CHAPTER 3: IN WHICH GILAN FIRES HIS FIRST ARROW
After a couple of weeks of doing Halt's housework and coffee-drinking lessons (which Gilan did not find nearly as torturous now as he had at first), Halt deemed that Gilan was ready to learn the art of archery. So, one morning after breakfast he took the boy outside the cabin and they walked to a clearing in the woods where Halt had set up archery targets. Upon seeing these Gilan stared at his master with wide eyes.
"Are you going to teach me archery today, Halt? After my experience with the last few weeks, I thought that you Rangers only ever lounged around doing nothing."
Halt looked at his apprentice sharply with an eyebrow raised at the last part of that. Gilan, not seeming to care, just laughed at Halt's expression. The Ranger lifted his other eyebrow at Gilan's reaction. This just made his apprentice laugh even more. In between uncontrollable bursts of laughter Gilan managed to say; "Your face… always that expression… looks ridiculous with two eyebrows raised… if you could see". When he finally composed himself he looked up to see Halt wearing exactly the same expression. He failed to hold his composure and burst out laughing again. Halt, who had had quite enough of his apprentice, cuffed the boy on the back of the head. The laughter stopped.
"Ok, do you actually want to learn how to shoot? Because if you keep this up, I can always just take you back to Carraway."
"Sorry" Gilan said, shifting uncomfortably under Halt's gaze.
Halt waited a few moments before turning around. He dropped both the bows he had been carrying to the ground and unslung the quiver of arrows from his shoulder. "Now, Gilan. Have you ever used a bow before?"
"No."
"Have you any idea how to use one."
"A vague idea. You hold the bow, attach an arrow to the string, draw back and release."
"Vague; that's one way to put it, yes. I call it the basics."
"I might not know how to use a bow properly, but I have been training with the sword for the majority of my life."
"The sword is a weapon used for close combat. Let us say that your opponent was standing one hundred meters away from you equipped with bow and quiver. You have a sword. Who wins? Who dies?"
"Let's just say it's close combat. What good will a bow do you then?"
"None. But there are other ways to kill. Back to you standing one hundred metres from your opponent, who is armed with a bow. You on the other hand, are armed with a sword."
"I guess I would die wishing I had learnt how to use a bow." Gilan said with a rueful grin.
"I guess so too. Pick up the bow."
Gilan picked up the bow and examined it. Unlike a normal longbow, this bow was smaller with two curves that met up at the centre instead of one continuous curve. He looked back up at Halt, waiting for further instructions. Halt, realising he had his apprentices' attention, nocked an arrow onto the bowstring, drew back in one fluid motion and fired, having another arrow nocked onto the bowstring within seconds. Gilan looked over at the targets. The arrow had hit the exact centre of the nearest target.
"Now you try." Halt said, a grin creeping onto his face. When Gilan placed the arm guard on his right arm the grin instantly faded. Gilan stepped forward, copying Halt's stance. He pulled an arrow from the quiver, nocked it and drew the bowstring back. It was harder to draw than he had anticipated, so the movement was not as fluid as it should have been. He stood aiming for a couple of seconds and then released. The arrow flew through the air, hitting the outer edge of one of the targets.
"Impressive," Halt commented. A smile began to creep onto Gilan's face. "But there is room for improvement, a lot of improvement." The smile instantly faded from Gilan's face. Halt smiled to himself. "I noticed a few errors in the way you shoot. For a start, you pull back on the bowstring clumsily which reduces the overall power of the shot. Secondly, you tense up your muscles when aiming, which results in a clumsy release. But, most importantly, you pause for too long when aiming, which results in loss of power. A way to fix that last one is to aim while loading and drawing. But, today," Here he paused for dramatic effect. "We will be working on drawing back in one fluid motion."
Gilan sighed, this was going to be a long day.
For the rest of the day they worked on shooting, mainly focusing on improving Gilan's drawing technique. By the end of the training session, Gilan was becoming more relaxed with the initial draw back. His shots had more power so he was able to shoot at some of the further targets. As the day wore on, his aim became ever so slightly better, but was still quite far off the centre of the targets. The sun was setting by the time they had begun the walk home.
"You are doing well, Gilan. I'm sure that we can make a fine Ranger out of you yet." Halt said as they walked towards the cabin.
"I'm sure we can too with a little work." Gilan replied.
Halt laughed. "A little work? Don't get too far ahead of yourself, boy. It will take more than a little work."
Slightly embarrassed, Gilan hid his face behind his hair and changed the topic. "Are my shoulders supposed to hurt?"
"No, no they are not. But, given you don't do a lot of shooting, your muscles are not accustomed to the strain. They will probably ache for a couple of days, but the more shooting you do, the less your muscles will hurt."
Gilan groaned and Halt smiled. He was going to enjoy this. He was going to enjoy it very much.
Author note: Thanks for reading. Sorry I took so long to update, I know that some of you have been anticipating this instalment of the story for a while. Thank-you all for being patient. A huge thanks to Hibernia12, Tayne, Wolfkin1, EpicRangerHalt, Nightshade2412 and Grandmaster of the Swordsworn for reviewing and to all those who either subscribed or favourited the story. It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I have written.