"Again," Halt said so quietly that the two boys standing in the yard could barely hear him. Halt counted the seconds it took them to nock the arrow, draw the string, aim and fire. 'Thunk!' 'Thunk!' One arrow after the other smacked into its target seconds after the other.
"Daniel, your draw is too slow," Halt said to Jaller's great delight. He started snickering, showing the rivalry between them. Their rivalry wasn't actually a surprise, since Jaller was fifteen and Daniel was fourteen and both were surprisingly competitve. It probably didn't help that Daniel was Halt's old apprentice's son. It was like Jaller had a burning desire to best the son of the legendary Will Treaty. And Daniel refused to be bested by any one, and would not be under estimated just because he was the youngest in the Ranger Corps. But Halt was as quick to humble them as he was to give them praise- quicker actually. "Jaller your arrow should have hit here," Halt said pointing at the center of the target his apprentice had shot at. "Instead, it landed here." Five centimeters. That was all. That, is horrible, and completely unacceptable to anyone in the corps.
"I thought I-"
Halt opened his mouth to speak but heard instead heard Daniel's voice with its random peak in the middle of the sentance. "If you had thought you wouldn't have said anything." Daniel said. "Five centimeters is the difference between a clean shot and just making a boar mad."
Jaller continued the fight. "Oh, so now the scholar is telling me off. Your shot wasn't much better than mine."
"It's called a bull's-eye for a reason."
"You want to see a bull's eye? How 'bout a black one?
And they were on each other, both quickly getting every blow they dolled out. The 'twang' of a bow string made both boys stop. As quick as the fight had began, it was over, and both boys were not looking good. There were distinctive yellowish markings on both of them. Daniel had a split lip and an already purpling eye, and Jaller got away with only a bloodied nose.
"That's enough!" Halt called out the slightest tones of anger in his voice. "Go saddle your horses and don't speak to each other. We are going on a short camping trip."
Daniel walked towards the small stable that housed Abelard, Jack, and Kingsley. Kingsley was Daniel's horse, a breed some where between a ranger's horse and a charger. Smart to tee, fast and strong.
'Oh joy,' Daniel thought to himself. 'Now we're in trouble.'