The hunter from the village that had agreed to train me was a harsh-faced, bald older human, with a hard gravelly voice and even harder personality. He scared me a bit to be honest, and the fact that he reminded me of an older-looking Riddick, without the murderous intent, probably added to that.

"So. You're the young centaur that wants to learn how to hunt, huh. You do know you'll be killing things, don't you, Kid?"

I try to swallow the lump in my throat. "Uh, yes? I am well aware of what hunting is."

He makes a noise in the back of his throat, still staring unconvinced down at me. I can feel him looking me over, and I nervously adjust the slightly-too-big bow thrown over my chest. If I hadn't been a centaur, it might have been a bit too big for me to use.

"This isn't something you can learn half-assed, kid. If you're going to be my apprentice, you're going to have to put some real effort in. You fall behind what I expect, I'll stop teaching you and you'll have to find somebody else."

Wait, apprentice? I didn't want to be his apprentice, I just wanted to learn some stuff before I continued on my own! "Uh, I did not really, uh, want to become your apprentice. I just, um, wanted to learn some basic stuff from you."

The man's disdainful expression grows darkerafter I say that. "If you want to learn from me, you become my apprentice." He starts to turn to leave. "If not, you can piss off back to your little stables."

Holy shit, this guy was a fucking asshole. I'm tempted to tell him to go fuck himself and leave.

I can't, though. I need to do this, and if I put it off now I might not ever work up the motivation to try again. And, if it really comes down to it and I can just stop once I've learned enough.

I swallow my anger. "Wait! I will become your apprentice then!"

The man turns back to me, with an expression like a shark. "Let's get started then."

-

"This is your bow?"

"Yes. I got it a few days ago from the general store."

"Is that right? And it's been stringed that whole time?" I nod and the hunter, whose real name was John but should have been Asswipe, throws the bow at me suddenly; making me desperately catch it. "You are a gods damned idiot, kid. It is very nearly a useless piece of shit if it's been stringed for that , it will do for now."

I clench my jaw and take a few deep breaths in through my nose, forcing myself to calm down. "It was the only one that was left-handed. And what is wrong with leaving it stringed?"

"Because it's a good way to needlessly wear out a bow, and a good way for a bow to shatter in your hand mid-draw."

He takes the pack he was carrying off his back, which I now see has his own bow, unstringed, tied to it. He rummages around in the pack for a second before pulling out a long thread of cord with leather loops on the ends. "Before anything else, you're going to learn to string and unstring a bow. Here." He tosses the cord at me and pulls another out of his pack.

Taking his bow, he puts the loops on both ends of it and gets to his feet. Placing his foot on the centre of the bow, he pulls the string up as he stands up straight; the bow bending with it and allowing him to slide the bowstring into its slot. He repeats the process, this time unstringing the bow instead. "Now, you try it."

I look down at my hooves and then back up at him. "Uuuuh..."

He just grunts. "Figure it out."

Tentatively, I bend over at the waist and place the bow on the ground. I gently press my hoof against the wood, hoping it can take it. Stringing the ends of the cord on the bow, I lean back up and pull. Thankfully, I manage to unstring it without anything going wrong, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. Now string it this time. You'll be doing this until I say stop. After this, I'll teach to do it without the cord."

I sigh, and get to work.

-

"Kid, hand me one of your arrows."

"My name is Nilas."

The day had been getting steadily worse. John hadn't let up the whole time with the attitude. And to make things worse, I couldn't really complain. He was actually doing a really good job of teaching me what I needed.

He was just such an ass.

"And you're a kid. So I'll call you Kid until I think you've earned otherwise. Now, hand me one of your arrows."

I do as he says, pulling it from where the quiver was strapped to my side. Eris had helped me come up with a way to keep it secured there, and we'd tested it to make sure the arrows didn't just fall out. If I had this new body, I was going to take advantage of the positive aspects of it.

The hunter looks it over, testing the metal tip on his thumb, bending the shaft back and forth slightly and looking at the fletching. "Mm. They'll do. It'd be a waste to use these for practice, though. I'll teach you how to make em another time. For now we'll use these."

He pulls an arrow from his own quiver, but instead of being tipped in metal the wood has been sharpened to a point. "You'll have to adjust to the slight extra weight once you start using proper ones, but it's better than damaging arrows you might need."

-

"The hell did I say, Kid. Don't slouch or overextend your arm or that'll keep happening."

I was rubbing the inside of my right forearm where the string had struck it again, scowling at the man. "Can I not just have something to cover it? This really hurts."

John shook his head. "No. The pain is there to teach you to hold the bow properly. If it's that bad, you should've brought something yourself."

I probably should have, but I hadn't been thinking about it at the time. I was dearly regretting it now. Still, for all he knew I was a very young centaur who knew nothing about archery. He was just being a dick.

"Again. And try to actually hit the target this time."

I bite down another flash of anger, pull an arrow from my quiver, nock it and draw the string. My back is straight, the arrow drawn back beneath my eye and I'm relaxed. I take a deep breath, aim and let the arrow go.

It manages to hit the far edge of the target this time. I grin at my improvement.

"You hit it. Now, next shot do better."

-

My arms feel like dead weight by the time John calls it done for the day. I keep forgetting that while I am a bit stronger than a human child, I am still a child and so still pretty damn weak. I would need to build up my fitness and muscle if I wanted to actually take on creatures and get stronger.

Maybe I could challenge Sena to races?

With his stuff all packed up, John turns to look at me. "Keep the practice arrows. Practice everything I taught you daily. Be back here in two days."

And with that he leaves.

I groan as I slide the bow over my head and rest it against my shoulder and chest. I'd have to unstring it once I got home. I look for a place to store the cord before just throwing it over my neck. I should probably get a bag as well if John keeps giving me stuff.

Shielding my eyes, I check where the sun is on the horizon and, seeing it on its way down, start heading towards the Stables. Mikhael said he would pick me up from there after he was done working, and the sooner I could get home and crash, the better.

Part-way there I spot Aelle following after an adult centaur who looked like he wanted nothing more than for Aelle to leave.

"Hey, Aelle!" I wave to him as he turns to look for who called out, and the older centaur takes that as his chance; nudging Aelle in my direction and saying something I can't hear before taking off in a canter. Aelle stands there glaring at the retreating figure before turning and making his way towards me.

"Hey, Nilas." He goes to say something else when he spots my bow and quiver. "Uh, what is with that."

"Huh? Oh, I am an apprentice to one of the hunters. I want to learn how to use a bow and to hunt."

"You want to learn to hunt?" He looks weirded out at that. "No, wait. You are already an apprentice? But you are only a week old!"

"I am almost two weeks old..." I grumble at him. It's a blow to the self-esteem when a kid not even two months older was taller than me and treating me like he was older. Which he was, technically, but still.

"You are still younger than me. How come you can do that? My mum and dad say I am too young and my brother will not even teach me anything."

I quickly try and change the topic before I have to deal with a whiny child. "So, uh, who was that just before?"

Aelle frowns, which is more like a pout really. "That was my brother. I wanted to play with him but he said he was going to play with his friends instead."

"How old is he?"

"He is two." Wait, what the f- oh, crazy monster growth speed. Right. How many of these centaurs are actually still really friggin young then?

"Are his friends all the same age?"

"Yeah." That's all I get from him. Guess he is only a child. Things like that aren't important to him.

Still, it gives me a general idea of how quickly a centaur grows. His brother looked around eighteen or nineteen years old. If that's how fast I'll grow I'll have to just be as quick as possible to start levelling up.