Learning to Aim (Dimitri, Jokor)

[Jaelyn Baroth]

Season of Spring, Day 25, 511 AV

It had taken some time and planning, but Jaelyn had finally managed to work out a way for her to keep her word to Jokor. She'd let both Jokor and Dimitri know to meet her in the training room today so that Dimitri could teach Jokor how to use a bow, and Jaelyn could learn to defend herself against arrows.

With the prospect of having arrows fired at her, even training arrows, Jaelyn was of course in full plate armor, and she had her sword and shield with her. As she waited for the two to arrive she was going through some stretches and basic forms. Focusing mostly on her shield, as that would be her focus for the day, she worked through a series of blocks, alternating from her left to her right several times, and then spinning around to block what had been her back. She would then repeat the process. Left, right, left, right, left, right, and spin.

[Jokor]

Jokor was making his way towards the training rooms, having received word of jaelyn that she finally found somebody willing to teach him how to use the shortbow and that he had to meet her in the training ground they had their last training session together. As he finally arrived at the training ground and entered quickly looking around for jaelyn, a smile coming on his face as he saw her doing some strange movements with her shield, probably trying to imagine an enemy attacking and she blocking everything, momenterly entertaining to sneak up on her but deciding against it, getting that shield slammed into his face wasn't really helpful before you had to go and learn how to use a shortbow. So he just walked towards her before calling out to her. “Oi Jaelyn did that other squire you asked already show up?”

[Dimitri]

"You mean me?" Dimitri said having walked in quietly behind Jokor. Dimitri was in his standard leather breeches, boots, and white shirt. He had a quiver slung over his shoulder, a whitewood bow in his bandaged hand. His hand was still sore from his hunting injury, he would be able to shoot, but poorly. His quiver was full of the blunted training arrows they would be using.

He looked over at Jaelyn, not mentioning his injury, "So any preference as to method? Or would you like us to just go to town?"

He looked at Jokor, "Looks like you've healed up just fine, did you bring your own bow? And have you ever shot one before?"

[Jaelyn Baroth]

Jaelyn stopped in her exercise to answer Jokor, but before she could Dimitri answered for himself. She smiled and nodded at her fellow Squire, though her eyes lingered on his bandaged hand for a moment, and then answered his question, "I think it would be fine if you just went to town. Just think of me as your target, and I'll do my best to block what you shoot my way."

Taking a slow breath she held her shield at the ready, watching the two as Dimitri started his instructions. There could not be much difference between Dimitri and Jokor in age, but personality and devotion was an entirely different matter. Maybe with more work Jaelyn could get Jokor to be more like Dimitri. She could only hope and try.

[Jokor]

Jokor turned around to face the one who spoke to him, only to see a familiar squire towering over him what had to be at least a foot, “Well if you are the guy she asked to teach me how to shoot a bow then yea I'm meaning you.” His eyes fell on the white bandages wrapped around the man's hand. “At least if ya can still use the bow with your hand all wrapped up.” Jokor bluntly said, he wasn't really that keen on having the same guy that almost knocked his head off his neck teach him something, still if the guy was half as good with the bow then as he was with his sword and shield he would at least know his stuff. He waited till Jaelyn was finished with talking and walked off to play the target for the both of them before he answered the squire's question. “Yeah I healed fine. I dun have my own bow and never used the things before,” Jokor groused out, holding the rest of what he wanted to say in answer of that stupid question, the guy was stronger then him so having a bit of respect could probably help a long way with keeping himself in one piece. “So..., how do ya use a bow anyway? It can't be just as simple as pulling the string and pointing the thing towards the target.”

[Dimitri]

Dimitri smiled at the little man. Dimitri held the neck of the bow in his good hand. "It isn't quite as simple as that, so you are correct." Dimitri purposefully didn't take proper shooting form as he quickly nocked the bow, pulled it back to his ear, and released. As expected, the arrow whizzed low and far off to the side, nowhere near Jaelyn. "That's what happens when you don't do it right." His hand throbbed painfully, but he made no visible notice of it. "Watch closely, I'll do it slowly." Dimitri put his left leg forward, his right back a bit. "Stance has to be both comfortable and firm. You want nothing to cause unnecessary movement." He then raised the bow at arm's length in front of him. "Arm locked, grip tight, but not too tightly." He plucked an arrow and prepared to nock it. He laid the arrow atop his gripping fingers, and slid it onto the string. "The bow is now nocked." He pulled the string back to his ear with two fingers, breathing in deeply, hoping Jokor would notice. He looked down his arrow at his fellow squire and aimed for her left shoulder. He let the breath out and released the arrow simultaneously. As it zoomed towards it's mark, "Breathe in deep as you draw the string, and release the arrow and breath at the same time. Now for aiming, since she's so close you just need to line the head of the arrow with the target area. For further shots you will have to aim higher, to arc it into the target." He handed Jokor just the bow, "Practice your stance, and pulling and releasing the string."

[Jaelyn Baroth]

Jaelyn was quiet as she watched the exchange between Dimitri and Jokor, and her eyebrow quirked slightly at Jokor's faint show of respect to Dimitri. Perhaps he was learning already.

Dimitri's sudden release of an arrow in her direction snapped Jaelyn's attention back to her own training, and her body tensed as she tried to follow the path of the arrow so she could place her shield in position to protect herself. Only as the arrow clattered against the stones well away from her did she realize he hadn't been attacking her in earnest, but had just been demonstrating the importance of good stance and performance.

Letting out a slow breath to calm her nerves Jaelyn returned her attention to Dimitri and Jokor. As Dimitri prepared to fire once more, this time properly, Jaelyn readied herself. When Dimitri released the arrow she quickly jerked her shield up, more through reflex than plan, and it was pretty much luck that caused the arrow to bounce harmlessly off of her metal shield. When she brought her shield back down again she had a faint frown on her lips. While she was glad she had managed to blow the shot she knew she couldn't count on always been lucky with random flailing of her shield. She needed to figure out how to know where to put her shield to block against arrows.

[Jokor]

Jokor carefully listened to dimitri as he began explain how to use use the bow in the right way. Trying to remember as much as he could from what he was saying, even the parts that sounded completely useless since he was the guy that knew what he was talking about. Well at least Jaelyn thought he knew what he was talking about. When he handed him the shortbow and told him to get into the stance and practice the pulling and releasing of the string a few times. “Yeah sure.” He replied as he took the bow from dimitri and gripped the bow in his left hand and held it an arms length away from him. “Grip it tight, but not to tight. Lock your arm,” jokor muttered to himself, repeating the instructions to make sure he didn't forget anything. He curled his ring- and middle finger around the bowstring and tried to pull it to behind his ear. He was quite surprised from the resistance he got from the bow though and accidentally let it slip through his fingers, the half pulled back string slapping against his wrist with quite a dull slapping sound. His clothes doing nothing to cushion it. Jokor let out a slight yelp of pain and muttered a few curse words, before trying to ignore the stinging pain and trying again. This time trying to keep a better grip on the string as he pulled it back towards his ear, taking a deep breath just as dimitri told him too and pointed the imaginary arrow right at Jaelyn before letting loose the string and again it hit his wrist, this time however there was a lot more force behind the string. “Oh petching yshul!” He cried out as he rubbed the stinging spot on his wrist. Muttering some other curses underneath his breath and gave dimitri a pointed stare. “Just tell me that is because I held the bow wrong.” Jokor deadpanned, he really hoped the string wouldn't always slap against his wrist.