Training (Obviously)

[Legolas Greenleaf]

Thwack!

The arrow, who's course had been altered just after release by a breath of wind, hit the target a paws-breadth right of the center.

"dang!"

This exclamation came from the archer, a young female otter clad in a green tunic. Flinging her bow down in disgust she paced up and down a few times muttering to herself. Finally, her anger satiated, she picked up the bow again and selected another arrow. Sighting down the shaft, she pulled back, took a breath and let it out, and released. This time the arrow flew true, striking the heart of the target. The otter gave a satisfied nod, and went to retrieve her arrows. She had been practicing for about an hour. Feeling that she had finally reached the standard of shooting that she had set for herself, she decided to move on to something else.

Carefully hanging up her bow and her quiver in the small archery shed, she went next to the armory to pick out a sword to practice with. Her green eyes narrowed in concentration as she ran her paw over a few possible choices. Finally stopping on a double bladed two pawed broadsword, she took took it out and swung it around. The balance was right, and the handle fit her paws decently. Twirling the sword around in one paw, she started taking down imaginary enemies. That only satisfied her for a short while though, and soon she was quite bored. Practicing with swords was only fun when you had someone to practice with. Flopping down on the ground, she set the sword beside her and waited for someone to pass by.

[Chicory Rue]

Rue traipsed along down the "corridor" of trees that lined the edge of the courtyard, thinking aloud to herself. Oh, she wasn't pondering anything in particular; merely musing the outcome of the day's events. Rue wasn't a particularly clever badger. Or, to me more precise, she had what beasts liked to call "street sense." Oh, yes, she had lots of that. But "philosophizing," as she named it, wasn't really her area of expertise. She tended to leave that sort of thing (which she deemed to be useless anyhow), to the beasts that truly valued it.

And so it was, as Rue half-stumbled, half-stamped along, completely absorbed in her own muddled cogitations, that she almost ran smack-bang into the ottermaid who was so diligently plowing away at the sword all by herself. She stopped dead in her tracks and half-apologized, half-greeted the ottermaid. Once that was over with, she looked on a bemused sort of manner at the target standing in the middle of the clearing with some odd, stray arrows sticking into the heart of it- clearly put there by Legolas (ah- that's right; that was her name), who as Rue remembered, possessed a certain skill in archery- enough for her to be called a master.

This made Rue think a bit. Her brows still furrowed, the badger asked slowly, "Why, hello there, Mme. Legolas...I'm sorry to interrupt your training, but do you think you would mind terribly if you could show me how to lay an arrow down like you do? 'Twould be a great service to me, for I badly need it..."

[Legolas Greenleaf]

Legolas studied the sturdy badger before her, searching desperately in her brain for the badger's name. She did recognize her, but she could not put a finger on her name. While her brain was working furiously on this subject, she heard the badger speaking.

"Why, hello there, Mme. Legolas...I'm sorry to interrupt your training, but do you think you would mind terribly if you could show me how to lay an arrow down like you do? 'Twould be a great service to me, for I badly need it..."

The voice finally brought back the name, Rue. Chicory Rue. Legolas brightened up.

"No, that's ok. I wasn't really training, just sort of messing around. You want me to help you in archery? Umm.. ok. Do you know what size and pound bow you use? How about your arrow size? How far are your targets normally?"

Her mind was racing once more as she tried to calculate what size bow and arrows the badger would need. Most probably she would take a long bow, and long arrows also. She looked a powerful creature too, which meant the bow should be powerful.

[Chicory Rue]

Rue nodded gratefully, tapping her nose once thoughtfully. She started to say something, but fell silent again as the ottermaid spoke.

"No, that's ok. I wasn't really training, just sort of messing around. You want me to help you in archery? Umm.. ok. Do you know what size and pound bow you use? How about your arrow size? How far are your targets normally?"

Rue brightened at once at this. "Oh, good, then you won't mind giving me a bit of a training course in archery." Her face fell again as she processed the latter part of Legolas' statement. She shook her head, shifting her footpaws from side to side and coughing slightly.

"I'm afraid I don't really have a lot of experience in archery; what little I do have is practically negligible. I was hoping you could start from the beginning, teach me the basics. Oh, I know how to shoot. Any fool could do that. But I can't aim worth chicken scrabble. If you could show me how, I'd be ever so grateful..."

She looked mildly thoughtful. "Of course, you could give me a sort of trial run first, to see where I lie, skill-wise. Then, you can choose the target, distance, all that. You'd be a better judge of it anyway."

[Legolas Greenleaf]

"Oh, good, then you won't mind giving me a bit of a training course in archery. "I'm afraid I don't really have a lot of experience in archery; what little I do have is practically negligible......"

The badger proceeded to explain that she had really no idea what she was doing. That could be a problem. Legolas thought. But hey, to her, a problem was a challenge to be met and overcome.

"Ok then, we better get started. Wait here."

Leaving Rue behind her, she bounded into the archery shed to find a bow. Scanning the shelves quickly, she gathered up a large powerful bow, and some long arrows in a quiver. Slinging both of these over her shoulder, she grabbed her bow and arrows as well. Staggering out of the shed with full paws, she put her bow on the ground and handed the larger one to Rue.

"Try pulling this one. It should be about the right weight for you. Also, take these arrows and put the nock"

Here she motioned to the feathered end of the arrow

"to your chest, and stretch your arms out the length of it. If it is longer then your paw tips can reach, it is the right size. If it is shorter than your paws it is too short."