Practice Makes Perfect & A Discovery[Flashback]

[Paris Lainfierno]

Spring 35 512 AV

Paris woke at the sound of birds flying overhead. It was a week after Paris left his home in Denval, he had been camping near a giant tree, which was housed with birds he never seen before, he would have studied them more but felt a growing pain in his stomach, he needed something to eat. He then got out of the tent and prepared to make himself something to eat. He picked up his pot, which was laying on the ground next to the now dead fire from last night, and walked down the hill. Down the hill by a big rock covered with moss, was a stream. Paris took water from the stream with the pot and took it back up the hill. As he goes up the hill he picks up sticks to use for the fire. Once he is atop the hill he gets the flint and steel from his backpack. He places the sticks in a pile,then he began to hit the flint and steel against each other, causing small sparks to fly. He did this for a few minutes before the fire lit. He put the pot on top of the fire, and waited until it heated up. As he waited, he took the book from out of the backpack, also a piece paper, and quill and began to write down a glyph, he was getting increasingly better at drawing them down, and understood most of the runes themselves, but still didn't understand the full extent of their power. When he was done he examined what he had did, a circle consisting of runes with a small triangle within and three lines going through it, in the book it said that this glyph was for focusing energy. Paris wondered what exactly it could be used for, the book explained but this was only a book for what seemed to be beginners. Paris then remembered that the glyphs are virtually useless if the one who is glyphing has no magic abilities. Paris sighed and put the book, quill, and paper back in his backpack. He turned his attention back to the pot of water, he looked at the water and seen bubbles coming to the top. He grabbed the smoked beef and basil from out of his backpack. He put three chunks of the beef in the pot, then added basil and some Traveller's Stock. He began to stir it around with flat stick he found. An hour later Paris had finished the amount of stew he could consume and was going to read the book when he seen that his rations. His rations were not low but soon enough they would begin to be. Paris thought to himself, "Sooner or later I'm going to be without food. I need to learn to hunt." But he knew it was easier said than done, but he also knew that out here in The Unforgiving not knowing to hunt was fatal. He looked at the sky, the sun was high in the sky, there was still enough time in the day to practice using his bow.

He knew rather little about using a bow but, "practice makes perfect." he thought. He used a nearby tree as target practice. He used a piece of paper and drew a bullseye with four rings, and in the middle a black circle signifying the bullseye. Then he stabbed it onto a small branch. He picked up his bow, spread his feet, used his left hand to grip the bow, and rotated the bow horizontally. He then slipped the arrow into position, he held the arrow steadily with his middle and forefinger. He rotated the bow, again, this time vertically. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, very calmly, he pulled the arrow back, he kept his arms and hands steady. He looked down the shaft of the arrow, the target he drew was in his sights. He breathed slowly and let go. The bow flew forward. It hit the fourth ring, he sighed "It's still a good shot.", he said. He went back to where stood before and did it again, breathing deeply, spreading his feet, rotating the bow and everything to be done before the actual arrow shot off. Then he inhaled and released. The arrow flew fast, it hit the third ring. He sighed and pulled the arrow out. Then he went back to that same position, prepared again and released it, it hit the second ring. He smirked, he was getting better. He practiced and practiced, due to the fact the wind changed, sometimes his shots would hit the bullseye some wouldn't even his the paper. When he finally got a bullseye without the assistance of the wind. He smiled and pulled out the arrow. Then he went back, farther than before and began to practice there. He did this for two and a half hours, only stopping to eat what was left of his stew(which had gotten cold by the way, but he payed no attention to it). Paris had begun to get relatively familiar with the bow and arrow, but he wondered if that was actually enough to be able to hunt with it, he knew that the animals would be moving, not stationary, and if he did miss he would be missing out on a meal as well, not just a bullseye. He wondered this but there was nothing he could do to practice hunting a moving animal without actually hunting an animal. He noticed the sun going down and said, "Well if I'm going to go for a hunt I need to do it before it gets late." He said to himself. He took his short sword with the bow and quiver filled with arrows, and went into the forest.

It took him some time, but he soon found a fawn grazing near a rock covered in moss. He lifted up his bow and arrow and crouched low, he had practiced firing an arrow this way as well, but now was the true test. Paris loaded the arrow, held it between his fingers and raised it to point directly at the fawn. He let go, it zipped through the air and hit the fawn in the leg, it whined and tried to run, but the arrow protruding out of it's leg kept it from getting far. Paris moved in, pulling an arrow out of his quiver and quickly reloading than released and it flew with accuracy, killing the fawn. Paris walked to the fawn to examine his kill, "I actually did it." he said. Suddenly there was a roar from behind him, he spun around to see a bear charging at him, he jumped out the way before it could claw his face. He tumbled on the ground and when he came to a stop he pulled out his short sword. The bear turned back to him and roared again. He ran at it with his sword in hand. He rolled when it swiped at him and ducked behind it, than he slashed at it's arm, it roared when blood began to spill from the dark brown fur. It spun around and hit Paris in the face, luckily only with it's bleeding arm and not the claw, Paris stumbled back blood smeared on his chin from the bleeding bear. The bear was now furious and stood tall, raising itself above Paris. Paris rolled back before it could get on top of him and ran to his bow, the bear following behind. He snatched the bow form the ground and grabbed an arrow from the quiver, the bear roared and stood over him again, he quickly loaded the arrow and pulled back, then he released. The arrow hit true and the bear fell limp...on Paris. The bear fell on top Paris, luckily he stopped it from crushing him, but the whole fight took a lot out of him, and with the bear falling on him and it's claw cutting into his arm, his arm was now bleeding. Paris tried to lift up the bear but was to tired to do so. He began to feel tired and decided to close his eyes for a while.

Paris woke up, now refreshed enough to push the bear off of him, he got up from the furry corpse and gathered his weapons. He went to the fawn unluckily as he slept some animals decided to feast on his prize, and now a crow sat atop it pecking at it. Paris shooed it away and frowned at the thing he took time to kill. He pulled out the two arrows he had and was starting off when he looked at the rock covered in moss. He noticed something on it. It was a glyph! He walked slowly and cautiously walked close to it, knowing that some glyphs are used as traps. He walked close enough to see the shapes on the glyph clearly, he seen a focus....but nothing else, he walked closer, trying to examine the glyph more. Then he thought, "This glyph seems old, it shouldn't be able to work should it?". He walked closer and cleared off the moss then Paris was thrown back by a flash of bright light. Paris got up from the dirt and looked at what happened to the rock, the rock had shattered and in it's place was a necklace with a red gem inside it, "This must of been holding that necklace in." He said to himself. He walked towards the necklace, slowly though, not wanting to be blasted into smithereens, and picked it up. It felt cool to the touch, and when he ran his finger over the gem he almost thought he seen it pulse with red light. Paris put it over his neck then he grabbed his things and went back to camp.

The next day, he woke up, made stew, ate and started back on his journey to Lhavit.

[Poison]

THREAD AWARD!

Skills: Cooking 2, Drawing 2, Bow 2, Hunting 1, Sword 1

Notes: I would advise you against camping alone in the wilderness in the future, especially wihtout any points in Wilderness Survival. The wilderness of Mizahar is extremely dangerous.

Please also try for a little bit more realism. Killing a fawn is halfway realistic, but I find it hard to imagine that somebody with so few skills could just outrun a bear and kill it.

The next time I may not give you any XP for such a thing.

You would also likely have at least a few bruises from being hit in the face by a bear and having a dead bear on top of you.

I also find it unrealistic that he finds a glyph and a necklace in the middle of the wilderness. I'm afraid there is no way I can approve that part.

Please also consider separating your posts into a few more paragraphs in the future. Those huge paragraphs make everything hard to read.