Shooting Arrows: It's Harder Than You'd Think

Subject: Shooting Arrows: It's Harder Than You'd Think Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:39 pm

It was a fairly regular day for Lenis. She had come earlier that afternoon to train with her younger brother and father, but both left earlier for some 'proud-dad' talk. The blonde decided to stay at the Training Center, perfecting aim with a bow and arrow. Not exactly her strong point.

Lenis would try to aim straight in the middle; she practically needed the stupid arrow right in the dang middle. Anything less meant failure to her. And failure she was, apparently. After half an hour of shooting targets, the fourteen-year old got bored of just using a bow, so she sat down on a near bench, taking a swig of her water.

Shooting Arrows: It's Harder Than You'd Think Tumblr_inline_mo7cfmxWn21qz4rgp

Jeremy walked through the streets of District 2, hands in his pockets. He was wearing his ridiculous red tunic, like always. It didn't take him long to look like an absolute jerk today, oh no. He had turned the corner and someone ran into him, knocking him over. He yelled out as he fell and got up almost immediately. The person who ran into him had started to apologize, but Jeremy had already turned around and started yelling at him, "Watch where you're going you imbecile!" It wasn't much, but Jeremy realized what he had said and that he had said it to a boy about four years younger than him which made him instantly regret it. His expression softened as the little boy began to run away and he called out, "Wait, no, come back! I didn't mean it..." but by then the boy was long gone. He turned, realizing he was attracting a crowd and walked off without another word.

After about ten minutes he walked into the training center, going straight for his favorite weapon: The crossbow. He picked it up, cranking it so that he could put the bolt in place and did so. He lifted it up, looking down the sights at the target and fired. Perfect shot as always. He did this for about five minutes, hitting a the center of almost every target, except for the last. When he missed the center he grit his teeth and walked up to the target, removing the bolt and shoved it into the center. He walked off and took a seat, breathing heavily. He muttered to himself quietly, "Damn I have problems..."

It was about a few silent moments after Lenis decided she had taken a considerable amount of time for break. Getting up to pick up the bow and arrow, she hesitated. Maybe she'd try a crossbow this time. After all, sometimes when you push yourself too hard you seem to be getting worse. Lenis looked around for the crossbow she had saw earlier, but it was gone. Probably being used by some someone else. A sigh escaped Lenis as she fiddled with her usual black fingerless gloves. Time to use her failing weapon.

Turning around to get the bow, her blue eyes glanced at a boy, maybe a bit older than herself, who was currently taking a seat. A crossbow was just laying by his side. Just what she was looking for. Lenis walked up to him, emotionless face still in tact. He was breathing heavily, muttering something about problems or something like that. The blonde walked up to him while she fixed her ponytail. She put an arm to her hip, and asked in a monotony voice, "Are you still using that? The crossbow?" Pointing to the accuracy-based weapon, Lenis tapped her toes waiting for an answer.

Shooting Arrows: It's Harder Than You'd Think Tumblr_inline_mgmsvev6qb1rctsej

Jeremy looked up at the girl who stood in front of him. He looked over to the crossbow that she was pointing at and he looked back to her, shrugging as he made a face. "Suppose not." He reached over to pick up the crossbow and shut his eyes tight when he grasped it and sighed. He opened them again and looked over at the girl as he handed her the weapon. "I'm sorry...I probably came off sounding rude. I've just had a...rough, day. The name's Jeremy by the way."

She blinked as she took the crossbow from the boy. He looked oddly familiar in a way, but she couldn't place a finger on it. Eh, she thought. It probably doesn't matter anyway. Nodding, she responded, "Thank you." Lenis started walking off, but then stopped and turned her head around when he introduced himself as Jeremy. "Lenis Carrick. Pleasure to meet you. And don't worry, my younger brother could be worse." She wondered where he was anyway. Hopefully not stranded away from her father, like every other day.

She strode over to the targets, a fair amount of them having bolts in them. And that fair amount of them having bolts straight in the middle. Lenis glanced back at Jeremy, a tidbit of jealousy coming over her. He couldn't have done this, did he? Ignoring the fact that he could've done better than her, she cranked the crossbow and put the bolt in place. Lenis found a group of empty targets, and took in a silent breath. She drew back the crossbow, and shot, immediately closing her ice-blue eyes right after. She couldn't bear to see... Ugh. The bolt was a ring outside the middle. Lenis tensed up, and relaxed. She's have to just face Mother avoiding her daughter, who couldn't even shoot a target perfectly.

The once angered young man now chuckled as the girl said something about her brother being worse. Jeremy got up and walked over to the weapon rack, picking up some of the throwing knives. He lined up one of them and threw it, smiling with satisfaction as it hit close to the center. He looked over at the girl, Lenis, as he heard the unmistakable sound of a crossbow firing. He looked to wear it hit and shrugged. "Not a bad shot." He looked over at the targets he had hit with the crossbow and then looked back to her, saying, "And uh...don't worry about me hitting the center each time. The crossbow is my main weapon. I've been practicing with it every day for a good few years."

As another bolt was put in place, Lenis looked up to see Jeremy complimenting her on her aim. She shifted her eyes towards the crossbow, a bit warm at the feeling of not being grimaced at after a fault. "Uh, thanks." She shot again, just being so close to perfecting it. "Well, it must be easy for you to say then," she said. "I'm expected to do the best of the best in my family. And then there's Nero, my brother, who looks up to me. I'm supposed to be better than I am right now with these long-range weapons." Lenis put in one more bolt. She got ready to shoot just one more target. If she didn't, she would quickly switch to the mace, her best weapon. Being Lenis, she hated when that had to happen.

Jeremy shrugged once more and threw the other two daggers, one impaling itself to the left of the original and the other to the right. He walked over to the girl, crossing his arms as he stood close to her. "You gotta relax your shoulders. Aim just a little above where you want it to hit. The best part about the crossbow is that it's great for accuracy and all you need to do is aim and pull the trigger. Now, when you aim, look down the sights and breath in to keep the weapon steady. Then, as you breath out, pull the trigger. That's how I started out and I was pretty accurate." He smiled and watched, waiting to see if she would heed his advice.

Lenis was still in position as she listened to Jeremy's advice. Well, he did have experience in the crossbow, she thought. Taking his tips into action, she relaxed her shoulders a bit. Then aiming slightly above the middle, she took a breath in, steadying the weapon. "This might actually work," Lenis muttered quietly, focused on her shot. Breathing out, she unleashed the trigger. In the middle it ended up in. If Lenis was that kind of person, a happy smile would've appeared, but instead she kept her blank face.