The Bow from Ryan

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Ryan was the best archer the world had ever seen, he could hit a bullseye from any distance with his eyes close. It was no surprise that when it was time for war, his kingdom came to recruit him to join their ranks. Before this, he would often perform in the town square, shooting down any and everything the crowd requested. It could be a passing hawk or an apple on top of someone’s head. He also got simple jobs like catching crooks, defending shops and so on. In a way, he had a fun-filled life and was by no means rich but he was very far from being broke

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When the letter arrived from the army, it was a direct order, there was no room for negotiation. Ryan was thrown into despair, he knew what war was and he believed his skills were not meant for such a scene. He decided to try his luck by trying to talk the army into seeing that he wasn’t the type to kill, he had never shot a man fatally before, the most he had ever done was graze a man’s leg with an arrow and he still felt guilty about

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He arrived at army headquarters early the next day and was given a warm welcome. He said he wanted to speak to a high ranking officer, the soldiers were shocked at first but they answered him either way and called someone high up to listen to his request.

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Luckily for Ryan, a general just happened to be around at the time and he was a big fan of Ryan’s. He called him and listened to his request, Ryan knew the army wasn’t going to let him sit on the sidelines while ordinary civilians were being enlisted so he came up with a different plan

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‘What if you had a thousand men with my skill?’ he asked the general and immediately piqued the elderly man’s interest

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Ryan offered to be an instructor in the army, he would train the best of archers for them and they would have more skilled men at their disposal instead of one man who could die at any time. The general suspected from Ryan’s continuous stuttering and palm sweating that he was scared of dying but that didn’t make what he was offering any less realistic and practicable.

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After a long discussion, the general sent him off and promised that he would speak to his colleagues about his proposal and would get back to him tomorrow. The next day, Ryan was pleased to hear that his proposal had been accepted.

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He became an archery instructor in the army but in order not to aid more killings, he taught his men how to disable a man without killing them. He said ‘This bow you receive from me is not one that has ever shed blood nor will it ever do so. If you happen to stray from this path, the skills you have sweat day and night to gain will abandon you’ and like a curse, a battalion of harmless soldiers was born, he thought… but the battlefield was not kind to such naïve ideals

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So the men he had taught eventually started to use their skills to kill in order to protect themselves and by doing this, they only grew stronger carrying on the legacy and name of ‘Ryan’.

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