Flashback Seeking an Anchor

[Ixzo]

32nd of Summer, 511AV
7th Bell, Morning
Clan of the Shorn Skulls

This time, Ixzo was out on her own. It was early in the morning, yet the Shorn Skulls was already active, hunters and patrols were out and about. Children were waking up to do their chores and those who could do nothing else were beginning breakfast for those who were busy. But Ixzo had woken up even early, ready to finish her chores in time to steal a bell of bow practice before she would have to go the Mayla.

After setting up the target, Ixzo walked fifteen steps away and turned towards the target. Picking up her bow, she set her feet into stance. Her feet where shoulder length apart, and her back straight. Hooking the nock of the arrow on the string, she rose her left arm towards the target. Tilting the bow back a bit, Ixzo allowed for the arrow to fall into place in the 'V' of the shelf. Careful not to miss anything, she loosened her shoulder and with some effort, pulled her right arm back with the arrow and string.

Keeping her elbow up, Ixzo took a deep breathe, steadying her arms as she exhaled slowly. Only when there was no air left to release did Ixzo take the few mili-ticks to line up her aim and release it. Guiding her right hand back towards her ear, Ixzo watched as the arrow impaled the already tattered target. She smiled to herself at the first shot of the day, glad she was not totally off that day.

[Ixzo]

Now that Ixzo had warmed up her aim, she wanted to test something. Her breathing. It seemed almost instinctual to not release the arrow until all her breath was gone, but was the opposite true?

Checking her stance, Ixzo straightened her back and relaxed her shoulders. Hooking another arrow on the string, she pulled back. For a test round, Ixzo did no breathing as eh lined up the arrow. Tilting the bow for the best aim, she let the arrow fly, without paying attention to her breathe. With no surprise, the arrow flew past the target. She could have sword she watched the shot skim the left side of the target, but either way, the arrow found no hold on her target. The child, in a rare spark of level-headedness, only moved to take one more arrow.

Re-adjusting nuances in her position, Ixzo pulled the string back once more. As she was familiar with, she took a deep breathe, slowly exhaling it to calm herself and slow her movements. Once there was no more breathe, the Kelvic released the arrow. This time she did expect it to hit, so when it did she was not surprised again.

So far she had one answer. Clearly she need to concentrate on her breathing to get a better aim, but now the next question arose. Was breathing in more effective than breathing out?

[Ixzo]

The child paused for a moment, lowering her bow to shake out her hand. After a few ticks of relaxing, Ixzo shuffled back into positon.

Feet apart, back straight, shoulders relaxed… the pattern was rhythmic at this point and Ixzo thought she could feel comfortable with the bow. Bringing the bow back up, she pulled the string back, resting her right thumb below her chin. This time, when she breathed in, she waited until her lungs were full before releasing the arrow. Taking only a tick to aim, Ixzo let the arrow fly, pulling her fingers back and away from the string. To her satisfaction the arrow hit the target as well, just as good, but no worse than the rest of her shots.

Confused, Ixzo pulled out another arrow. This time, though, she hesitated once she had adjusted the nock on the string. The young Kelvic looked at the target for a second, going over the process in her head. After only a chime of thinking, one particular detail stood out to her. Her anchor.

Her father had briefly introduced the concept, merely stating that each bowman had her own anchor for aiming. Ixzo realized she hadn't picked one. Most of the time, she would use her cheek, but she did often switch between cheek, chin and chest.

[Ixzo]

Steadying back into her stance, she adjusted her shoulders and tilted the bow. Everything was in place, but this time, Ixzo paid attention to were her right hand steadied itself. It felt most comfortable if her thumb was just below her cheekbone, so Ixzo let it stay there and then let the arrow fly. Sure enough the target was hit.

Picking out another arrow, she did the same thing, steadying her position and exhaling her breathe. Ixzo focused more on where her anchor lay, just under her cheekbone. She paused before letting the arrow fly certain she was comfortable before doing so.

Once more, Ixzo pulled out that last arrow of the quill. Checking her shoulders and elbow, Ixzo straightened her back before tilting her bow. As she pulled the string back, her hand seemed to very easily fall into place under her cheek bone. Taking a deep breath in, she steadied herself before exhaling completely. Taking one last tick to aim, the child let the arrow fly.

Never before in her life, given her limited pool of shots to take from, had she gotten within the center circle of a target. A giddy feeling washed over her and she launched forwards to pick up loose arrows, including (unfortunately) her almost-bullseye. She was on a mission, and if she succeeded there would be many more, and hopefully more accurate, bullseyes to come.

[Ixzo]

Re-stocking her quiver, Ixzo measured back fifteen steps. Widening her stance, she hooked the nock on the string. Straightening her back and loosening her shoulder, the young lioness pulled her right arm back, keeping her elbow high. Settling her breath, Ixzo placed her anchor. Instead of resting her thumb on her cheek like normal, Ixzo moved her head up so that she could rest her chin atop her right hand as she aimed. The bowstring pushed up against her cheek, and for a moment she thought that if she let go, it would snap her in the face.

Yet, she had done this anchor before and knew it wouldn't. Ixzo released the arrow, watching it hit the outer ring of the target before reaching for another arrow. She didn't have to adjust her position much this time, merely making the corrections needed to set her aim. Again, Ixzo moved her head to let her anchor take priority, and again it didn't feel as natural as her cheekbone, but she had this test and one more before she moved on to the next anchor. Emptying her lungs, she let the arrow fly. This time, the arrow fell short of the target, sliding between the two posts that held up the packed hay wrapped in burlap.

Fixing her position one last time, Ixzo made sure her anchor was right, fiddling with the positioning of her right hand for a few ticks until it was almost comfortable, at least as close as she could get, and let the arrow fly. She noticed that with this anchor her pull back was not as graceful since she had to take more time to make room for her right hand. She was almost thankful when the arrow bounced off the bottom of the target. The anchor wasn't comfortable, and it was clear the results were not the best either.

[Ixzo]

For the last test, Ixzo adjusted her position accordingly, nearly forgetting to relax her shoulders before positioning her last anchor. Her right held the string taut by her collarbone. It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as the chin anchor, but the low-down pull made her feel funny. She wasn't sure if she saw down the shaft correctly, nor was it easy to tilt her bow back for the aim. But once Ixzo finally found the position, her shot had much more power than she was used to. Her aim was off, so when the arrow went flying over the target, she yipped at the shattering of the arrow on the tree behind it.

Guiltily, she looked back towards her family's hut, and back at the arrow. There was a lot of power with that anchor, no doubt about it, yet it took so long to get comfortable with. Ixzo put another arrow in the nock and held it up. After adjusting her position, she tried to quickly pull the string back to her chest, but it still took more than a few ticks to adjust everything from there so that she could have an idea of aim. This time, Ixzo put less power into her shot, watching the arrow fly. It hit the target this time, but the tattered hay sack gave way to the arrow as it shot straight through with ease. Ixzo chuckled to herself.

It provided the most excitement, but there was little debate over which anchor she favored, now she merely needed to remember to remain with it.

Since her bell was almost up, Ixzo repositioned, taking the last arrow. This time, when she pulled the string back, it felt utterly natural to allow her right thumb to rest under her thumb cheek. And as a result it took very little time, after stabilizing her breath, to release the arrow. It didn't hit the middle ring this time, but the arrow did land closer to the center than most of her others.

Glad she had discovered her proper anchor, Ixzo jumped to collect the arrows, deciding to leave the broken one in case of rebuttal from her parents, and went to place the bow and quiver back in the hut. At least a lost arrow would be taken better than a broken one.

[Dravite]

G R A D E S
Your awards, Dear.

Ixzo

Experience

• Weapon, Longbow: 5
• Logic: 2
• Philosophy: 1
• Investigation: 1
• Mathematics: 1
• Observation: 1

Lore

• Shorn Skulls: Up early to hunt and patrol
• Bow: Elbow up and strong
• Bow: Shoot with relaxed shoulders
• Bow: The concept of an anchor
• Bow: Experimenting with stances for the perfect shot

Notes

-1 x arrow

I think you accomplished what you set out for!