After what seemed like hours, but was probably… actually hours - Anika still didn’t have a watch - she adjusted her grip on the recurve bow that was her current companion. After a moment’s rest, Anika slowly reached her right hand to the quiver on her left hip and pulled out another arrow. Carefully aligning it on the bow’s arrow shelf, her left arm holding the bow near her waist, she nocked the arrow on the string and looked at the target in front of her.

  She’d been at this all morning, and her back and arms ached with fatigue. Vok had let her upgrade to actually firing arrows today rather than just repeatedly drawing the bow and the novelty had steadily worn off as weariness crept into her muscles. Even Lily had grown tired of the practice, opting for a nap in the corner while Anika waited for someone to come tell her practice was over.

  They’d had fun when they started out. Lily had practiced using her Aether magic by fetching all the arrows and loading them back into Anika’s quiver rather than Anika having to walk over to the target to pull the arrows out herself. It had become a game of control, as Lily had to aim for the relatively small practice quiver with her magic the same way Anika had to aim for the small mark in the center of the large practice target.

  Lily showed much faster improvement, and Anika quickly had to make it a moving target by turning in circles as Lily tried to reload her quiver. That had been fun, but once it was no longer a challenge for Lily she became bored. Since Lily was far more talented at aiming than she was, she wondered if it was considered cheating if her adorable companion ‘helped’ her arrows to their targets, as Anika experienced slower improvement. But she had occasionally hit near the mark with her arrows!

  Now, however, her aim was starting to falter as it became harder to draw the bow long enough to aim well. She took a deep breath, bracing herself to take another shot at the target. She raised her left arm in an arcing action, holding it mostly straight with a strong grip on the bow while pulling back with her right arm in a single, smooth motion. The arrow held between her index and middle fingers rested against the string, and her ring finger joined the first two to grip the string around her first knuckle.

  The muscles between her shoulders scrunched together as she used her back to help draw the bow taut. Her right elbow pointed behind her as her right hand anchored the arrow close to her cheekbone, giving her a clear sightline down the shaft. Her bicep began to quiver with strain as she aligned the arrow slightly above the mark she was aiming for to allow for the arcing movement of the arrow’s flight. Before her strength gave out, she released the arrow, watching it curve through the air to land much further to the left of the mark than she had intended.

  Anika sighed as she dropped her arms, letting the bow slide through her left fingers to rest with one end on the ground. Rolling her head from side to side to stretch out her shoulders, she noticed the flashing box that, last time, had indicated a level up. She knew she wasn’t getting experience with her magic right now, so she curiously directed her attention to the box to pull up the alert.

  Your Potency has increased by 1 point.

  Potency: 12

  Anima: 16

  Vitality: 13

  Anika saw that her potency had gone up by a point and she managed a tired smile of satisfaction. At least the weariness and work had resulted in something tangible. Maybe she would have worked out more back home if she had gotten notifications of it actually helping instead of just feeling like the only result of going to the gym was exhaustion and a strong desire to devour a giant plate of pastries.

  “Hey Lily,” Anika walked over to Lily and patted her gently on the head to wake her up.

  Lily slowly opened one eye as she raised her head slightly, “Is it time for lunch yet?”

  “I’m not sure about lunch. No one has come to get us yet. But guess what!” Anika grinned, cluing Lily in to her excitement.

  “Ooo did something good happen, Anika?”

  “Yup! I got a new point in Potency!”

  Lily jumped to her feet and gave a happy little dance involving adorable wiggling and hopping, “Yay Anika! Keep doing good work! I got a lot of experience earlier when I was practicing my magic with you!”

  “That’s awesome,” Anika reached down to scratch behind Lily’s ears, “You’ll catch up to me soon if I don’t go practice my magic as well.”

  ‘You have a lot more to practice than me. I don’t mind napping while you practice archery so we level together!”

  “No, no,” Anika didn’t want Lily to think she had to hold herself back. If anything, Anika would have to just find more time to practice so she could keep up with Lily with her magic and still have time to practice her archery. Maybe she should practice in the shower? “You only have your magic, so you need to practice that a lot to keep yourself safe.”

  “Yeah, I do need to practice so you don’t have to worry about protecting me. I’m supposed to be there to help you and guide you, so it should be me protecting you instead.” Lily leaned back to sit on her hindquarters so she could look up at Anika better as she spoke.

  “I think it’s best if we just both practice so we can protect ourselves and each other. We will be safer if we work together in a team and look out for each other.”

  “Right! You’re smart Anika!”

  Anika heard the door opening and looked up to see Vok and Sinaya entering the room. As the weapons master saw that Anika was socializing with Lily instead of practicing with the bow, approached, a slight scowl on his face. “Did I not assign you to practice until I came back to get you?”

  Anika stood fully and turned to face Vok. “I was practicing until a few moments ago. I earned a point of Potency so I wanted to tell Lily.”

  Vok’s face adjusted to a more neutral expression as he gave her an assessing gaze. “You are behind on your Potency attribute, so earning a point shows progress. Now,” he turned and walked over to the line around 30 meters from the target where Anika had been standing to practice and gestured for her to take her place on the line, “Demonstrate your improvement. Three arrows.”

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  “Anika is doing great! You’ll see!” Lily stood to follow Anika over to the line and show her support.

  Anika gripped the bow in her hand and turned to face the target, seeing the last arrow she had shot taunting her from its position significantly to the left of the target mark. She knew she had been doing well with the practice most of the morning, and considered her skill adequate for two days of practice and some summer camp in days long past. Her bicep still ached from the morning of practice, but she did her best to push it out of her mind as she walked to the line and positioned herself in a comfortable, stable stance with her right foot behind and slightly apart from her left.

  She drew the first arrow from her quiver with her right hand and carefully nocked it on the bow string as she held the bow near her waist. She took a deep breath and raised the bow as she pulled the string back, just as she had throughout her practice that morning. The short break had helped her fatigue, as she was able to hold it steady as she sighted the target mark and loosed the arrow. It flew true towards the mark, landing slightly above and slightly right of the target. It wasn’t a bullseye, but she felt it was respectably close. She heard Lily cheer and Vok grunt in the background, but stayed focused on her task.

  The next two arrows flew much the same, leaving three arrows in a loose cluster around the target mark. Anika had hit it before in practice, but this time the closest arrow grazed the bottom edge of the center mark, which was about as large in diameter as a tennis ball. Somewhat disappointed that she had not managed one clean shot in the three she had taken, she sighed as she let her arms fall back to her sides, the bow dangling from her now limp arms. She did her best after a morning of work, but clearly she needed to rest before she could make more progress.

  “That is acceptable.” Vok rumbled next to her, surprising Anika, who believed she must have failed the assessment by not hitting the bullseye once.

  “See! I told you Anika had practiced hard!” Lily chirped happily and did her little happy hoppy dance again.

  Anika turned to look at Vok, “What does acceptable mean?”

  “It means you may take the bow and arrow with you when you next go to the dungeon.. Many of the creatures in the dungeons are much larger than the target. Of course, most of them will be moving, but you will be wise enough to not take a shot at a moving target when there is a chance you will hit an ally.”

  The tone of his voice made that very much a statement that had no room for interpretation, and Anika nodded vigorously in agreement.

  Vok gestured to Sinaya, who immediately exited via the side door that led to the armory, before he continued to provide instructions to Anika. “You will, of course, still be expected to return here for practice in the mornings until you can reliably hit the center of a standard, stationary target. You will then advance to practice on moving targets. You are trusted to not harm yourself or others, but you have a long way to go before you will be a successful archer in a combat situation. However, it is good to gain practice in a realistic environment as soon as possible, which is why you will take the bow and practice in the field.”

  As he finished his speech, Sinaya returned, this time carrying a bundle of arrows wrapped in fabric. She brought them over to Anika, who accepted them gingerly.

  “These are hunting arrows. Unlike the tips of the practice arrows you have been using, these tips are larger, sharper, and far more dangerous. You may leave the practice arrows here, where you will use them tomorrow.” Vok swiftly removed the remainder of Anika’s practice arrows from her quiver to make space for the bundle that Sinaya had brought.

  Anika began unwrapping the bundle enough to pull out one arrow. While the end of the practice arrow had, effectively, a bluntly pointed metal cap on the end of the wood shaft, this arrow had a large, sharply pointed metal head about an inch and a half long. At the place where the point became the width of the shaft, three sharp, triangular blades flared from the edges, giving the arrow head almost an inch of width. She absolutely did not want to shoot anyone with one of these.

  “Uh, thanks,” Anika fumbled with the arrows in her hands, trying to shove it into the quiver but not quite sure how to do so safely when she was already holding them all in her arms. She startled as the arrows began to lift out of her arms on their own accord before remembering she had a telekinetic capybara companion.

  “I’ll put them in your quiver, just like we practiced earlier.” Lily had already started to remove the wrapping from the arrows, and they were starting to slowly slide one by one into the quiver on Anika’s left hip.

  “Right, that is a much better way to do it. I do not want to have an accident with those arrow tips.” Anika chuckled weakly, nervous energy releasing as she watched the arrows reach their resting place.

  “That is a good application of magic, Lily.” Vok nodded approvingly, “I see you have been practicing.”

  “Yeah! I fetched all Anika’s arrows and put them in her quiver earlier. I also tried to hit the target with arrows, but I couldn’t make them go very fast, so they didn’t stay in the target.” Lily didn’t sound sad about this, as Anika might have, maintaining her positive attitude.

  “It takes more skill and practice to manipulate objects quickly. You will gain speed as you practice. Each time you practice a skill, try to increase the speed slightly from what you did before. The practice rooms have timers so that you can gauge your speed and track your improvement. Once you have speed, you will move on to work on agility and begin to combine your skills into intricate movements. Like so.”

  Vok released the practice arrows he had been holding, and they floated in the air for a moment before bursting away from each other into the air. They began to weave an intricate pattern above the group, moving so quickly that the shape of the arrows became lost in the blur of motion and the pattern revealed itself to be an intricate four strand braid. Just as quickly as Anika figured out the pattern, it shattered and all the arrows forming it shot straight towards the target, burying themselves deep within the center target circle in a tight pack.

  “Wow.” Breathed Lily.

  “That was crazy,” Anika couldn’t imagine the amount of power and skill it must take for that feat, and she realized she had a long way to go in her control of magic to replicate the feats that the trainers here at the temple could do.

  Sinaya giggled, offering her thoughts for the first time since following Vok into the room. “Vok is the best with weapons and one of the best with Aether magic at the Temple. Many of us will never be at his level.”

  Vok glared at the young Wateta. “And you can gain equal skill in your magic if you have the discipline to practice.”

  Sinaya immediately stopped giggling and hastily changed the subject, “I think I can take you back to your rooms to drop off your equipment, and then you have time for lunch before Leka expects you to be ready for afternoon training. Follow me.” She moved towards the door without waiting for them to answer, clearly wishing to escape without further chastising from the Weaponsmaster.

  “Thanks Vok, we will see you tomorrow. Let’s go, Lily.” Anika herded Lily towards the door, not wanting to get stuck practicing longer when the promise of lunch waited. She was excited to try out the bow for real, knowing it would be more effective against the large Scurry Captain than her water spells would be, though not particularly optimistic about her chances against the smaller giant squirrels. She’d just do her best to put the pointy end into the squirrels and not her companions.

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