Completed madini

[Kuza]

madini winter 6 512 Antinous Training Grounds Kuza never thought she'd like anywhere in the winter. She had been born and raised in the constant humidity of the Falyndar jungle, and she never imagined as a child that there was such a thing as 'cold'. Cold to her had been jumping in the Kandukta Basin, but it was nothing compared to Syliras in winter. But she liked it. It was beautiful in its own way, and the city didn't smell so badly like it did in the summer. That morning, when she woke up, she went through her normal morning routine of washing her face, combing her hair, and pulling it back into a braid. She strapped on her light armour and grabbed her borrowed quiver of arrows and her prized Myrian shortbow, walking out of the door into the corridor. She didn't bring her gladius - she wasn't on patrol at the moment, and she was going to train with her shortbow, not her damn sword. There weren't as many people in the hallways, surprisingly, and she made her way to the training grounds rather quickly. "Hey, Kuza! Growl for me!" Someone called when she had stepped onto the grounds, slinging the quiver around her waist. "Never for you, love." She called back, in an equally teasing tone as the other Knight. "How about speaking to me in Myrian?" "Out of the way, deyhan, before I move your fat ass for you." Kuza complied, and didn't think anyone else on the training grounds knew a lick of Myrian. Her sweet tone belied what she had really said, but a couple laughed anyway before returning to whatever they had been doing before.

[Kuza]

Kuza took her spot in the archery range, across from a random target. Standing in an open stance, she pulled an arrow out of her quiver and notched it on the bow. When she did archery, she preferred instinctive shooting, focusing on a point and aiming the bow. She also used three fingers, two underneath the arrow and one above, holding it in place. Kuza drew back with her right hand, the string of the bow hitting the tip of her nose and the feathers barely grazing it. She preferred to shoot without an archery glove because she liked to be able to feel the string underneath her fingers. She had never used gloves in Taloba, either, where good leather could be used for anything else, like an arm guard so the string didn't sting the arm. With her index finger anchored at the corner of her mouth, how she'd been raised to anchor her bow since a child, and the bow gripped loose in her hand, Kuza focused on her breathing and meditation. Slowly inhale and exhale, feel that this is a good shot, focus. Even with archery in her blood, Kuza was still not advanced enough that she could do all of this instantly and based on muscle memory. She release the arrow, and it hit the target - but not center. It was closer to the edge than a bullseye. Kuza shot a few more arrows, most hitting the target except the last, which somehow flew off wildly and hit the wall, snapping in half. She practised until she had run out of arrows, and then she went to her target and collected them, starting over the process. Notch, pull, focus, breathe, release.

[Kuza]

"Hey, Kuza!" She had been in her own world when that voice came calling again. "Seems to me like you're a...what's the Myrian word?" "Madini." Bad shot. It was a common Myrian tease - back home, she'd used it all the time. Curses for her teaching the others Myrian swears when they were just squires. It made her popular and they loved to use them at home and to insult people without them knowing what they were being called. She didn't really care about telling it to them when they were teasing her - it was a mild insult, and it was true. She hadn't gotten an arrow even in the center of the target, yet. They were all scattered around the edges, and the evidence of the broken arrow was obvious. "I'll give you a miza if you can get a bullseye by noon." Oh, a bet? Competition? This was something she could do. "And if I don't?" "You owe me one!" Kuza often kept a couple mizas in a pocket of her armour. After training for years in both heavy and light armour, she didn't have to take much note of it, a thought which just occurred to her now. She skipped to the target, 18 meters away, and collected all her unbroken arrows (all of them except for that one from the first round, still sitting dejectedly next to the wall), sliding them point-first into her quiver. She pulled one out, notching it to the bow and holding it in place with her fingers. Kuza pulled back, the feathers and string brushing her nose. Her index finger reached the corner of her mouth. Inhale, exhale. Focus on the target, focus on the bullseye. Release. It was closer than her other shots had been. Competition made her focus more, work harder, like some weird drug. She tried again, and again, and again. It was almost noon, and she still hadn't gotten very close to a bullseye. But she couldn't rush - she had been rushing the past half hour and it had shown on her performance, reaching the outer layers when she'd just been getting better. Again, again, again, she repeated the process. It took her much longer because she had to think about each step, but as she went on, it became easier, muscle memory started working. Kuza knew she'd probably have to start all over again, and that her better performance was only because she'd been loosing arrows all day. But still. "Kuuuzaaaa, it's noon!" Damn. So close. She could have sworn that her next shot would be a bullseye. It was hopeless thinking though, because she thought that every next shot was going to be a bullseye. She didn't really care, though. Positive thinking, right? "Well, damn." She fished a miza out of her pocket, handing it to the Knight. "You bet I'll get your miza next time." He left, and she shot a few more arrows, effectively emptying her quiver once again. But now she was tired, so she pulled the remaining arrows from the target, slid them in her quiver, and headed back to her room. -fin-

[Accolade]

Kuza

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Meditation	+ 1 XP
Rhetoric	+ 1 XP
Short bow	+ 4 XP

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	The way of the Archer
•	How to properly fire from a bow
•	Squires can be jerks
•	Day's lesson, shoot poorly, lose a miza

Notes :

That was a good start! Be sure to deduct that miza you lost from your ledger. Also in the future if you want to gain more points then you will need to show more of the skill that you wish to add to, not just say she did this or that. Keep writing!

The Sylir has spoken

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.