Flashback The Bow Code

[Alair]

Fall 45, 403 AV


Alair, and his father left the gate with an unstrung bow, the arrows, and even a little salted meat, cheese, bread and water. All the carried by the boy to the makeshift shooting range his father had chalked out in the Bronze Woods. It was a very crude range, a single tree had an x carved on it, and his father had tied some rope around surrounding trees, mostly to keep other people from getting in the way of his untrained son. They set up a make shift camp, with a little fire, and set the water, and food down in the shade, the sun was just now rising, and while they waited for enough light to shoot, they had a Spartan breakfast a little bread and water. Alair was still excited at this time in the morning.

When the sun had risen up enough, his father began to teach Alair the ins and outs. “The first thing you need to know is the ‘bowyers Knot’,” His father took the unstrung end of the bow in his hand, and began to tie a knot, it was a simple knot, loop the end of the rope, then loop through the loop, over under, over under, and pull tight. His father undid the simple knot, and handed the bowstring to Alair, and spoke slowly “make a loop about 3 inches down the string.” Alair slowly made the loop, his small fingers easily manipulating the rope. “Take the end, and loop it into the first loop” the boy did as instructed, “its easier if you pinch the inside loop, to hold it in place.” Alair moved his left thumb on the inside, and then began to loop the end through- slowly. “good, now loop the end over, and under, 3 times.” Alair slowly, and clumsily finished the knot.

“Now comes the fun part. To string the bow. Stand inside the bow, the strung end behind your right foot” When Alair had done so, his father continued. “firmly put your left hand on the top of the bow, and take the bow string in your right.” Alair didn’t hesitate, he was still giddy to fire a bow, “Now firmly, but gently pull the top of the bow down- careful not to pull down too far, you can snap a bow if you pull down too far. At the same time, try and put the loop you made into the notch at the top. It will secure the string on the bow.” It took the boy nearly half a bell of struggling and fighting to bend the bow down far enough to string. “Ah, good… now comes the fun part!” said his father, as the sun rose above his shoulders.

[Alair]

“Stance is important, it means the difference between hitting, and missing, between life and death, between a full stomach, and an empty wallet.” His father spoke loudly, trying to drive this point home. “There is only one way to stand with your bow.” Charles mimicked the stance. “Your body turned, inline with the target, your shoulders aimed at it.” Charles raised his arm to mock holding a bow, “your feet should be shoulder width a part, knees slightly bent, comfortable, but stable.”

Alair copied his father, pointing his shoulders towards the tree. The stance felt good, like the entire world lined up for this shot, like the god of fate himself stepped down, and ordained this stance. It was as if his entire life had been leading up to this exact moment, he could feel the power, the stability, the grace of this stance, and he loved it, more than anything he had ever loved before. He raised the bow to waist level, as his father continued his instruction, “now, hold the bow with your palm facing up, and knock the arrow.” Alair followed the command, “good, now raise the bow to shoulder height, and look down the shaft as you back firmly on the bow.”

Alair tried to follow the command, but as you might imagine, the bow had a very strong pull, and the 11 year old had quite the time struggling with the bow. “pull the bow back, are you gonna let the bow win?” It took nearly 5 minutes for the boy to get the bow pulled back, and the string ripped through the fingers of Alair, causing a spark of pain up the boy’s arm. The arrow skittered on the ground, stopping well before the tree.