• Solo • Lessons with Purchase

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

33rd Ashan, 718



Tei'serin smiled as her mother and her younger sisters met her at the gate to Valfield Farm.

"Did you enjoy the lesson?"

Tei'serin nodded.

"I learned a lot, too. Some of it is stuff that I can try on my own herb garden when we get home."

"Hey! I didn't know that you have kids! Why didn't you bring them with you last time?"

Tei'serin grinned at Kaise as she ran towards them.

"They aren't my daughters, Kaise. They are my sisters. Well...half sisters if you want to be exact. Their names are Keiaris, and Meiarin. And Sorin here is my half brother. Our mother is name Dae'nira. Guys, this is Kaise Elnan. Her father is the owner of this farm, and the man who teaches the gardening classes that take place here."

With introductions made, Kaise said something about finding some baby kittens before dragging Keiaris and Meiarin off somewhere. Sorin gave them an exasperated look before promising to look after them and following. Their mother laughed while Tei'serin watched in bemusement.

"Well...I guess that I'm going to be meeting you guys here later this time." she said finally.

Her mother nodded.

"Did you have more shopping to do?"

Tei'serin shook her head.

"Not shopping. But I have an important errand all the same. Do you remember that weapon shop where I bought my katana and crossbow from? The owner offered to give me a lesson in how to use both my crossbow, and my katana if I came back when it wasn't so busy. He made the offer because I spent a lot of nels there...and I think that the fact that I clearly had no idea what I was doing played a part in him making the offer as well." Tei'serin said ruefully.

Her mother nodded.

"This is that time."

Unspoken was the burning need that Tei'serin felt driving her to learn everything she could about the weapons. Moseke herself had asked her to learn how to defend herself. And now that she had given birth, and recovered from that ordeal, she could give herself to that task without fear of harming her unborn child, or herself.

"Then I think you should take him up on her offer. We'll be fine here. I doubt the kids will even notice that you're gone."
Tei'serin grinned as she nodded in relieved agreement. Then she left the farm and began making her way back to the weapon shop.smiled as her mother and her younger sisters met her at the gate to Valfield Farm.

"Did you enjoy the lesson?"

Tei'serin nodded.

"I learned a lot, too. Some of it is stuff that I can try on my own herb garden when we get home."

"Hey! I didn't know that you have kids! Why didn't you bring them with you last time?"

Tei'serin grinned at Kaise as she ran towards them.

"They aren't my daughters, Kaise. They are my sisters. Well...half sisters if you want to be exact. Their names are Keiaris, and Meiarin. And Sorin here is my half brother. Our mother is name Dae'nira. Guys, this is Kaise Elnan. Her father is the owner of this farm, and the man who teaches the gardening classes that take place here."

With introductions made, Kaise said something about finding some baby kittens before dragging Keiaris and Meiarin off somewhere. Sorin gave them an exasperated look before promising to look after them and following. Their mother laughed while Tei'serin watched in bemusement.

"Well...I guess that I'm going to be meeting you guys here later this time." she said finally.

Her mother nodded.

"Did you have more shopping to do?"

Tei'serin shook her head.

"Not shopping. But I have an important errand all the same. Do you remember that weapon shop where I bought my katana and crossbow from? The owner offered to give me a lesson in how to use both my crossbow, and my katana if I came back when it wasn't so busy. He made the offer because I spent a lot of nels there...and I think that the fact that I clearly had no idea what I was doing played a part in him making the offer as well." Tei'serin said ruefully.

Her mother nodded.

"This is that time."

Unspoken was the burning need that Tei'serin felt driving her to learn everything she could about the weapons. Moseke herself had asked her to learn how to defend herself. And now that she had given birth, and recovered from that ordeal, she could give herself to that task without fear of harming her unborn child, or herself.

"Then I think you should take him up on her offer. We'll be fine here. I doubt the kids will even notice that you're gone."
Tei'serin grinned as she nodded in relieved agreement. Then she left the farm and began making her way back to the weapon shop.

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

When Thakrid saw Tei'serin, he grinned.

"Back for your lessons, are you?"

Tei'serin nodded. She was curious as to why he was so amused. But he was a man, and one who was clearly skilled with weapons. Wanting to learn from him or not, Tei'serin was more than a little intimidated by the man. So she didn't ask for fear that it would anger him, and he would decide not to teach her.

"Well, you're in luck. This here is my friend, Arina. She's retired now, but before an injury left her with a bad leg, she was a member of the Zafra Knights."

Arina nodded, and Tei'serin greeted her politely.

"The point being that she knows a heck of a lot more about all manner of bows than I do. When I told her about a little bit of a girl coming in here looking to buy weapons, she was interested...mostly because she was you once; a tiny little thing looking to learn how to defend herself. But she found that she was a natural with a bow, and that she had a passion for it, so she joined the Blades. When I told her that you were planning to come back for a lesson, she offered to take over teaching you about your crossbow. So we'll do that first, and when she's finished, I'll give you a lesson with that new katana of yours."

Tei'serin thanked the older woman, and introduced herself. Then it was time to get to work.

"The first thing you need to know is the parts of a crossbow. So. The wooden part here is called the barrel. And that groove in the top there is called the flight groove. That's where you put the bolt. The flight groove lines the bolt with the string so you can get an accurate shot. That little bit of metal there at the end of the flight groove is the arrow retention spring. It holds the bolt in the track until you press the trigger to release it. Your trigger is that piece of metal under the barrel, just below the arrow retention spring. Pressing that is how you fire the crossbow."

Arina paused to let Tei'serin absorb everything she had learned so far. Then she quizzed her to make certain that she had been listening. When Tei'serin was able to correctly name each part she had been shown so far and explain their purpose, Arina grinned at her.

"You're a quick study at this, Tei'serin. Are you hoping to join the Blades of Zafara some trial like I did?"

Tei'serin shook her head.

"No. I'm an herbalist by trade. But I have been in the position where being able to defend my patients would have been useful before. For that matter, I've been in situations where knowing how to defend myself would have been really nice. So I am trying to rectify that." she explained.

She didn't mention Moseke, or the request she had made of her. Such things were far too personal to discuss with strangers.

"Fair enough." the older woman said gruffly before going back to her explanation of the parts of a crossbow.

[Tei'serin Nji'ryn]

Tei'serin's head was reeling as she tried to keep each part of the crossbow, and its purpose straight. Some, like the string were obvious; it was hard not to know what a string was no matter what form it took. Then there was the latch, which was designed to catch the string of the crossbow when it was cocked, and hold it until it was released by the trigger. The limbs were the curved things that the string was attached to, and the riser was where the limbs were attached. The sight was what one used to aim the crossbow. Then there was the cocking stirrup. It looked like the stirrup on a saddle, and was used to help cock the bow and prevent the bow from slipping when it was cocked. This was achieved by placing one's foot into it, much like one would put their foot into the stirrup on a saddle. Finally, there was the safety, which Tei'serin thought was one of the most important parts of the weapon. It was designed to prevent the bolt from being released accidentally.

"Watch carefully while I show you how to load a crossbow."

Tei'serin paid close attention to both the woman's actions, and the explanation she gave while she loaded the bow. The first thing Arina did was to place her foot in the stirrup at the front of the bow. Then she carefully pulled the crossbow string back evenly across both sides of the barrel until it was cocked. This, she explained was called cocking the bow. After she did it a few times, she undid the string, and handed the bow to Tei'serin.

"Now you try it."

It looked a lot simpler than it really was. The process itself was simple enough, but the string was hard to pull. It took a lot of strength to wrestle it into the proper position, and Tei'serin struggled to do it. When she had managed to get it cocked, she showed Arina. The older woman frowned, and told her that it was misaligned because she hadn't pulled the string straight enough. She told her that a misaligned bow would cause her aim to be off. Then she undid the string, and made Tei'serin do it again. It took Tei'serin fifteen tried before Arina was satisfied that she had done it correctly, and by then, her arms felt limp with the effort she had put it.

"Once you cock the bow, you need to load it."

Again, the older woman demonstrated how to do it several times before handing the bow to Tei'serin to try it herself. Tei'serin found it easier to manage this part since it was easy enough to lay the crossbow bolt in the flight groove with the sharp part pointed forward. But even so, it took her several attempts to nock the bolt securely into place.

"What's next?" Tei'serin wanted to know.

"Well in order to hit what you want to shoot, you need to know how to aim first. For that, you use the sight. Look along it until you have the target firmly in sight. Just as with loading the bow, this will take practice. Finally, to fire the bow, simply squeeze the trigger. You will hear a popping sound as the trigger releases."

Arina gave her a measuring look.

"Do you think you're ready to try firing the bow?"

Tei'serin nodded and hoped that she looked more ready than she felt. Arina simply gave her another look, and waited. The bow was already loaded, so all Tei'serin needed was a target. She chose the side of the shop since it was a big enough target that it was unlikely that she could miss it. Then she looked to make sure that no one was near the wall she planned to aim at just in case the unlikely happened, and she did miss it. After a few trills of hesitation, she looked along the sight as she'd been told to, and squeezed the trigger. Without warning, she found herself hurled backwards by a powerful force that slammed the butt of the crossbow into her shoulder painfully. Both Arina and Thakrid laughed at her, and she glared up at them from where she lay sprawled on the ground.

"The crossbow has a powerful kick to it. You're going to want to watch that recoil next time." Arina told her gruffly.

Tei'serin wanted to know why the older woman hadn't warned her, but before she could ask, Arina explained that in her experience, no one ever took her seriously when she tried to warn them about the recoil before hand, so she let people feel it for themselves so they would know what she was talking about. With that, Arin declared her first lesson in the use of a crossbow to be a moderate success before turning her over to Thakrid.

"The first thing you need to know is that using a katana, or any sword for that matter, takes a lot of strength to use effectively."

The man walked over, and offered her a hand to help her up.

"Are you ready to begin your lesson?"

Tei'serin nodded with a determined look in her eyes.

[Mads]

Tei'serin Nji'ryn

Knowledge.........

Ranged Combat (Crossbow): parts of a crossbow
Ranged Combat (Crossbow): how to load a crossbow
Ranged Combat (Crossbow): how to fire a crossbow
Ranged Combat (Crossbow): how to aim a crossbow
Ranged Combat (Crossbow): beware the recoil
Blades (Katana): requires strength to use effectively

Blades of Zafra: Nehaer's military

Loot....................

None

Consequence......

moderate bruising to her right shoulder from the recoil of the crossbow which will last for about 10 days, becoming less painful after the first 4

Renown..............

None

Experience...........

10

Wow, that was more information about crossbows than I've ever wanted to know! There was a weird thing you did in the first post where you seemed to double paste the content? Otherwise, good technical writing skills! There were a few errors, but it's pretty clear you're proof-reading and definitely putting in some time on the research end of things (unless crossbows are something you already know about because of real life experience). Either way, I can see effort being but into this, even if it's just a training solo. Continue on!

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