Third Pick, a Marksman - 2C

Chapter 2 – Putting the Team Together (continued)

He had his answer ready, “A marksman is next. And I know those types of skills also overlap with scouting and ranging, so if they possess those skills too, that’d work well.”

“Indeed.” Guild master Norrison turned back to relay Kaylen’s requirements in a loud voice, then singled out a few people, and motioned them forward. “Same deal as before, for those of you who didn’t hear, this mage is assembling an adventuring team. Anyone who is interested in joining can make their case, demonstrate their skills, and Adept Gallowglass will choose who he sees fit.”

First up was a gruff tracker with a week’s beard growth named Garik. After him came Ongrin, a stocky dwarven crossbowman with a beard long enough to tuck into his belt, and Talindra, a tall lithe elven ranger who had left her forest home for the first time just a few weeks prior to arriving in town to seek out an adventuring group like his.

There was an interesting contrast in the weapons carried by the first three marksman candidates, with Garik moving to a target range with his plain but powerful longbow, Ongrin carrying a sophisticated crossbow with a built in reloading mechanism, and Talindra with her composite horn recurve shortbow that was elegant in its simplicity, and looked like it might have a decent amount of power behind it, if the woman was strong enough to make use of it. And considering elves of both genders were more similar than they were different in terms of their physical frames, Kaylen knew that elven women were not at the same disadvantage when it came to upper body strength and arm reach as human women were. But it would come down to the skills she demonstrated, not her gender, in the end.

As she was moving to take up spots downrange of her target, Kaylen took a moment to observe how Garik and Ongrin were doing. The older archer was lining up his fifth shot, while only one of his previous four arrows was outside the center ring on his target. The dwarf, on the other hand, released his second quarrel while Kaylen watched and noted that it landed only a couple inches from his first. In the next moment, Talindra fired her first arrow. The elf woman scored a perfect bullseye. But Kaylen then turned his attention back to Tyrell who was introducing the next candidate for him to consider.

Grom was a muscular half-orc with a sour disposition that Kaylen didn’t much care for. And his overdesigned bow wasn’t helping his prospects, with hook-shaped spikes adorning its limbs that he doubted added any functionality except perhaps intimidation value. But he tried to set aside his potential bias in order to judge everyone’s skills fairly, and he nodded for Grom to take up position and begin his demonstration.

Tyrel had motioned for another candidate to come forward for an introduction when Kaylen’s attention was claimed by the snap of Grom’s bow string, audible even from this distance, flinging his arrow forward with such **** that it imbedded itself with a thunderous crack into a spot within the innermost circle of the straw backed target so that only an inch of the shaft was visible before the fletching. With power like that, Kaylen wondered if even a full suit of plate armor would stand up to the half-orc’s shots.

The next candidate to be introduced was a horseback archer named Marcus, who brought with him a short bow which he proved accurate with, even from a moving mount, but it seemed his weapon lacked power when compared with the other four.

He realized Garik was trying to catch his eyes, so he made a show of observing the man’s arrow spread on his target, which were nice and tight, but not as close as Talindra’s. He nodded to acknowledge the exchange and it was around the time that Ongrin and Talindra were finishing up as well. Both of them had very tight groupings near the center of their targets, though it appeared the elf had fired nearly twice the number of shots in about the same time frame.

With three of them finished, Kaylen got the remaining marksmen’s attention to call for a halt in the demonstration so the candidates could collect their ammunition from the targets and Tyrell could introduce a few new candidates.

As that was occurring, a section of the gathered crowd parted briefly to allow a halfling woman to step forward for her own introduction. This newcomer was very striking, and bold with a cheeky grin as she gave her name; “Alayni Swiftfoot.” She’d apparently been an outrider for her home village for a number of years, and as soon as the first three candidates had cleared their lanes, she stepped up with a sling in hand, ready to demonstrate her skills.

Kaylen took a moment to mentally assess his options so far. Talindra was the most accurate, followed closely by Ongrin, while the dwarf and the half orc led in raw power. But Ongrin’s crossbow was much slower than any of the bows, making him a bit less attractive as a candidate.

He glanced back at where Ursa was chatting with his sister. Or more accurately, sitting and listening to his sister talk while watching him make his choices. If he didn’t really count Lyria, there were three quite attractive women on the field literally competing for his approval. And while it wasn’t in a romantic sense, the realization still made Kaylen smile, and also gave him an interesting idea to mull over. His romantic prospects might be low in most normal areas, but he had right here potential females that would be predisposed to get along with a mage like him, otherwise they wouldn’t want to be on his team.

But then he heard someone gasp, and turned to see where Alayni’s second shot had landed. At first, he was confused. It took a moment just to find where there was a small hole in the exact center of her target, and then another moment to realize both of her sling bullets lay on the ground in front of the straw mound. Then a third bullet was released, subtly expanding and deepening that crater in the center. And the fourth likewise hit the exact same spot, both bullets managing to stay imbedded in the straw this time.

It was only a few more shots with the same uncanny accuracy before Alayni had a pony brought out for her to showcase her riding aim, and while she wasn’t quite as perfect with her last few shots, she was definitely as sharp a marksman as Kaylen had ever seen. Her only disadvantages in his eyes were her small stature and the lower range of her weapon compared with a bow.

But that left Kaylen torn.

He had already decided that he valued maneuverability and rate of fire too much for Ongrin’s crossbow to qualify for his team. And both Talindra and Grom were better archer candidates than any of the humans. But between them and Alayni, he had a tough decision to make. Obviously, if he wanted to prioritize a woman on his team, that would rule out Grom. But he had to take a moment to determine for himself if he was ruling Grom out solely for that reason, because that probably wasn’t enough by itself. His strength and weapon were both impressive, but his accuracy just didn’t match up to the elf or the halfling, so he decided ultimately that he was safe to rule him out for that reason.

But that still left him one more candidate to rule out.

Talindra was tall and slender, but still had some visible muscle definition in her long arms. She wore her hair in a single braid that wrapped around her head twice before extending down to just below her shoulder blades, and her emerald elven eyes were large and alluring. Alayni Swiftfoot, on the other hand, was short and stout, but also curvy with an appealing maturity to her figure, at least what could be seen of it beneath her leather jerkin and simple breastplate. And her lack of leg armor wouldn’t be much of a hindrance when most of her opponents were going to be significantly taller than her. And that cheeky grin beneath dark brown eyes and equally dark hair held back in a messy topknot was very entrancing.

So it came down to those two.

Author's Note

Please let me know which of these choices you prefer, either in a comment, or in the forum here: https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/lonely-is-the-mage-without-love.5879/

Please let me know if the edited poll works for you, especially if you've already voted once. Thanks!

Alayni Swiftfoot, Halfling Outrider

or

Talindra aka ”Lynn”, Elven Ranger