The next day, Will took her into the woods and showed her the weapons of a ranger and explained them to her. He had just finished the why part when Halt showed up.
"I guess you're teaching her earlier than I taught you?"
"That's because I think she is ready. If you wanted to do it your way you should have had her as your apprentice."
Saya thought of what it would be like to be Halt's apprentice and they were not good thoughts.
"Alright so watch me shoot and try to do what I do." Then he took stance and drew the bow and fired. It hit the target perfectly. "Now you try." He placed a bow in her hand and she took an arrow from the quiver. She knocked in place and took the same stance as Will did and drew the string back and fired. The arrow only missed by an inch. Will and Halt stood there in shock, and when she looked back at them they were speechless.
"When did you learn how to shoot?" Will asked.
"From you."
"You were right Will, she's ready."
"Most people take months to learn to shoot like that."
"I thought the point of this was to hit a bullseye."
"Yes, but most apprentices take a month to get that close." Will paused. "Why don't you shoot a couple more?"
"Okay." Saya took her stance and shot two more that were closer to the center; then with her third arrow she hit it and with the forth split it in half. Will then looked at her with his jaw dropped open. Halt then came over and patted her on the back, with a grin on his face and said, "In a year you could even be better than Will." He turned to Will who was still speechless. "I think she'll do fine at the Gathering." Halt then left and went into the cabin.
When Will finally regained the ability to speak, he told her to put the bow down and went a grabbed the saxe knife and showed her how it was used in combat. He also showed her how to throw the knife. Then he set up a target and showed Saya the appropriate stance and throwing technique. He stood back and let her throw it. She threw it and it hit the target perfectly. Will still amazed from when she hit the target, was fully stunned from how she was able to throw it so perfectly. She looked back at him and said,
"I learned that when I was 7, before I went into the Ward." She walked forward and grabbed the knife off the target and put it into the scabbard.
When he finally recovered enough to speak, again, he said, "Why don't you practice with the bow more and we'll call it a day?"
"Okay." Saya went and picked up the bow and fired, again and again; she hit the target perfectly every time. While she was working, Will went inside and told Halt what she did.
"She's a natural." Halt stated, after Will told him about it.
"How did she know that? That isn't something you can just pick up and do. You have to train, get better as you learn, right?"
"Correct, I'm going send Crowley a message, so we can talk about her and what we should do."
"Good idea, Halt. I'll go work on some more stuff with her, see if there is something she's not as good at that we can build on."
"Cooking would be a good idea."
As Halt and Will walked out the door, they saw that she set up 3 targets and she was shooting bullseyes in each target and Robin Hood shots after them.
"Work on with her on being in different shooting positions, she won't always be standing like that and then go on from there." Halt said in a hushed tone.
"Thanks." Will said in the same tone as Halt walked away toward the stable and mounted Abelard, and left for the castle. Will looked at his new apprentice, who was surpassing even one year apprentices, in just a day.
He walked over to her and for the rest of the day he showed her different positions for shooting, and in all of the positions the most amount of arrows she used one position to hit the target perfectly, was 7. By the middle of the afternoon, Will had no other positions to show her, and she was already getting quieter when she would draw and shoot an arrow.
"Well, we better start getting dinner ready." Will said as he turned toward the cabin and walked in; Saya followed behind him. Will showed her new spices and ways to chop things and she tried to pay close attention. They had stew again that night, but Will wanted her to know how to cook at least one dish. When they sat down to eat he tried asking her questions about her, and as predicted she went with the short answers to them. So the conversations didn't last long. After dinner, Will and Saya both went to bed. It was hard for Will, not to know who his apprentice was, or even what her past was.