Basic Archery - Itre

[S'Lon]

Gemini had left a message for Itre and waited for him in the Armoury. It was a room just off the main room of the Hall, and full of the various weapons used by the Rangers in their training. Most of the room was given over to archery as might be expected but there was also a number of racks of knives and a daggers as well as other bladed weapons.

Gemini sat on a stool at a workbench on the top of which were several piles of arrows plus several opened boxes in which could be seen the parts that made them. She had in her hands an arrow from which she had just finished removing a damaged flight with a razor edged blade.

The room was dry but the air was heavy with the smells of oils, used to protect leather, wood and metal, plus resins and waxes. This brightening however a sharper smell cut through the heavy air, the smell of the glue that she had uncovered in preparation for attaching the new flight to the arrow.

[Itre]

Morning light made him wish for night even as he crossed the threshold into the training area; though he was tired his emerald eyes swept the room with a dangerous weariness. Wooden walls were laden with heavy iron swords, sleek daggers, and other assorted weapons all meant for the sole purpose of training recruits. These various weapons were dwarfed however by the amount of bows and arrows in the rooms. Also as expected, the room was longer than it was wide with various targets at the end cloaked in the shadows.

Itre stretched with a long yawn his eyes on Gemini’s back who herself seemed busy scrutinizing a single arrow. He seemed not to have disturbed her, so he watched her stroke the splinters out of the shaft of the arrow with a razor. It seemed a tedious process, though he could imagine it being slightly therapeutic. Time passed and Itre finally moved over to her pulling a strand of light cloth from a pocket in his cloak and wrapping his main into a loose ponytail.

“Serale Gemini.” Itre sniffed as he looked again at the arrow being shaved. “I am ready to receive training with the bow.”

[S'Lon]

Gemini smiled at Itre and waved him in, placing the arrow carefully down on the bench with the knife next to it. She turned herself on the stool, folding long legs one over the other.

Well, the training for the bow begins in here, for the first thing is to decide which bow you wish to start with. The shortbow is ideal for hunting, especially in the forest becuase it is easy and quick to use. The longbow is much harder to use, but it is the only one that has any range to it. Normally if you are strong enough to use it, we recommend people start with the longbow. But really, over the course of your training you will use both so it is of little importance which you start with.

She stood and led the way over to the racks of bows. As you can see, both types come in a range of sizes, especially the long bow. The taller you are, the longer and typically the more powerful bow you can use.

For convenience we leave the strings with the bows because the varying lengths of bow means that the strings must be customised to each bow.

Each bow had the string attached at the bottom notch but the loop at the top of the bow was not in the notches at the top of the bow stave, but had been slipped down past and hung slightly slack.

As you can see, the bows are left unstrung when not in use. This is because if you leave the bow under tension, not only can it weaken the string but the bow itself can permanently set into the curve and that will weaken it.

She took one of the bows from the rack and placed the base of the stave to the right of her right foot and stepped across it with her left foot.

A longbow is too strong to bend enough to get the string on easily by hand, but if you apply pressure with your thigh then you can bend it enough to slide the string up into the nocks. Try it for yourself, string and unstring a few bows and find one that you find comfortable.

She reversed the process, releasing the string from the nocks and placing the bow back in the rack.

[Itre]

Itre remained silent as the difference between bows and the way to unstring them was explained to him in detail. While he had no experience with the bow he understood the way wood worked enough to know that pressure was a way of warping it, the same went for just about any other physical element. He had not had a very good nights rest, and therefore didn’t seem to enthusiastic when allowed to browse the arrayed bows and practice stringing and unstringing them. However he was attentive enough to go to them and grab a short bow first, placing the end on the ground and using his arm to bend the wood out while he attempted to string it with the other hand. It was a harder process than he first perceived and the bow quickly snapped back upward, the string missing its intended target.

Another three tries led to the insight that it wasn’t all in the force that he placed on the wood. In essence it wasn’t placing emphasis on the wood or the string, but rather his ability to find a balance between the two making the job that much easier. When he understood the process of stringing, he could just as easily reverse it. Soon enough Itre was going through the motions of stringing the short bow, becoming not only comfortable with it but also gaining an aptitude for doing it quickly. He let loose the bowstring once more and put the bow back in its proper place before grabbing a long bow.

As Gemini had said, the process was much harder than the stringing of the short bow, almost a whole different process. Itre couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at his six failed attempts to get the long bow strung. He even began to wonder if his instructor was finding a bit of amusement with his repeated attempts. Though he was having trouble with it, Itre found that he felt an affinity for the longer bow seeing in it a strength he had always wanted to obtain. When he found the balance of the string and wood something in his mind began to blaze, a testament to the future lay in that bow and he was drawn to achieve it.

Without even having to practice with the strings more, Itre picked the bow up and pulled the string taut, the chords in his muscles becoming just as solid as the string he had tugged. Bow and archer were one for a moment before Itre loosed the string slowly and turned to Gemini. “This is the one I would like to use.”

[S'Lon]

Gemini watched without comment and without apparent judgement as he made his choices.

Good, stick with that bow then until you have some experience, changing bow will only throw you off your concentration on learning the techniques. She led him over to the side of the armoury that held the racks of arrows and plucked the bow from his grip and strung it smoothly. She took a long and headless arrow that had markings down its lengtha and clipping it to the bow drew it back. She aimed downwards into a tub of sand and noted the markings on the arrow as she pulled it back into full stretch.

These are the arrows you want. She pointed at some boxes that were marked in the same colour as had been marked on the shaft of the test arrow at full extension. It's important to make sure that you use the right length of arrow, too short and you can't apply full power and there is almost always damage caused to the bow by the arrow head, weakening it, whilst too long will mean unnecessary weight. Both will also make it harder to judge the correct adjustments for range.

Now, before we leave here, just a word on care. You should protect all the items from damage and inspect them before use, just a visual check will do. Protect the string from damp and unstring if its raining. The arrows are the most vulnerable to damage and it is pointless to try shooting a damaged arrow, so take a quiver from over there and take enough arrows to fill it. Don't overfill it as you will crush the flights, when you have done that, we can go to the range and do something practical.

[Itre]

Itre stroked his beard as Gemini told him about caring for the arrows, and paid most attention when told about the length being important. Of course he knew that a short arrow would be at higher risk of misfiring from a long bow. When told he grabbed a leather quiver and looked over the various arrows with his eyes, the thought of length staying with him as he scrutinized the various lengths. He chose a group that was something of middle size, light, but not flimsy enough to break with one shot. With the right length chosen from the various sizes he turned to his instructor.

“Now, a bolt of arrows is commonly twenty, so my question would have to be if its acceptable to carry twenty arrows in a quiver at a time or would less or more be acceptable? I would guess twenty would be alright, but it might be a little heavy on the flights.”

[ravenx67]

hi im new wats up

[S'Lon]

Gemini laughed and took the arrows from his hand, putting them back in the box. Instead of wondering about that, you should try listening to what I am telling you. The standard arrows here are marked by length, though I have to say that it would save time and be safer if someone had thought to mark the bows as well. I'll start on that task later this brightening.

She took a sheaf of the same arrows from the next box along and handed them to him. She relented on her earlier comment. The fact that you might buy arrows in standard numbers is interesting but the number that you will fit into a quiver will depend on the size of the quiver and in my experience that does tend to vary. Some like to carry smaller quivers so that the weight of the arrows pushing against eachother as you climb through the undergrowth doesn't damage the flights and twenty arrows can be quite heavy.

For carrying them to and from a range then a quiver that can hold twenty will be fine.

She grinned at him and motioned him to follow her out to the range, which was close by the Hall and at this time of brightening empty except for themselves. Stopping by one of the firing points she leant the longbow she had brought against the rest and turned to face him.

Do you have any experience at this? I don't want to teach you things that you already know, but on the other hand I need to remove any bad habits that you might have picked up. She rested a hand on her hip as she awaited his answer.

[Itre]

“Sorry, I guess I’m not paying as well attention as I thought, I guess the morning has gotten to me.” Itre chuckled despite himself and listened to her explanation of different instances he might have fewer arrows. It made sense; less weight meant for easier movement, anybody might no such.

“No go ahead and teach me everything you would teach anyone about this, I do tend to watch archers all the time, but my preconceptions might not be right in the first place.” Itre claimed as he followed her out into the bright morning.

He was surprised that despite the time of day it wasn’t really warm yet, as a cool breeze was blowing softly eastward through the grove. Pulling a long strip of cloth from under his cloak he pulled his hair back and tied it into a loose ponytail. This assured that his vision would not be obscured as he was training with Gemini; as well it made him look a little less wild. Putting his face toward the breeze he enjoyed the cooling sensation as he waited for his instructor to continue her lecture.

[S'Lon]

Gemini acknowledged his comment with a smile that lightened her face. Very well then Itre, just remember since we were discussing arrows to make sure that your arrows are matched when you come to practice. Different heads, fletching, length and thus weight, these will all change the way that the arrows fly and hence their course will be different making your accuracy chaotic.

But first thing that you need to bear in mind is your stance. If you are tense or twisted in your positioning then it will reflect in the accuracy of your arrows. She guestured down the range to the closest target which was around twenty five paces away. This is the target that we will be using today. I don't especially care if you are able to hit it or not because that, beleive it or not, is completely irrelevant. Any idiot can hit a target with a little luck, what we will ensure is that you can consistently hit the same target time after time in all weather and lighting conditions. But not this brightening. She laughed at the last and turned to pick up her bow, stringing it in one easy movement.

Assuming that you are right handed then face your left side towards the target so that when you raise your left arm it will point towards the target. Your feet should be around shoulder width apart, but exactly will depend upon your comfort. Balance evenly on both feet, your left foot pointed more towards the target and your right naturally forward. Loosen your knees and keep them slightly bent, don't lock them. This is the stance that you should keep. Try it for yourself. She waved him to come and stand next to her.

[Itre]

Listening to the instruction Itre stroked his beard once in thought before moving to where Gemini told him to do so. Before doing what she had said, he vocally repeated everything she had told him to do, doing said action while he said it. “Alright first stand with my feet shoulder length apart, make sure my knees are loose, point left foot toward the target, raise arm and.”

He pulled back his arrow, looking steadily down his arm at the target. Mindlessly he loosed the arrow listening to it whiz through the air with blinding speed. For a moment he suspected that it was a good shot before he saw the bolt fly above the intended target.

“Well I suppose that goes without saying.”

[Kalynne Danyth]

OOC: Serale Itre. Looks like I'll be helping out so on with your training!


Gemini watched the arrow fly down the range with her fists planted on her shapely hips. She gave a nod and smiled.
"Not bad, Itre. It at least stayed within your own target's path." She moved closer to him, took her own bow in hand and presumed her stance while she spoke.
"Your stance was good, though you flinched at the last moment before loosing your arrow. It's a common error of anticipation people make and it falls in the line of breathing, among other things we'll get to." Gemini's eyes went down the range. She then pulled her bowstring back nice and smoothly, her back straight but not too rigid.
"Now, before loosing your arrow take a slow deep breath and hold it like so, or some prefer to let out their breath and hold it that way."
Her chest rose as she did this, then stopped as she held her breath. After a few seconds she let go of her string, holding her posture. Still she didn't release her breath until she was sure the arrow was clear of her string. With the clear sound of her missle hitting the target with a resounding 'thwap', Gemini lowered her bow and turned to Itre.
"Now you try with five arrows. And don't worry about where your hitting. That will come later, but first things first. Stance and breathing techniques. If you aren't sure of how long to wait before lowering your weapon, try a count of ten. That should help." She added crossing her arms over her chest with her bow in one hand as she stepped to the side once again and watched Itre.