The mid-July sun shone brightly over Camp Half-Blood, making the day hot and humid. The air felt oppressive, but it didn't stop the kids attending from enjoying their daily activities. Some campers were out in the lake swimming, while others were on the training obstacle course. Emeris sat on the grassy knoll just below the horseshoe of cabins. He looked out and felt the heat of the day bathe over him. He laughed as he saw the Aphrodite kids trying to coax the Ares kids into a game of chicken in the lake. He looked down to the archery range, some of his half brothers and sister were standing around with Chiron trying to help some other kids with their archery. He stood up and stretched and decided to walk down to the range to see if he could be of any assistance.
"Hey Chiron, everything going good down here?"
"Ah, Emeris, our resident archer," He said with half a chuckle, "yes, everything seems to be going quite all right. You're whole family is, as always, eager to help when it comes to archery. Would you want to give a demonstration to these young students?"
"Anytime." He turned to look at the group of 12 year olds. He reached down, and picked up the recurve bow off the ground. He then took a few arrows and placed them tip down into the ground in a grouping of five. He then looked to a brown haired girl to his side. "Amy, can you grab me a bracer please?" he asked with a smile. The lithe girl ran to the equipment rack and grabbed the leather arm guard and brought it back to Emeris. "Thank you." He fastened it to his arm. He raised the bow and gave a tug or two on the string and then started speaking. "This is a standard recurve bow with a draw weight of about 35 pounds. Should be enough for all of you. Now then, you take your arrow and nock it-place it on the string. Your other hand is gripping about center of the bow, and the arrow resting on top of your finger. You face your target, draw until the fletching -the feathers- are almost touching your cheek. Stare down the shaft of the arrow and line up your target, breathe out, and release." The arrow left the bow and flew seamlessly straight down to hit its target. "And that's really all there is to it. Now for the fun part." He took the next three arrows in the ground and in a rapid motion, shot them effortlessly at the same target. "Grand finale" he said with a smirk as he picked up the final arrow, and shot it with his eyes closed. The arrow split the first right down the center. The group of kids laughed and clapped. He smiled at Chiron before saying "All right, you all try now. I'll be sitting here if you need help or have any questions, but the number one rule is....Don't try the closed eyes trick just yet, we dont want another accidental death." He laughed as he sat on the fence surrounding the range watching the kids all running to get equipment to try archery.
