A people who with such friendliness, relaxed confidence, full of life and joy. Everyone here only ever thought of them as ugly but in truth they are more beautiful then the people here. Why, because there is absolute trust and faith in each other.
"I am afraid my mind is not changed, Jimbe" Ogaki said "I cannot deny that you have made archery into an art here in your garden. But this does not change the essential nature of the thing. Archery is what we call, A skill of killing, a way of death. It cannot be beautiful."
"I dot not understand you, Ogaki. You have said to me that your young people, even your young women, are trained to use a sword and bow. How can you call archery evil if you teach it to your children."
Rachels eyebrows twitch, and she heart her heart clench as she pulled a deep breath. Ise may be gone but the feelings linger. Archery was on of the few things other thing music that Ise was good at, her father was more then happy to teach his genius daughter.
"I do not say it is evil, I say it is not art, it is a necessity." Ogaki shrugged his shoulders "We are a peaceful people and we abhor killing, but our lands are rich, and we must be able to defend ourselves.
Our sons and daughters fight and hunt, and we honor them for it, but because we know what they endure to fulfill their duty, not because the hunting and killing are glorious things in themselves. To kill is to destroy, and destruction brings despair. That is why our people don not eat the flesh of domesticated animals. If we hunt wild animals, we give them a fair chance to escape, and in taking down a stag or a boar, we know we risk our own lives, too.
To destroy a tame animal that does not even know it may run and that trust the hand that spills its blood is sickening to us, as is all death." He his speech was passionate, some who listened had been touched…..However.
"Our greatest Warriors" Jimbe began
Are cynical to the core.
"Believe that they are already dead. They live as if their lives are over , and so fighting holds no terror for them"
Ogaki looked gravely at Jimbe "That, Jimbe, is one of the saddest things I have ever heard."
"I hesitate to disagree with such an honored guest, but it occurs to me that with such sentiments ruling their training, your warriors may struggle to defend your prosperous land. Should they ever need to."
Ogaki blinked slowly, his dark eyes glinting. When he smiled, he this time is wasn't as friendly. "You have been kind enough to provide a demonstration for me and my countrymen. Perhaps you would be interested in a demonstration of the way we train archers."
"You will shoot against me?" Jimbe asked, looking surprised but you could feel the air of mockery.
"Oh, no, no, I did not bring any weapon to your house. I did not think I needed them. Luckily, there is one among us who is still training and needed to carry his bow to practice.
"In training? Do you mean-" Jimbe broke off as someone new stepped out onto the veranda.
'Cassia' Rachel thought her eyes opened slightly with a gaze.
The boy who had the same sent as Kevin appeared. He wore leather breeches like the rest of his countrymen but his wiry muscles that flexed and bunched smoothly as she stepped down from the veranda to the grass.
Rachel felt her face grow red at her drifting thoughts, the only fantasies of that 'kind' where always of Kevin. 'He is not Kevin' Rachel remaindered herself 'And I am no longer Rachel'
The Boy had slightly longer hair now and he wasn't dressed in gold like his people, in fact no jewelry at all, save for a long leather thong around his neck that bore a piece of something made of bone or ivory, but it was carved into a beautiful crescent shape that seems to be the moon.
His back was marked, like his face, yet it had this strange feeling about them as if they weren't normal nor real.
"My Son, Tsiyi" Ogaki said proudly "He is just seventeen, so please excuse his technique. He still had much to learn."
Jimbe looked at the younger, slighter man and nodded affably. "Of course, none of us expected perfection from such a young person."
'I think her just triggered a flag' Rachel thought.
The boy 'Tsiyi' smiled, it was a fearless and reckless grin it was breathtaking. It was also not the expression of a boy who knows his mistakes will be forgiven but of a man who has an interest in winning, and every expectation of doing so. A competitive spirit
Jimbe, however, did not catch that grin as he was to busy directing servant to remove the arrows from the targets. "Come on now, Tsiyi" he said "Where is your bow? Surely you have not forgotten I"
"I have it here, Jimbe" And it was, in his left hand, just as if it had always been. It was tiny, not half the length of Jimbe's own prized bow, and with a sharp curve that bent it almost exactly in two.
Jimbe blinked "What a clever trick. An odd bow also seems strange. Please inspect it, if it interests you. There is no magic in it- I promise."
Jimbe took the unstrung bow and turned it over in his hands. "It is heavy" he commented giving it a shake as if he expected it to rattle.
Tsiyi tool his bow back from Jimbe, he had a coiled string in his hand. He quickly tied a figure-eight loop to one of the white nocks, and then pressed it to the ground, bending the bow so that he could slip the string over the other nock and loop it into place.
His companion gave him another string and he preceded to this string with what he did to the first. He said something to Tsiyi in another language making all of them laugh apart from Ogaki, who tapped Tsiyi shoulder.
Jimbe broke in a moment as he didn't like their laughter. "Such a small bow must have shorter range then we are accustomed to. It is not fair to expect Tsiyi to hit the targets as I have done. We will bring them closer.
"You are very good, Jimbe" Ogaki said, "But if my son Is to improve, it best for him to have targets which are a little to difficult for him rather than a little too easy."
"That is very true" The one who had given Tsiyi the string said "My father is wise. I Recommended we move the targets back another length"
"Brother!" Tsyiy said as he looked about to cut off his brother's head, but the man danced away lavishly before that could happen.
"Very well, we will move them back" Jimbe agreed as he nodded. Servant hurriedly doing his bidding. Jimbe eyes looked like he was calculating the odds of his own success at this very distance before smiling at Tsiyi bow.