Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

Part II - Cosmetics Goddess: 34. Bending the Bow

Thunk!

Cui Xi frowned at the target, clenched her jaw, and kept running. She'd hit further off the centre than she would have liked, but her head was not in it and she knew it.

Zhao Ling Xian you bastard! I wish it were your head!

Gritting her teeth, she continued running, avoiding the slicker sections where the fallen leaves were mashed into the ground, creating a slippery sludge.

Haaah. In truth...I'm so embarrassed and he didn't deserve that...Ugh..Focus...Focus!

"Mistress, fighting*!" Xiao Hei called encouragingly from behind her. She grunted, ducking around a bush and carefully picked her way down the rocky part of the path. It was muddier here. The summer had given way to autumn, spraying the mountain side with the red gold fire, but that also meant rain and soon it would also mean snow.

It was her suggestion to set up the mountain path like an obstacle course for training. Tired of standing in front of targets, she thought that going out would improve her mood, but she was beginning to regret this because her general conditioning wasn't great. She did her dance practice every day and she was practicing moves with her ring, but she would have to build her endurance. However, her bow skills had definitely moved beyond mere target practice. The next logical step was to learn to shoot on the move, and thus far Xiao Hei had been proving himself an excellent teacher.

It also made a difference that she had insisted on having a bow made just for her height and draw ability. She'd discussed trying to design a compound recurve bow with Xiao Hei and although he understood the cams and pulleys in principle, they weren't able to find materials that suited the design. In the end, the failure still grated on her. As the bow was smaller than average to fit her size, it's lethal force and range were reduced. She could make this up with weight training and move to a longer bow, but it would be hard to get accuracy at full draw given her small frame. But I still have time to improve.

Crunch.

She jerked her head towards the sound.

"Mistress...I'm going to investigate..." Xiao Hei's voice floated from behind her and was caught by the breeze.

"Alright."

Jogging forward, she saw two targets close to together and aimed as she ran.

Thunk, thunk!

Ah...dead centre.

Pushing through some branches, Cui Xi was panting slightly as she entered into a clearing.

She turned her head to the left and then froze as she saw a fully grown stag, horns majestically rising from his head. Nostrils flared as the stag's liquid black eyes widened to white. Oh no! It's the middle of the rutting season...!

Cui Xi drew three arrows, nocked, and loosed just as the stag began its charge, and then jumped out of the way as the beast reached her far faster than she had anticipated. Three arrows thunked into a tree across the clearing.