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The knife flew through the air, end over end towards the box, but it struck short, the hilt striking the wooden box beneath is target. It fell to the ground, landing on a number of burlap scraps Elric had placed there to keep the knife from clanking around when and if it hit the ground. He wanted to practice in peace, not have people hear the metal against the stone and come looking to see what it was.
"Dammit," he said, walking to fetch the dagger. He picked it up and walked backwards to his spot once more.
"Alright Elric, a bit higher this time." Elric often talked to himself when he was frustrated.
He readied his body once more, trying to remember how he used to throw a hatchet at trees when he was a young boy. The technique was a bit different as a hatchet is must heavier and often its very weight carried it swiftly into a tree. The knife was much lighter and elric knew that if he wanted it to hit the target, he'd have to get more of an arc on his release, that is, release it higher so that it had further to move vertically down before it struck.
He placed the blade once more between his fingers and pulled his arm forward, throwing the knife. This time he took special care to release it further. The end result was the knife flying far too high and missing the target by almost the height of a candlestick over the top of the crate. The knife struck the wall behind the box, hit the box beneath and slid onto the burlap below. Elric walked towards it breathing heavily.
"Damn," he said, scratching his head.
He knew what had gone wrong and he picked up the blade, fixing the burlap below to ready another catch if need be. "You were too cautious Elric, you let it go too high," he thought to himself. And in deed that had been the case. He had let go of it too early, worrying about letting it go higher than the last time. The knife never moved forward with all that much force, just sort of arching into the wall behind the target.
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