Solo Practice Makes Perfect

[Devi]

Summer 80th, 515AV - Outskirts of Syliras Devi wobbled again and her horse shuffled in protest. She concentrated on settling herself back into the middle of the saddle, balancing without needing to grip the horse with her legs. She was finding that the most difficult aspect of riding a horse. Her instinct was to cling on to it, especially when her balance faltered. Apparently though, this kind of reaction was very confusing to horses. Thankfully the mounts she tended to borrow from the Syliran stables were the steady kind. They were not particularly unusual or intelligent like some of the more unusual breeds they held there but they weren’t easily spooked or particularly spirited. It was forethought on the part of the Knighthood that she was extremely thankful for. Since her forays into the Outpost earlier in the season, Devi had found herself venturing out of the city and towards Mithryn on a semi-regular basis. The small town of farmers which supplied the city with food did not have their own infirmary, instead depending on the likes of herbalists for their everyday needs. Although they could come to the city to seek the aid of the healers and doctors based in Soothing Waters, many chose not to. Doctors such as she, who chose to visit their patients rather than be based in a single location had found themselves increasingly called upon to make trips to the Outpost to see to the general health of its occupants. Devi was returning from such a trip, much earlier than usual. She knew the trail well enough by now that she was confident she was close to the city – she recognised the trail here, caught glimpses of the city walls through breaks in the foliage. She was so early in fact that she had decided to take a brief detour to the glade she favoured for practicing her archery. Her bow was strung for the journey and slung across her back. Although she was still quite new to the weapon, she hoped that the display of it may at least deter any unsavoury individuals she came across. She pulled on the reins slightly and nudged one of her legs, giving the horse a change of direction. She slowed the beast carefully and he waited patiently as she dismounted. She grinned at him, reaching into her pack for one of the apples she stashed there for such good behaviour. He snuffled around her hand and chomped it up gratefully as she grinned at him, stroking the side of his neck in thanks. She then tied him up and turned her attentions to the bushes in which she had hidden her archery target. With deft hands she pulled it out from its hiding place, straining at the weight of it. She pulled off the canvas cover and threw it to the side with an effort. She stepped a number of paces away and then strung an arrow onto her bow. Devi smiled lightly to herself, breathing deeply as she concentrated on calming her heartrate. It had been a bare fourteen days since Sayana’s early birth and the experience had troubled her deeply. It was soothing to be out of the city, alone with her thoughts, doing something so far separated from what she had shared with her friend that day. The young woman stood side-on to the target and eyed the target. She drew back the string with a breath and aimed carefully. Her first shot wavered a little, the strength having faded a little from her arms. She carefully muscled her arms to pull the line of the arrow towards the middle of the target and let it loose. It whistled through the air and landed with a satisfying ‘thwack’ in one of the outer rings.

[Devi]

Devi eyed it for a moment, taking note of where it had landed and then strung another arrow to her bow. She made a conscious effort to school her breathing. She set it into a rhythm, steady as a pendulum. She had found that helped to keep herself calm. Whenever her heart or breathing raced when she was firing she found it made it much more difficult to maintain a good aim. She wondered absently how people aimed well under pressure, when one’s heart would surely be racing like a drumroll. Practice, she supposed, would be the key to that. Discipline. With a final breath in and out she breathed in once more and riding that motion, drew the next arrow back. She belatedly remembered that her left elbow was dipped lower than it should be. She corrected the position but had to start her process of aiming all over again. Her arms strained with the effort as she kept the bow drawn for longer than she usually would. Finally, as satisfied with her aim as she was going to get, she loosed the arrow and watched it soar towards the target, landing a little closer to the middle than the first one. She practiced drawing a few times without an arrow nocked in place, concentrating on the position of her elbow each time. Devi had found repetition to be a useful learning tool when it came to archery. Overthinking when attempting to aim always seemed to throw her shot out for one reason or another. If she practiced a particular aspect of the process over and over until it was burned into her mind then she could do it without needing to think about it. Her arms began to ache from the repeated motions but she pushed through the burn, mild as it was for now. She drew and released. Drew, corrected her elbow position, and released. Drew and released. When the burn built to become a little more than uncomfortable she stopped, shaking her arms to relieve the tension. She glanced back at her horse as she did so, to see it peacefully nibbling at the grass around itself. She smiled at it, letting the tension that had built up within her during the season melt away along with the burn in her arm and back muscles.

[Devi]

With her body rested once more Devi nocked another arrow in place and drew it back. This time her elbow did not slip from the correct position and she aimed much quicker. With her eye following the line of the arrow from the feathery shaft right down to the centre of the target she loosed her next arrow, watching it arc towards the target, landing much closer to the middle than before. Nodding to herself in satisfaction she wandered forwards to pull the embedded arrows from the target, replacing them in her quiver as she did so. She walked slowly back to her starting point and then went beyond it, adding a little more distance between her and the target this time. She lined herself up and nocked another arrow into place. She drew back on the string and loosed it. The arrow went further out than she expected and she frowned, wondering what had caused the change. Her eyes narrowed on the strands of her auburn hair fluttering across her face as a breeze moved swiftly through her glade, swirling around the little enclosure and raising goosebumps on Devi’s exposed skin. She considered the breeze, thinking to herself that logically the wind would affect the path of her arrow slightly. She wasn’t quite sure how to compensate for it yet and so waited for the breeze to quiet before nocking the next arrow. If she could refine her aim in calm conditions then she could experiment with the weather conditions to see what impact factors like wind actually had on her shooting. Devi loosed a number of arrows and then stepped forward to collect them from the target again. As she walked back her gaze fell once more on her horse, still quite happy in its own little world. She tilted her head at him slightly as a thought occurred to her. It probably wasn’t an especially smart thought considering how new she was to both skills. Like all things she learnt however, once Devi got her mind set on trying something it was pointless trying to reason her way out of it. She slipped her bow across her back and approached her horse carefully, untying it from the tree she had used to secure it. Bracing herself for this difficult first step Devi stood for a moment and then launched herself up and swung a leg over the horse. She still couldn’t manage that very smoothly but her steady horse did nothing but shuffle a little in response, no doubt used to inexperienced riders. She settled herself in the middle of the saddle and then, satisfied with her balance, used the reins and her legs to turn the horse towards her starting point.

[Devi]

It took a great deal longer to settle herself in the correct position for aiming when she was on a horse. Devi carefully nudged her patient mount this way and that to get the angle right. It was difficult to maintain her balance when she was manoeuvring like this. Her horse did not seem particularly keen on the motions either, keen to get going again as it had gotten used to rather than all of this starting and stopping. She leant forward to stroke his side, whispering reassuring coos into his ears. He seemed to settle down at this and she gently squeezed her legs to urge him slowly forward. Once she was in the correct place she gave him the command to stop. It was as good an angle as she was going to get like this and Devi repeated the process she had been using so far. Having the core muscles in her abdomen would be all the more important when shooting from this position. Her balance would also be vital, not just to ensure she could aim well but to ensure she did not fall from her horse as she did so. Devi breathed in and out, going through the motions a few times before actually nocking an arrow. Confident that she could actually fire correctly from this position Devi drew an arrow and set it to her bowstring. With a breath inwards she pulled the string back and aimed. She found it a little strange, the higher vantage point a little jarring at first. She soon recovered from the change however, adjusting her aim a little to compensate. She loosed the arrow and sent it towards the middle of the target. She repeated this, finding that small shuffles in the creature beneath her made her need to adapt all the more important, and fired a number of arrows at the target. Some of them brushed the middle of the target and she sat back for a moment, pleased with what she had managed. She looped her bow across her back once more to allow her to dismount so that she could retrieve the clutch of arrows embedded in her target. As she did so she began thinking to herself just how important it was going to be to be able to aim quickly in the future. If she was going to be travelling out to Mithryn more often and wearing her bow for an actual purpose then she would need to be able to use it more effectively from horseback. This would be good practice for her.

[Devi]

Devi retrieved the arrows and set them back into her quiver, breathing a little heavier than usual. If nothing else then all this running to and fro between the target and her mount and the mounting/dismounting was good exercise for her. She jogged back towards her horse, her eyes flitting to the sky as she did so. She noticed the golden tinge to the light, the position of the sun that told her it was near time that she should be getting back to the city. The stables would be expecting her horse back before long. With a steadying breath she launched herself up on the horse’s side, swinging a leg over it as she did so. She was getting better at the motion with all the practice she had been getting today. She nudged with her legs to get the horse to turn back towards the target. Once she had positioned him correctly she breathed deeply, solidifying the muscles in her core. She nocked an arrow and drew back the string with her right arm. She aimed carefully, trying not to allow herself to wait too long, and fired. She drew another arrow and repeated the process. Three more arrows were loosed before the target was getting too full for her to continue and she sighed, sad that her practice session was coming to a close. She started thinking ahead this time as she retrieved the arrows for the last time that day. It would start getting colder now that summer was coming to a close. Devi may even need to venture into the public practice grounds in the city to practice if the weather got too severe. Then again, she supposed that she would at least be able to practice more often if that were the case. Now that she had gained some small modicum of skill the prospect did not intimidate her as much as it once had done. She didn’t know if she would be able to bring a horse into the practice grounds or not but then perhaps she could have something set up at the stables. The knights must practice combat from horseback, surely. Then again, she would need to look into purchasing her own horse before anything else, now that she had sufficient need of one. Devi strained to pull the archery target back into its hiding place where the surrounding foliage was thicker. She yanked on one side and then another, inching the large contraption along in a strange kind of walk with her aching arms. She retrieved the canvas cover from where she had left it at the start of her session and pulled it over the top of the target. With a final sigh she left the comfort of her little glade and returned to her horse, mounting it for what felt like the twentieth time that day. She squeezed her legs gently to drive the horse to move and it began walking back towards the main road to the city gates. Feeling confident after the day’s efforts she squeezed her legs again, letting the horse speed up to a gentle trot. She adjusted her seating as it moved and they made it back to the stables in good time.

[Colt]

Experience Points!

• +4 Weapon: Composite Longbow
• +2 Riding
• +2 Endurance
• +1 Navigation: Land
• +1 Horsemanship
• +1 Meditation

Lores!

• Archery: Proper elbow placement
• Archery: Don’t overthink it
• Archery: On horseback
• Archery: Be mindful of the wind
• Horsemanship: Rewarding good behavior
• Location: The path from Syliras to Mithryn
• Riding: How to mount
• Riding: How to confuse your horse

Consequences!

Devi will definitely be feeling this the next day. From riding, her legs will be sore and make walking awkward, but not painful if she bends her legs and points her knees outward. This will fade into stiffness the next day, and will be gone the day after that. From her practice with the longbow, expect extreme soreness the following day. Holding her arms very high will be difficult, heavy lifting and/or trying to draw her bow will be outright painful. As long as she doesn’t do anything strenuous, it will be less poignant the following day, and on the third day that soreness will have become stiffness that will fade over the following two days.