No matter how long he stares at the upper spinning sphere, Arowe can gain no more than momentary glimpses of the emerald hidden inside. One, two, three, glimpse. One, two, three, glimpse.
As he watches the flickering orb, his mind drifts unbidden back to a time in the woods before they’d even discovered the Three-Quarterling’s secret garden or the Goddess Estrid's magical pool. Arowe recalls Sir Briefadel’s crass and needy display of his own skill. Surprised as he was at the time, Arowe realises that this shot will be every bit as difficult as Sir Briefadel’s using a heavy long-sword to slice the wings off a fly mid-flight.
Still, he has several of the Dryad arrows remaining in the quiver they’d supplied and he’s not even dipped into the magical one provided by the mystic merchant; Whackeem. With no time constraints, he can fire arrow after arrow at the tiny window of opportunity until he gets lucky.
Standing just clear of the stone doorway, Arowe raises his enchanted bow and, running his tongue along the leaf-feather flights of the first arrow he draws, he pulls taut his bow-string and releases.
It’s a good shot… A great shot! And the slender arrow flies true through the initial space, but then, before its tip can dislodge the gem, the spinning metal blades clash into its trailing shaft.
The background humming noise instantly intensifies at the point of contact and resounds back outward a hundred times louder. Unprepared, Arowe takes the blast full to the face and immediately tastes blood in his mouth..
So much for unlimited tries…
Nice little gotcha there.
ReplyDeleteNeed a short arrow or dart. But even that might be no good given the consequences of each failure.
Puzzling.
A regular sized arrow is near impossible.
ReplyDeleteA small arrow is more possible.
A sling stone the most possible.
Basic skill will make all the difference though.