A Double-Edged Sword

On the Road

Three days later, Lela stood in an empty field, staring at a patch of trees surrounded by dense underbrush, her lips pursed in an expression of distaste.

“I really am not in the mood to kill anything,” Lela protested as Markie demonstrated how to draw her bow.

“Lel-Leake,” Markie stumbled over her new name, “You really do need to be able to hunt. Look, if you can’t manage this now, killing animals for food, how are you going to fair when we arrive at Kalaan? I’d imagine that this is profoundly preferable to killing men.”

“Markie! Let me just handle one thing at a time. This is depressing enough,” Lela replied through gritted teeth, as she suppressed a small shudder.

“Alright, so you saw how I did that. You just want to take the string and bend the limbs closer together so you can string the bow together.” Markie returned his focus to the problem at hand.

Taking a deep breath, Lela attempted to shut out the thoughts of what she would be doing with the bow after she had finished stringing it, and focused on using her strength to make the string connect with the limb of the bow. She almost had it, when the string snapped out of her grasp.

“Oww!” She exclaimed more in surprise than hurt.

“Are you alright?” Markie asked quickly.

“I’m fine,” Lela said as she stood there panting and staring at the weapon she still held in her left hand. Being more careful this time, she grabbed the string again and sought to make the two pieces meet.

A few minutes later, Lela stood, exhausted but triumphant. She had strung her bow!

“Good,” Markie stated and pushed himself up of the ground he had been sitting on while he waited. He picked up his bow, which was a good deal larger than Lela’s, and proceeded to string it with ease, “Now we’ll start close. Your bow isn’t as powerful, so you’ll always need to be at a closer range than I do, but for now we just want to focus on accuracy, not power.”

Lela trotted after him, as he walked closer to the strand of trees.  He stopped suddenly and she almost didn’t notice in time to keep herself from running into him.

“Do you see that tree over there, the big one with the low limb,” Markie said as he pointed to a large evergreen tree that did indeed have bough that seemed to almost be lying on the ground, “I want you to aim for the trunk of that tree. You’ll do it just like this. You want your elbow up and keep everything straight and in line. Then, simply pull back on the string, creating tension and release the arrow.”

And Lela watched as the arrow soared through the open space and embedded itself firmly in the trunk of the evergreen.

“Okay,” Lela said as she attempted to draw her own bow. Her clumsy attempt only resulted in her dropping the arrow as she attempted to release it.

“Oops,” she muttered as she bent down to retrieve it.

This time as she fumbled with her weapon, Markie came up behind her. Softly speaking words of instruction, he placed his hands over hers to show her exactly how things should be. Lela couldn’t help but enjoy the feel of his strong arms around her, but she prudently kept her mind on the task at hand. With his help, Lela’s second attempt resulted in an arrow that managed to lodge itself in the side of the tree.

“I think I’ve got it now,” Lela told Markie as she drew the bow herself. Carefully she aimed and released. Twang. The arrow rushed through the air, whizzing off to the right and missing the tree completely.

“Well, at least you didn’t drop it this time,” Markie teased, “Try a few more and then we’ll go try and find your arrows.”

 They spent the better part of two hours practicing, until Lela’s arms couldn’t take it anymore. Not to mention her head, staring so hard at one spot for a couple hours had managed to cause one large headache to take root. However, Lela knew better than to complain about it, so she simply stretched her arms and gather her pack, rubbing her forehead as she started back on the road with Markie.