"Did I do something wrong," she asked looking back to the arrow. She had thought she had done fairly well for her first attempt at archery.
"No," Will grumbled picking up the bracer he had brought out for her. "Here, this goes on your bow arm." Angie took the bracer and looked it over, realizing why the Ranger seemed so disappointed.
"You thought I'd get hurt," she realized in distress. She had thought that the Ranger cared at least a little bit about her. He had chosen her to be his apprentice. But he was knowingly going to let her injure herself. "You were going to let that slap my arm."
"Well it didn't," Will took the bow from her hand and helped fasten the bracer on her left arm, then slipped the tab over the first three fingers of her right hand. He told her to shoot again.
She looked down at the tab and bracer, she had fired with the bow in her right hand, the hand that now had the miniature glove over her fingers. She was unsure about this, she shifted the bow to her left hand, if felt very awkward. Will handed her another arrow and she nocked. No amount of determination was bringing the bow to full draw. Everything felt wrong about the second attempt.
"I can't," she complained lowering the bow. "It feels wrong."
"You just fired," Will stood, his left brow arching.
"But I shot the other way," she looked at the bow in her left hand. "I drew with the left, not the right."
Will frowned looking at her. She had fired with the left but Will had thought that was because she held the bow more comfortably in the right hand. Everyone he knew drew with the right hand. That was just the way things were done. Could it be she was one of those rare people who were left handed?
"Just try it," Will gave her an encouraging smile, motioning for her to proceed. Angie looked down at the bow in her hands for a minute and twisted her mouth around. Will was watching her, she could at least try.
Angie took a very deep breath and started to draw back as she raised the bow. Her arms burned as the bow came to a half draw, but Angie did not give up, she pushed through the pain and brought her finger to her lip. As soon as she felt her nail touch her face Angie released the arrow. It went wide.
Very wide.
Angie looked abashed as her second attempt pierced the ground ten meters to the right of the target. She had thought she had a knack for this archery thing until that happened. And Will had said the bow was a Ranger's primary weapon, if she was terrible at it would he send her away? What kind of Ranger could she possibly be if she was terrible with a bow?
She had expected him to yell. Maybe not yell, but she had not expected what happened. He nodded stroking his beard, like he was thinking. What was so intriguing about her miserable failure?
"Switch back," Will held out his hand out for the bow.
Angie gave him the bow slowly, wondering what the old man was getting at and pulled the tab off her fingers. Once the bracer had been switched, since the tab did not fit her left hand so she did not wear it, Angie took the bow back and nocked the arrow. She forced herself to pull the bow to full draw.
"Use the muscles in your back, not your arms," Will coached.
Focusing on her back muscles Angie pulled a full draw. The lack of protection on her fingers made it impossible to hold the string. As soon as her finger touched her lip the bow string slipped from her fingers, the string snapping without hitting her arm. Will stepped back when she released the string. Angie watched the path of the arrow as it landed on the opposite side of the bull's-eye.
Will nodded approvingly. Angie had a natural ability at archery and sneaking around, skills her parents had excelled at, she could easily be trained in the other skills of the Ranger. She was also left handed. Will had never thought about it before, but it would be a challenge to teach someone who was left handed. Everything would be reversed from how he did things. It would be a challenge, but he felt confident in his ability to teach her. And it would give her an upper hand in close combat, something she would need.
"Tell me, do you write with your left hand?"
"The teachers made me use the right, but it was always uncomfortable. I only used the other one when they weren't looking." She looked up at him expecting him to be angry.
All the teachers had become irritated when they caught her using the left hand. She determined that there was something wrong with her; it was added to a long list of things wrong with her. So she just made herself use the right hand. Now Will knew about it…
"You're not mad, are you?"
"Why would I be mad," Will smiled.
Angie was still uncertain. This was a Ranger, they were weird. Maybe his smiles where hiding distaste. Admittedly it was a nicer face than the one's the teachers at the castle gave her, but distaste was still distaste.
"They said it made me a devil child," she looked down at the ground. "They made me use the right, everything felt backwards."
"You're just left handed," Will responded.
"Johnny said that I was a freak because of it. He used to call me the devil child until I knocked him out with it," Angie held her left hand up in a fist. She smiled remembering Johnny hit the ground in the yard after their first physical confrontation. "He stopped after that," she looked up at Will biting her lip.
"You pick fights," he frowned.
"No," she said quickly. "I don't, it was self defense. Johnny was making fun and was trying to dunk me in the water trough in the stables."
What would the Ranger know about this? He was cool and she was just Angie, the easily distracted, left handed freak who grew up in the ward. Sure he said he came from the ward too, but he had not suffered at the hands of Johnny and his wolf pack. There was no way he had been picked on while growing up.
"I don't like fighting," she finished quietly dropping her head once more.
"You know," his tone was gentle. Angie looked up to see he had bent down to look her face to face. "I don't enjoy fighting either," he smiled and Angie felt it was genuine. "Rangers always try to avoid a confrontation. We prefer to think our way out of problems."
"Then why do you have so many weapons?" she looked down at the weaponry Will still had to show her.
"What we do is dangerous," he rested his hand on the hilt of his own saxe at his waist. "We have to defend ourselves. All these are just tools Angie, we have them for when they are necessary."
"But," she stopped herself.
If Rangers were thinkers, Angie was not so sure she belonged there. Her capacity for thinking was limited to her interest. Sadly most things did not hold her interest for more than a few minutes. If using the wrong hand did not result in being dismissed by the Ranger, her inaptitude for thinking would.
"But," he prompted. He had been expecting an overflow of questions. He had been expecting it since Angie first arrived at the cabin. To be honest he was a little disappointed that she was so reserved. Rangers were inquisitive, always needing more information.
"I'm not exactly the best at that," she said slowly, trying to piece the sentence in a way that would not fully anger the Ranger. She did not anger him, she merely confused him.
"Best at what," Will shook his head trying to determine what he had said that lead to this branch of the conversation. No apprentices were very skilled in anything when they first begin training. Surely Angie would realize that.
"Thinking," she said slowly, her brows rose toward her hair line as her face twisted around the word. Until that point, Will had not believed it was possible to take so long for two syllables.
Will's brow dropped, his forehead furrowing. How could someone not be the best at thinking? Thinking was a constant process, it was impossible to not think. As he debated all of that he realized that he was making a face, one that had Angie retreating slightly.
Angie knew it was a mistake to say that she was not a thinker. Will was going to get rid of her now, just when she had come to accept that she might have enjoyed being a Ranger. Now it was off to Wensley to work at the Inn as a serving girl.
He laughed. Will actually laughed at her. She was distraught over her future and he was laughing at her.
"This isn't funny," she felt like everything was ending, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. "You can send me away if you want, but this is nothing worth laughing over!"
"I'm not going to send you away," Will laughed.
"You're not?"
"Of course not," he lay his hand on the young apprentice's shoulder, smiling at her. "I chose you as my apprentice because you have potential."
"But," Angie sighed reaching up to hold the amulet on her necklace, looking for some solace in the one thing in her life that remained the same. "How can I do all that stuff you talked about, all that dangerous stuff, if I can't think my way out of it?"
"You'd be surprised what you can do when the time comes," Angie could not help but feel like the Ranger was wrong. She knew how little her mind actually worked, she had been living with it her whole life. But if the Ranger was confident that she could do this, easily distracted and all, she would at least try it.
"Now come on, I'll teach you how to use that sling."
Will had thought he Angie was exaggerating when she said she was not much on thinking, and he was right. She was an excellent thinker. Angie's problem was hidden behind a short attention span. Will recognized the signs almost immediately; she asked all the right questions, brought up flaws in technique and even asked why she was being taught to use a sling if Will did not use one. After she reached the day's goal, five bull's-eyes in a row Angie grew agitated that she had to repeat the sequence.
And it only got worse from there.
After setting Angie up with an archery range, telling her to practice, he went in to begin preparing their lunch. An hour later he returned to find a dozen arrows stuck to the target, her recurve bow unstrung, with the string looped neatly beside it, on the cloak he had given her that morning. Angie was nowhere to be seen.
Will sighed looking around for his dog, Teki, only to discover that the animal had followed Angie. He grumbled quietly to himself pinching the bridge of his nose and set off in search of his missing apprentice. She had only been alone for an hour, how far could she have possibly gone?
She was very skilled at vanishing, especially for someone who had never learned the art of tracking or unseen movement. It took several minutes for Will to find where Angie left the clearing, even then it was as if a Ranger had passed through trying not to be discovered. His first real sign of their passing was the black dog hair caught on a bush.
He found her by the banks of the Tarbus, staring down at the slow moving water. Teki was stretched out beneath a large oak tree watching her with tried drooping eyes. Will sighed stepping out from the trees, ready to yell at Angie, but something stopped him.
She had pulled her necklace off. Will had noticed that she still sought comfort in the cool metal, just like she had as a baby. He was glad she had kept the necklace. The chain hung from her hand, the twin leaves held tightly in her grip.
"I know you gave me this for a reason," she looked from the river to the red walls of Redmont. "And I know you're out there, so if you could just," she looked down at the amulet in her hand, opening her fingers to look at the charm. "Just tell me how to do this. I can't take the rejection, not again."