Thanatyr
Member
Unterrichten der Mischling
1,151 words
Takes place prior to the PMs
“Nein! Do it again!” Avelina barked at her second cousin, her German words carrying far through chill air of the woods. She kicked a near by rock into the bushes out of frustration.1,151 words
Takes place prior to the PMs
She wasn’t the only one frustrated at the lack of progress. For three days now Edward had been backpacking in the wilderness in the name of training, and every time he was stopped to check on his bow manifestation it was the same. The silver cross dangled off his arm, and the arms of the bow swayed with the pendant. He still wasn’t used to trying to create nothing, and aim projectiles he couldn’t feel.
This last time his arrow shot wide of the pine tree with a target scratched onto it. Some hapless birds were scarred away from the foliage to the far right. At this range, he thought, a target a quarter the size of the one he was aiming at would be easy to hit with his rifle.
Guns are unbecoming of a proper quincy! Avelina had insisted. Bow, crossbow, or nothing at all for a quincy. Manifesting a bow was essential to his training, and then he could toy with the form later. That was assuming, of course, that his arrows could find their mark first. Learning to gathering energy to create the bow took up most of their first day. At first the arms of his bow were barely twelve inches on either side of his hand. Now the arms stretched more properly, if not very shaky.
“Enough of that,” Avenlina sighed forcefully, “try a hirenkyaku, like how I showed you. Show me how much you’ve learned since yesterday.”
If Ed’s bow was rough, trying to accelerate at breakneck speeds in a straight line was nearly impossible. Everywhere he looked around were collision hazards and various ways to get a bloody nose once the slide was properly messed up.
“I’d rather do it over at that meadow,” Edward spotted a patch of clear green that mirrored his eye color, “just in case, of course.”
He began to walk that way, only for her to flash directly in his path. Her blue eyes showing she had reached the limits of her patience.
“No, you get no more shortcuts. No more safe hand holding. Not today.”
She pointed straight down the hiking trail which was smooth enough from years of foot steps through the forest. All with just a dash of root sticking up to break an ankle if a foot caught wrong. Her gloved arm tensed, ready to force the point home with the solid bow he had only seen once. Definitely a better trick than the energy formation created by the cross around his wrist, but far more advanced a technique.
“Alright, you win,” he sighed. Eying over the terrain, Edward quickly surmised the most hazard free path. Collecting the energy that permeated the area the half-breed spread the reiatsu along the soles of his feet. With a sensation akin to ice skating down a bobsled track he felt his body surge forward at breakneck speeds.
Ed hoped mid transit that this would be minus the breaking of necks. And then his footing slipped at the end of the trail where it started to curve to the left. Flying head over heals through the underbrush, right into a small creek that still carried the chill of winter.
“Oh fuck!” the shock of the icy water made his hair stand on end. Wading back to the shore and Avelina, who was currently bent over with laughter, Ed found strength enough to climb out of the water.
“You still have a lot of work ahead of you, Mischling!” her words carried disdain.
Ever since learning that Ed was her sole living relative, and that his mother wasn’t also a Quincy, she began referring to him as ‘mishling’. He knew enough German to know it meant mongrel, and that she was saying it as an insult. But also knew that he needed her tutelage. Without her, who would he speak to in order to learn how to be a bow toting wonder working within Orpheus? The Initiative was another sore point with Avelina, Edward had learned soon into meeting his cousin. She only cursed them out once after the name was brought up, and refused to hear about them again.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m still bastard with the purist bloodline that you know!” he stammered through sharp breaths.
“You really are,” she conceded with a smile. But not the cruel drill instructor smile that Ed had grown to know over the last few days. Her hand extended to help him to his feet.
“So,” she spoke on their way on the way back to camp, “I’ve come to realize that you’re hopeless with a basic energy bow. At the same time, you’re too green to even think about attempting more advanced training methods. Because of that, I think that I’ve come up with a solution suitable for you. A bastardized quincy bow-gun, sort of. Remember how I told you to leave your rifle at home?”
“Yeah...” Ed looked over at his cousin with concern, “wait, you hate guns, why are you bringing that up now?”
“I brought it with us, and made a few adjustments in case you really were hopeless.”
Rage began bubbling up in Ed’s heart. How dare she deface an heirloom, the only thing that really that connected him to his father? Silently he resolved to beat her with the remnants of the firearm should it no longer be useable. That single thought abated any outbursts along their walk back up the trail to the camp.
Avelina pulled out a familiar gun case from her own tent. Within laid the relatively unmarred KAR-98K.
The only real change Edward could see on the gun he knew better than his own body was a slot on the butt. A slot perfectly shaped for the pendant currently dangling off his wrist. Without even being asked he pulled the silver star off the chain and took his rifle into his hands. The wood parted before clicking softly around the folds in the metal.
Bracing his rifle on his shoulder, Edward went through to calling up his bow. Pleasantly, the energy arms of his quincy bow sprung just in front of the forestock.
“Thank you,” he said earnestly.
“Yeah, yeah, thanks all you want. Try to hit this can!” Avelina threw a soda can into a high arc quite suddenly.
Following the can as if it were a skeet target, Ed mentally went through the motions of creating and firing an arrow. The whole process felt more natural this way for whatever reason. A single energy arrow erupted from the muzzle before splitting the ca into several pieces.
“So what else do you want to show me this weekend?” he smiled at his cousin. Things were finally getting interesting.