The shadows ebbed and flowed, waiting for Annika to take her chance. It was as if the shadows were wanting her to learn how to wield and work with them. Annika smiled to herself. She never felt alone in this place, despite her only real company being her father and the shadow cat when it decided to be social. 

[color=#663399]”Like manifesting?”[/color] From what Annika understood of manifesting was that an intention was set before working on steps towards that goal, but subconsciously. Then seemingly from nothing, the universe would deliver on what was originally manifested. 

Annika watched the shadows until images started to dance within her mind's eye. The girl reached forward, her hand and half her arm disappearing into the shadows. Annika stretched her fingers out, brushing them along nothing. She found a few solid objects but nothing came to her touch immediately. Annika took a deep breath in and shut her eyes until something pushed into her hand.

She opened her eyes as she pulled out a long, slender wooden pole with a string attached to one side. The string pulled on the wooden pole to connect the ends together. Tendrils of shadows slipped over the curved object while Annika examined it.

[I]Bow.[/I]

The word came to Annika from somewhere deep within her mind. She didn't think she had come across such an object before, but maybe she had read something long ago. However, Annika's free hand shot forward into the shadows, and produced another wooden object. It was smaller and thinner in size with shadowed feathers on the end. 

As Annika examined the foreign object closer, she noticed a groove in the wood. The perfect place to hold a string. Following her intuition, Annika notched the arrow onto the bow and lifted the joined objects. She pulled the string back until her fingers brushed her cheek. The motion was new to Annika and yet it felt so completely familiar. She released the arrow and watched it soar through the house before it connected with a target that had appeared. She grinned before looking at her father for approval.