Thief

Chapter Seven: Weapons

Xander was pushed back by Ky who was steadily swinging his sword. Xander was doing his best to block the incoming strikes, but Ky was fast. Xander was losing ground, but he didn't have much ground to lose. Xander tried to regain his footing, but Ky chose that moment to attack, Xander barely deflected the blade. Maurice watched, he was good about examining people's mannerisms and fighting techniques. Xander and Ky finished sparring and Xander asked for Maurice's opinion on his swordplay.

"What swordplay?" Was Maurice's reply, "I just saw you flailing a sword around while barely avoiding decapitation."

Xander's face fell, it was his first weapons training and he knew he wasn't any good yet.

"Any pointers?" Xander asked.

"Never give ground, no matter what the situation. Once you start giving ground, you've already lost the battle.". Maurice said this while he stood up to leave.

Jo walked up to Xander and patted his back.

"Believe it or not, Ky was worse than you when he started. Oh," she remembered, "you forgot a piece of equipment."

"What is it?"

"Talk to Byorg, he always forgets that part."

"Ok." Xander said, walking over to Byrog's workshop. As Xander entered, Byorg spun around, "What do you need Xander?"

"Apparently, I forgot a piece of equipment." Xander said, scratching his head. Byorg started acting flustered and began mumbling incoherently. Xander knew that some of this words weren't so nice. Byorg hated forgetting things, it caused problems later. Byrog walked across the shop and opened another chest that was on top of a large table. Byorg grabbed something and showed it to Xander. It was a bow. It was still a very dark color, so it could go in the shadow realm. It curved outwards to a point and then curved back to make a recurve bow.

"Are there any arrows?" Xander asked.

"That depends on what kind you want. There are grapple arrows, sharp arrows, and fire arrows. I think I have some poison ones too." Byorg said as he walked over to a door and jumbled things around.

"Can I get a little bit of all of them?" Xander asked, wanting to try them all.

"Yeah, sure."

Byorg handed him three quivers. One green, one red, and one black. Xander could guess what kind of arrows were inside.

"How can I carry three quivers?"

"Tie them together. That's what Ky does."

Xander immediately found some rope and firmly tied them together. Next, he worked on memorizing where the arrows were, so he would never grab the wrong one. Xander began shooting the sharp arrows at a target in the courtyard. He shot for hours and never missed the target, he had used a bow since he was little.

Jo watched from a distance, thoroughly impressed. She watched Xander grab and arrow and shoot in the same motion. He made it all look so easy. Jo was horrible with the bow, she rarely took it with her. She preferred the dagger and sword.

Xander shot until nightfall and retrieved all of his arrows, he couldn't count how many he shot. Xander walked back into the castle and talked to Jo.

"I'm so bad with swords." Xander said nervously.

"Yeah. You're pretty horrible right now, but swordsmanship can be learned over time. Using a bow can be too, but it requires a bit more accuracy." Jo said turning around.

"See you tomorrow." Xander said lamely.

Xander rolled into bed, ecstatic for the next day. He would learn the sword and then he would be ready for whatever happened. He was happy, he hadn't been happy for a long time. He was given a purpose and he planned to do it the best he could.