`She worked on making a loin cloth, gave up on the top, it didn't seem to matter. The bottoms didn't seem to matter either, but they gave her some small feeling of security. Making the moccasins was more time consuming and she was not really aware of the time passing until this infuriating naked man steps up to her and hits her with a stick. Not hard enough to hurt, mind you, but it got her attention. "What the crap was that for?" She yelled while getting quickly to feet.
He then handed her the stick and said, "Hit me!"
"Hit you, oh I'll hit you alright, I'm gonna wear your ass out!" She exclaimed all the while swinging the stick at him. Now he didn't have anything in his hands to fight back with yet somehow, she ended up on the ground and he had the stick in his hand. He then helped her up and gave her the stick back. "Again", after ending up on her ass too many times to count she stopped and asked, "Are you having fun? Obviously, I can't hurt you, I knew that without the show and tell. What is the point of throwing me around?"
"Do you want to learn?"
"Yes"
"You fight with your brain. When your opponent brings the stick back you have them at a disadvantage. They are reaching back and if you're fast enough you can step up and grasp their hands and put one foot behind theirs and push. They have no leverage and they can't step back so they hit the ground and again if you're fast enough you take the stick from them while they are falling. You have to be fast and react without thinking. It takes practice, lots of practice and we will work on it. In the meantime, have you ever shot a bow?" And as if by magic he hands her a bow with a quiver full of arrows. Then heads over to a pile of junk and sets up a target. Looked kind of like a scarecrow made of grass.
"Weren't you worried I would shoot you?" she asked him, and he just laughed.
"You have to string the bow first."
"Oh, uh how do you do that?"
He slowly and patiently showed her how to string the bow. After working it over a few dozen times she felt ready for the next step and reached for an arrow. It was a simple enough step to put the arrow on the string, or at least it looked that way. How something so simple could be so complicated. The arrow went on a certain way and had to notch on the string in a precise spot or the shot would be wobbly. After a few lessons he then showed her how to stand and how to bring the string back to her cheek. She had no idea how to aim so she just pointed at the scarecrow and let go. Next thing she knew she was on the ground holding her boob and wondering how she shot herself.
Mr. Hotshot was staring at her with one eyebrow raised really high. He then headed off somewhere and came back with some sort of cloth. He sat her up and wrapped her up, or the girls at least. "Seems these tits you wanted me to notice got in the way of the string. Until you learn to hold them out of the way we might need to wrap them up." That was the first time he had touched the girls and in spite of the pain in the right one his hands were gentle. Not sure who got the biggest surprise, him or her. She was surprised that someone touching her didn't piss her off and he was surprised at how something so simple as touching her could make his heartbeat increase. He quickly helped her up and continued on as if nothing had happened. With a few more mishaps making her right girl a bit tender he placed a small piece of leather under the wrap, once again touching her tenderly. When she tried again, she noticed the string slap, but it wasn't near as painful. It took a bit of practice to hold the bow in just the right place so the string didn't hit her. He then told her to go find all the arrows. He told her she shot 15 times and to not come back until she had them all. Arrows are important and hard to replace so finding them and keeping track of them is part of the job. She was not surprised to notice that the scarecrow was not harmed at all in this endeavor.
He ended up adding a backdrop behind the target in order to save the search time. After enough time had gone by and her arms felt like noodles, he let her stop. She had out of hundreds of tries actually hit the scarecrow once, in the arm. Besides feeling tired she felt useless. He took the bow from her and one arrow, turned without a second glance put the arrow dead center in the poor target.
"Will I ever get better?" She asked him. "What do I have to do?"
"Yes, and practice. I have been shooting a bow since I was 4 or 5 years old. It will be hard for me to explain how to do it because I don't think about what I'm doing I just do it. Muscle memory and practice. I don't remember a day that I didn't shoot the bow at a target or rabbits. Just like fighting with the stick. We practiced as kids and after they were all gone, and I was alone I practiced by myself. I spent 2 hours every day working on my fighting skills and at least that much time shooting. Hunt rabbits with a bow and go hungry when you miss, and you will learn. Survival is a powerful motivator."
That was one of the longest conversations she had ever had with him, at least from his side. She tended to ramble on and on. Simple enough to say, practice 2 hours a day, but to actually do, that was gonna be hard. But survival is a powerful motivator. If she was going to be useful, hell if she was just going to be less of a burden, she was going to have to suck it up and work at it. It's funny she had always thought she was a survivor but in reality, she didn't survive, she just endured the treatment life had given her, but her captors actually provided for her. Now she was going to actually learn how to survive.
"I'm not sure why you decided to spare me, but I'm thankful. I can see that it's going to be a while before I'm no longer a burden. I'm not sure I'll ever be useful, but I will try."
"As long as you're trying, we'll be fine, if I see you being lazy, I'll just paddle your ass and remind you!"
He said that with a straight face, so she didn't think he was kidding. "Did you just threaten me with a spanking? Like a little kid disobeying his parents. You would put me over your knee and paddle me? Part of me wants to dare you to try but I realize that you could do it without breaking a sweat. Why would you do that? I would rather you hit me with a stick or slap me upside the head than have you spank me."
Now he wasn't sure if it was meant as a joke or not. He remembered getting spanked a few times as a kid, it seemed as a good motivating tool. He supposed that was why he said it, but her reaction had him curious. Slapping her or hitting her with a stick seemed cruel. Paddling not so much. "I'm not sure how to react here, I didn't mean it in a mean way, that was the last resort I think as a kid, if you didn't do your chores you got paddled. Hitting you seems cruel, I don't want to hurt you, only motivate. Is paddling you somehow a bigger issue than I'm aware of?"