Archery Challenge

Nathan stood in front of his target, that was just a mere hundred feet away. He ran a hand down his bow, smiling to himself. It was golden oak wood, given to him by his father. The carvings on it were old, and even Apollo had no idea what they meant. Of course, Nathan suspected that his father was lying, but what could he do about it?

He pulled an arrow from his pack and notched it, aiming at the target. He focused slightly, before aiming his bow to the ground. After all, it was ladies first wasn't it? He still had to wait for Danielle to get there before he even took a shot. Fair contest and all that.

Danielle fiddled with the pack of arrows on her back before opting to just hold it in her hands as she headed to the archery range for her "challenge" with Nathan. She would win, she just knew it. She kind of hoped that her competitive side would come through, just so Nathan would see what he was dealing with. She grinned to herself and clutched her steel bow.

When she got there, Danielle saw Nathan aiming his arrow at the target, but then aiming it at the ground. "Quite the gentleman, aren't you Nathan?" she teased. "Ladies first, out of the way please."

Nathan grinned and stepped back to offer Danielle some room. He was excited to see if Danielle would offer some competition as he had hoped she would. When he had attended school among those who were not part of his world, he upped all of them in archery. Quite easily so. He had been hoping for a challenge for a long time.

"Ladies first of course. It's how I like to act." He said bowing slightly. Actually, it was really how he acted, but it didn't hurt to scope out the competition too. He thought about how he would go about this. Would he feign bad skills first? Or pull out the bulls eyes one by one? He decided to see what Danielle got first before he decided.

Danielle smirked at Nathan as he bowed. "Don't expect me to curtsy. You're gonna have your work cut out for you, you know." She stepped in front of the target, about ten feet away.

She nodded. "You're very polite then. I, on the other hand," she said, lining up her bow and arrow, "am not." She pulled back the string and watched as the arrow went straight for the bullseye. She smiled triumphantly.

"Your turn," she said, turning around and patting Nathan's shoulder.

Nathan smirked slightly, nodding to the girl beside him. So she had gone for the more tactful approach. Aiming straight and true to show her strength to her opponent. He stroked his bow before lifting it, his stance widening as he tightened and relaxed his arms. He breathed out as he aimed for the place next to the bullseye.

Instead of going right in the middle, Nathan's went to the side of it, just outside of the bullseye. He lowered his bow and grinned slightly to himself. That way, it would show that he had at least some potential, without him pulling out the big guns. He would save that for the end. "I believe it's your turn, my lady," Nathan said, stepping back as he raised an eyebrow at her with a slight grin.

She watched, wide-eyed, as Nathan's arrow went right next the hers. "To be honest, I thought you'd be better than that," the girl teased. "I would've expected the arrow to just go through mine or something."

Danielle raised an eyebrow. "Let's get something straight right now. I'm not anyone's 'lady.' In fact, I'm not anybody's anything. Got it?" she said with a slight smirk. She stepped back to her previous spot in front of the target and aimed again. Her finger slipped, making her arrow zoom right past. UGH! She huffed in frustration and turned around, smiling sweetly. "13% blind..." Maybe that'd give her a chance to redeem herself?

Nathan took Danielle's slight teasing with a shy smile on his face. Truly, he could do much better, but he didn't want to pull out his trump card yet. Only his mother knew him as a planner, since Apollo's children were mainly musicians and archers. Nathan himself had gotten his smarts from his mother, and he certainly knew how to use them.

He raised an eyebrow before he turned to look at Danielle. She had missed the target by a long shot, and he had seen her finger slip off the bow. He could have showed her a more decent way to hold it, that way she would at least hit the target every time, but he didn't want to intrude in her space. He stepped up and notched another arrow, closing his eyes and aiming. "Let me know what I get yeh?" He asked, grinning over in her general direction.

He breathed out and focused on straightening the bow. He could see the target in his mind, before he let his arrow fly. It landed next to his other arrow, just a slight bit closer to the bullseye this time. He turned to where Danielle was standing before he nodded slightly. "How did I do?" He asked, eyes still closed.

Danielle narrowed her eyes. How the hell could Nathan even think that he would get the arrow near the target with his eyes closed? She stuck her tongue out at the boy. "Cheeky."

Her eyes almost literally came out of their sockets as they bulged greatly at the sight of Nathan's arrow landing closer to the bullseye than the other one had. He turned around and asked how he did, grinning. "What the- how- what?! How the hell did you do that?" she asked incredulously. She sighed in defeat. "Much better than I did. Now get out of the way, it's my turn."

She notched an arrow and closed her right eye, concentrating on the target. Come on, come on... She shot it right next to her first one, breathing deeply as she tried to fight off her frustration. I could've done much better than that, she thought, yet she couldn't keep the smile off her face. The last one was way off, so this was a change from that. "Go on," she said, grinning.

Nathan opened one of his eyes and peered over at the target before he opened them both, nodding in acceptance. So he had done better with his eyes closed. He kinda figured that he would. Take his sight from him, and he could still fight. It was one of the things he had taught himself to do well. And he did have some help from his father too.

"Archery is in my blood," he pointed out to a rather irate Danielle. "Fighting may be in yours, but my power lies with music and bows." He stepped up a bit and notched two arrows. Time for the kicker... He thought smiling over at Danielle. He wanted to see if she was actually paying attention. His father had taught him this one, and he would now attempt it without the man behind him. Well, he hoped that his father was watching him.

Nathan let both arrows fly off the bow, both of them lodging into the middle of the target. He slipped his arm through his bow and turned to Danielle as it rested against his back. He spread his arms and tilted his head at her. "Do you concede to my victory, daughter of Ares?"

"Right, right. Whatever," Danielle said, waving Nathan's words away. "You have music and archery, I have stabbing people with a knife. Yay. Can you just hurry up, please?" She crossed her arms and huffed impatiently. She wanted to get this over with.

Nathan notched two arrows and the girl's eyes widened. How the hell is he gonna get them both in the target without-? Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrows zooming through the air and into the bullseye. He turned around and asked Danielle if she conceded. "Me? Concede? No. This means war," she declared, smirking with her hands on her hips. "This is just one battle. We'll see how well you do on my turf, eh? I won't be defeated, Son of Apollo." She blew a few strands of hair out of her face and smiled. "I bet you won't be as good as fighting as you are at archery."

She smirked again. "And yeah. That's a challenge."

Nathan grinned slightly at Danielle. He had one-upped her, for now, and he faintly wondered if they would be the kind of friends that tried to one up each other. He hoped not. After all, Danielle was one of the only people he had socialized with for...wow he didn't know how long.

And he figured that Danielle would like some war type things. After all, her father was Ares. Maybe that was another stereotype...He shrugged slightly, mainly to himself. "Fighting, yeh? I guess we'll have to see...but then again, you're the one with the arsenal of fighting power right? I'm up for another challenge." He smirked slightly. "And who knows? Maybe you'll win the battle. But I will definitely win the war."

Danielle gave Nathan a half-smile. "Yeah, fighting. We'll see if you're up to par with it. And there's no way you're gonna beat me. Good. D'you want to go now?" she asked. She hoped that she'd be better than him at fighting; if she wasn't, it would be humiliating, for both her and her father.

"You, winning the war...That seems very unlikely," she smirked. "Hey, I'm the daughter of the God of War. That has to count for something." She fiddled with her pack again and grabbed another arrow, shooting it at the target. It landed next to her last one, closer to the bullseye this time.

"You coming or what?" she asked, smirking, as she left the target behind and headed for the arena. My turn to be good at something. Danielle wondered if she and Nathan were friends. She guessed that they were more of acquaintances, seeing how they had yet to really get to know each other. She shrugged a bit, kept walking, and held her head up high with pride. She'd definitely be better at fighting if she was in her element.

Nathan blew out a breath as he jogged down to get his arrows out of the target. He looked back over at Dani before he grinned, starting to pull out the arrows. "Yeah well, I'm up for it. I probably won't beat you at fighting, but we'll just have to see now won't we?" He gathered up the arrows and jogged back over to put them away.

"Yeh yeh, I'm coming," he said, following her out of the range. He stopped off to put his bow in his cabin before he headed to the Arena. He wondered if Danielle would beat him down too bad.