Chapter 245 - Encouraging Her
"Stay right here." The little girl looked at the maid as she commanded her.
The second maid who had come forward to hand over the arrow from her tray halted in her steps and nodded as she remained in the same position.
'Moving to and fro every time I take a shot is a waste of time.' Yvonne surmised and with this thought in her mind, she gave out the order to the maid.
The maid bowed and took a step away from the child who held the arrow to the bow.
There was the familiar silence in the air as the people present waited for her to shoot her first arrow for the second target.
The distance was 30m and she needed to score well if she wanted to pass this trial.
'6 points to go.' Taylor recollected the score that she had after the first target.
This time, Yvonne did not wait for long as she released the arrow soon after taking her position in front of the second target.
"1 Point!" Howard announced when he saw that the arrow had hit the outermost white circle.
Rutherford let out a sigh in relief as she had done well.
'If she can continue with one point for each arrow then she will succeed in this trial.' He thought with hope brimming in his heart.
Yvonne extended her hand and held another arrow from the maid's tray while her eyes remained on the target.
She wasn't too satisfied with the score she had received, making her brows furrowed as she gazed at the target sheet where her arrow had landed.
'Need 5 more…' She decided and raised her elbow to pull the arrow on the bowstring.
*Swoosh*
The second arrow launched and shot through the air at a higher speed than the earlier ones, speeding towards the target.
Captain Desmo could make out the trajectory of the arrow as a smile formed on his lips.
'She is getting into the mindset of an archer.' He inferred after witnessing the second arrow land on the black circle.
His eyes turned towards the boy who was supposed to announce the score with a satisfied smile.
"3 Points!" Taylor exclaimed before Howard could even open his mouth which granted him a lethal and cold glare from his friend.
However, Taylor was not affected by Howard's glare as he continued to jump around in celebration of her higher score.
Even the parents were excited to see that their child had managed to get a better score than the one point before this arrow.
'With this arrow, she has 13 points now!' The father perceived and was elated that she would not have to struggle until the last arrow to pass her trial.
Though she had four left, all she needed was the next two arrows to strike even the outermost circle and she would succeed in achieving her goal.
"Two more points, Vonna! You can do it!" He yelled out in support of his child who was doing much better than expected.
Topher and Damien shared a look and had a surprised expression on their faces.
They had not foreseen that the child would exceed their expectations in such a short amount of time.
She was given one month and within this short time, she had managed to improve in something she had never learned before.
Not only was she doing her best she was also not struggling too much to keep up with the conditions set by her elder brother.
Just like them, Howard was also impressed with her progress as he watched the girl prepare for the final arrow of this second target at a 30m distance.
Yvonne heard her father and the 'pseudo' little brother, Taylor cheering for her which brought a subtle smile to her face.
There was sweat forming on her forehead as the sun was now beginning to move towards its highest position in the sky.
The little girl did not bother about the beads of perspiration on her skin as her eyes stared at the target ahead of her and her hands moved, intending to shoot the arrow at it.
'Concentrate and… Shoot!' She repeated the steps she had done before.
With this arrow shooting out of the bow, the final arrow for the second target was utilized.
However, with just a single look she could make out that she had messed up.
'Another wasted arrow!' She scowled as the arrow was clearly off path and there was no way that it would hit the target.
This observation was clear for everyone to see and loud hisses of dismay were heard coming from the people who stood behind her.
The one who was the most affected by her failure was her trainer who went back to glowering the moment he realized that she had wasted another arrow.
"Move to the next one!" He chided her with a snort of anger at her incompetence.
'I praise her and it goes to her head the next moment!' He sneered and watched as she moved to the final target.
Yvonne gulped as she stared at the target which she was about to use soon.
'I have never tried practicing with a 50m target.' She remarked and wondered whether she would be able to do well in the last step.
She knew that the power she used to release the arrows were more than sufficient for it to cover the distance between herself and the target.
However, she had never once practiced with a 50m target which meant that would not know whether she could hit it even once.
This was a true gamble for her as she had three arrows left and two points to gain.
"Calm your nerves and concentrate only on the target." A voice came from behind, advising her on what she must do to increase her chances of succeeding.
These words resulted in everyone, including Yvonne to turn towards the source of the voice.
'Oh thank God!' The child exclaimed as her eyes widened before she turned away.
The person who had spoken those kind and wise words were Damien, the one person she did not wish to make eye contact with.
Thankfully, when she had turned around, Damien was looking elsewhere which saved her from experiencing that pain in her chest.
Yvonne grasped this chance she was given by fate as she turned away from him to avoid any further mishaps from occurring.
On the other hand, when Damien had come back to his senses after he said those words of advice to the girl before him, he felt a pair of dark eyes fixed on him.
The direction from which it was coming gave away the source of the glare as there was only one person who could be the owner of those menacing eyes.
Turning to his right, he found the Earl staring down at him with his eyes narrowed for what he had done.
Damien had also felt Yvonne turning towards him but she looked away just as quickly as she had glimpsed at him.
'She is one strange girl.' He observed that this was not the first time she had done something like this.
He was now sure of the fact that there was something wrong with her as she reacted, in the same way, every single time.
"Her hands were trembling so I thought of encouraging her." He revealed why he had spoken up.