AN:
Alright so new author here, lemme admit that I was never one to write, I just wrote this because I daydream a lot and this idea popped into my head and I decided to roll with it so the quality might be good might be bad, idk. This is gonna be a long fic with monthly updates between 3-7k, mabey higher depending on what's happening.
Enjoy the book and leave a review, I would like to know what you guys think and see if there any mistakes.
Chapter 1: The Hunt
The season can be seen all over, leaves giving off their final breath of life in colourful ways before fading, flocks of birds migrating out for the coming winter. A beautiful white rabbit is out and about, eating the remaining greens left from wilting nature, but not without keeping an ear out.
Rustle.
The rabbit freezes where it stands, ears perked up, beady eyes roaming its surroundings, searching for the source of the noise. It sees nothing but the trees and sparse bushes around it, not a soul in sight, all it sees are leaves falling slowly to its right. Relieved it continues to a small patch of grass where it starts to nibble on.
Twang
The rabbit doesn't even get the time to register what it hears before a dull arrow -thump- hits right in its left eye, caving its head in. All is quiet, the only sound is the echo of the arrow and the sound of the wind rustling the branches on the barren trees. Until…
"Hell yeah!" a high-pitched, but discernibly male, voice breaks the silence with the source of it nowhere in sight. A head pops out behind a tree, the soft face of a young boy with shining blue eyes and a mop full of dark brown hair on his head is seen. The visible portions of his face are covered in streaks of dirt, looking as though he hasn't bathed in days, but the fresh look on his face says otherwise.
Face filled with glee, the boy rushes out behind the tree, jogging towards the now dead rabbit. His physique is lean, not looking too skinny but not much fat on his body other than his face. His attire is made of a leather vest with grey fur around the collar over a grey, wool long sleeve shirt and leather gloves covering his hands. Below he wears leather hunting trousers along with mid-shin-high leather boots, all looking worn out and covered in dirt. His back holds a quiver with half a dozen arrows held within and in his hand, a wooden short bow.
The boy picks up his arrow and deposits it back in his quiver and excitingly goes towards the game he's been stalking for over an hour. As he picks up the rabbit he shouts, "I finally got it!"
"About damn time you did," a new voice says besides the boy.
"Shit!" the boy jumps at the unexpected sound. As he turns to look at the new voice he sees a teenager leaning against a tree a few meters away. Standing at slightly above average height and wearing similar clothes, the new boy looks like a more mature version of the younger boy but with light brown hair and a few freckles decorating his cheeks. The teenager wears an amused expression as he looks at the younger boy "Ya know if, Mom catches you saying that she'll make you clean the outhouse for a year," he gains a thoughtful face. "Actually, do that, it'll save me the trouble of cleaning it," he says amusedly.
"Well guess who I'll say I learned it from brother" he hisses with an annoyed expression.
"Touche."
As the boy gains a smug expression the teenager gets close and slaps the back of the boy's head as he takes hold of the rabbit.
"Ow! What the hell Kaide!" the boy holds his head.
Kaide snickers to himself as he starts walking back to where he came from with the boy following while holding his head with a frustrated face. They continue to walk through the forest, crunching over leaves and passing by trees until they get to a small clearing with a campfire in the middle with a tent by it.
"Go and pack the tent while I get lunch ready."
Thbptttttt blowing raspberries in response while going to do what he was told. As he packs the tent Kaide sits on a log to start cleaning the rabbit. Bringing his knife out he starts by saying "You know that was a nice shot you took, couldn't have done it better myself."
Eirlet looks at his brother in surprise, then starts gaining a haughty look, "Heh of course it was, don't you know-"
"But you were ass at everything else," Kaide says nonchalantly, "You scared off the rabbit in the beginning by not being downwind, letting your scent travel when I clearly told you to take care and pay attention."
Eirlet's smile starts twitching, "Then you paid too much attention to the wind and rabbit that you stepped on some twigs, alerting the rabbit you were there. But you were stupid enough to try and chase it, losing a couple of arrows during the useless chase. You didn't even get the rabbit!" He laughs.
His smile and aura quickly dims, "And finally you had to spend another hour tracking the rabbit before you finally got the shot in," Kaide smirks, "I had to catch my own breakfast after you couldn't catch one for us."
Eirlet loses his smile and gains an aura of depression around him, "I did my best you know," he grumbles quietly.
After that, he quickly finishes packing the tent and joins his brother at the lit campfire with the skinned rabbit being roasted over it. Eirlet stared at the meat in anticipation and hunger, he hadn't eaten all day since he'd been chasing the rabbit everywhere and the smell of the seasoning made his mouth water.
Grumble Kaide looks over at him, more specifically his stomach, saying in an amused tone, "I didn't know I was that much of a good cook."
"You're not," he responds flatly as he takes a piece which he starts munching on while talking, "the best -munch- you can -munch- do is put -munch- something over a fire and -munch- hope it doesn't burn -Gulp-. Only reason I'm eating this is because of Mom's seasoning." He speaks in between bites.
Kaide's eyebrow twitches as he hears his brother's retort but sighs and takes a piece for himself, descending the area into silence. Once Eirlet finished eating he turns to his brother, "How do you do it?"
"Do what?" he raises an eyebrow.
He turns, staring at the fire, "How do you pay attention to everything that's going on around you when you're hunting. You predict where the wind is going to blow so you move beforehand, you know exactly how to move to stay out of sight. How can you do all of that so well that you… you fade into the background. I can't spot you, hear you or even feel your presence, while Mom and Dad can find you from a mile away. I just feel like I'm… average, even below average with all the mistakes I've made in getting that rabbit."
He risked a glance at his brother, expecting a joke or being amused about his question and admittance to being bad, but what he saw was a soft, genuine smile.
"Eirlet, what I do is something that's taken me all my 19 years of living to accomplish, Dad taught me everything he did to you and I still had to spend another 9 years to get to my skill level. At your age, I was still bumbling through everything worse than you are, couldn't make a shot like you did for my life," he admitted. "You've been taking what we've been teaching you at a fast rate, you can track nearly everything we send you after and can navigate a forest well enough," he huffs, "you're a talented brat, you'll probably be even a better shot than us both in a few years."
This was surprising to Eirlet, although his family praises him for his skills, none of them have said anything about him being talented. He's always thought he was average, not being able to hunt a stupid rabbit properly and not finding his brother when he starts sneaking.
"Just give it time Eirlet," he pokes his chest, "you'll start gaining more experience sooner or later, the key to the game which is known as life is patience." Removing his finger he stands up, "Alright enough of that, c'mon get up, let's get home"
Nodding, the two of them pick up the supplies they brought for their trip, packing everything in two packs and start hiking on a trail. The two spend the trip talking to one another while travelling the beaten path, presumably heading home. An hour after leaving their campsite they come across a raging stream a few meters below ground level, the only connection to the small cliff on the other side is a fallen log over the stream. The two easily traverse over the log and start up on a pathway on the side of the cliff.
Reaching the top they get to marvel at the sight they see, the cliff easily clears above the forest line so they can see everything in all directions. Looking back all they can see is an expansive forest, to the south-west in the distance a silhouette of a massive forest with trees as tall as the very cliff they stand on can be seen. Straight ahead they see the forest gives away to a small clearing and a short distance away from the edge lies a log cabin, the side facing them with the sun's setting rays shining on the haven.
Looking past the cabin, all Eirlet can see is the forest and the sparse cliffs surrounding it, he gains a hazy look, seemingly trying to see past the horizon. Kaide picks up on his look and raises an eyebrow, "Whatcha starin at?" Looking in the same direction.
"...Kaide?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you ever seen Wall Maria?" Continuing to look at the horizon.
"Hmmm, yeah I have. Dad took me when you were still small to grab some stuff, got to see both the Wall and the eastern district of Verask while we were at it."
"Really!? What's it like?" he asks excitedly with curiosity filling his eyes.
Kaide chuckles to himself as he, much to his victim's displeasure, rubs his brother's head and starts walking down the hill, "Yeah it was huge, spent a whole day roaming around and we still didn't get to see everything."
Eirlet pushes his hair back with an annoyed expression but stays silent as he catches up.
"The whole place was crowded, you think the village's busy-wait till you see the streets over there, it was a mess," he remembers with some amusement, "Dunno how Dad did it but he got us through the town pretty quick and an inn for the night, the next day we were out at dawn. Tried asking to stay for a few hours to look around but he was pretty hard on leaving."
"What about the soldiers? Were they really, really cool? Didya get to see them use their wire thingies? What about their swords, were they really sharp, were they-" the boy jumps excitedly with stars in his eyes as he fires off questions.
"Woah there kid," he says with his hands raised placatingly, "Yeah I did see a couple, didn't get to see their stuff being used-"
"Awww."
"-but they weren't cool at all," ignoring Eirler, he continues speaking with a scrunched-up face, "All of them were drunk off their asses all day, playing cards with each other and not giving two shits about the citizens," he huffs, " Spent only a couple of hours and I already saw three of 'em getting bribed. Got no idea why they're in charge in keeping us safe, useless shits the lot of 'em."
"Aww man. I thought they were cool." Eirlet says in a disappointed tone.
"Don't worry kid, the Wall's been keeping us safe for a long time, they ain't falling anytime soon, so it's alright that they don't do shit, means we don't gotta worry about anything."
Reaching the bottom they head towards the log cabin in the distance, separated by a clump of trees at the base. "By the way, you can bet your ass that Dad and I are gonna up the ante on your training after what you did today." Eirlet blanches, the training the two of them make him go through…
Shudder
'Nope nope nopety nope, that's future me's problem, current me wants to go home, take a bath and eat.' Eirlet thinks to himself as he starts sprinting to the house, ignoring his brother's laughter.
Even with all the weight from the pack and having hiked since noon the speed at which Eirlet sprints at is simply staggering, his face barely showing signs of the day's exhaustion. Crossing roughly 500 meters in a little more than a minute, going from the side of the house to the front, he slams the door open yelling "I'm home!"
"Welcome back!" a light female voice says back.
The majority of the house can be seen from the entrance, on the right three doors are seen, leading to different rooms with one noticeably larger than the other two. To the left, a table for five with a stone fireplace behind the main seat which is crackling, with flickers of flames spewing from the logs. Straight ahead and to the right is a kitchen where a woman with long light brown hair and a dress is seen putting a lid on a pot and turning to look at Eirlet warmly with brown eyes. That is… until she sees how much dirt he's tracking in. She drops her smile and soon after Eirlet feels the realization set in that he had only one thought.
'Shit'
"EIRLET! SCHAFER! What in the walls do you think you're doing!? Have you learned nothing of manners!? Go outside and wash yourself NOW!" she screams but by then the boy in question was already out the door after she got his name out.
"Sorry Mom!" he yells back as he chucks off his pack and grabs a bucket and fresh clothes and heads to a nearby stream.
As he starts chucking off his clothes and getting in the water he hears, "KAIDE! SCHAFER!"
'Oh she got him too,' Eirlet muses to himself.
"What do you think you're doing dragging that no good, dirt-ridden body inside! Why I otta-" filtering out what was happening he started humming a happy tune as he continued to clean himself.
Finishing up and changing he starts trekking back and sees his brother heading in his direction with a bucket and haunted look on his face. Passing by he starts innocently smiling at his brother asking, "Wha-"
"Shut up," he stomps past grumpily.
Eirlet snickers to himself quietly as he puts his washed clothes up to dry before heading back in. Walking back in again nice and fresh he can finally take in his home in all its glory, the sight of the fireplace, the smell of wood and most importantly, his mother's cooking.
Without looking up from setting up the plates his mother says, "I have no idea what goes through those heads of yours. Can't even tell if you're dirty or not," she huffs, "You all don't act much different from pigs in a pigsty, who do you think has to clean up after you three." Continuing to complain about the hardships of looking after three males, Eirlet smiles sheepishly as he takes his bow and quiver back to his room.
"Sorry Mom, won't do it again. Promise."
Heading back to the kitchen she says with some amusement, "I doubt you'll keep that promise by the week's end. Don't take too long in your room, your father said he'd be back for dinner and both of us want to hear all about your trip."
Entering the middle room to the right, a small but cozy bedroom is revealed with a few personal objects scattered all over. There's a bed that's been shoved to the far back wall under a small window high up the wall. A table is seen by the bed with scattered parts and tools lying on it such as arrowheads, twine and feathers.
Setting his bow on the table and quiver against the wall he starts inspecting the bow for any deformities. Pleased with his maintenance he places the bow on a rack above his table before grabbing his quiver and looking over each arrow, fixing and replacing different parts. Spending an hour going through his arrows he refills his quiver with both old and new arrows and hooks it next to his bow. Looking through the window, the sun's last rays can be seen before the end of the day.
'That took longer than I thought,' Eirlet thinks to himself. Getting up and stretching his body he heads to the door where he hears his family talking.
"-nd then he loses some of his arrows, you believe that?" is the first thing he hears when he opens the door.
"It's Eirlet, of course I do! Hahaha!" A new deep voice says with laughter.
His face darkens as he looks at the culprit who's retelling his escapade with the rabbit to their mother and another man sitting at the head of the table. Kaide smirks when he notices the look on Eirlet's face, his mother has a smile as she brings a pot of stew to the table while sitting down and the final man wears a jovial smile over his face. Hidden under his shirt are broad shoulders with a defined physique, one could easily tell Kaide gained his height from the man with him being a head taller while sitting. Having a rugged face with short black hair sitting atop his head along with a short scruffy beard he looks over to Eirlet with blue eyes.
"Really Eirlet? After all the boasting you did before you left I thought I would come home seeing a dozen deer lying outside." He teases as the boy sits besides his mother.
"C'mon Dad it was my first time okay?" as he sulks into his seat.
"Yeah old man, he's only a tiny bit worse than you on good days," Kaide says with a snicker.
Smack
"Oof!" Kaide grunts in pain as a large hand lifts off his head.
"Don't call me that." The man says flatly.
"Now that we're done," she pointedly looks at Kaide who says nothing, still nursing his head, "Let's dig in, to congratulate my little boy for his first solo hunt I made some of my special stew."
""Thanks Mom."" " Thank you Anke." The three males respond as they start pouring and eating their food furiously.
As they eat, Anke looks to her husband, "So how was your trip Ranulf?"
Swallowing his food he responds, "It was alright, got to give some wood Edgar's been asking for while getting what I commissioned."
His curiosity rising, Eirlet asks, "What'd you ask him to make?"
"I'll show you after dinner," he says with a wink, "Now tell me what you did over your trip."
With his curiosity peaked he starts retelling his trip over the last few days to his parents who listen while they eat. "Well hearing about that last rabbit it seems I'll have to increase your training," Ranulf directs at his younger son with a twinkle in his eye, not much different from how a child gains a new toy.
Hearing that, the youngest in the house gains a scowl while the older boy across from him kicks his feet. "Hear that kid? Seems I get to push you even more than last time!" Hearing the excitement in his voice as he talks about his punishment, Eirlet with dark thoughts in his head kicks back. Hence a kick fight ensues underneath the table as the adults continue to eat through the disruption.
"By the way, tomorrow while these two train I'm gonna bring my own bow out as well," Eirlet's ears perk up, "wouldn't wanna get rusty now so I won't be working tomorrow."
"Oh it's fine, I'm going to be free all day as well, we can eat leftovers tomorrow. It'll be nice having a relaxing day." his wife responds.
"Hey Dad! Can I- Ow!" He turns and gives his brother a stink-eye, who has a victorious face at getting the last kick in. Ignoring the teenager, he continues, "Can I use your bow? Can I? Can I?" he pleads.
Ranulf gains a thoughtful expression, seemingly mulling over his plea.
"Pretty please? I'm tall enough to use it now, see?" as he stands up.
Laughing, his mother puts a hand on his head, "Calm down Eirlet, you're only eight. You have plenty of time to use your father's bow so sit down, eat and let your father decide."
Sitting back down he looks at his father with a hopeful expression as he sees he finished deciding. "Alright, you can use my bow-"
"Yay!"
"-but!" At this he gains a stern expression, "You only shoot it with my help. No buts!" He says as he saw the disgruntled look on his son's face. "Although you're tall for your age my bow is meant for my size, so it's longer and has a heavier draw weight. The only reason I'm letting you use it is because it's a special day."
"Fine." He huffs.
Finished eating the family of four split around the house, Kaide and his mother clean up while Ranulf calls his youngest over to the larger room. He goes to sit on the bed as Ranulf brings a small box held in his hand, "Eirlet, no matter the mistakes you made today I just want to let you know that I'm proud of how far you've improved." He begins, "Not many your age can say they've been able to hunt with just themselves and a bow so with that I'm giving you something to mark your accomplishment."
Opening the box he pulls out a necklace, the centrepiece being an arrowhead with its point being held by a silver wire and its dull blades curving slightly inwards creating a crescent. The arrowhead itself is a dull silver and engraved in the center a stylized S can be seen.
Handing the necklace over for Eirlet to look over he continues, "Now this is a tradition my grandfather started within the family where each child gets one of these after their first solo hunt. You've probably seen your brother wearing something similar right?" He nods, Eirlet had seen his brother wearing a necklace a few times but his arrowhead looked broader than his.
"Once it's time for the first child to get one, you break your own and put a piece within which is what I've done for your brother and now you," he puts a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Keep it close son, it's both a milestone and a reminder. A reminder that we'll always be family, that even if I'm long gone I'll always be there, in spirit," he takes and loops the necklace around his son, "and now in heart." He pats his son's chest where the necklace now lies.
Eirlet silently listened to what his father said, he looks at his necklace once more before launching himself at his father and hugging him. "Thank you for this Dad," he says muffled.
"No problem son." Unknown to Eirlet his father's eye's become misty, with tears threatening to spill out before he wipes them away and hugs his son back. The two hug each other for a moment more before separating. Clearing his throat as he stands Ranulf ruffles his son's head with a smile on his face before heading out the door. "C'mon lemme take a look at the work you two did to your equipment before we head to bed."
Eirlet looks down at his gift one more time before following his father with a bright smile plastered on his face, "Ok, but this time I did it well! You won't find problems this time!" He says confidently, which wavers when he sees a glint in the older man's eyes.
"Is that so… Wanna bet on it? If I find nothing wrong with your things you don't need to train tomorrow and relax." Eirlet's eyes gain a longing look, "But if I do find something wrong then…" He pauses, "Your training will be doubled for the week."
"Nuh-uh, nope, I don't take it," Eirlet immediately turns it down, "It's bad enough normally but doubled? I would die!" He exclaims.
"Well too bad! I'm making you take it!" He walks ahead of his son as he laughs at his dumbfounded face which quickly turns to anger.
"HEY OLD MAN THAT'S NOT HOW BETS WORK!"
SMACK
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The Next Day
The sun high in the sky beats down its rays of heat and light, the Earth receiving whatever it can as fall's weather can be felt by all. "Huff huff," Especially by the sweaty brown-haired boy who can be seen running through a forest, breathing heavily.
'Shitty old man with his shitty bets,' naturally it's Eirlet who's currently cursing his father. He naturally lost the bet as he's young and, although a good shot, still needs time to gain experience and knowledge to properly take care of his equipment.
As he tries to distract himself from his burning lungs he keeps running through the forest for over an hour, slowly starting to lose speed. With a red face, he comes across a dirt path, with relief in his eyes he gets a new burst of strength as he runs down the path, in the distance his home can be seen.
Reaching the front of the cabin he turns to the left where his family can be seen spread around doing various things. His brother can be seen shirtless and sweaty with a red face as he continues his handstand which he's kept since Eirlet left, his training also doubled as Ranulf included him in the bet. His mother is sitting on a blanket with a basket by her side as she reads a book while leaning against a tree while the man of the hour can be seen laying down beside her with a hat on his face, seemingly sleeping as his sons go through his hellish training.
Hearing Eirlet arrive he lifts the hat with his thumb, revealing a blue eye acknowledging the boy before lowering it once more. Eirlet collapses onto the blanket, breathing heavily as he graciously accepts the canteen his mother hands him, chugging all the water. Dropping the canteen he takes a few minutes to breathe before standing up, starting some painful-looking stretches.
As he stretches he catches his breath and notices his father sleeping and gains a dark look as he glares murderously towards the lying figure."It took you three hours to run through the path I gave you." Ranulf responds to the glare he somehow noticed. "That's good, better than the five it took you last year-" Eirlet's glare gets replaced by a blank look, reliving his memory from a year ago.
'Don'teatmedon'teatmedon'teatme'
'NOT THERE! NOOOooooo…' He gains a thousand-yard look as he remembers his traumatizing past.
"-but it still isn't good enough. By the end of the week I want that time down by 10 minutes." Coming out of his trance he gains a resigned look as he hears his future. Ranulf gets up, putting his hat on his head as he moves towards the house, leaving his youngest to his thoughts.
Coming back out with a bow and quiver with two dozen arrows in his hands he moves towards his eldest, "Oi Kaide! You can drop it now!" the teenager immediately collapses on himself, panting like a dog with veins popping on his forehead and arms. "Go ahead and stretch, you're done for the day. Eirlet! Didn't you want to use my bow?!" Kaide doesn't respond to his father as he starts slowly crawling to his mother with Eirlet bounding past him in excitement when he heard his father.
Getting close, Eirlet is able to make out the details of the bow, specifically, a recurve bow which is black with a dark green edge. Right away one could tell the bow has been well taken care of as no obvious damage is seen except some dents and scratches, showing the bow has been well used.
Handing the bow to his son so he can gawk at it closely Ranulf gets closer to the tree line stopping a little less than a dozen meters away from a tree separated slightly from the rest and plants the quiver on the ground. "Eirlet! Come over here." He calls for his son who stops his inspection and towards his father who takes the bow back. "Now this bow here I've been using for well over a decade now," Eirlet looks impressed at the amount of time the bow has been in service for, "The main reason is because I got this a few years before I stopped… hunting, full time and moved to lumbering so it's still worthy for at least a decade more. Now, this bow is meant for my height and the draw strength is 50 pounds, light for me but heavy for you so I'll be drawing the string while you aim."
Eirlet gains a confused expression, "50 pounds? But Dad isn't that pretty light for you? You should be able to use at least a 60-pound bow for hunting."
Ranulf quickly answers his son, "Well when I was younger I loved hunting on the move so I kept a lighter bow to draw faster with good power. I also did horseback hunting although I only got the hang of that when I got this bow, though with my age I probably can't do anything of that sort anymore." He explains, reminiscing on his past skills which he quickly forgets. "Alright let's see how many you'll miss!" He says with a cheeky smile.
Rolling his eyes at his father Eirlet gets close to him as he kneels down, grabbing a lower part of the bow with his left hand while a bigger hand holds the leather grip above his while an arm with an arrow held in its leather grasp wraps around him and notches the arrow. "See that big knot in the wood?" He nods, "Try aiming there." Pulling the string back a little ways away from the two Ranulf gives Eirlet the reigns, letting him adjust the aim accordingly. With eyes staring down the length of the arrow shaft, lining the sharp tip as best he can to the target.
"Now."
Twang
Thump
The arrow connects with… the ground half a dozen meters behind where he was aiming. "Ha!" His father laughs in his ear as he sees where the arrow hits and another at the elbow he receives, "Don't worry kid this is a new bow you can't even use yet so it's fine to miss, just try to hit the tree at least once." Giving him some motivation he nocks another arrow. Eirlet goes through a few more arrows, missing them all like the first.
"Aghhh! Why can't I hit it!?" he yells in frustration as he misses his fifth arrow, he continues to fume as a hand rests on his head.
"Calm down son, getting frustrated won't do you any good." Eirlet calms down slightly but his frustration is still palpable. "Remember what I've told you, you have to be patient, patient to get a clear mind, patient to find a proper solution to your problem, finding the perfect opportunity to shoot your shot. The Walls weren't made in a day, remember that." Eirlet thinks about his father's advice who lifts his hand and gives his son a moment.
"Alright now let's try again." They both get into position but unlike his first few tries, Eirlet takes a longer time, looking down the arrow calmly, feeling the wind on his body and moving very slightly.
"Now."
Twang
Thump
The arrow flies through the air, missing the tree once more but there isn't much change in Eirlet's expression as his father loads another arrow.
Twang
Skit
This arrow races closely by the tree, missing but leaving a scratch on its trunk. The two continue to shoot a few more arrows, each getting closer than the last before they take the twelfth shot.
Twang
Thump
A single arrow can be seen stuck to the side of a tree in front of the pair, the younger gaining an ecstatic face while the older, a proud look.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! I did it!" he yells, running towards the tree he hit.
"Hehe, yeah you did." his father follows him with a smile on his face.
Reaching the tree he sees the arrow is buried halfway to its shaft in the tree, as he revels at the strength of his father's bow the man comes up and pulls hard on the arrow, bringing it out. The hole was cleanly made and split, indicating the arrow had a lot of power behind it.
"Good job. I didn't think you'd actually be able to hit the damn tree, I probably couldn't do it if I was your age." Eirlet smiles as he hears the compliment, "Now go grab the dozen arrows you missed, I gotta keep in shape as well." Annoyed at the mention of his failures, he goes to collect the arrows sprayed around the area, taking them back to his father who's standing around four dozen meters away from the tree.
"Alright now stand back so you don't get hurt." Compiling with his father he steps back as the man notches an arrow. Taking long and deep breaths he slowly draws the string back to its maximum, staying in the position for a moment before letting loose.
Twang
Thump
Eirlet just registered the arrow connecting with the tree before he sees his father already drawing back another arrow.
Twang
Thump
Twang
Thump
All Eirlet can hear at this point is the bow being released and the arrow hitting the tree in a blur, arrows flying through the forest like a storm, trees everywhere getting hit. Continuing to shoot the two dozen arrows for half a minute he exhales sharply when he runs out of arrows, barely sweating from the exertion of shooting an arrow per second.
Looking at the tree he can see two arrows stuck to it, one at head level in the center with the other at chest level towards the right. Eleven other trees can be seen with arrows sticking out of them at about the same level, many of them highly difficult to hit and others at least 70 meters away.
Nodding to himself he lowers the bow and grins at his impressed son, "Hahaha, what do you think of your Dad now?"
"That was really cool Dad though I do notice you're a bit off than last time, it looks like Kaide was right you really are getting old." he finishes with a cheeky grin as his father gains a scowl.
Grumbling to himself about youth these days he starts walking towards his targets, "Get out of here brat, you don't get to see the rest now." Grinning to himself he starts walking back where the rest of his family have been watching the shooting the two of them did.
"That was some nice shooting you did there Eirlet." His mother compliments as he gets close to the pair. "Yeah, less than ten percent accuracy at a few meters is pretty good if I do say so myself." Kaide sarcastically compliments, getting a flick on his head for it.
