Can't Do
It was annoying how his older brother was good at everything. Really, there was almost nothing Peter couldn't do, and it bothered Edmund so much. But there was one thing the High King couldn't do: he couldn't handle a bow and arrow. He could handle a sword, he could actually handle two swords (but Ed was better). Peter could throw a knife and hit the target standing over 50 yards away. Peter could dance (Ed could not), Peter could make speeches about important things and not so important things, Peter could ride and swim and everything a king should be able to do. But he could not shoot an arrow straight. And as much as it shouldn't, it delighted Edmund immensely. Now Edmund was no expert at it either but at least he could hit the target.
"C'mon now, Peter, you draw back the string, focus and release the arrow," Susan said slowly, again. They had been doing this for over three hours and Peter hadn't hit the target once.
"I don't know what I'm doing wrong, Su!" Peter said, looking down at his bow and shaking his head. "I mean, I do it exactly as you say!"
He turned around with a scowl when he heard laughter behind him. There stood his two youngest siblings, and they were snickering at him!
They all stood together on the training grounds were Lucy and Susan usually trained their archery. Normally Peter and Edmund used to just practice their sword fighting skills in the courtyard. But Peter had decided that he needed to learn archery, too. As he said: "You never know when you will be in a situation where it would come in handy."
In theory this was a good idea, Edmund thought. But Peter was so incredibly bad at it. He had never once hit the target, and sometimes Edmund just wished Peter could settle with that he just wasn't an archer. But nooo! His brother was so stubborn and wouldn't quit until he succeeded. And in everything else this was a valuable trait to have, if it was used to learn a new language or something. Edmund had stopped with the pleading, now he just came along to make fun of him. He figured that maybe some ridicule could make Peter give up.
"Maybe you need to pull up your chin a little," Edmund said, grinning.
Peter scowled and coloured slightly. "You know I tried that last week and ended up with shooting one of our soldiers in the arse!" he bit out between clenched teeth.
Edmund and Lucy fell down on the ground laughing at the memory.
"You two are so unkind and childish," Susan said. "Come on, Peter, let's try again," she said in a much kinder voice. She patted his back and said, "Ignore them!"
Peter sniffed and stuck his nose in the air and said, "Yes, I think I will."
This did nothing but make both Lucy and Edmund fall over again in a peal of laughter.
He tried again, and this time when the arrow didn't even leave the bow he threw it down in frustration.
"Maybe you should show him how you do it again, Susan?" Lucy said trying not to giggle. Like Edmund she had realized a long time ago that their brother just wasn't an archer. She might also secretly enjoy the fact that they had finally found something Peter couldn't do.
Susan nodded and pulled out her own bow. She quickly pulled out an arrow and shot it straight into the middle of the target that stood fifty feet away.
Peter groaned. "That is not fair, Su!" he exclaimed. "That bow is made so it never misses."
Susan frowned, slightly put out that her brother thought that it was all the bow's doing and not her skill. "Well," she said harshly, "give me your bow and I'll show that there is nothing wrong with yours, and here, you can have mine. Maybe this time you'll actually hit the target."
She took Peter's and quickly pulled out an arrow and hit bull's eye again.
Peter blushed. He knew perfectly well that his sister had spent time developing her skill. She was the best archer Narnia had, and it really was a shame that she never used it other than competing once in a while.
That was actually how this all had came to be. They had hosted a tournament with neighbouring countries. And Lucy and Susan had entered into the archery contest. Susan had won, and a visiting lady wondered why none of Narnia's kings had entered?
They had answered truthfully that they didn't do archery. And the lady had asked innocently if "They didn't think it was a handy thing to know?"
And so it had started. Never ones to pass down a challenge, and a challenge it had been no matter how veiled, the next day Peter and Edmund went down to the training grounds determent to use the next month on archery lessons. They had only been given a month by their sword trainer General Oreius, he agreed that they should know how to handle a bow, but they were first and foremost swordsmen. Since they were always in the middle of every battle they needed to keep their skills sharp, so they didn't die, and all.
Edmund had done quite well. He wasn't amazing but given a bow he could defend himself with it. Peter could not.
After the month was up, he still couldn't get the arrow out a yard. And it became a slight obsession. After a while he stopped going to the archery trainer and made Susan teach him instead. Peter's days consisted with sword training in the morning, court duties before lunch and after a quick session of some sort of class in the afternoon; he would spend the rest of the day with Susan on the training grounds.
Susan was starting to get tired of it, and if he hadn't been her brother she would have told him to let it go, that he would never learn. But being the nice and gentle sister that she was she continued to help him. But she silently hoped that Edmunds teasing would make him realize that he really should stop and go back to what he was good at.
Edmund had decided that if Peter didn't start getting better in the end of the week, he would go to the general and ask him to order Peter to stop. He knew that the centaur was the only one Peter would listen to. But for now, Ed was going to lean back and watch his brother continue on with his pitiful attempts at shooting an arrow.
"Maybe you should stand a little closer to the target, that way you would have a much bigger chance at hitting it," Ed said lazily, while sitting down on the grass.
Peter ignored him, and put another arrow into Susan's bow. He spent some minutes concentrating and rearranges his arms and aim and finally let the arrow go. It sailed a pathetic yard.
Edmund guffawed and said, "Isn't this proof enough, Peter? This is the bow from Father Christmas, the one that never easily misses, and you can't even make it go two yards!"
Peter blushed a deep red.
"You are not an archer, Peter. You need to stop this now!" Edmund said.
Peter looked down and mumbled something about going in for the day. Susan sighed in relief. All three of them hoped that this was the end of Peter's obsession.
"Look on the bright side," Lucy said cheerfully. "We have finally found something you can't do."
Peter laughed, "What do you mean?" he asked.
Edmund sighed theatrically. "You know, it's rather annoying how you are good at everything you do. It's rather nice to know that you can't do this one thing."
"And hey," Susan said while patting Peter on the back, "At least you are not expected to lead the archers when you go into battle."
They all laughed as they neared Cair Paravel.
The End.
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