Into the wild (Training thread)

[Nyahna Sasin]

Timestamp: 20th of spring, 510 AV

Location: Syliras city

It was calling to him. He missed the wild, the feel of it. The leaves brushing against his belly scales, the soft caresses of the wind on his face. But most of all, he missed the thrill of returning to his true form, his half snake, half human Dhani form. He was most comfortable with that, having the best of both worlds. And so it was one day in early spring that he packed up his bag with an extra set of clothing, slipped a knife in his belt, before reconsidering.

He had originally intended for this to be a purely wild exercise. Come to think of it, hw could probably slip in a little training in as well. He had recently re-evaluated his performance using just an angle knife, and had found himself lacking. In light of that, he had gone shopping, buying several types of weapons. All stuff he could use in an assassination, of course. Well, most of them. Still, this would be a good way of finding out just what he could do with these new toys.

Unpacking everything, he went to a drawer. He grinned as it opened to reveal several different types of weapons. He had an assassin's dagger (naturally), A pair of ribbon daggers, a pair of wrist razors, a pair of throwing daggers, A shortbow, 60 arrows, and a pair of Shurikens. He doubted he would use all of them all the time. But as of right now, he still wasn't certain what he'd be good at. Better to waste money now, he reasoned, than to die because he was unprepared.

Reaching into the drawer, he took out everything save 40 arrows, choosing only to bring as many as he could carry. He slipped the arrows into the small quiver, then packed everything in carefully, putting his clothes on top. He slipped the backpack on, then walked out the door.

He reached the stables a few minutes later, and took his horse, nodding to the stable hand. Xinal was apparently behaving today, as they made it into the forest without incident. With a sigh, he stopped them. Riding with the back pack was.....awkward, to say the least. He repacked everything, ranged weapons in one bag, clothes and knives in another, bow and quiver on his back. Mounting his horse, they kept on going, slightly faster. The horse winnied as they saw a wood land animal. Sasin tugged on the reins. "No chassing fluffy woodland creaturess. " He hissed. "Later, maybe. But not now. I've got too much sstuff in here. "

They reached a clearing a few minutes later. Stopping Xinal, he dismounted, and patted the horse's cheek. "Now, you can go chasse woodland creatures. Jusst don't sstray too far." He said. He slid the saddle bags off first, took everything else off him, then let him go. Xinal immediately went off to go catch a rabbit. "Darn flessh eating horssess." He muttered. Pulling off his clothes, he shifted into his dhani form, then got to work. He hid everything under one bush, then turned to another bush. This one had berries. Picking a few, he crushed them in his hand. He didn't eat berries, but they made great paint. On a nearby tree, he painted several circles, each inside the last. He colored in every other bar, so that he had a rough bulls eye.

Yawning, he began to put it to good use.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Taking out all the weapons, he spread them out on the ground. Looking over each of them in turn, he took the Short bow and quiver from the ground. Slinging the quiver over his shoulder, he strung the bow, then took it in his hand. He had seen people using bow and arrows before, but he had never done it himself. Awkwardly taking the bow in his left hand, he took an arrow in his right, and tried to nock it. OK, this was pathetic.

Finally finding a comfortable stance, he drew the bow back, tried to line it up, and released. He hissed softly as the bowstring slapped into the soft flesh of his arm. It throbbed for a minute, then the pain dissipated. He made a mental note to buy leather greaves for his arm once he was back in town. Glancing at the tree, he groaned inwardly as he saw that the arrow was stuck to the top left of the target. He sighed, and took another arrow. He had a lot of work to do.

Twenty minutes, 15 arrows, and three retrievals later, it occured to him that this might not be helping as much as he hoped. He was sitting on his tail, shooting at the same target again and again. Thinking for a minute, he decided to move, and start shooting from different angles. Moving to the side, he took an arrow, aimed, and released. As he thought, it was wide off the mark. Still, now he knew. Slithering over, he took the arrow, then glanced up. "Why not?" he mused. Unstringing the bow, he slipped it into the quiver, and started climbing. Reaching a nice, stiff branch with a clear view of the target, he strung the bow, nocked the arrow, and aimed. He was getting used to the pain by now, but he expected to have a huge welt by tomorrow.

Lining up his shot, one eye shut, he imagined that cat kelvic in the line of fire. He released the arrow, grinning as he imagined it going right through her heart. Oh, that would be such a treat. He slipped another arrow from the quiver.

*****

A few hour's later, Xinal trotted back after a long day of chasing rabbits, to find his master tending to a large red splodge on his arm. The Dhani seemed surprised to see him. "And here wass me thinking you had run off."

*****

He patted the horse. "Interesting day." Was all he said. He had spent several hours working on his aim. He still had a long, long way to go, but it was a start. Xinal looked right at the reigns and bridle. "Now?" He asked. Xinal shook his mane. "Oh, all right." He sighed. Shifting back into his human form, he slipped on his clothes, before reaching for the saddle. With a little dificulty, he got the bloodbane saddled up. Climbing up, they started for the road.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Now out on the road, he took Xinal into a canter. After some awkward bouncing, he found a comfortable position. They soon worked out a pattern. Xinal would neigh if Sasin was doing something wrong, he'd adjust his position, and they'd keep on going. After a few minutes, Xinal took them into a gallop. He yelped, fell backward, and landed in the dust. The bloodbane slowed to a trot, turned to him, and started grazing. This was expecially suspicious, as Sasin had never seen him grazing before. "You did that on purposse." He grumbled. The horse just looked at him.

He tried again. Walking first, then a canter, then a gallop. It didn't work. He couldn't keep his balance. He tried again with a canter. This time, he tried to keep still, as in, not swaying like crazy like he did before. But sitting on a saddle, and bouncing around was not such a good way to do it.

"Alright, let's call it a day." He sighed. His arm hurt, his back hurt, his legs and backside hurt. Xinal seemed to agree. It was back to camp with them. Sliding off the saddle, he slipped off his clothes, then shifted into his dhani form. He glanced up. It was almost dark. He was off hunting again.

Picking up the wrist razors, he fastened them to his wrists. Taking a few mock swipes, he tried to adjust for the extra weight. Still, he figured, the best way to learn was to use them in a realistic situation. With that, he slithered off into the forest.

He slithered as quietly as he could, looking around for prey. He spotted another boar, but stayed far, far away. He was about to turn back, when he smelled deer. Turning, following his nose, he soon found the deer. It was a rather small doe. An easy kill. He made a circle around it so that he was upwind of her. He crept as close as he felt he could get without scaring her off. Curling his tail into a spring, he tensed, then leaped, slashing down as he landed. She had noticed him while he was in mid air, and had started running. He was still clumsy with these wrist razors, and missed almost entirely, barely making a nick in her rump.

He chased after her, not bothering to shift. They were both fast, but he had the advantage of not having to jump. Slowly, he began to catch up with her. He was right behind her when he made his move. Slashing sideways, he opened up the back of her legs, slicing skin, flesh, and tendons. Crude, but effective. She fell, her front legs unable to support her. He smirked. Not too bad. He slithered over to her front. Shrugging, he reached down and snapped her neck.

An hour later, he reappeared at camp. If you could call it that. Yawning, he curled up at the base of a tree, and drifted off to sleep.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Timestamp: 22nd of spring, 510 AV

He woke up midday, uncertain as to what day it was. For all he knew, he had been asleep for one day, two days, 84 years. Xinal wandered into view. Not 84 years, then. As to how long it really had been, the answer, apparently, was not long enough. He still couldn't shift, and felt very sluggish. Still, he made himself get up. He had work to do.

Eyeing the assorted weapons, he sighed, and picked up the shurikens. He soon found that he was totally useless at them. They were too light for his tastes, and he always went far off the mark. He gave up in no time, ans shifted his attentions to the throwing dagger. He had better luck with these.

He closed one eye, cocked his arm back, and threw. It stuck into the side of the tree, far off the mark. After a few more tried, he was finally able to get a bulls eye. A one off event. He kept failing, once, even managing to hit the wrong tree. He groaned. He had a headache from keeping one eye closed.

He tried something different. He just tossed it, without aiming. This was what would happen in real life. This was a terrible throw, going far off into the woods. Cursing in snakespeak, he went off in search of it. Half an hour later, he finally found it. Or rather, his tail found it. He slithered back to camp, irritated, grumpy, and with a nicked tail.

He groaned, and flopped down onto the ground. The sun was still high up in the sky.

Making up his mind to make the most of this trip, he stashed away his weapons, and set off into the forest. Finally alone, with nothing to distract him, he thought. He missed his family. He wondered how his brothers were doing, whether his sister was raising another of their mothers clutch. He wondered how his friends were, both in the nest, and in the city. Briefly, he wondered who had bought that kelvic slave that he had eyeing before he had left. He had had his eye on a falcon kelvic, but it had been gone before he could bye him. It didn't really matter either way.

He wondered about his friends in Syliras. How Stitch was, whether Devandre was still interested in helping him. Absent-mindedly, he wondered if Dev would help him with his Archery. He wasn't that good, and he needed greaves so he didn't rip off too much flesh.