Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ter accepted the woodened sword with one hand and moved first to set the bigger sword aside that he had brought with him before slithering over to the wrestling mat that the teacher had pointed out, getting there after Chath. He held the sword in one hand testing it then with two then back to one, he was sure it could be used with either one or two hands. He left himself uncoiled so that he could move easier, be able to striked. Time to see how good these swords really were since he had one and the other boy had one as well.

Baroness moved so that she would get a better view of the class before laying down on her belly, the 'hands' on her wings crossing in front of her and her tail swished back and forth. This should prove to be interesting she thought to herself, a pair of swordsman... swordsboys battling it out. She flicked out her tongue seeming to imitate the way that Ter flicked his out before turning to look curious at Chath's dragon, interested in Keir since her partner was playing swords with Baroness' own.

So much hustling and bustling all around, so much activity, Sahra could barely keep up. All this talk of weapons was starting to get on her nerves, though, she was starting to tire of it; but how could she? Well, when you've been raised by a woman who never talks about much else other than weaponry, then you're bound to get feed up with it sometime.

The feline's green eyes studied Turner, nodding off at all of her comments and concerns, she came to an immediate conclusion as to what she was going to end up doing.

It just hit her; she had held back her words from Gabby in respect for the teacher, and she had forgotten to speak back to the crazy-eyed girl. "Sorry Sis," She mumbled to Gabby in her ear, as she took the bow from Turner, nodding obediently, and was dragged off towards the targets. "I'm getting caught up in the moment, again, I guess." Sahra admitted, setting her own bow and arrows off to the side before padding to the proper position in front of a target.

The cat girl ran her fingers along the bow she had been given, her way of testing it out prior to actually shooting it. She had to say, it didn't feel to bad. At least the teacher was allowing her to stick to ranged weapons, thank the heavens, she didn't care much for melee combat. Looking at the bright side, maybe she could just pull some new threads of knowledge out of this session. Hm, yes, she needed to straighten herself up and concentrate.

"Ready for this G-Bird? I don't think it'll be to bad," Turning her gaze towards the brightly coloured bird, Sahra shot her sister a look of sheer devious nature, showing her sharp jagged white teeth in an increasingly large grin.

After rolling up the sleeves of her beige sweater, Sahra adjusted herself in the way of foot placement. Her green skirt and complicated leg adornments hopefully wouldn't get in the way of her shooting.

"Rrr, Yes." Ephrem was alert, head turning from side to side so fast, that it almost seemed inhumanly possible. But he wasn't human! Or anything like it, not that he was sure if that's what that sort of expression really meant or not. "This is going to be fun to watch." He spoke with a husky tone, jaw clamping together. "Come on Sil; let's follow Gabber-jaw and Srra."

And after he went, taking up refuge next to his partner's own bow, he wrapped his lanky 'tail' around the prized object protectively, awaiting the company of his kin, Silenias.

Okay focus. Sahra told herself, spreading out her legs, toes pointed forward, and turning so her left side was toward the target. This should be interesting.

Turner decided to start with the girls while the boys got to know each other and quickly discerned that Sahra already knew how to hold the weapon properly, and hit the target. Pulling down a longbow from the rack, Turner pulled it back, and shot an arrow that landed rather close to the center. She was no markswoman, but hey, one couldn't be master of everything, right?

"Y'two simply need to practice, by the end of this lesson, I want y'hitting within the middle three rings, okay? Gabby, take your cues from Sahra, she knows what she's doing."

Another, slower demonstration of technique, and she picked up a real sword only several inches longer than Terpsichore's, striding onto the mat, and unsheathing it.

"Terpsichore. Did you know that a rattlesnake has a longer striking range than a cobra? It's simply because naturally, a rattlesnake coils to attack, and can launch it's body further with more force. See, a snake doesn't know that. But you? You do now. So, use that to your advantage. Coil up a bit when striking for maximum force and damage, eh?"

A quick grin and she settled into a stance, slowly running through four offensive postures, and three defensive ones.

"Y'two aren't actually going to get into a real tussle. Can't trust y'to do that properly yet. And it wouldn't be too interesting to watch. That'll be for later classes. However, I do want you to take turns with defense and offense, and practice blocking and striking. As you can see, the third defensive pose is good for blocking both the first, and fourth offensive strikes."

With that, she stepped back, and raised her eyebrows.

Gabby watched Turner aim for the target and shoot with widened eyes. “Oh wow!! Almost in the middle ring miss Turner!” She exclaimed, now thrilled to (literally) give it a shot herself. “Ah, yes, I will watch Sah!” She nodded.

“You’re always dazing off in the middle, you silly Sah-la!” Gabby whispered giggly, “Good thing you know all about bows already! Unlike, uh me!” She grinned widely and tried to mimic Sarah’s pose. It was so much harder than it looked and grabbing an arrow while standing like that wasn’t an easy task either. When she had finally succeed, Gabby pulled her arm back, like she saw Turner do, and let go. There was some sort of soft plop and the lovebird glanced around—no it was not in one of the targets— then looked up before she finally gazed down to the ground, where she found the arrow in front of her feet. She quickly picked it up and grinned to herself while she prepared for shooting again. No worries, first shots were supposed to go wrong! She wouldn't let something like that discourage her.

After six more tries five of the arrows laid scattered on the ground, but one of them stuck out near the edge of one of the targets. “I got it!!” She screamed while she burst into giggles. “Haa, look what I did, Sah! I got one of them! I got one actually in!! Sil look!” She beamed at the arrow.

Silenias eyed Re with a mingled expression. He didn’t really feel up to following the two girls, they could see everything perfectly fine from there as well. He knew Gabby and he knew her overly enthusiastic nature all too well and that fact combined with a bow and arrows made him want to watch from a little distance. But ahh well, if Re was going, besides maybe he could somehow be of help. By bringing back the arrows, maybe? Ha!

"A coiled strike?" He mused to himself before nodding, and slithered back, his long body coiling up and he shifted them, yes he could see where he could get more power like this, a bit like a spring. He then lifted up the sword he'd been given shifting it back and forth between his hands to get used to its weight and see where he preferred holding it. Then nodded as he found it more comfortable in the hand he wrote with, which was his left.

He then gave Chath a smile, "Ready?"

Gabby stopped practicing for a moment to watch Sahra. Her sister seemed so concentrated and she managed to hit the target each time! Gabby snapped back to reality because of Sil, who was gnawing on the laces of her skirt to gain her attention. “Oh yeah, yeah Sil, you’re right! I should continue practicing, or I’ll never hit the middle circle!” She giggled, cleared her throat and then turned sideways again. Focus.

She had to try going slower, or that was what Sah had said. She took her time to fix on the target and then slowly let go, watching as the arrow landed somewhere around the second circle. Wow, Sah had been right! Of course she had been, her sister was so good with things like this. Not that that was a weird thing, with the weapon-obsessed mom she had. “Wouldn’t know what to do without you Sah-la!”

More of her arrows now actually reached the target. Of course her ability to focus wasn't perfect and she was still missing every now and then, but that was becoming rarer and rarer as she practiced. After seven or eight more hits she clapped her hands together, the bow dangling on her elbow. “I love shooting with a bow, it’s so much more fun than I thought! We should go practice with Mew sometime too!!” She declared, beaming while she turned to Sah.

After finally managing to steady herself, and keep her body from consistently shaking, Sahra managed a decent shot. "That's better," She praised herself in a whispering tone, as the wind whipped through her shoulder length hair.

After shooting a few more arrows, this last one she had just shot had landed on the outer edge of the ring bordering the middle of the target.

"I see," The cheetah rambled to herself, "I merely need to relax and take care not to be so tense." She nodded to herself, as if conducting a royally important conversation. Her fingers gripped the bow tightly, claws digging into the soft wood of the bow; she held an arrow out and yanked it back.

Sahra breathed in deeply, and then out in the same way. She closed one eye, as she had once seen her mother do, tilted her bow slightly to the left, and shot with a decent amount of precision.

The arrow itself had landed a bit closer to the inner most rings, but not quite there. It was better than she had been doing as-of-late, she felt relieved.

"What?" Sahra asked, her voice hoarse, she almost seemed shocked. "Why would you want to practice with my mother? That's something I don't think I could ever unleash upon you." Huffing, she dug her heels down into the floor. How could anyone be so insane?

"Why don't we just concentrate on getting along in this class," She suggested, purposely throwing the bird off topic, as if stalling. "Then we can practice together later."

But Mew was fun! Gabby thought that Sah’s mom was awesome. She was rather stern and maybe a little weird, but she knew a lot about bows..eh and all other weapons for that matter. Ah well, going out to practice (aka going out exploring!) with Sah alone was going to be fun as well. “Okay! We should go into the woods sometime and then we can..” she trailed off, bit her bottom lip and quickly twirled around, looking for Miss Turner. Oh phew, hopefully she hadn’t caught them talking. Sah was right, she had to concentrate now and not talk so much. “Okay, I will focus now, really Sah-la, I will! Your so distractive though, I always want to blab when I’m with you.” She giggled happily as her gaze drifted towards the other side of the classroom.

The two boys were starting their practice as well and Gabby felt the slight urge to stop shooting and just watch them for a bit. “Nono, Sil! Don’t gnaw on me, I’ll practice!” She yelped as she firmly grasped the bow again and grinned at the Silver with her.

She turned her attention back to the target once more. Focus, pull back and let go. The arrow landed near the second ring. She hadn’t hit the inner ring yet, but at least she wasn’t missing regularly anymore now! Gabby saw that she was almost through her pile of arrows. She carefully took the last one from the ground and prepared to shoot once more.

((OOC: I know you said we could only post once between Turner's comments, but I figured that it'd be okay since it was only postponed till sunday. And since there is the 7 post minimum to pass, cha! XD))