Chapter 110 - A Hunter’s Senses

"Things seem to be going well with you and Wen," Feng Lieren said gently as he retrieved a pair of practice bows and a quiver of arrows, passing a bow with a single arrow over to Feng Xi. "Your mother said that you two looked like you'd been carried here on the backs of heavenly swans that wouldn't let your feat touch the ground when you got home earlier."

"I, I mean, we," Feng Xi stumbled, trying to find words to tell her father how things had developed between her and Ao Wen since the younger woman had awakened. "Father I know that…" 

"Xi'er, it's okay," Feng Lieren said, limping towards the firing line with his cane before setting it down to string the bow. "From the day you awakened, your mother and I said we would expect nothing from you but that you follow your own path. We're not waiting for grand children," he said, punctuating his statement with an arrow loosed through the rain toward the target twenty meters away. "We're not looking for someone to continue a family legacy," he continued, sending another arrow toward the target. "Your mother is a gardener, I'm a hunter, you're a musician, we never needed you to pick one of our path's to follow." Another arrow flew from his bow followed by a fourth. 

"Xi," he said, pausing his shooting to regard his flustered and fidgiting daughter. "Do you know what the smartest thing you all did when you fought the Rage Queen?"

"We chose our ground," Feng Xi answered without hesitation. "We positioned ourselves as we wanted to be and allowed the beast to enter the killing ground we prepared for it. But what does that have to do with," she began to ask, only to be silenced by her father's next comment. 

"Patience Xi, we'll get there," he said, loosing another arrow. "The smartest thing you did was killing ALL of her cubs before you fought her."

"You mean so we fought her alone?"

"No," the older man said with a shake of his head. "Because an enraged mother avenging her dead children is a half defeated foe and a frightened mother desparate to save her children, even if there's no hope, is twice the foe she'd be normally. You're an artist, you understand these things," he said, resuming his shooting, this time at a target thirty meters away. 

"As an artist, you use your art to figure out the complicated web of what people feel and how it interconnects," he explained. "As a hunter, we have to use other senses to do the same things. My eyes tell me when a beast is weary or weakened from hunger. My ears tell me when a wolf is snarling because it's afraid of me or because I should be afraid of it. Dozens of details will tell you which basic desire is driving a creature at any given moment," he said, punctuating his statement by loosing two arrows at two different targets before he turned to look at Feng Xi. "You think I can't tell the difference between a wolf cub worried about it's litter mate and a wolf queen worried about her mate? Xi'er, your eyes last night during Wen'er's challenge told me everything I needed to know about how your relationship with your childhood friend has changed. Your eyes, when you asked me to teach you the Tempest Heron Archery Method, weren't the eyes of someone who wanted to help a friend. They were the eyes of a person who had been powerless to protect a lover," he said softly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I've felt powerless a lot these past few years. I saw those eyes in the mirror more than I like. I don't want to see those eyes in you. Either of you. She looks at you the same way you look at her you know."

"I should have known," Feng Xi said, leaning into her father's touch and soaking up his warm affection. "Father's eyes always were the sharpest."

"One day, yours will be just as sharp, if not sharper," he said with a warm laugh and a gentle hug. "Which brings us to today's lesson," he added, stepping away from her. "Today, you won't be loosing any arrows, it's sufficient to hold one knocked on the bowstring with the bow undrawn. Here, help me back to my chair, I think I've stood all I can for now," he said with a frustrated shake of his head. He was stronger every day, each day drinking the morning and evening teas Ao Wen had prepared, drinking down an elixir with each meal, and accepting her acupuncture treatment in the middle of the day. It was luxurious treatment to receive so much dedicated care from such an accomplished alchemist and the speed of his recovery would stun most observers but for Feng Lieren, moments like this, when he couldn't stand through an entire lesson with his daughter, only made him yearn for time and healing to pass more rapidly. 

"Here, let me fetch you a blanket," Feng Xi said, helping her father into a waiting chair and ignoring his protests that he wasn't an invalid anymore to need protection from the slightest bit of autumn chill. 

"Okay, enough fussing," he finally said once Feng Xi had served him hot tea. "There are many ways to be an archer and a hunter, but the Tempest Heron Archery Method is one that requires you to strike from stillness. The winds can rage around you but you must be the calm at the eye of that storm. You must become so perfectly still that your prey will walk in front of your bow without even realizing you were there. When you loose your arrow, it won't be at prey who are fleeing from a predator, it will be at hapless targets," he said, gesturing to the targets he'd turned into pincushions moments prior. "Targets that didn't know there was a threat to be on guard about until the moment your arrow arrives to claim their lives."

Feng Xi had seen her father do this many times. When she was a young child, he'd delighted in all but vanishing before her eyes only to startle her moments later with a loud "ha!" Actually doing it, however, had always eluded her. "How?" she asked simply.

"As an artist, you learned to control your heart. As a warrior, you control your body. That begins with breathing and energy flow," he explained. Reaching out with his cane, he tapped several of her acupoints and traced along three of her meridian pathways in a specific sequence. "That's the path for your breath and energy to follow. First, practice the circulation of energy, it's okay to close your eyes. Once you have that, we'll work on keeping still with an arrow knocked and your bow held at your side. Be patient," he advised. "You have all the time you need."