Fanfic:An Archery Lesson for the Amyrlin
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An Archery Lesson ATTN: Yani
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia had decided it was time she got out of the office more. She had more energy these days, despite getting much less restful sleep, and being cooped up at her desk just seemed stultifying. So she had decided it was time to refine her archery skills a little. The last time she went hunting her aim had been abysmal.
She had written a note to the Master of Training requesting an Archery instructor for a private lesson. The Master of Training had responded with several recommendations of those with enough skill who might have the time. Crysthia had chosen from the list a Ji'dar. The only female on the list. She wasn't sure why but a female instructor appealed to her.
She sent a note to the young woman, requesting the lesson, and noting the time that she would be available.
Greetings Ji'dar Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene,
I hope this note finds you well. Your name was given me by the Master of Training as someone skilled in Bow who might have time to give me a private lesson. My time as I am sure you are aware is limited but I would like for you to instruct me on the morrow one hour after breakfast. I shall expect you at the archery range unless I hear otherwise.
In the Light,
Crysthia Faedryn Sedai
Watcher of the Seals
Flame of Hama Valon
The Amyrlin Seat
Crysthia sent the note off with one of the Accepted in attendance and the next morning appeared at the range with her bow in hand. She had chosen to wear a lavender dress with skirts divided for riding that she hoped would not impede her movement any. Her seven striped stole was tucked away in her belt pouch so that she would not be so obvious in who she was and so that it did not blow away in the wind. The Ji'dar was already there waiting. Crysthia approved.
"Good morning Ji'dar."
A summon from the Amyrlin
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
Amayani stood with the note in her hand, blue-green eyes scanning through it again in mildly disbelief as she tried to stop her hands from shaking. She'd been unwilling at first to be put up as a possible archery teacher, but it was part of her duty to teach the drin'far'ji. And those were the only one she'd expect to be requested to teach, and perhaps a novice or soldier or two. But to get a request from the Amyrlin Seat herself! How was she supposed to deal with that?
She'd been curious enough when an Accepted had approached her with the note last evening, and she was glad she hadn't had any more classes or chores after that. She doubt she would've been able to concentrate much. Instead she'd headed back to her room to make sure she had a clean uniform, also wondering if she should use the formal uniform instead. But that idea she had put out of her head. That uniform was to be used outside of the Yards, mainly, to have a clean and finer uniform for special occasion. This was a training session like any other, even if it was the Amyrlin Seat. Light! The Amyrlin herself!
Folding the note neatly again, she tucked it back into her pocket and looked around her, checking once again that everything seemed in order. She'd arrived early at the range to have time to prepare, and it was still some time until the Amyrlin would arrive. Her stomach churned at the thought of who she was waiting for, threatening to get rid of what little breakfast she'd managed to get down. Come on, now, calm down. You've met this woman before, maybe even shot at her. You can do it. But Light, it's the bloody Amyrlin!
The sound of footsteps cut her inner dialogue off, and she almost jumped as she turned around. Whatever calm she'd attained vanished, and she prayed to the Creator and whatever else that she hadn't been mumbling. She fought the trembling in her knees as she watched the approaching woman, dropping into a deep bow (curtsies only felt weird without a skirt).
"Go.. Good morning, Mother," she said, her voice trembling. Calm down, girl. You can do it. She swallowed and gave a silent cough before she looked at the Amyrlin again.
"H..ow much do you know of the bow already?" she asked with a steadier voice, but her hands fiddling with the bow betrayed her nervousness.
I Don't Bite
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia smiled understandingly at the girl's nervousness. She was used to people falling all over themselves in her presence. They had done it often enough when she was merely the Keeper and now that she was Amyrlin it was nearly impossible to have a normal conversation with anyone. It frustrated her sometimes. Her predecessor had seemed to cultivate such reactions from those who spoke with her, even in private. But Crysthia was not cut from the same cloth as Amora and she was vexed she must fit herself to such a mold for the sake of her position.
"I won't bite you girl, you are the instructor here, and I am but a student. Be confident in your craft." she said in a friendly tone.
"As for the bow," She said, holding up her own ornately carved beechwood bow. "I can manage not to shoot myself in the foot. I know the basics of archery and have hunted on occasion, but I am by no means precise in my shooting. I wish to improve my skills."
A slow start
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
Amayani took a deep breath and tried to quench the nervousness that filled her body. She looked at the tiny woman, trying her best to ignore that she was the Amyrlin Seat, but instead just any other student she'd been asked to teach. It wasn't often she taught classes, but most of them were lessons in the bow. This was a subject she knew, so she shouldn't feel like a bloody peasant trying to teach a queen. She's no queen, she's bloody well above queens. She's the bloody Amyrlin! No, today she's a student. Just another student. She cleared her throat, mainly to stop the trail of thoughts, and shifted her gaze to the woman again.
"The plan today is to get you through the Archery course," she said, amazed at calmness in her voice, and indicated with a slight nod towards the other end of the archery range, where the entrance to the course was.
"But first I'd like to see what level you're at, and what might need improving. So," keep going, don't stop "shoot a couple of rounds at the target, six arrows each round. Take your stance at the line there, it should be around 40 feet, which is a good distance to begin with." She took a step aside to leave the path open for her student, and indicated slightly with her hand for the woman to take her place. Her mouth felt dry, and her stomach fluttered, but she tried her best to keep a composed and calm appearance.
A Bit Rusty
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia had expected this part. It seemed standard practice to assess skills before beginning a weapons lesson. Lucan had made her do it with the daggers. She smiled a little at that memory. It was no longer quite as painful since they had begun meeting in tel'aran'rhiod. Shaking her head she focused on the task at hand. She hoped she wouldn't make too poor a showing but she knew her skills were rather rusty.
Knocking her first arrow she stepped to the line and judged the distance to the target. Raising the bow, she drew and let the arrow loose in the direction of the target. It sailed to the right, missing completely. She tutted at herself and knocked the next arrow, adjusting her aim. This one sailed to the left. She was forgetting to compensate for the wind. The third arrow hit the target but somewhat lower and more to the left than she had intended. The next two also hit the target but none where she was aiming.
She smiled at the Ji'dar. "I'm afraid I'm rather out of practice. You might have your work cut out for you."
She did the next set of six, adjusting her aim after seeing where each one hit. The arrows were all going a little lower than she liked, but she had an interesting arc on the target when all six arrows had been shot. She wondered if maybe she wasn't holding the bow properly.
Some corrections and theory
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
Amayani stood a little to the side, giving the Amyrlin space enough to shoot without being crowded, but close enough to watch her moves. She paid close attention to how the woman held the bow and how she drew it. She looked at her face and pose to determine how she aimed, and if she moved in any way that would send the arrow on a wrong course.
Almost all the arrows landed a bit to the left, as she'd expected. The way the Amyrlin held the bow and the arrow, not so different from how she did it herself, would do that unless compensated for. And they also landed quite low, which would happen if one didn't compensate enough for the arch the arrow took due to gravity.
When the last of the twelve arrows had landed, she waited for the woman to gather up the arrows and return.
"That wasn't so bad, actually," she said, referring to the comment that had come in-between the two rounds. "Especially not that last round. The way the arrows went, a bit low and to the left, is quite common, and more so if it's been a while. Learning to shoot is the easy part of archery, learning to actually aim is what takes practice. Do you aim, I mean, sight to where you want to hit?" She paused a bit to let her student answer, and nodded.
"The best way to aim with the bows we use, is not to see where you want to hit, but to feel where you want the arrow to go. Your instincts usually know better how it will fly then your mind. And then it is to practice and adjust those instincts according to the surroundings and wind." She paused again, shifting her weight as she went over in her head what to teach next.
"Your stance, all in all, looked quite good. You seem to have good balance, good footing. Keep holding your back straight, as well as your bow arm, and don't twist your wrist and elbow too much." She nodded softly, mostly to herself. "Take another round at the target and see if your aim is a bit better, and then it's just a bit of theory before we start on the course. Remember, feel, know where to aim, don't think," she said, hoping it made any sense. She felt quite more at ease now then when she'd started. Perhaps she could manage to, for now, forget that it was the Amyrlin she was teaching.
She stood silent, watched as the Amyrlin shot another six arrows, and waited as she collected them again. Her mind went over the next part of this lesson of sorts. There were a few more things, mainly theoretic for now, that her student needed to learn before they went out on the course.
"Now then," she said when the woman came back. "There are a couple of things that are good to know before you try the archery course. One of them is distance shooting. A couple of the targets are further away then the usual distance, and this needs to be compensated for. When you fire at a distant target, the most normal thing would be to just lift your arms and thus the bow, giving the arrow the needed arch. But simply lifting your arms gives you a shorter draw, loosing strength and consistency. What you need to do is to bend back at your waist." Yani lifted up her bow and showed what she meant. Her feet and lower body was still, and her upper body leaned slightly to the right as she drew the bow up. "Like this." Not having an arrow nocked, not a target to aim at, she lowered her bow again.
"The next thing is moving targets. I'm sure you know some of this from hunting, as game rarely stands still and let you kill them." She gave a smile at that. "What you need to do is to lead your target. Watch where it's going for a moment, and aim ahead of it. Aim for where it will be in the time the arrow takes in its flight. And also only draw your bow fully when you have the aim. Holding a drawn bow too long is taxing, and only ruins your aim." She paused a moment to let the information sink in, and to wet her throat. She really wasn't used to this, but she hoped she did well.
"The last thing for now, is speed shooting. A thing to remember here, is that with the gained speed you can get, you'll loose some accuracy, strength and distance. To get the rapid shooting, you don't have time to stop and aim for each shot, so you loose accuracy. You also don't pull the bow fully, so you loose some force behind the arrow.
"Speed shooting is mostly used by groups of archers, in a tactic called arrow shower. The archers shoot simultaneously, showering the enemy with arrows, volley after volley. The lack of accuracy from the shooting is thus gained by the sheer number." She remembered a similar tactic lecture from Lysira Gaidar when she learned this.
"To get some eficiency in the shooting, you won't have time to reach for your quiver for every arrow. A way to avoid this is to keep some arrows in your bow hand." Yani pulled four arrows from her quiver and grabbed three of them with her left hand, arranging them slightly to get a good grip on the bow still. The fourth she nocked. "Holding the arrows like this takes a bit of practice, but it is the quickest way. Another posibility is to stick them in the ground, but that reduces the speed a lot." She took a few steps towards the target, taking her stance as she looked at the Amyrlin.
"The speed shooting itself is mostly practice, learning to nock, draw and shoot only to nock again quickly. Like this." As she said that, she straighened herself up into the stance and put the first two fingers of her right hand on the string. Eyeing the target, she lifted the bow, drew it and released. Only waiting for the arrow to fly clear of the bow, she grabbed one of the arrows in her hand, nocked it, drew and released. And two times more nocked, drew and sent the arrow off. All four arrows landed on the target, but not very accurately, and she knew she was lucky to have them all on it, even with the practice she'd had. Lowering her bow again, she turned towards the Amyrlin.
"Practice is the only way to get somewhat accurate at this, and it's the amount of arrows, not the accuracy itself that is the main goal. Now, take a couple of rounds to get the feel of the speed shooting. And don't be discouraged if you don't hit." She stepped away from the target, leaving the place open for the Amyrlin.
Practice Makes Perfect
Crysthia Faedryn
Once they got down to the lesson Crys noticed that Amayani seemed much more sure of herself. She was in her element now, teaching what she was good at. Crysthia approved. She listened carefully as the girl explained about aiming. In her mind Crysthia compared it to channeling. Although you had to see your weaves it was more feeling what you were doing and relying on instinct. She embraced Saidar and held it, not channeling but using her now augmented senses to aid her in feeling where to shoot her arrows. It might be cheating a little, but she saw it as using the abilities she had available to her.
The fine details of the target were now clearer, and she could hear the faint whispers of the light wind. She was even aware of the insects moving around in the ground. She took aim, taking care to correct her wrist and elbow as Amayani had indicated. When she let loose she did not use her eyes to guide the arrow, but attempted to feel where it would go. The first shot was not very successful. She had twitched slightly just before she let go of the arrow. She tried again and this time the arrow sailed into the middle of the target. The next four did not hit exactly in the middle but she wasn't too far off.
Crys listened attentively as the Ji'dar went into lecture mode. She knew all about shooting ahead of a moving target of course, though she knew it took practice to judge speeds and distances. Practice was something she just didn't have enough time for. But it did help to have the correct techniques. She made a mental note to arrange more practice time.
Preparing herself to attempt the speed shooting Crys placed several arrows in her bow hand. This felt very awkward but it would allow her to grab each one quickly. She shot six arrows in quick succession, though she nearly dropped the second one before she managed to knock it because she was trying to move too fast. The first three arrows missed the target entirely, the next three hit around the outside edges. Definitely not easy.
She reset herself, arrows in hand again and tried another round. This time she tried slowing down just enough so that she wasn't fumbling as she knocked each new arrow, and she tried to aim somewhat while shooting. All six of the arrows hit the target this time but not in any semblance of neatness. Still they had hit the target at least. In this case it would be the volume of arrows that made the difference rather than a precise shot to a vital area.
Off to start
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
"Try not to too hasty," Amayani commented gently after the first set of six. "Take it a bit more slowly." She nodded to herself as she watched the second round. This time her student took it a bit more slowly, taking the time to nock the arrow properly. The speed only came with practice, but it was good to get the basics.
"Good," she said when the other woman finished. "That second round went much better, when you took it a bit slower. It takes time and practice to get comfortable with nocking the arrow swiftly. It can also help to not hold so many arrows in your hand. Try and shoot only three or four arrows a round until you get more comfortable with it, then you can try a couple more. I tend to shoot only four or five using this technique myself." She could probably have managed six too, but more then four usually went slower all in all.
"Lets go collect our arrows, and then head over to the start of the course," she said and started towards the target. Gathering the four arrows she'd used to demonstrate speed shooting, she turned to the Amyrlin. "I think you're ready to give the course a go now. Unless you have any questions first?"
No Questions Here
Crysthia Faedryn
No questions came to her as Crysthia gathered up her arrows so she followed the Ji'dar out to the archery course. This would be a rather difference experience for her than shooting at targets or game animals. She was now leaving the realm of just using bow and arrow for hunting to learning more about combat archery.
She did not plan to need the skill in combat. It was highly unlikely that the Amyrlin Seat of all people would be on a battle field shooting arrows, and even were she not the Amyrlin Seat her talents lay elsewhere. As for self defense her throwing daggers were far more effective weapons if she could not use the One Power. But still it was good to learn new things and understand them even if she was not going to use them outside of practice and enjoyment.
"You are doing well as an instructor Ji'dar. I have no questions for you at present, though I admit I had not considered we would be doing the archery course today. It is well that I wore a dress divided for riding if I'm going to be moving about."
First challenge
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
Amayani almost missed a step as the Amyrlin Seat praised her, and especially when she commented on her choice of training. She'd just set a course for the day, and Light, this was the Amyrlin! You didn't just order the Amyrlin Seat around, and in a way, that was what she was doing right now. Her confidence was slipping away quite rapidly as they walked towards the start of the Archery Obstacle Course, and her mind was churning with increasing insecurity. She could only nod as she tried to force a reply out.
"Y..yes, tha..that's good." Blood and ashes, get a grip now. I'm still the instructor, I should bloody well act like it. But Light! Clearing her throat slightly, she cleared her mind and prayed it reflected in her voice.
"Most of the obstacles are somewhat stationary though, but the fourth at least requires some mobility." She flicked her gaze towards the shorter woman a couple of times as she spoke, but mainly she watched the start of the course in front of them. There weren't anyone on the first two obstacles as they arrived, so they were clear to start right away.
Yani led them to the first obstacle, which was for sideways moving targets. About five yards in front of front of where they stood, perhaps a bit more, stood two small towers with a thick circle of cord between them. On top of one of the towers stood a Drin'far'ji, and it was his task to move the cord, and with it the wooden dummy that hung from it. It was up to the Drin how the dummy moved back and forth, at what speed, and where it stopped and started. It was also his task to remove the arrows from the dummy.
"This is the first obstacle," Yani said as they stopped. "The Drin'far'ji up at the tower will move the dummy back and forth at whatever speed he wishes, so it will be quite random. I will shoot a set of three arrows first, and then you'll do the same." If you don't mind, she almost said, but she bit of the words before they formed on her tongue. If she was the instructor, she needed to stay confident and clear.
Looking over at the Drin, she indicated with a nod that she was ready, and the dummy started moving. Pulling the first arrow from her quiver, she fell into her stance as she nocked it, and drew the bow half as she watched the dummy. Drawing it fully, she adjusted it slightly sideways and aimed right in front of the target, then released. The arrow landed on the dummy, but only just as the Drin had stopped just then.
Pulling another arrow from the quiver, she went through it again, and a third arrow, the last one glancing the target, then continuing past it and into the net catching stay arrows. Biting off a curse, she stepped away from the spot, and motioned for the Amyrlin to take her place. Watching as the woman took her stance, she waited for the Drin to ready the dummy again.
"Ready?" she asked her student, and when she was she nodded to the Drin again before looking back at the Amyrlin. "Okay, begin."
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia could sense the girl's growing unease even before she had begun stammering. And here she thought she had managed to calm the girl. Well she supposed it was not good for people to be too comfortable around the Amyrlin Seat, but she still did not like being around people who seemed ready to jump out of their skins merely because she was present. She shook her head and focused her attention on the obstacle course.
Now that Amayani was teaching once more, her confidence was reasserting itself. Good, it would not do to have a skittish weapons instructor. Crysthia was inexplicably pleased when the ji'dar's final arrow just missed. At least when she missed it would not seem so bad. She was certain she would miss at least one if not all three shots.
She set herself in position and knocked an arrow. The drin began moving the dummy and Crysthia watched it for a few moments before she drew the arrow partially and aimed. The dummy stopped then for a moment and Crys pulled on the draw a little further, but not fully yet. After a moment the dummy continued moving again. Crysthia took aim just slightly to the right of the things current position, drew the rest of the way and let loose. It was a hit, if barely.
Crysthia pulled a second arrow from her quiver and set herself again. This time she loosed too soon and the drin had managed to stop the dummy just as she had, so the arrow sailed right past it. Well she had known she'd miss at least one. She readied her third arrow, watched the dummy for a moment, then drew and let go. A solid hit. She smiled to herself.
"Hitting a moving target is definitely not so easy as a stationary one." She commented.
Second obstacle
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
"Indeed it's not," Yani replied without thinking, but the next words caught her throat again. Instructing was one thing, but it didn't feel right at all to speak so freely to an Aes Sedai, and the Amyrlin Seat no less. But the woman had told her to treat her as a student, and she had to remeber that was what they were now, instructor and student, not a mere trainee and the leader of the whole Grey Tower. It wasn't easy though; even if she tried to think of her as just another student, the woman's dress betrayed her as something more. Not that she could ever picture the Amyrlin Seat, or any Aes Sedai in that matter, in the training garb of the Yards.
Yani busied herself with collecting the arrows from the Drin'far'ji manning the obstacle as she worked up her ability of speach again. As she returned, she'd managed to regain a sense of calmness, if it could be called that.
"A foe won't stand still and let you get a clear shot though, whether it's an enemy, shadowspawn or simply some game." She indicated for them to move on, and started towards the next obstacle as she spoke on. "They also won't keep a maintained distance, so that has to be taken into account as well as sideways movements. This is what the next obstacle is for."
As she said that, she stopped and looked at the next obstacle. A pole stood a couple of feet in front of them, its height a little higher then a tall man. From the top a cord ran up to a tall tower where another Drin stood in safety behind a board. A dummy hung from the cord, held up by another cord that the Drin'far'ji controlled, and when it was released it would come down towards the archer at great speed.
"The Drin'far'ji will release the dummy at a ready signal, and it will run down the rope towards you," Yani explained, shifting between looking at the obstacle and the Amyrlin. "It is in a way similar to someone charging you down a hill. You will have only a short time to aim and shoot before it reaches you."
Yani took her stance a couple of feet behind the pole and a little to the side, nocking the first arrow before looking up at the Amyrlin again. "Three arrows again here, and the Drin will pull the dummy up again between each shot. He will only wait for a ready signal on the first arrow though, the next two he'll release at his own timing." Having said that, she gave a nod to the Drin, indicating that she was ready, and the dummy was released.
She watched the dummy flying towards her as she raised her bow. She'd run this course several times, but it was still unnerving having the figure coming at her, even if she knew it would stop short of her. Pulling the string back to her cheek, she tilted slightly backwards at the waist to compensate for the fall of the arrow, and let it go.
The arrow hit the dummy, but only just, and higher then where she'd aimed. She'd overcompensated the height, and also given into the temptation to aim for a more deadly spot: the neck. She wasn't to try to impove her own skills today, but to teach. Presice shooting could wait until she was on her own again.
The second arrow was nocked as the dummy was pulled up to the top again. As it was released again, she drew the bow and aimed for the chest this time, releasing when it was just short of halfway down. It landed a bit low, hitting the abdomen of the dummy, and the third arrow also landed solid hit on the dummy's chest.
Stepping back, she motioned for the Amyrlin to take her place. "Give the Drin'far'ji a nod when you're ready," she said, and positioned herself so that she could watch the Amyrlin's movements.
Straight and Steady
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia stood ready when it was her turn. In a way this would be easier than the previous exercise because the dummy was coming at a straight line and would keep coming, not stop randomly. That wasn't to say it was easy by any means though, especially as it was angled downhill. She knocked her first arrow and nodded for the dummy to be released. Aiming she loosed quickly at the dummy's head. Unfortunately she forgot to account for the downward angle and the arrow sailed over the dummy. It stopped short of her and was pulled back up.
Crysthia clucked her tongue in exasperation and knocked the next arrow. As the dummy came soaring downward once more Crysthia aimed a little lower, calculating where the dummy should be when the arrow reached it. The arrow struck the midsection, a little lower than she wanted. She knocked again as the dummy was raised once more, and aimed, when the dummy was about halfway down she let the arrow fly, it hit right where she aimed in the head.
"Now if only all my targets would come at a steady pace in a straight line I'd do wonderfully." She commented with a slight smile.
Third is random
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
Amayani laughed softly at the Amyrlin's comment. "Yes, wouldn't that be lovely? Sadly though, you're seldom that lucky." Her smile faded for a moment as she concentrated on not thinking of who she was teaching; she was getting better at that. She put up a small smile again as she went to gather the arrows from the Drin'far'ji, and then motioned for them to continue to the next obstacle.
This obstacle, she'd heard, had once needed another person to work it, like the previous two. But in the later years it had been operated by a foot lever, which set some kind of mechanics into motion. Yani wasn't quite sure just how it worked, but the result was that the five padded planks, hidden behind the row of hay balls in front of them, would rise and fall in a seemingly random order. The first would start shortly after hitting the foot lever, stay up for a few moments before falling back, and then another would rise up almost immediately.
Stopping behind the line drawn on the ground a set distance from the row of hay balls, Yani turned to her student, and started explaining the obstacle.
"This obstacle is for testing your reaction, and how quick you can change your aiming point. Behind that row of hay balls," she nodded sideways with her head as she spoke, "there are five padded planks lined along, and they're operated by this lever here." She pointed at it with the end of her bow. "When that is pushed down, the first plank will rise up, and stay up for only a few moments before falling back behind the row. The tricky thing here is that you don't know which of the five planks that comes in what order, so you have to be quick with the aiming." Yani took a step to the side, her foot resting next to the foot lever, and indicated for the Amyrlin to take her stance in front of the targets. Here she wouldn't go first herself, as she had on the two previous obstacles.
"You're to shoot five arrows here, one for each of the targets. Ready?" She waited for the responce before pressing down the lever. It was designed for the archers taking the course to use it themselves, but as the time between hitting it and shooting the first arrow tended to be quite short, she figured one less distraction would be good.
Next!
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia listened carefully to the ji's instructions and watched how the mechanism worked. This would be a bit more difficult than a dummy coming downhill at her and she noted that Amayani was not going to demonstrate for her this time. Well it's not like she couldn't see how it was done really, and if the planks came up at random, watching the other woman go first would not help her much.
She readied herself, knocked an arrow and then nodded to her instructor. The first shot was the easiest. The middle most plank rose and she took aim and fired. It had begun to sink already as she shot so the arrow landed a little higher in the plank than she had intended but still it hit. Quickly she grabbed another arrow and knocked it.
The second plank rose, it was on the far right end, and she shot quickly. She hadn't aimed well, and it glanced off the side of the plank as it began to descend. Muttering to herself she took the next arrow and readied herself. The third plank was second from the left and she aimed and fired. At last a direct hit.
Plank number four, second from the right this time, unfortunately was not so much of a success. Her arrow sailed right over it as she waited too long before shooting. Growling she readied her fifth arrow and aimed it at the last plank to rise. She loosed and it was another direct hit. She supposed her performance could have been worse.
"That is an effective mechanism. Shall we continue to the next obstacle?"
Running Fourth
Amayani do Ciresh a'Sorene
"Quite good shooting," Yani said after the fifth arrow made a direct hit to the target. She wondered for a moment if she should say anything about the two misses, but she had noticed that the Amyrlin had corrected herself, and seemingly understood what she'd done wrong. And there weren't anything with her pose that was off, so Yani only smiled.
"It is indeed," she replied with a nod to the mechanism. "I wish I knew how it worked." The last came out quite soft, as if she spoke more to herself then to the woman. Frowning slightly in thought for a moment, she thought og how the mechanism could possibly work, until she suddenly blinked and realized she'd soned out a bit. "Yes, after the arrows have been collected."
Soon they were standing at the beginning of the next obstacle, arrows collected and returned to the quiver. The obstacle was a small-sized target range, with five hayballs lined up at different distances from the firing line, each with a white-painted board hanging on the front. Amayani looked over the range quickly, noticing the distances the hayballs had been set at this day, and turned to her student.
"Here again, as the last time, you will use five arrows. You start at the first target, and then fire at each of them as you make your way across the range." She paused a moment, thinking if she should up the stakes a bit. "If you want a bit more challenge," she continued, "take the five arrows you need out of the quiver and hold them in your bow hand as you go, like I showed you earlier for speedshooting."
Not Perfect
Crysthia Faedryn
Crysthia eyed the course skeptically. She was unused to shooting at various distances successively. And Amayani suggested she make it more challenging? Well Crys was never one to back down from a challenge. She took the five arrows from her quiver and held four in her bow hand with the fifth in her other, ready to knock it.
She stepped up to the firing line in front of the first target and judged the distances of the various hay balls. She knocked the first arrow and shot at the target. It didn't hit the direct center but it hit at least. She moved to the next, readying her next arrow as she went and trying not to drop the other ones. It was awkward holding them along with her bow.
She moved from target to target, trying not to spend too much time on each shot. The second shot went better than the first, but the third she missed the target completely. She muttered to herself about that as she moved on. She knew she was no bow-master and should not expect perfection but missing completely still irked her. The fourth and fifth targets went better.
"I think I need to make more time for practice." She said as she returned to the Ji'dar. "Not that I have a spare minute most days." She said with a sigh. "Ah well, I have a little time left, what's next?"
