Chapter 244 - She Missed...
By now, Yvonne had enough of his mocking words and turned round to face the man who was spouting mean words over and over again.
"You know that it takes time for me to get used to the target!" She snapped at him with a glare taking root on her face.
Her eyes were narrowed, the same amethyst eyes that he had mocked just a second ago.
Her sudden outburst froze the atmosphere as they had never seen the little girl speak in such a loud and annoyed tone.
In response to her angry rebukes, all she received were the gawking faces of the spectators who were shocked to see this new side of the girl.
'Feisty! So her mask has finally cracked open?' Damien smirked when he witnessed her face contorting in anger at her trainer.
He was one of the few people who had seen her irked face back when he had extorted a larger sum of money from her in exchange for a piece of the apple pie during their first meeting.
The only other people who had the good graces of witnessing her anger were her two tutors and her elder brother who always knew that she was an evil little imp residing in that adorable child's body.
Thus, excluding these chosen few, the rest were astonished to find her losing her composure.
'Look at what you made me do!' The little girl scowled at her trainer when she noticed the widened eyes which were focused on her.
The servants, her parents, and the Tanner siblings had their mouths wide open as they stared at her unblinkingly.
'My Vonny just yelled at someone?' Raylene was baffled at this marvel.
Rutherford was glaring at the trainer who had caused his child to lose her composure rather than chiding her for being rude.
'Did she just…' The sons of the Duke gulped in fear when they heard her speaking.
Taylor and Topher had similar expressions of equal parts of awe and anxiety written on their faces.
They alternated their gaze between the man who had been their trainer and then at the child who had dared to yell at him.
They were expecting Desmo to flip out and act against her for her impudence but nothing of that sort took place.
Instead, the trainer scoffed at the little girl who had her eyes narrowed while she continued to glare at him with not an ounce of fear in those eyes.
"Save that big talk for when you manage to hit the target." He mocked her and waved his hand at her, gesturing her to get back to the trial at hand.
'Oh, how gracious of you to grant me permission.' Yvonne snorted in ridicule as she turned away.
This little girl was one of the kinds of people who would take a longer time to get accustomed to something or someone but once they were used to it or them, they would not have any more problems.
As Yvonne was still getting used to the new target, she was taking much more time than she usually would and the major cause of this was the multiple pairs of eyes watching her every move.
'My last chance and I cannot afford to miss this one!' The little girl determined and gripped the handle of the bow tighter in her hand.
Her earlier counterattack at the Captain had left the people in the archery field stunned and this remained the same even when the trainer and trainee had sorted their issues out.
This gave Yvonne the perfect opportunity to concentrate and this time she knew that she needed to hit the target at all costs.
The maid passed her the arrow which the girl set on the bow while taking her shooting stance.
'Just concentrate…'
She took deep breaths and let out the oxygen in her body while making a loud exhalation sound.
'Aim for the center and…'
Her eyes narrowed as she squinted them to get a better look at the target which was 15m away from the shooting line where she stood.
The colorful rings were her target and she needed to land this shot without fail.
'Shoot!'
The arrow released from the bow and shot through the air just like the previous two times that she had repeated the same steps.
Her posture was perfect, the power she used in pulling the arrow was above the ordinary but the aim was the main issue here.
Yvonne stared at the arrow which moved ahead and her eyes followed every inch that the arrow crossed.
The rest of the group present were waiting to see what the outcome of the final arrow might be.
Their expectations which were dwindling after witnessing her first two shots had made them lose hope but they remained watching without blinking anyway.
*Pling*
A strange sound rang through the silence which brought the people out of their daze.
"YES!" Taylor Tanner was the first to cry out in enthusiasm when he saw what had taken place.
Hearing his excited screams, their eyes that were fixed on the target managed to move towards the girl.
There were expressions of joy, pride, surprise, and amusement in the faces present today.
This was because the final arrow for the first target was seen stuck to the colorful sheet.
The color on which the arrow had landed made their eyes widen in surprise no matter who the person was.
"9 Points." Howard mumbled as he continued to stare at the target.
Yellow was the circle on which she had managed to land her arrow which gave her an instant bonus of nine points.
"She did okay." Captain Desmo nodded as he gave her a weak praise.
'She missed the bullseye by less than an inch…' Marquess Samed sneered when he saw the other trainer was being stingy with his praises.
According to Sullivan, Captain was unhappy when she did not succeed and greedy when she did succeed.
Captain Desmo was least bothered about what others thought about him as he fixed his eyes on the girl who moved over to the second target.
There was a smirk on his face when he saw that she had neither celebrated nor wasted any time as she moved to the next step.
'I don't want to waste the momentum that I finally managed to gain.' Yvonne decided as she stood before the 30m target.
She only had to take about five steps to the right and she was now standing at the shooting line which was opposite the second target.
'Time to get to work!' She announced resolutely and glared at her next target.
She was already aware of the power she had in her arms so the distance would not be proven a problem but her weakness still laid in her aim.
'I cannot waste any more arrows.' She sneered at her wonky aim.
The Earl's daughter had earned 9 points in the third arrow she shot which left her with six more arrows to use and six points to obtain from them.
'Even if she lands all six on the outermost circles, she can pass this trial.' Rutherford analyzed her present situation.
She had accomplished the great feat of hitting the yellow ring which gave her an instant 9 points but the chances of that happening again was very low.
Now not only had the distance increased, but there was also the fear that she might waste the arrows as she did earlier at the first target.
'Do well, Vonna.' He wished in silence.