Intermediate long bow – Learning to how to shoot like a real hunter does.

[Isil Telperion]

Spring - Era XIV Post Fractum

I rode for days with little rest on Thorondor's back. Thorondor was the name I gave the horse that had adopted me after the fight with the raiders.

Finally we had reached Pegasi Woods. I found a nice place to camp not far into the woods and decided to rest. I took the saddle from the horse and released him. He didn’t go far, just far enough to find food and water.

As far as I could tell, the horse liked the name I gave him. Actually I had given him several names from which to choose, and he had chosen this one. So, now, he would come if I called for him.

I fallowed the horse to the water to refill my canteens, and picked some berries on the way back. I ate and rested through the rest of the day.
As I rested Eyvind words came back to me – "If it is a real master what you are looking for I heard tales of a so called Hunter who dwells in the Pegasi Woods. Merchant's stories I tell you. They say he teaches what he wants to those he wants just for curiosity, if not he hunts them down. Be careful if you ever choose that path as most stories have some truth in its bottom."

Thorondor interrupted my thoughts asking for some of the berries I caught - You are right my friend, I shouldn’t worry before time. Come on, I will now brush and clean you.

Night fell down and I prepared to sleep. As I closed my eyes Eyvind words resonated in my head – "he teaches what he wants to those he wants just for curiosity, if not he hunts them down".

When the morning brought the sun I ate and raised the camp, saddled the horse and moved out.

I decided to go hunting. After all, where else would I find a hunter but on the hunting field. Of course I was worried about becoming the prey my self, but I was willing to take the risk. After all, it was the memories of my past that were at stake.

I went on foot carrying the backpack myself so that my horse companion could rest.
I had all my weapons on me, but I carried only my short hunting spear in my hand.

After a wile I saw what seemed like a recent trail of a wild boar, and it reminded me of another one. The boar I fallowed while I was hunting through the fields for the riders that murdered my family, not so long ago, and that led me to Eyvind.

Taking this as an omen I decided to fallow it.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

An elf wandered in the woods, walking slowly with his eyes closed. He wasn't trying to e silent since he already was, he was having pleasure. He was listening to what surrounded him. Everything had been in order for the last cycle, since he had dispatched that lumberjack with an arrow in his axe's pole. The man's face when he saw the arrow was something that would make the elf laugh for countless Eras to come. Suddenly the balance was disturbed, something that shouldn't been there was approaching. Kneeling he placed the palm of his hand in the dirty ground, feeling the touch of the fresh dirt in his hand. He focused like he had done several times before and allowed the forest to enter in his mind. He felt the vibrations, a horse.

His eyes opened wide. A grin appeared in his face. Another intruder he thought.

***

Cunning eyes watched as Isil gave some berries to a horse. Cunning eyes watched him go sleeping. A dark shadow in the top of a tree watched, a moment later it was next to the horse. Isil already slept. A gentle touch and the horse bowed its head. The creature had understood what had been asked of it.

A shadow vanished in the night.

***

As Isil saw the boar's trail he heard a noise coming from behind him. His horse had turned and run away, as much as the young elf would run he wouldn't be able to catch it. He was alone now. The sound of babbling leafs was the only thing that was still with him. The feeling of being watched installed in the elf's mind. He followed the trail with his bow in his hand. His spear would be of no use today.

Every step Isil gave in the trail would be like giving another step to lonelyness. Every branch he broke ecoed through the woods. A cold breeze made him chill.

Although he didn't know, he was not alone.

[Isil Telperion]

Thorondor had fled. I fallowed him, calling his name, but he just ran away. I didn’t understand way he did that. I hoped I didn’t insult or hurt my horse companion.

I felt lonely, very lonely.

I returned to the boar’s tracks, still trying to understand what had happened.
A strange feeling took me by surprise in my loneliness, a feeling of being observed. The birds quieted down as if they were instructed to and hundreds of eyes were upon me as a sudden silence was installed.

Eyvind’s words came back to me – "he teaches what he wants to those he wants just for curiosity, if not he hunts them down".

My instincts, developed in the forest, yield that I was not alone. Who ever it was, it was watching me from a distance and knew how to remain invisible, even to my elfish eyes. So, I strapped my spear to my back and took my bow and an arrow. I looked around one last time but saw no one.

I kept trying to fallow the boar’s tracks, but my mind was on this strange feeling and events and, soon, I lost the track. I had to double back and start again.
Suddenly I had a huge boar standing in front of me. Carefully I took out my spear and stuck in the ground beside me. Then I aimed with the bow and arrow. The boar took an aggressive stance and I shot it. My arrow hit it but instead of killing, it only made it more infuriated. It charged. Dropping the bow I grabbed the spear with both hands, prepared to jump to the side as the boar came charging and to stick the weapon into the beast. I seemed a good strategy, and although even a human had the speed to perform the movement, I wasn’t sure I had enough skill to perform it efficiently.

[kye the dark wolf]

an out cast elf is running for his life from some crazy horse! He jumps into a tree just before he gets trampled, after the horse is gone he jumps out of the tree and he saw a lone elf walking through the woods, he hung back and trailled them for 900 metres and walks up and said hello.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

A boar. So that was what the forest had send to face this intruder. It could have chosen something better. The last intruder had found a enormous male Flying Lion and The Hunter had had pleasure in hunting it down, of course then he hunted the intruder down as well but who cared? Poor souls lost in the woods, already lost to the outside world. They wouldn't be missed and if they would it wasn't for long. That was the way everyone acted and The Hunter only played according to the rules.

This Elf was just another among throngs who had entered the Pegasi Woods. Such entrance had a price for all those The Hunter found.

Taking his bow and an arrow and aiming, he pulled the string. When the boar charged, he waited. He wanted to see how the young Elf would react. Taking up your spear? Corageous! Ah! This one is worth testing! The arrow flew hitting the wildboar in the eye, the angle of the impact made the boar's neck twist breaking it. Dirt flew when the swine's body fell on the ground.

Before Isil could react another arrow hit his spear impaling it against a nearby tree. Sounds in the treetops in front of him. Suddenly the sound came from behind him in some bushes. Steps in the grassy ground. Then silence. Isil could look around and he would see nothing.

Isil could wait to try and listen to something, but he wouldn't hear nothing. Not even the wind. Everything was quiet. Then he heard a voice, it came from everywhere and Isil couldn't tell if it was from man or woman, human or elf or fae. The voice seemed to be that of the forest itself.

"You have trespassed the boundaries of the forest. You are not welcome here. Be gone or you shall be preyed upon!"

[Isil Telperion]

I could not tell were the voice came, but the accuracy and strength of those shots told me that I had found the being I was looking for. My problem, now, was how to stay alive and became his student. So, taking no offensive action, I spoke:

My name is Isil Telperion, and I came to this forest not to find welcome, but knowledge.

I search for the master known as Hunter, to ask for his help in finding my true self. Only with his guidance may I master the art of bow and arrow and recover my memories of when I lived as a wild beast in the forest and thus completing my existence.

If you accept my presence here I will proceed with my search. If you do not, kill me now, for I have not the skill to fight you, but I shall not leave as I came, in anguish and incomplete.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

Silence, absolute silence. Nothing moved, at least that Isil could see. A strange wind passed through him and his hair swing in the air.

"Why would I care about your name?"

A voice said behind him. If Isil turned he would see a dark haired Elf sitting on a tree trunk that resembled a throne, eating an apple in the most relaxed of postures. Reaching for a bag he threw the young Elf another apple.

"Try it, it is sweet."

He paused to give another bite to the red shinnying apple and looked to Isil intrigued.

"Why wouldn't you seek welcome here? The Pegasi Woods is a dangerous place, without being welcomed one can't expect to live long. But you are lucky, you found me, or else I found you. And lucky of you again you aren't worthy of hunting down, not yet. I don't like static preys. I like when they move and run and try to escape their ultimate act!"

The Elf started talking as if Isil wasn't there, but soon remembered of his presence.

"So you want to learn how to use a bow, right? Well I could teach you that in exchange of something. What can you offer me?"

The Elf waited for an answer with his head being held by his hand. He was almost laying in the "throne" as if it was a bed of sorts.

[Isil Telperion]

Although I was expecting something of the sort, I was still surprised and caught of guard by the older elf’s appearance. I turned to see my interlocutor and took the apple he threw me. I took a bite out of it and it was indeed sweet. After a moment of reflection I answered as truthfully as I could.

I can’t think of anything, someone as merged with the forest as you are, could wish for. But perhaps the company and challenge proposed by someone who is willing to learn from you will prove more rewarding than expected.

I believe that, beyond my company, the only thing I can offer you is my friendship. But don’t think little of it, for it is true and pure, and it can grow and blossom for a long, long time.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

The Elf stared Isil for a moment and then started laughing, his hand holding his ribcage and almost losing his breath.

"Friendship?"

He said while cleaning a tear from his eye.

"Why would I need it? But nice joke, it is a start to what you will give me."

His voice changed from a joking tone to a rigid one. The Elf stood and approached Isil, but not enough to touch him.

"I want you to hunt something big, something you wouldn't hunt if you were sane and I want you to escape and survive me while doing that. I will give you two candlemarks of advance and then I will hunt you down. If your task is done by the time I find you your life will be spared, otherwise your fate is sealed. If you decide to abandon the forest and escape I will find you and hunt you down wherever you go."

He turned and took a sit, slowly. If Isil was still stooding there he would say.

"What are you waiting for? Time is counting."

[Isil Telperion]

As soon as Hunter finished talking and turned I started running. I ran through the forest, thinking of Hunter’s last words. And, then, a sense of peace invaded me. I did no longer care if I lived or died. The beast that took over me so long ago, allowing me to survive, returned and I was once again an animal in the forest. So once again I felt like one with the forest, but this time, though, I didn’t loose my conscience, so the animal was intelligent and, thus, more dangerous.

After a wile I felt a disturbance in the forest. The birds stopped singing and flying, and no small animals crossed the ground. A predator was arriving and it was probably a prey worth presenting to the Hunter.

I grabbed my bow, prepared an arrow and placed another beside me, giving my back to a large tree. Then I waited for the beast to show itself.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

The strange quietness surrounded Isil as he prepared his bow and hide behind the large tree. Maybe he expected his presence to go unnoticed before the creature he was prepared to face, maybe he simple wanted to lure it, either way the creature would have things going the way it wanted.

With a roar something big came out of the bushes ahead of Isil's position and like a lightening ran to his left, following an old forest trail. The vegetation moved as the creature gained distance.

A single and shaky image remained in Isil's eyes. Large fangs, a long tail and a massive and muscled body. The creature had been so fast he didn't even had the time to see its color. However the creature had given him clues, marks of four paws were visible in the ground and many broken branches indicated the direction the creature had taken.

The time spent to find the creature had been long and now it was escaping. Isil's time was running low, the Hunter would be on him shortly.

[Isil Telperion]

I ran as fast as I could, stopping only for brief moments to make sure I kept on the animal’s tracks. I kept the bow ready to shoot but had the arrow I’d stuck to the ground was left behind.

The track was clear but sometimes it was crossed by older ones from other animals and I had to identify the paw markings to stay after the right animal.



Although I did this out of instinct I soon began to understand how I was doing it, and intelligence came into play. So I kept on track, motivated more by the challenge presented, than out of fear of being killed by Hunter. In fact the idea that he was after me and my progresses after the animal was making me even more persistent and immune to fatigue.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

The more Isil ran the further it seemed his target to be. The creature ran faster than him that was for sure and he wouldn't catch it just by running. He had to be smarter if he wanted to catch it in time. He had but half a candlemark now, maybe some more if the Hunter took some time to reach him. Anyway it wasn't much. And he was getting deeper and deeper in the forest, he ran and he jumped fallen trees until he lost trace of the forest trail.

He was in a small clearing, but the trees were so thick here that there wasn't much light to see. He had to choose a path now. He could head back and face his destiny, he could go forward and go ever deeper in the woods, or he could turn right and try to reach a stone structure some one hundred yards to his right.

What would he choose?

[Isil Telperion]

Maybe, if I were a better scout, I would not have lost the track of the beast. Unfortunately I wasn’t. Eventually I lost any clues to where the beast had gone.



So, I decided to climb up a small rock formation hopping to see the beast or, at least to find some clue to where it went. I looked for broken branches evidencing its passage or any other thing that might be out of order, wishing, at the same time, to get a glimpse of the creature itself.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

Truth was that whatever Isil was chasing was a master of camouflage and forest hunt. He had lost the creature's track and was faced with choices, picking the most obvious one he climbed the rock formation to his right. It took him a while as the stones were wet and covered with fungus and vegetation. After almost falling twice he managed to find way up. From the top of the rocks he couldn't see much due to the trees' branches but he spotted something. Something moving slowly, something that was moving away from him in a confident stride.

It was his chance, the creature hadn't notice his presence. Soon it would be possible to spot in between two trees but soon too would it be out of range from his bow. There it was! Orange with black strips, it was a creature he didn't recognize. It has four legs and a graceful stride, and now it was right in front of him, in range of his bow. It was the time to shoot. Would Isil be able to aim and shoot the creature down?