Alais/Alexander's Training.

[Alais Olivia Strider]

Truth was, that horses scared Alais. They had from a young age. It wasn’t that they were particularly dangerous, or known for biting people, as horses were clearly neither. It’s the simple fact that the creatures were so much larger than her, and could break her ribs with a single, well placed kick if they so cared. Alais didn’t much care for these thoughts, though every now and then, she indulged in them. After all, they were a legitimate fear, or so that’s what she’d been telling herself.

It’s why she finds herself standing off to the side within that stable, eyeing the number of horses from the corner. The stable keep was within such a smelly building, babbling on about horses and their temperments. Which would best suit Alais’s needs, as such an inexperienced rider. Alais was only half listening, though, all the while edging back and away from those horrific beasts. She’d need to get over her fear sometime soon, though, since within the next few moments, she, too, would be mounting one of these fat, and terrifying beasts.

Her nose wrinkles at the thought, and a hand lifts to tease and tug upon the still prickly locks of her hair. She couldn’t wait until it began to grow out again, cutting it was probably a piss-poor idea. It’s not as though it were fooling anyone, after all.

“I believe this one would be best for you, given what you’ve told me!” the stable keep announces, and with his words Alais manages to pull herself from that wary stupor she’d been caught within, “Her name’s Maple!” Derrick announces, with a warming sort of smile. Within that moment the old man seemed like some sort of saint, bridging the gap between horrific beasts, and herself, attempting to coax both Alais, and Maple into some sort of calmed state. Soon enough the old man was waving her closer, only to lift the reigns from upon it’s hook, only to sling those leather straps about the horse’s massive face, settling the bit within her mouth.

Alais’s heart skips a beat. Could she truly do this? Could she ride a horse? Not to mention attempt to shoot an arrow while riding? She supposed that would come later in the training, though.

Still, the girl watched in awe as the man strapped the saddle upon the horse’s great back, before clicking his tongue and pulling the horse from within her stall, only to offer such up, in Alais’s direction. With a purse to her mouth, and a thinning to her lips, Alais takes up the reigns, her gaze falling first upon the beast’s massive face, before looking dumbly toward Derrick. She must seem dense within this moment. Still, she draws a breath inwards, and slips a single foot within the strap toward the horses side, before swinging herself upwards with a wary sort of grunt.

She felt a sense of satisfaction then and there, mounted on horse back, in fact, she began to truly feel the part! A grin spreads across her warm mouth, and the girl kicks her heels tenderly towards the beast’s sides, as previously instructed, urging the monster of an animal forth, and from within the stable. And once more, to her surprise Maple listens! Could this day possibly have gotten any better?

Not within this moment!

What now, though? With herself mounted and upright upon the horse, she lingers within the stable’s entryway, those light eyes of hers falling expectant upon the practice field. There was a small ring worn around the majority of such, obviously a path carved out by many other novices. She supposed that would be a good place to start, if nowhere else. So, with a click to her tongue, and another urging kick, the girl attempts to direct the horse in that direction, once more, she was met with success, and her chest swells with pride.

To think, all this time, she’d remained hesitant to mount one of those horrid beasts.

Her luck held up for a while, and the girl had even managed the old horse up to a casual sort of gallop. Equivalent to a jog, she supposes, and Alais had even mustered up the courage to lift her short bow from upon her back, though actually using it was still a long way’s away mentally. She was a decent archer, given that she’d only truly been taught by her father and brother both, and even that had been some years ago. Though that was all upon stable, and flat ground. Still, the temptation of seeing how she would faire upon horseback was all too tempting, and she, too young and cocky to deny.

So, with the horse still moving about that lazy loop with targets posed within the center, Alais reaches back to take an arrow from within her quiver. Nervousness flutters within her heart, and her thighs clasp upon that mount of hers, seeking to stabilize herself before bothering to lift her bow and knock her arrow. She truly hoped the Prince wasn’t looking upon within this moment. Despite all her confidence, the rational side of her nags at her - there’s no doubt within her mind that she’s not going to hit anywhere near any of those targets. Though knowing that young prince, he probably was somewhere about. He seemed to posess the ability to be everywhere at once, and never miss a thing.

Still, the girl draws a breath inwards, and tightens the string of her bow as she forces that arrow back, the joint of her thumb brushing to the apple of her cheek as she attempts to line her sight up with the target. Any of them, truly! She attempts to account for the movement of that horse, and with that, she lets the arrow fly. It’s a straight shot for the most part, though it seems she mis-aimed.

“Damn,” Alais curses under her breath, drawing another arrow from within her quiver, taking aim once more. The horse’s trot slows, before coming to a stop, head bowing to nibble idly upon the green grass near the edge of that worn path, “Hey!” Alais calls down to the moronic beast, frustrated, she gives it another quick kick to the sides, only to have the horse take off quicker than she’d expected. Neither hand was upon the reigns within the moment, and as such the girl flops dumbly toward the ground, tumbling to the horse and landing upon her side with a quiet grunt, breath pushed from her lungs.

Now she truly hoped the Prince wasn’t about, and the girl scans the perimeter for him. Of course, there he was, looking upon with mild disapproval, that was, until Alais hefted herself back, and onto horse back once more, to make another attempt at mounted marksmanship, it was then his expression changed, to something resembling admiration for her diligence. Though she could be wrong.

She’d be out here all damned day, if she had to be. She was determined to say the least of things.

Word Count: 1,175!
Notes: Hope I’m doing this right,
and all is well! This training thing is fun
to do, even if Alais does suck pretty hard
right now!

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Accepted!
This a really good first training post and im glad that you've allowed Alais room to improve.

The only thing to watch is the tense in which you write. We use past tense on Legends of Pendragon...so rather than "Her nose wrinkles" we would write "Her nose wrinkled" etc

Hope that makes sense and you may now update your signature/continue training when youre ready!

[Alais Olivia Strider]

Alais drew a breath inwards and held such. Her chest swells, and her arms shake with the effort of holding back that arrow, taking her sweet ass time to aim, all whilst the horse between her thighs strayed, and attempted to keep still with very little success. Her bad aim could mostly be attributed to this horses seeming attention disorder, though Alais wasn’t about to lay the blame all upon the horse itself. Despite what felt like years of practice now - but was probably more like weeks - Alais felt like she wasn’t improving.

In all truth, she was, more arrows laid within the dense center of those targets than in the ground surrounding them, but to be fair those had been fired from a nigh standstill, with the horse only swaying mildly beneath her feet.

She supposed by this point it was about time to amp it up, some, and once more, she brought the horse to a light trot, circling round and round, as the girl fired arrows. Some would consider it to be wild and erratic, and truth be told, it was. Though that didn’t seem to bother her too much, considering just how bad she’d been but weeks beforehand. In fact, she was quite proud of the few arrows which managed to sink deep within the thick padding of the targets.

Alais offered up a broad grin toward no one in particular as she brought that horse to a slow, and finally, a stop. Maple’s mismatched ears flop, and cock, whether she was swatting off flies, or listening to something which went unheard by Alais herself was unknown, and Alais preferred not to know. Whatever seemed to be distracting Maple was of no concern to Alais herself, as soon enough the girl dismounted what was soon becoming her faithful steed, and the girl found herself wandering to pluck up those arrows once more. There was no sense in putting any of these to waste!

So, with those arrows hoisted beneath her arms, Alais shrugged her quiver from upon her back, only to restock such. As the girl removes her quiver from her shoulders, another separate leather satchel toppled forth, falling towards the grass. It’d been something she’d completely forgotten about, within all these past weeks she’d been so focused upon being a decent archer, she’d completely forgotten about the other facets of her training. Swordsmanship, and knife work being amongst the no doubt many things she’d left to tackle.

Gods, what a pain this was becoming.

Still, Alais thought it was worth taking a stab at. After all, whether she liked it or not Alais had to learn all these skills. The girl drew a breath inwards, and holds such, even as she shrugs her shoulder back upon the lift of her shoulder before tucking her head back under that strap in order to keep such in place. With that done, Miss Strider tosses a quick glance toward Maple, whom seemed more than content with simply nibbling and tearing up the surrounding area’s grass. Alais wrinkled her nose, before giving a quick shake to her head. Animals tended to do what they wanted, after all, and sometimes it wasn’t worth attempting to stifle such.

Despite the trouble her current mount was getting into, Alais stepped back, a good measure away from the targets before she allowed for a single hand to quest for one of those handful of throwing knives. The girl pinched the blade between her thumb and forefinger, before she lifted such upwards. Once more Alais heald her breath before giving the blade a good fling. To her surprise, it hit the mark, though nothing that could deal considerable damage, and still, she felt her heart swell with pride, and a smile pull upon her features.

Alais wasn’t sure where she’d earned such a skill, perhaps I’d been within her youth, when she and her brother had gotten into fight after fight with one another. There was no doubt in Alais’s mind that things had been thrown between the two, though mostly on her end. Her brother had always been one for direct strikes, after all. Fisticuffs. He’d most definitely been a man’s man, even within his young age, and Alais had definitely earned a bruise or two within their day.

Still, that’d only been one of any number of knives wasted, though the next few came quick enough, each one punching within the target, or at least at the foot of such. Alais supposed that she’d be here for a while, and still, she’d be proud if the prince caught her training this time around. It seemed that the girl was better at knife throwing than she was at archery itself. This didn’t seem to bother, Alais, however, after all, she was only human, and as such, seemed to have her faults.

Whatever the case seemed to be, no one was about to knock the wide grin from upon her features within that moment. She was proud of how… competent the girl seemed to be becoming within these past few weeks.

Had she been asked a year beforehand, she’s not so sure where she would have been within these moments. She certainly wouldn’t have said within the prince’s army, learning how to fire bow and arrow like a proper man! Let alone doing such upon horseback. Then again, a year ago she wouldn’t have thought her brother would have been within some urn within her parent’s home.

Word Count: 915.
Notes: None, at the mo’.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Accepted again!
Another good post showing improvement in an interesting way.

Still be careful on the tense used though, i know a lot of sites work in the present tense or even dont specify, but our rules do state that we write in the past tense. Thanks!