Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Five knives were loosed, and all five hit their respective wooden targets. Laura never missed her mark.
As she went again to retrieve her blades, a gun wielding assassin by the name of Eric approached her. “Hey.” he shouted from the opposite side of the fence that outlined the range. “You’re a pretty good shot. I’d almost be willing to put money on the fact that you might be as good as Sharla.” Despite the fact that Eric was one of the very few men in the castle that did not resent her for being a woman, she still found his pointless blither to be quite obnoxious. And, despite what others may hear as a sincere compliment, Laura took Eric’s words to be condescending, because she always saw room for improvement, rather than any actual amount of skill.
“I cannot throw knives worth anything.” She silently wished that Eric would stop talking, he was being a real distraction to her practice time. “I’m more skilled with guns than knives.” He spun two twin pistols from holsters on his belt on the tips of his smallest fingers before replacing them. Though she knew that she subconsciously did practically the same thing with her throwing knives, his unnecessary finesse angered her more.
“Anybody can shoot a gun, Eric. There is no skill to it at all. Besides, guns are heartless. With knives, there is more of a personal connection between the killer, and the target. Guns are almost instantaneous, and cold. I hate them with a passion.”
Obviously, he took severe insult to this, and for a time he remained silent. Eric made his way into the range next to her, and again removed his pistols from their holsters. Firing at the target, he made quite a bit of unwanted noise. Though, sparing a moment to glance at his target, she watched as the straw man danced with the force from each bullet. She had to admit, despite her bias against guns, Eric was indeed good at what he did. She glanced at him, and watched as he juggled the guns between his hands with each shot. She smiled. He was trying to out do her. It wasn’t going to work.
She tossed three small knives into the air, and caught each again, throwing one while two flew. one landed in the pit of the straw man’s throat, one in between his ribcage, and one in his lower stomach. Each hit its mark perfectly.
“You make a fair fool with your juggling act, Eric, but what are the chances that it will make your enemies literally drop dead? Can you actually hit a moving target like that?”
“Well, no. But juggling serves as entertainment when I am not being a cold blooded killer. If you spend all of your time worrying, you are never going to have any fun. Then what is your life worth, Laura? Nothing more than a machine I would think.”
She supposed he was right. She decided to loosen up a bit. She took a knife in each of her hands, and leapt backwards into a flip. Just before she touched down with her hands, she tossed both knives out into the range. She quickly took another knife to hand, and spun into a cartwheel, and tossed her last knife, before landing back on her feet.
“Not too bad, Laura. Were you a gymnast on a child?
“No, Eric. I did not have time to do any such thing, I am afraid. It was not until I came to live in the woods that I had any extra time to teach myself things. Although, since then I have picked up a number of odd skills. I can do gymnastics, carve with quite a bit of success.I can cook, hunt, and fish. I am proficient with throwing knives, guns, archery, sword fighting, and hand to hand combat. And, I have some skill in writing, sewing, and masonry if you will believe it.”
“Okay,” he said with something similar to a chuckle, “you seem to have more talents than I do years. You said you are proficient with guns, by the way?” He tossed her his pistols. “Show me what you can do.”
