Weapon Practice [[Max/open]]

[Brooke]

Brooke weighed the stone in her paw before loading it into her sling. She swung it around once, twice. Whumpp... the stone hit the ground after flying two feet in the air. She glared at the stone although it had done nothing. She turned and kicked a tree stump.

"Ouch!" she yelped and sat down on the stump to nurse her foot. How come Dan, and Skipp made this look so easy? River was a good slinger too. she thought grumpily. Then there was an aching in her chest as she thought of River. River, what have you gotten into? she winced. She moved her thoughts in a different direction and glared the sling and stone lying on the forest floor.

[Maxodis]

The bright afternoon sunlight shone fiercely down upon the area, driving away the shadows from a greater portion of the open space, condensing them in the darker corners of the woods. The shadows stood out in stark contrast and defiance to the otherwise brightly lit trees. Within one of these dark places, the shadows moved. It flitted quietly to a dark spot nearby, fading back into the darkness' obscurity. It shifted once more before moving to a closer shaded area. Its progress was not completely silent, but the sounds made were as indecipherable as whispers in the wind. The shadow detached itself from the cover of a tree, stalking its prey. Crouched low, the shade slowly gained the definition of a figure. The figure slowly stalked forward, approaching the seated otter. It was only a short amount of time before it loomed ominously behind her. All at once, its arms shot forward towards her head...

His paws lightly covered her eyes as he stood behind her.

Doing his best to disguise his voice (as well as his laughter), Danol leaned close to Brookesong's ear and growled. "Boo."

[Brooke]

Brooke turned slightly to the woods. What was that? she thought, but then shrugged it off as just the wind. She resumed glaring at the sling and stone.

She jumped as paws covered her eyes.

"Boo." said a voice by her ear. She knew instantly that it was Danol trying to hide his laughter. She lightly swatted his arm right by her head.

"Danol, what are you doing scaring me out of my wits?" she said as she turned to face him.

[Shortness, sorry]

[Maxodis]

"Danol, what are you doing scaring me out of my wits?"

The young otter chuckled softly to himself, slightly let down that his surprise hadn't startled her more. "Tryin' to scare you out of your wits, o' course!" He seated himself on a small boulder next to Brookesong. He was quiet a moment then, realizing that Brookesong had been uncharacteristically quiet during his approach. He regretted his action for a moment as he glanced at her out of the side of his eye discreetly. Perhaps he should ask if something was wrong. Then again, perhaps it would be better if he didn't.

He caught sight of the sling on the ground in front of Brookesong. Odd. She had never been one for weaponry, always showed a keen disliking of the things. What could bring her to take an interest now? By the way she glowered at the fallen sling, it was clear that she hadn't made much success in learning how to use the weapon. He laughed nervously inside, it was his experience that females were not fun to pester when aggravated. He could offer to show her the right way to sling a stone, but he would have to be careful about it, lest he draw her agitation.

"You uh... learning how to use that?" He asked, pointing at the sling at her footpaws.

[Brooke]

As Danol sat down, he noticed the sling at her footpaws....

"You uh... learning how to use that?" He asked, pointing at the sling at her footpaws.

"Ya, trying is the keyword!" she exclaimed. "How does everyone else make it look so easy?" then, realizing what she had just said she blushed. When she said "someone", she had meant him.... Not that he would know that.

"Uh, well I was wondering if you could maybe..." she paused to take a deep breath "Helpmelearnhowtouseit?" she asked quickly, then she looked at him questioningly praying that he would say yes.

[Maxodis]

"Uh, well I was wondering if you could maybe...Helpmelearnhowtouseit?"

It took Danol several seconds to decipher the gibberish that had spontaneously sprouted forth from Brookesong's mouth. Maybe he'd scared her more than he previously thought. Energetic she was, incoherent she was not. Well, most of the time anyway. He glanced once more at the fallen sling. Danol wasn't exactly well-known for his ability to use slings. In fact, the first time Skipp tried to teach him the proper way to do it, Danol had come very close to accidentally knocking the Skipper senseless. Needless to say, those lessons ended.

"Uh.... well..."

He collected the leather sling and small stone from the ground, loading the sling and holding it by the two ends. "I'm prob'bly not the best person to learn this from, but you've gotta hold it like this..." He hesitated slightly, realizing his close proximity to Brooke and recalling his past luck with slings. Stepping a few feet away, he twirled the light sling quickly in his paw. "... And twirl it with your wrist, not your arm. Then you just sorta..." He released one end of the sling, sending the stone flying. It did not go far, its progress halted by an errant tree. The resulting thud shook a branch above Danol, dropping a large amount of snow on him. "... Not do that."

[Brooke]

Inwardly, she was extremely thankful that he had decided to help her. Then, as he slung off a stone and it dumped a ton of snow on him, she giggled. "Wait, I still don't get it... Seeing as my instructor managed to fail at what he was trying to teach me." Her eyes glittered mischievously. Then, standing up she helped him dust the snow off his clothes. "Here, you'll be quite cold as you will be soaked once the snow melts." She unwound her scarf and held it out to him.

[[Bah, short]]

[Maxodis]

Accepting the scarf, the young otter briefly forgot how to wear it. He stood there, keenly aware of how stupid he must seem, covered in snow and holding a scarf limply in his paw. Blinking suddenly, he quickly wrapped it around his neck and coughed aside, trying to ignore him flushing underneath his fur. He managed a mumbled 'Thanks' before eagerly changing the topic.

"Well I uh... I wasn't ever really good at slinging stones either." He looked at the leather thong in his paw. "The whole concept seems a bit silly to me, to be honest. Er..."

He gave her a curious look as he offered back the sling. "Mind if I ask what inspired you to wanna learn how to use this?"

[Brooke]

Raising an eyebrow at Dan's moment of forgetfulness, she was brought back to reality when he asked her a question.

"Mind if I ask what inspired you to wanna learn how to use this?" He asked.

"Well, with the up and coming slave escape, I decided that I wanted to learn how to protect myself instead of having to count on others to defend me." She said defiantly. "Besides I needed an excuse to get away from the dibbuns, the little terrors."

[Maxodis]

"Well, with the up and coming slave escape, I decided that I wanted to learn how to protect myself instead of having to count on others to defend me. Besides I needed an excuse to get away from the dibbuns, the little terrors."

"Hunh, that so? Could it be that the dibbuns are wearing out even the tireless Brookesong?" He chuckled. He hadn't so soon forgotten the last time she ran him down and ultimately tackled him to the ground. Danol was not a slow one either.

"Though if you want to learn something I can teach, there's always archery... I'm pretty good at that. Its a bit more lethal than a tossed stone though." He blinked, realizing how that had sounded. "Er, not to say I'm good at killing creatures, I've never... I wouldn't.... erp." He shifted his weight to his other footpaw agitatedly. Before muttering "Nothin' wrong with lettin' others protect you..."

[Brooke]

"Hunh, that so? Could it be that the dibbuns are wearing out even the tireless Brookesong?" Brooke giggled and shook her head.

"Haha, you wish... No, with the tensions so high, I find it difficult to concentrate on them and it's just hard." she tried to explain.

"Nothin' wrong with lettin' others protect you..." Brooke caught his mumble.

"Ah, but I don't want to feel like a burden. By having someone else protect me, they could very well die because I couldn't take the time to learn myself." Brooke said. "And, I might take you up on the archery deal." she said winking merrily before linking arms with him and starting to skip off. "Shall we go grab bows and arrows my good sir?" she asked in an imitation of Petunia, a mousemaid who could care less about anything especially when her appearance wasn't just so.

[Maxodis]

Danol had never taken the time to learn how to skip. Not that he had never understood the concept, or that he had never liked the idea, he simply never tried. It was no surprise that he then experienced quite the amount of trouble keeping up with Brookesong, his arm locked within her grasp as it was. As he stumbled over the dead foliage that Brookesong seemed to be effortlessly avoiding, he wondered briefly if he had made a tremendous mistake offering to teach possibly the most energetic creature within Camp Moss how to use a bow. Well, he thought to himself, if I'm lucky she'll find it harder to do than slinging a stone and give up. She doesn't need to see combat.

Neither did he, as a matter of fact. The ideal of being a talented archer was losing its appeal as he caught sight of those unfortunate creatures that had come into contact with N'Tashi's bandits from time to time, as he saw the pain they suffered from their wounds. Cuts and gashes were one thing, but it disturbed him that often the most painful wounds were made by arrows.

Still, knowing that taking another's life to defend his own, or to defend another's would change him irrevocably, he resolved to continue down the path he had chosen for himself. Sacrificing himself for the sake of others... did that make him a martyr? He glanced at Brookesong as she practically dragged him along. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

[Brooke]

Brooke laughed as Dan stumbled along behind her. Once they got inside the entrance of Camp, she turned to Dan. "Umm, I've never had to look for a bow and arrows, so lead the way. After I attempt to learn archery, I think you need a lesson from the dibbuns on how to skip..." she grinned. I'm gonna want to see that if he agrees... She looked at him waiting for his answer.

[Maxodis]

"Umm, I've never had to look for a bow and arrows, so lead the way. After I attempt to learn archery, I think you need a lesson from the dibbuns on how to skip..."

"Learn how to skip hunh?" Danol scratched at the fur on the back of his neck as he tried to visualize that. "That would be... uhm..." He refrained from saying 'embarrassing' and 'silly', which forced him to quickly come up with a better word. "Uh.... interesting?" He started off down the corridor and motioned her to follow. Somehow, Danol couldn't see himself understanding the seemingly simple concept of skipping right off. How did they do it to make it look so deceptively easy? In fact...

He stopped outside the entrance to the small armory, if you could call it that. The equipment stored there was either old or poorly made, in fact, his own personal bow was probably among one of the highest quality weapons at their disposal. He went about picking a simple shortbow for Brookesong and his own standard-sized bow. He talked as he filled two quivers for the both of them. "In fact, I'm willing to make a bet with you, over who learns what better."

He grinned as he handed over her equipment. "I bet I can learn to skip better than you can learn to shoot arrows."

[Brooke]

Brooke laughed at his expression when she mentioned skipping lessons. She instantly sobered when he offered to make a bet with her.

"I bet I can learn to skip better than you can learn to shoot arrows." he grinned as he handed over her bow and arrows.

Batting her eyelashes, she said "Well we'll just have to see about that then!" she winked at him, then turning towards the door, she called back. "Where am I going to beat you at the bet?"