Straight as an arrow [open]

[Kirra]

Kirra, walking onto the training court for archery, had her recurve bow and a quiver of regular arrows. She was just here for a regular practise. Taking her recurve out of it's leather tube and stringing it, she glanced down to the targets, a row of circles.

Standing on the scuffed dirt, she checked her stance, and adjusted a bit. Kirra brought her bow up and nocked and arrow, sighting down to the targets. Bringing her arm back, she released the arrow to fly down to the targets, hitting one with a solid thump.

Smiling, she had made a good shot, Kirra repeated the process. Practise made perfect.

[Riana]

Riana had her recurve bow and quiver in hand as she let her feet carry her to the archery range. It wasn't a task she was especially looking forward to, but she needed the practice badly. As she exited the barracks, the bright sun made her eyes hurt a little. She ignored it and continued on. She saw Kirra practicing as she arrived at the archery range. A smile lit her face as Riana saw her friend. But, as not to disturb her, she didn't offer a greeting. With a sigh, she strung her bow and put and arrow on the string. Drawing it back to her ear, she noticed that her arms were sore. She loosed the arrow; it hit the edge of the target. Riana cursed under her breath as she pulled out another arrow.

[Kirra]

Turning around, she heard footsteps behind her, Kirra saw Riana coming onto the training field. Kirra smiled as she saw her friend, but turned back and tried to shoot the recurve from a different stance. So far, all she had tried was standing up, but it would probably be necessary when fighting to be kneeling or other positions.

And so Kirra knelt on the hard pack dirt, and once again, took an arrow out of her quiver, strung it, pulled back, sighted, and shot. The arrow stood quivering somewhere between the edge and the middle of the target a few seconds later. Room for improvement. But, of course, that was why Kirra was doing this.

[Riana]

Putting the new arrow on the string of her bow, Riana focused her vision on the center of the target that lay in the near distance. She inhaled slowly, trying to relax her muscles, she pulled back the string and loosed the arrow. It flew better than her previous on had, landing squarely between the edge and the center of the target. Hardly able to contain her glee, she jumped and squealed at this success, but then she realized that a prefect shot landed in the center of the target.

With a smile on her face, she took out another arrow and put it to the string. It landed in the same area as her previous arrow, making Riana quite happy. She let her gaze wander over to where Kirra stood practicing. Her shots were better than Riana's own, making the hunger for improvement even greater. "Good shot," she called over to her friend, hoping she wan't disturbing the girl's concentration.

[Kirra]

Seeing Riana's glee at her good shot, Kirra had to smile. And she did. Slowly but surely, a grin spread across her face. Riana was getting better. Fast. But, Kirra knew she would be breaking Riana's concentration if she interrupted now, so instead Kirra drew another arrow out of her quiver.

Kirra, concentrating now, nocked the arrow to the string, and, pulling back, narrowed her eyes, sighting. Finally she relaxed and released, letting the string twang.

Kirra grinned. It was a good shot. A bit closer to the center of the target. Finishing, she turned to Riana as the latter called out. "Thanks." Kirra smiled warmly. "You too. Have you done recurve before?" she asked, before carefully standing up, and, making sure no one was shooting, moved her target slightly farther away. She wondered how this would affect her aim.

[Riana]

Riana shrugged and pulled out another arrow from her quiver. "I've tried the longbow before, but that was only once," she admitted with a sigh. "This is one of the few times I've used recurve since I started training here." A smile turned the corners of her mouth as she watched Kirra move her target further away from where she was standing. "I won't be trying that distance for a while yet," she told the other girl with a hint of sarcasm.

She waited for Kirra to move away from the targets before putting her new arrow onto the string. Riana took this time to note the weather of the day. The sky was a clear blue with fluffy clouds billowing into the heavens. A light breeze stirred the trees, but it wasn't enough to disturb the flight path of the arrows. That's good, she thought to herself, I don't need something making me mess up than I already am.

[Kirra]

"You'll get there sooner than you think." Responded Kirra cheerfully, with a smile. "You are already good." Kirra appreciated that Riana waited to shoot until she came back to her bow. It would be really unlikely that Riana would miss and shoot Kirra, but Kirra didn't want an arrow suddenly sprouting from her body. She didn't think it would be very pleasant.

Smiling at Riana as she checked the sky, Kirra thought she had better to too. Looking up, she just saw a crystal clear sky, a perfect blue with fluffy clouds lazily floating by. "It's beautiful, isn't in?" she asked quietly. She was always astounded by the beauty of Mother Nature.

Sighing slightly, and turning back to her bow, Kirra picked it up, fitted a regular arrow to the string, sighted and loosed. Kirra watched with a slight cringe and it hit the very edge of the target, before seemingly wilting to the ground. Kirra cursed slightly in her head, berating herself for forgetting to sight correctly for the further distance. This time, she remembered, and did it properly, and though, not hitting the center of the target, she did hit closer.

[Riana]

Riana smiled as Kirra also looked up at the sky. "It is very beautiful," she told her friend, replying to what the other girl had said about nature.

As soon as Kirra was in an area where she wouldn't be shot by the practicing archers, Riana put another arrow on the string and sighted the target. She felt her arm shaking a bit from exhaustion and waited for it to subdue. Once the movements in her arm stopped for a second, Riana took the opportunity and loosed. This arrow hit the very edge of the target.

Shaking her head, she watched Kirra shoot her arrow to the target that was further away. When the other girl's arrow hit the edge and fell to the ground, Riana grimaced but then quickly smiled. "You didn't miss the target entirely," she told Kirra. "I surely would have; there's no question about that." She laughed quietly to herself and then picked up another arrow to shoot.

[Kirra]

Listening to Riana comment on her shot, Kirra shrugged and replied, "Yes, but it's as good as if I did. But that's why I'm doing this, practise. I'm sure you'll do better in no time. You'll be doing this soon enough."

Sighing slightly, Kirra could feel her arms getting tired, but she needed to practise, Kirra picked up another arrow and fitted it to the string. Screwing her mouth as she stared at the distant target, she really needed to do some more strengthening exercises, Kirra squinted, pulled back and shot. Kirra lowered her bow as she watched the arrow ark and hit the target, this time with a solid thump!

Kirra shrugged, it was better than last time. She called over to Riana, "I know I'm getting tired. Do you want to go over to the mess hall soon?"

[Riana]

Riana listened to what her friend said about stopping practice and going to the mess hall. The proposition of food sounded heavenly at the moment, and the chance to rest her already aching arms sounded just as wonderful. She looked over at Kirra and let out a tired sigh. "Food sounds great," she said emphatically. "But," she continued, "I'd like to do one more shot first."

Riana took one last arrow out of the quiver she had set on the ground and nocked it on the string. She drew the bow back as far as her arms would go, and waited for them to stop moving. When they calmed for a few seconds, Riana loosed the arrow and heard it hum through the air and land on the target. She squinted her eyes to see where it landed. Seeing that it landed solidly on the outer edge, she nodded with satisfaction. It was enough improvement for today.

With a smile, she turned to Kirra and said, "Let's go, I'm starving."

[Kirra]

"Okay. I'll do one more as well." Kirra called over cheerfully before turning back to her target, and squinting at the circle, raised her bow and fitted an arrow to it. Resting a moment to stop her arm from shaking, she frowned in concentration and pulled back her arm, quickly releasing the arrow once she was sure of her aim.

Watching the arrow ark and thump solidly on the target, Kirra smiled. It was better than last time, she was improving.

Unstringing her bow, she put it carefully away in it's tube and went to pull her arrows from the target after looking that no one else was shooting. Picking up both quiver and bow she walked over to beside Riana and replied, "Yes, lets." before she turned and started walking towards the mess hall, looking back to make sure Riana was following.

[sparrowhawk]

Kira came with a stung recurve bow. She started shooting.

[Riana]

((I know I'm not admin, but posts need to be at least two paragraphs))

[sparrowhawk]

(Oh, ok. I'll re-write that)
She entered the archery feild. Her clothes were plainan ordinary but they were acessorised with archer's arm guards and shooting gloves. She decided to use a recurve bow which was by far her favorite. She njoyed archery, a way of combat that required skill and it didn't matter how strong you were. Any brute could weild a sword or an axe so long as they had the strength for it but archery was different. Her quiver was small, she had a larger one was it was heavy, she'd only use it under certain cercumstances. She slected an arrow and put it to the string, her eys were soly focused on the target and she noticed nothing else. If a mule fell from the sky and landed beside her she would not give it a second thought. She fired and the arrow landed near the centre. She continued practising and as time went on she was becoming quicker and more accurate.