5 Throwing Practice

While traveling, I came across what seemed to be an abandoned camping site. Probably used by the hunters in the past. I decided to search it, and the area around. 'Maybe I will be able to find some useful things, at least useful to me' I thought.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to be found. I could only continue on with my journey. In the afternoon, I took a break for some dinner, as well as in order to create the bag from the wolf's skin.

Making a simple bag, was not that difficult really. I already had a large piece of wolf's skin, the only thing I lacked was the vines. I quickly gathered some and began my work on the bag. The first step was to make holes inside the piece of skin. Using my knife, I made a few holes on the edges of the skin, and moved on to the next step. It wasn't easy to weave the vines through those holes, but I managed somehow after a bit of fiddling. weave the vines through. A few knots later, the bag was ready. The bag came out quite nice. I could open and close it with the use of the vines. This meant, I wouldn't need to worry about anything falling out. I also had two longer vines attached, which served straps that I could put over my shoulder. Other than that, the bag looked a bit like a pouch used for money, with the exception of size.

The bag wasn't as shabby as my shelter from last night. It could hold couple of things, like berries…. Stone. I didn't have many possessions on me, but the bag would prove useful in the future. Before leaving, I decided to practice throwing the wooden spears I created earlier. I only had five of them. 'That should be enough, I can always make more if need be' I thought. Using those wooden spears to hunt a rabbit or something similar, would at least allow me to eat some meat once in a while.

I wasn't skilled at throwing stuff... I couldn't be, I never had any training with weapons. I picked a non moving target, a tree, and hurled my wooden spears at it. After fifteen minutes of trying, I missed most of the time. I got a few hits, but it was quite rare. 'I'd say, out of about sixty throws, I managed to hit the tree eight times' I thought.

Yea, eight out of sixty is maybe a bit better than 10% accuracy, but so what! This was my first time doing this type of stuff, so you can suck it! I got tired and rested for a bit. I only practiced for fifteen minutes, yet I was already tired. 'My stamina is not the best these days' I thought. When I still lived and worked in Freemount Village, my stamina was much better. While resting, I thought about the throwing technique and ways to improve my accuracy. The only thing I could come up with was 'Grinding'. I had to practice as much as I could, there was no other way for me to get better. 'If I don't take this seriously, hunting a rabbit will not be possible any time soon' I thought.

I decided to stay in that area, and practice for the rest of the day. Besides, where was I rushing? I had no clear objective in my travels. My objective was to travel and explore my life, I was doing just that. For the rest of the day, I threw my wooden spears and then collected then. Threw them again and then collected. Like this for hours, occasionally I had to make new spears. They were made from wood, and tended to break after a few throws.

This continued until late afternoon. 'I must say I did some progress. Out of five spears thrown, two would be on target' I thought. Sure, it was just a tree and it wouldn't move, but at least I made progress. I found some berries for my dinner, then built another shelter.

I was getting better at building my shelter, it was a bit less shabby than the previous one. With all of the training I did that day , I was too exhausted to linger any longer. I placed my new bag behind my head to serve as a pillow, and fell asleep. I hoped that this time, no such wild encounters would take place during the night.

Someone or something must've heard my pleas, because the night was uneventful. I had no meat for breakfast, so I decided to simply be on my way. I could always eat berries while I travelled. An hour or so later, I spotted a wild rabbit munching on some berries in the distance. 'I can give it a try, it wouldn't hurt me' I thought, and decided to try and hunt the rabbit. I got a bit closer, and thought 'Let's assume I hit the target, will this wooden spear be enough to kill the rabbit?'. There was only one way to find out, and that was to try it out.

I hid behind some bushes, and observed the rabbit with my wooden spear prepared. The rabbit or rather my prey, was totally unaware of my presence. 'The distance is quite big, but if I try to get close, I might startle the rabbit' I thought. The rabbit's back was facing towards me, which was a perfect chance. I no longer hesitated, and threw the wooden spear with as much strength as I could muster.

Swoosh!

And... nothing. Of course that was to be expected. The rabbit got startled before running away. I tried another throw but it unsuccessful again, this time by a larger margin. 'Tree is much easier to hit, it doesn't move' I thought. Not discouraged by this, I decided to train more.

This time, I used a tree that was a bit slimmer. This increase in difficulty, took me back to about 10% of accuracy. I didn't give up, and trained like this for couple of hours. I took regular breaks, especially since I had to create more wooden spears once in a while. A few more hours later, I managed to improve my accuracy a bit more. I was getting better at it the more I practiced. ' Alright, time to move on. I still need a shelter and a dinner would be nice' I thought.

Late in the afternoon, I arrived at a place with loads of rocks and boulders laying around. I didn't know why this particular area had that kind of arrangements. I didn't complain though, this was an advantage to me. I could build my shelter using some of those rocks, and it would be much easier as well. This way, the location of my next camp was decided.

I didn't hunt anything, therefore berries were served for dinner. In order to solve my problems with lack of meat, I steeled myself for more training with the wooden spears. I again chose a slimmer tree, and hurled my wooden spears at it. The rinse and repeat process continued for quite some time. I didn't have to worry about food, berries were widely available everywhere I went. I continued my practice until the evening.

I was very tired by the end of it, but it was worth it. Although my accuracy suffered the longer I did it, I still managed to improve. I was able to hit the tree around 20% of the time. A one in five was maybe not that great, but with five spears, I had potential to hit once. The distance I threw from, was not meaningless either. The closer I stood, the better accuracy I had. 'Of course no rabbit will allow me to come that close. I need to have good aim from a greater distance' I thought. With my practice and dinner taken care of, I hit the bed or rather my nest and fell asleep.