Aurora nodded and left. She was a pretty good shot, but she had never tried shooting from the air. Now she almost wished she had never suggested using her bow. Still, archery was one of the few skills she had that she was confident in. She went into her room and grabbed the long box she had packed into her bag when she left. As she left, she glanced at Kodiak the timber wolf who was sitting on her bed.
"Wish me luck," she muttered sarcastically.
She went down the stairs, and somehow found her way back to the Danger Room. Ororo looked at her. "Are you ready?"
"Sure," Aurora shrugged.
Betsy leaned over to the microphone that opened into a speaker in the Danger Room, as Ororo shut down the program.
"Okay, guys, move to the walls. Aurora's coming down to try out her archery," Betsy called.
She got a thumbs-up from Bobby and a nod from everyone else as the claws and gun turrets retreated.
"Let's go," Kurt said. He wrapped a three-fingered hand around Aurora's wrist and she nodded. With a Bamf, he teleported both of them to the Danger Room floor. Aurora swayed on her feet, disoriented by the teleportation. She put out an unsteady hand and felt fur. Wolfsbane's soft wolf eyes stared up at her, tail wagging.
"Thanks Rahne," Aurora smiled shakily.
She bent down and opened the box, pulling out a recurved bow and a quiver of arrows. She strung the bow and picked up an arrow, waiting expectantly.
"Aurora," Ororo's voice came over the speakers. "Why don't we see how you are on the ground first."
A target popped out of the floor and Aurora notched her arrow to the string. She automatically settled into an archer's stance and aimed for a second before releasing the arrow.
The arrow buried its tip in the center circle of the target. Bobby whistled. "Good shot."
Aurora fired a few more arrows at the target, each one hitting the bulls-eye, before Ororo stopped her.
"This time the target will be moving," she instructed.
Aurora did slightly worse with moving targets, but she still managed to hit all of the targets close to the bull's-eye. When the target slowed its erratic movements, she sighed and walked over to the target and slid the arrows free from it.
"Ready to take to the air?" Ororo asked over the intercom.
Aurora nodded. She tried to shoulder her quiver, and was rather unsuccessful since she kept hitting her wings. Muttering a curse, she pulled three arrows from the quiver and dropped it as she took to the air.
This time the target dropped from the ceiling. Aurora hovered for a minute, trying to fit an arrow to the string and hold onto the other two arrows at the same time. When she was again unsuccessful, she bit down on the two arrows, holding them with her teeth while she aimed for the target. Her first arrow missed the center ring, hitting slightly above it.
Why don't you let me hold those? a voice asked in her head as an invisible hand gently tugged at the extra arrows.
Aurora jerked in surprise, almost dropping her bow. The arrows hovered in mid-air, held up by Jean Grey, who stood with Ororo and Betsy in the control room of the Danger Room.
Aurora nodded her thanks and pulled one of the arrows from Jean's grip, fitting it to the bowstring and firing, this time hitting the bull's-eye. The third arrow hit close to the second.
Ororo had her fire more arrows from the air, some at a moving target, some at a stationary target. For the stationary targets, Aurora was asked to fly by it and fire. It took her five arrows before she was able to get the timing right to hit the target on a "fly-by."
After almost twenty minutes of airborne practice, Aurora settled down to earth with a sigh. Jean handed her the quiver she had dropped.
"Dr. McCoy could probably fix this so you could wear it while flying," she commented.
"I hope so," Aurora replied earnestly. She had felt like a fool, trying to fly and fumbling with her arrows and quiver.
She left with Jamie, Rahne and Jean, leaving Jubliee and Bobby to resume their competition in the Danger Room.
Author's Note: There will be many abrupt chapter endings since I'm trying to post as soon as I finish a section.
