Page 28 of Mage of the Dragon Prince
The arrow hit a little off-center, but it was an improvement over his previous attempts. Vanra cheered his success.
Kitaro provided him with another arrow. “Use your powers this time.” He remained pressed close to the mage as he readied his next shot.
Vanra called his powers into the arrow. He fired it straight into the center of the target near Kitaro’s arrow, the glow of his spiritual energy disappearing upon impact. “I did it!”
“Well done.” Kitaro gave Vanra another arrow and stepped away to see if he could replicate it without assistance. It surprised him how he missed the way their bodies felt being close to each other.
Although it wasn’t dead center, Vanra’s next shot still hit the target.
It was time to take things a step further. “This time, we shall see if you can do it without looking.”
“Huh?” Vanra’s eyes went wide when Kitaro produced a blindfold through his dragon magic. “What are you doing?”
“Sometimes you must fight at nightfall without the aid of fire or the moon,” Kitaro explained as he tied the blindfold over the human’s eyes. “This will be good training for firing at things you cannot see.”
“Even if I can’t see an enemy, I can still feel their presence,” Vanra argued. “How am I supposed to hit a target I can’t feel, let alone see?”
Kitaro walked over to stand behind the target. “Then use me as your reference point.”
“I’m not firing at you! It would purify you!”
“You will not harm me,” Kitaro assured him. “Although your spiritual abilities are strong, it would take far more than a single arrow to rid this realm of my presence.”
“While I have no doubt about that,” Vanra agreed, “I’m not comfortable taking that chance.”
“Then fire without using your powers.”
Vanra scowled. “Yeah, but then I’ll miss.”
“Then you miss,” Kitaro retorted, amusement coloring his tone. “You are not being scored on your accuracy.”
The mage seemed to have a momentary debate between the merits of using his powers or not to guide the arrow into connecting with the target. “Do you promise you’ll avoid my arrow if I miss?” Vanra asked in an uncertain tone.
“You have my word, on my honor.”
Vanra pulled the bow up and notched the arrow into place. It took him a moment to aim as he called his purifying power into the arrow before releasing it.
The arrow connected with the target. Vanra lifted the blindfold to see how he did. His expression lit up with pleasure at seeing his latest arrow still within the center ring. It was close to the edge borderline of the second ring of the target, but it still counted.
“I can’t believe that actually worked!”
“You did well,” Kitaro praised him. “Your training as a mage has made you well suited to being an excellent pupil.”
“I don’t know about that.” Vanra laughed. “Don’t get me wrong. I love reading, but Ihatedstudying. The canonical texts were always so dry, and the scholars at the temple rarely made it interesting. I was always happiest running around outside or reading under a tree.”
“I shall endeavor to keep things interesting, then.”
“Then I will look forward to it.”
Kitaro picked up the arrows and collected the bow from Vanra before putting them back in their rightful place on the wall. “Come, let us go to dinner.”
Vanra hesitated. It wasn’t hard to guess what his fear was.
“Mitsuki takes a late dinner, so we should be spared his presence tonight,” Kitaro told him.
“What about your father?”
“He is the same. They use the time to strategize. It is why I do my best to avoid the dining hall around those hours.”
