Aim for the Middle [private]

[Elric van Maer]

Second Month of Summer, Era XIV - Second Week

The alleyways of Vortex are at best dingy. The very dirt on the walls had collected dirt. While the upscale of the city wouldn't be seen in such areas, the underworld characters of the city could find no better place to conduct their business. At darkening there was no darker place than the alleyways of Vortex. It was as if the dirt on the brick helped hold shadows in place, making pitch dark darker than ever.

During the brightening it wasn't much safer, but at least one could see what was ahead of them. And ahead of Elric was a little target he had fashioned on a wooden crate. He had drawn it out of chalk and stacked the wooden crate on top of others until it was about chest high. This would be his practice block, his "opponent."

He hadn't practiced throwing his knife in some time, but this brightening he had given himself time to do just that. Elric stood back eight feet, a distance he had considered to be ample considering his prior minor experience, and pulled out his dagger from his boot. He left Shadow's Edge at his side because a kris was not a thrown weapon. With his luck he'd throw the kris and hit a wall, breaking the sharp point of the deadly blade.

He turned the dagger around in his hand and looked down at it. The simple weapon was nothing special, just a basic blade on a wooden hilt. It was incredibly sharp, though sharp enough to plant it in a wooden box. Nor was the dagger perfectly balanced. More or less, Elric was practicing throwing the knife because it was what he had to throw. Sure he could have purchased throwing knives, but he was kind of fond of the old blade. He had owned it since he was a young lad and had grown quite attached.

He put his left foot in front of his right and placed the dagger in is right hand. He took it by the tip of the blade as he had seen others do and held the knife up at a ninety-degree angle. His plan was simple... bring his arm down in a throwing motion and let the knife go directly in front of him, so that with the power he put into it, it would fly directly at the box. He winded up and from the waist up, moved to throw the knife.

[Elric van Maer]

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.

[Elric van Maer]

"Alright, here we go." He did his best to boost his own moral.

Elric readied himself once more, realizing that he had to find the groove, the zone where he could let it go comfortably and at least strike the target. In essence, Elric was looking for the sweet spot, a rhythm where he could count on the blade striking the target. Only from there could he then practice his aim. He raised the dagger to a more or less proper height and flung it forward, letting go of it in a more precise motion. The dagger flew end over end into the target, striking the middle of it with the hilt. It made a thud against the wood and crashed into the burlap below.

Elric stood speechless. While he was glad there had been some positive advancement, he didn't understand what he had done wrong to have it strike on the wrong end. He thought about it for a moment and decided what he needed to do was throw the knife much harder, giving it more rotations. Only then, Elric thought, would it strike the target correctly.

"Alright Elric," he said to himself as he huffed, bending over and picking up the dagger. "Just throw it harder."

He walked back to his spot, annoyance surging in his veins. He had only just begun and already Elric was ready to take a break over a tall mug of ale. Still, he knew he wouldn't get any better unless he kept it up. Elric turned to face the target and lifted the knife once more. He readied his elbow and then threw it forward, this time much harder. The dagger flew through the air, making a hissing noise as it traveled. Then it crashed into the box just below the target hilt first, causing the boxes to tumble over and crash onto the ground.

"Seriously?" he shouted loudly.

[Elric van Maer]

He briskly walked up to the knife, grabbed them off of the burlap scraps on the ground and walked away, leaving the boxes laying around. He was breathing fairly heavily from frustration and took to talking to himself and the dagger, whichever he was ready to blame during his monologue.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit... damn knife!" He palmed the blade, the knife projecting from the bottom of his palm. With that, he turned quickly to his right and flung the knife outward behind him in a rush of frustration. "Stupid knife!" he screamed as he did so.

Then he turned away and looked to the ground, kicking a puddle beneath his feet. He stood for a short moment until it hit him. There had been no clanking sound after he'd thrown the knife. Where had it gone? Or did he just miss the sound because of his anger? Elric turned around quickly and looked straight ahead, his jaw dropping as he caught sight of the spectacle before him.

The knife had penetrated the grout in the wall, its blade sticking a third of the way in, the hilt perfectly perpendicular from the point of contact. He had accidently thrown a perfect throw. It hadn't been how he planned it, or even the form he had been practicing, but it had worked and all Elric wanted to do was yell in victory. Unfortunately for him, he was in a back alley in Vortex, calling too much attention to oneself was simply stupid of you.

Had he discovered the method my which he could throw a knife? Only more tries would tell. Elric retrieved the knife and walked back to his spot. Instead of turning away from the way entirely, he simply face north, his chest perpendicular with the wall. Then he placed the knife in his palm face down as he had before. But before he tried to emulate his prior technique, it hit him that he didn't have anything to throw the knife at. The wall had been a lucky shot, but next time it would likely break the blade.

He broke from his stance and picked up the boxes, placing the box with his self-drawn target on top just as he had it before. Then he went back to his spot, turned north, and palmed the dagger. He turned only his head to face the box and then positioned his hand with the knife in front of his abdomen. He brought it up in front of his chest and took a deep breath. Then with a quick motion, he flung it towards the box, releasing it by spreading his fingers out as if waving.

[Elric van Maer]

Elric refused to blink. The dagger left his hand and flew blade forward toward the target. He connected with the wood towards the outside of his target, planting the blade into the wood and causing the dagger to come to a stop. He had done it, he had done it on purpose! Yes, Elric had finally been able to throw a knife somewhere on purpose and it actually hit like it was supposed to.

"Yes, yes yes," he said to himself as he walked over to the box and pulled from it his dagger. "Yes."

Then he hurried back to his position and repeated what he had done before, facing his chest north and holding the knife just in front of it. With an outstretched arm and fingers, he flung the dagger towards the target. With a quick thud it struck his target once more, this time closer to middle. Elric celebrated inside.

The technique didn't seem as gentle as the other, but it was effective none the less. He could fling the blade from his palm, which was quite a stealthy throw, but it took a lot of arm movement and force. Also, Elric knew he couldn't throw it but so far with this technique. Again, he wasn't concerned, after all this brightening he had finally done what he was starting to think would never happen. He had been victorious. It was time to practice some more.

[Elric van Maer]

Elric took his dagger and ran back to his spot. Then he turned the other way from his target and walked a step or two. He was acting like a casual passerby and then with a quick motion, he turned, his chest facing north and unleashed the dagger from the palm of his hand. It flew through the air blade first and struck the very upper left of the target.

Elric breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't missed and then smiled, mentally patting himself on the back for having landed the hit. He grabbed the knife and returned to his spot, throwing it in a similar fashion four more times until he was able to hit inside the large ring that made the outside of his target drawing. It represented the chest of an opponent and at the moment Elric was consistently planting a knife in someones collar bone.

"Hey boy," a voice said quietly.

Elric, who had just retrieved his knife spun around quickly to find a thin, scraggly man in his mid-thirties leaning against the wall near his throwing spot. "Yeah?" Elric asked suspiciously.

The man shurgged and shook his head from side to side. "Whoa there, don't be giving me no stink eye. I'm not here to rob ya or anythin'. Just heard somethin' back here, so I came to see what was going on like."

Elric nodded and pointed to his drawn target. "Just practicing a bit is all," he said plainly, holding the dagger in his palm.

"So I noticed, not a bad shot ya got there either, eh?" He grinned a somewhat toothy smile, showing a few gaps. "Ya know, I can show ya a thing or two 'bout throwin' knives."

Elric was interested, but still cautious. He knew the criminal rogue type, he was doing his best to be one, and being on one's guard was first and foremost the law of the streets. "Alright." Elric said plainly, waiting to see what this man was up to.

The stranger walked over towards Elric's spot, marked by a rock on the ground. "I'm Brenson by the way, I do business round here. Ain't nobody round here that ain't heard of ole' Brenson."

[Elric van Maer]

Brenson, as he was called, pulled his long black coat to the side. Visible on the inside was a set of long, thin metal knives. The knives had no handles and Elric immediately recognized them as throwing knives. Brenson pulled one out with his long, skinny fingers and held it up in front of him.

"Uh, boy, you might want to move."

With that Elric backed up and watched the man closely. With a quick flick of the wrist, Brenson tossed the knife straight up in the air above him and then caught it by its blade. He pulled back his arm and with an effortless forearm motion he released the knife. It flew so fast Elric only saw it leave his fingers and then heard the "twang" of it hitting the wood target right next to the bullseye.

Elric walked over to the knife as it vibrated in the wood. "Whoa," he said, looking back to Brenson.

"As you can see," Brenson said with a grin, "I ain't no stranger to throwin' knives. Been doing it fer patterns in fact. Not really sure why I ever started, but learned I sure did."

Elric pulled the knife from the crate, feeling the cold naked steel in his palm. He walked back to Brenson and handed it back to him. "Nice knife," he said with a grin. "I got this thing." Elric showed the man his cheap dagger, knowing that in comparison to the man's throwing knives it was complete and utter waste.

"Yeah, I saw. Well, if that's what yer gonna be throwin', don't worry 'bout no throwing knives. You can throw that thing just find, just gotta find the spot, ya know?"

Elric did know. "Yeah, I found the spot."

"Yeah, if you turn your body all awkward or if yer facing the other way. I can help you throw it straight on if ya'd like?" Brenson motioned to Elric to hand him his dagger and stand aside.

Elric handed it to the man and stepped far enough away to watch Brenson's motions, hopefully learning a thing or two from the veteran knife thrower.

"What you gotta do is simple. This knife isn't balanced, ya know? So ya need to hold it by the blade, but not the tip like with a balanced knife. You need ta hold it further up see." He demonstrated his hold, similar to what Elric had done at first but further up the blade. "The trick is letting go before ya cut yerself, but you'll get used to that real quick."

He held the knife out in front of him, bent his arm back and flung it forward, releasing the knife. It flew end over end eventually striking the target near the center and making a "twang" sound.

"There ya go, now you try."

[Elric van Maer]

Elric did as the man suggested and took his position. Brenson returned the dagger to him and Elric placed it in between his fingers further up the blade. Then he held it out in front of him as he had done and seen Brenson do before. With his right foot in front of his left, Elric leaned and brought his forearm forward, releasing the knife.

A quick and sharp pain ripped through his hand as he let go of the knife. "Damn!" he said, bringing his hand to his mouth.

"It got ya didn't it?" Brenson asked with a smile, "Well... let us see." He looked at Elric's hand, noticing a small slice near the base of his thumb. "Ah yeah, barely got ya, I wouldn't worry 'bout that. And hey, look..." he pointed to the target.

There, towards the middle of the target, Elric's dagger hung in the wood like a trophy deer on a hunt. Even through the pain he smiled as Brenson patted him on the back. "Good shot mate, now let's do it once more, but this time don't cut yerself eh?"

Elric nodded and took the knife from Brenson who retrieved it quickly. He lined up once more and held the dagger just so. Bending his arm back, he looked to Brenson and then at the target.

"Yeah, good. Alright, make sure to let your wrist do the work like it did before. You're a natural at that it seems." Brenson motioned for Elric to throw the knife.

Elric pulled his arm forward, releasing the knife without a hitch. The blade flew through the air, finally resting in the wooden target even closer to the middle than before. Elric smiled.

"Good," said Brenson, patting Elric on the back. "Glad I could help ya out a bit. See ya around boy."

Elric thanked him and watched as Brenson disappeared down an alley. He grabbed his dagger from the target and slid it into his belt at his waist. He was done and needed to wash the blood from his hand. This had been a good brightening for throwing knives.

[Kalinda]

+1 XP in Dagger Throwing!