r2j591: Here's one of those lessons you were looking forward to. Hope it reaches your expectations!

Lily learns how to use a crossbow in this chapter, but I am not sure how those work so I kind of winged it. On the other hand, I do know about compound bows and longbows. The compound story is true by the way…I did loose an arrow…And I still feel bad about it...

Lily is my OC and everything else belongs to Frank D.

Lily slipped her boots on before stepping outside the tent. Right outside the tent was a fresh plate of food. It couldn't have been there more than a few minutes because the flies hadn't found it yet.

"You plannin' ta do somethin' stupid today?" Daryl asked her not looking up from breakfast. He was seated right next to the tent on the ground.

"No," she responded cooly leaning against a tree crossing her arms. "I figured you owe me some of your time."

He shifted his weight to look up at her forcing the plate at her also giving her a look that urged her to continue.

"You promised me hunting and tracking lessons before we went to the CDC. I'd like them now."

He scoffed at her statement.

"So-so what? You just gonna leave again? Leave me here to do something else which happens to piss you off?"

"No." A smirk crossed his face when he offered his hand to her after putting his dirty dishes down. "Well you comin' or ain't ya?"

"Thank you," she sighed walking where he pointed to.

"Wait!" he hollered.

"What?"

"Eat your damn breakfast!"

"Yes, mom."

He gave her a threatening look.

...

"I don't like horses," Lily backed up away from the stable.

"Why not?" Daryl pet the horses nose.

"Got thrown from one when I was young."

"So you're like super scared of horses? Terrified to death?" He smiled thinking he could have some fun with her.

"No," she responded telling him his antics wouldn't affect her the way he's hoping. "I just am not a huge fan of them. Every time I get on one, bad things tend to happen."

"Well, nothin's gonna be bothering ya today. I guarantee that."

Throwing one leg over the horse, he settled himself into the saddle holding his hand out to her when he was situated. She reached out to take his hand but he pulled it back quickly.

Sighing, she pulled her hands back to her sides and forced them in her pockets as she turned and stalked away. She grabbed a coil of rope because rope is always good to have. If Daryl was going to come back and help her on the horse then he would but if not then she would look very stupid grabbing the rope while she walked away.

Horse hooves clicked behind her and shortly blocked her path. There he sat with one hand on the reigns and the other around his crossbow.

"Whoa there Speedy Jim." He was speaking to her not the horse.

Expecting to be lifted on the horse she was surprised when Daryl extended his crossbow hand towards her.

The look she gave him asked what she was supposed to do with it.

"Just take the damn bow and sling it across your back 'cause I can't wear it and have ya sittin' behind me. Kapeesh?"

She took a long look at the bow before throwing the rope over one shoulder and reaching for the bow. She'd never seen Daryl hand over his weapon or even let anyone else touch it so she was unsure whether to feel honored or be concerned. The weight of the bow was more than she expected it to be and it caught her off guard making her stumble a step. Daryl laughed as she slung it over her other shoulder. Only once that was done did he pull her up behind him.

"Hold on," he smiled placing his hand on the small of her back pulling her closer. Gingerly, she placed her hands on his waist not feeling comfortable wrapping her arms around him. "Ok, suit yourself," he smiled mischievously. Her nerves heightened when she heard him speak and was glad too because he took off on a full gallop out of the stables. After giving a slight cry of surprise and almost falling off, she wrapped her arms around his waist holding on tightly.

"You suck," she laughed as they rose off and he joined her laughter.

Once Daryl found a decent spot for lessons, he lowered Lily to the ground and tied the horse to a tree.

"See. Horses ain't so bad."

"We rode for ten minutes," Lily said flatly. "Hardly ample time for an accident to occur."

"I disagree. An accident can happen in a second. Let's get started with the crossbow."

She pulled it from her shoulder and held the bow the same way she'd seen Daryl hold it, but her arm still hurt from where Daryl had accidentally hit it. He smirked.

"What are you aiming at?"

"Oh come on! This thing is heavy and my alarm still hurts. I'm doin' the best I can here."

"First off ya need somethin' to shoot at. Come stand by me."

Lily lowered the bow and walked over to where he stood by a large oak tree.

"Now stand still long enough an' a squirrel is bound ta come by."

"You expect me to shoot a squirrel?"

"Well, I'm not letting you waste my arrows on leaves."

They stood by the tree not speaking for at least fifteen minutes before he tapped her arm. She looked at him and he pointed to a tree not too far off. On it's trunk, a squirrel sat contently cleaning it's tail.

His hand gently touched the space between her shoulder blades when she lifted the bow to her eye.

"Now take aim. Close one eye," he whispered barely audible.

One eye closed as she focused on the squirrel.

"When you squeeze the trigger, exhale."

She took a few deep breaths before exhaling and squeezing the trigger.

A loud twang filled the air when the arrow was released sending it flying towards the squirrel. It's head popped up at the noise and it scampered away. The arrow sank into the trunk of the tree.

Lily hissed in disappointment lowering the bow.

"Not a bad first shot. Did ya really think you'd hit somethin'?"

"No, I suppose not."

He took the bow and reloaded it for her.

"Your stance is wrong." He took a step closer standing right behind her. "You need to lift your arms like this." With his large hands, he lifted her elbows up ever so slightly. "Stager your feet."

When she readjusted her position, she could feel he had moved closer.

"Now close one eye, and pick something to aim at," his voice was still quiet, never above a whisper.

As she took aim right above the arrow she'd just shot a different squirrel appeared.

He slid his arms over hers guiding them to where they needed to go.

"Aim for it's head," he whispered in her ear.

She lifted her head to the sight but all she could feel were his arms wrapped around her. Her skin prickled wherever he touched making it extremely hard to concentrate.

"You're making this difficult," she whispered to him.

"How so?" he asked seriously.

"We're standing in a forest, alone, and you have your arms wrapped around me. Your muscly arms are rather distracting..."

"So?" Before she could make another comment, he wrapped his arms tightly around her pretending to throw her to the ground, but right before she hit, he stopped her fall. She gave a gasp of shock but when she realized she was safe began laughing.

"That's for calling me mom," he said at a normal volume looking down at her.

"You sure know how to kill a romantic moment."

"'Nough chatter." He pulled her back to a standing position. "Now shoot me some dinner."

She hefted the bow to her eye and felt him move in close again. Lifting her arms to where he said, she saw the squirrel who'd been taunting her all day. She took a deep breath letting the air fill her lungs and as she exhaled, she sent the arrow flying. An inhumanly scream filled the air as the arrow struck the squirrel.

"What the hell dja do?"

"I don't know!"

They both ran up to the squirrel and saw she had shot it through the tail pinning it to the tree. Daryl removed his knife and stabbed the screaming squirrel in the head. Killing walkers was one thing. That was protection, but this was food. Hearing the squirrel scream made a shiver run down her spine.

"Well, there's supper," he said stringing the squirrel and tying it to the horses saddle.

"That's nothing like a longbow."

"A what?"

"Longbow. You know the bow Robin Hood uses."

"You use a longbow?"

"No," she sighed but her sigh turned into a smirk. "It was my favorite bow of the ones I've used, but I don't actually own one of my own."

"An' when were ya gonna tell me 'bout this?"

"Whenever we found one. I like longbows. You knock an arrow into place, pull back, aim and release. That's it. Good for either hand and eye, last time I checked. The first time I used a compound bow, I was with my friend and realized my left eye was dominant, not my right, so I couldn't use the sight on the bow and as a result all my shooting was off and I lost one of my friends arrows. Stupid right eyes bow."

"And you lived in the city?" Daryl asked surprisingly interested.

"Yeah. Near it. I thought we went over this? My friend owned a farm and took me out shooting one day."

"You are just full of surprises." He clapped her on the back. "You like knives, camp, and know how to use a bow. Not jus one but like a decent number of 'em."

"I never said I was good at any of it..."

"But ya know. You can build of what's already there. You passed lesson one, now we need to look for Sophia."

"We're tracking her?" Lily asked eagerly.

"No. Trail's gone. We're jus searching for signs of her now. That's all we can do."

Lily threw the crossbow over her shoulder taking Daryl's outstretched hand. This time she wrapped her arms around his waist before he took off.

...

They rode to a hill where Daryl slowed the horse considerably.

"You see something?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, think so." He made kiss noises at the horse as he steered it over to the edge of the cliff face. When Lily looked down she gave a sharp exhale at the fall next to them. A small pond was beneath them and a waterfall and rocks right on the edge of the water.

"Ain't that the doll he always carried with her?" She followed the direction of his finger and saw something along the shore that was not colored like the rest of nature.

"Yeah, yeah that is! How do we get down there?" she shook his shoulder.

"Hold on hot stuff. Hand me my bow."

Taking the weight from her shoulder, she handed it over to Daryl who took it with one hand and used the other to move the horse away from the edge.

A thought occurred to Lily as Daryl looked for a way down to the small river. When she was a child she hardly ever left her doll unattended and if she ever did she'd lost it. If Sophia was anything like her child self then it took something big to make her forget her doll or she'd turned.

"Hey, Daryl-" her thought would go unsaid because just at that moment a hiss filled the air and the horse reared.

"Oh, shit!" Daryl shouted trying to calm the horse.

She clung to Daryl as if her life depended on it because right next to the cliff it did. The horse reared again and this time threw Lily from the back sending her flying through the air.

"Daryl!" she screamed. As she found him he was also air born but he was over the cliff plummeting towards the rocks below. His eyes met hers and she could swear she saw the same fear she felt echoed in his eyes.

She attempted to curl herself to brace herself for impact but that did little to stop her head from hitting the tree throwing her into a world of darkness.