Finally Finished!

Along with building arrows on my own, I've spent the last few months (going one step a week) building arrows with a friend of mine and finally finished them last night. I also got my paws on a nice back-quiver after near-embarassing accidents with hip quivers and loose pants. The only problems I'm having with the back-quiver are that it's a bit hard to reach back there and pull the arrow out in a nice graceful motion or put the arrow back in a graceful motion. It is worth it though -- I like having the extra bit of mobility and not having to worry about my pants dropping by accident when I stick my heavy traditional arrows into my quiver!

And now time for me to go back to working on homework so I can spend some quality time with the non-academic love of my life on the range tomorrow after plant ecology seminar... I've got a special engagement with my sweetie the weekend after this one, assuming academic duties don't over-ride my plans for shooting at the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida shoot!

Day 1 With the Sword Scope...

I started sighting in the sight that I got at the shoot yesterday and let's just say I forgot how difficult it can be to get it sighted in compared to my field scope! On the other hand, the effort was well worth it and it's great because I don't have to remember to adjust the scope if I'm shooting within a certain range (20-50 yards the way I configured it) but it's also hard when the pins all look like they're on top of each other. The fibers are especially bright, which is a huge plus in poor light conditions, but they also make it a bit more of a challenge to aim. I really like this sight a lot better than the ultra-basic fixed-pin sight even if trying to make adjustments is a bit more challenging because of the long fibers. Of course, though, for 3-D I still have a serious bias towards my trusty recurve!

Forest Archers Shoot

It was an absolute blast even if my score was pretty low compared to the really hard-core shooters -- 178/400. I missed a few "gimmies" when I realized that the nock-set on my bow had gotten loose at the end of the morning round and I was getting really erratic errow flight. Some fellow traditionals helped me get the nock-set back into place and get good flight back, although it took me a few shots to re-adjust. It was still a real blast -- only missed 30% of the time and I was even getting some 8's and 10's! I did have a lot of arrows ricochet though, especially on this one alligator target in the afternoon round where all four of us in the group were having trouble getting arrows to stick on the alligator... and there was a deer target that my arrow should've penetrated but instead bounced off and ricocheted most spectacularly into the grass behind the target. It was by far the best and we made several attempts to re-create it, but to no avail. The smart thing: aim for the nose. What we did: aim for the kill zone on the back. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get pictures :( But I did get pictures of the stuff I won in the raffle once I got home... The biggest prize was the Sword fixed-pin sight, which I actually bartered for with someone who wanted a stabilizer component that I had originally one but ended up with the sight, so we swapped.

All in all, it was a great shoot, even if my score was borderline embarassing compared to the legendary traditional figures who showed up... but it's a personal best in terms of the rate at which I hit the target! I can't wait for the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida shoot in 2 weeks, assuming one of my profs doesn't decide to put in a field trip for that weekend! It was also a huge blast being able to see friends from both the compound and traditional side of shooting -- I feel a whole lot more comfortable around my fellow shooters and wilderness-types than the overly refined bar/club-hopping peers I'm surrounded by at school.

I Want A Barf Bucket Or At Least a 700 nm Filter For My Glasses

I tend not to remember most holidays until they hit me right in the nose or the eyes. Valentine's Day was no exception -- it took me a while to realize why there was so much abuse of pink, white, and red as well as rather tasteless images of hearts and almost-naked winged babies (eeewww!!!) I can live with the red and white, having gone to a high school whose school colors were just that. Plus red and white are a pretty good combination for fletching colors if I want to find my arrows again. For some reason, I get really nauseous when I see all the Valentine's Day stuff all over the place, including around the nice little forest corridors I like to hide in when I get fed up with being around too many people and being indoors for too long but can't quite leave campus because of some academic commitment or another. When I saw all that tasteless stuff all over campus, there were three possible courses of action that ran through my mind: 1) run into the bathroom to purge the ickiness out of my system before proceeding 2) bolt into my office 3) hide in my apartment. I ended up with taking the 3rd one -- the 1st one wasn't going to make me any more productive, the 2nd one was tempting until I realized that my office-mates were enthusiastic about it and I'd get very little work done because I have an office-mate who's struggling with Python programming and linear algebra, so I opted to just hide at home to get work done. Plus I figure my office-mates won't exactly enjoy the conditions that help to write: blasting music, frequent pacing, and acting a lot like Gollum/Smeagol.

And when I got a bit too saturated from work, I spent a bit of quality time with my trusty Chek-Mate recurve at Gator Bowmen. I'm back to working on my thesis proposal with several papers on evapotranspiration and carbon flux modelling, a few papers on artifical neural networks, and several pieces of scratch paper to sketch my conceptual model with. And my Chek-Mate is sitting next to me. I love shooting my compound and I can shoot extremely well with it, but the Chek-Mate is my non-academic love! I'll take a good, reliable bow any day over a human... In fact here's a top 10 list of why a bow is better than a human, in no particular order:

-- Bows are perfectly content watching me study or write proposals
-- They're extremely honest about me (ie, if my form is off, it WILL tell me!)
-- They don't call me during class and wonder why I don't ever pick up the phone
-- They understand the concept of "do not disturb"
-- It's much easier to really get to know the bow really well (ie, no need to go on lengthy dates that interfere with studying when a good test-shoot will suffice)
-- Bows share my taste in the kind of place I want to live in (ie, not in a *.* big city)
-- Bows don't have random baggage to give me grief
-- Bows transport very well
-- Bows don't try to get me to go to annoying/useless social functions
-- Bows don't try to interfere with my ambitions by wanting to start a family with me

If I Could Do This More Consistently...

Not bad for someone who hasn't been practicing nearly enough... and this was, of course, from my Bowtech Equalizer. The top one was a 30-yard field target and the middle one was a 48-yard hunter target.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

I got to go to a real controlled burn yesterday with my Ecosystems of Florida class and did my little fire ecology experiment. I was looking at how much trees (slash pines, Pinus eliottii) were utilized as fire escape routes for bugs and other small animals as a function of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) cover. Basically saw palmetto, besides being not fun to hold by the stalks and providing some awful tasting emergency food, makes for great fires and might be an un-incentive for little critters to go underground, but at the same time, maybe can also make going up trees a lot more dangerous and actually encourage more critters to go underground. So my way of testing this was wrapping the tree's cicrumference about 3 meter above the ground (as high as I can safely reach with the ladder) and manipulating palmetto cover by hacking it up and dumping the hacked up bits elsewhere so I'd have full cover, half cover, and no cover within a 1 meter radius. I had 6 replicates of 3 treatments and my gut-instinct conclusion is: put the duct tape much higher up the tree, although I did catch a few bugs, but the real prize was a little common anole. Most of my tapes were either severely melted, or in two of my replicates, completely burned away. I might post my results after doing a real analysis :)

And I Dub Thee... Lizardbane

I did it again -- killed a lizard at the range again. This time it was from 10 yards and for some reason I thought it was a really green leaf or some random detritus that someone had placed on the target face. I took a shot at it and it started twitching so I knew it wasn't what I thought it was. I decided to put it out of its misery by taking a few more shots at it knowing that at 10 yards, my accuracy is pretty darned good. The second shot already finished it off but I figure I might as well finish my accuracy/precision drill. I felt a strange sense of pride in being able to make that kill once I realized what it was -- in terms of scaling, if I can get that kind of accuracy on a lizard, imagine what I can do with a deer or a hog!

What made this even more interesting was that this happened while I was testing a theory someone had about why my aim was so off with my trusty Chek-Mate recurve even if the flight looked pretty good, namely that I was way underspined with that batch of arrows. So I had taken my longbow and my 30 lb Martin X-200 (aka the Little One even if it is longer than my Chek-Mate) to do a bit of a comparison to see which bow my last batch of arrows fit. Without a doubt, I had much better results with the Martin X-200, which I semi-expected because I'm only getting 20-25 lbs out of it with my piddly 25" draw, although for that little draw weight, it sure sends those heavy arrows flying pretty well out to 35-40 yards. I had the same leftwards bias with the longbow as I did with my Chek-Mate recurve, while I generally hit where I aimed (give or take a bit of a stochastic error function) with the X-200 with this batch of arrows.

100th Post!

Well, looks like I've reached the 100th post finally! Basically the link is of good, inspiring guitar playing that a friend of mine sent to me after he got a full blast of me ranting and raving about my research proposal, experimental design involving a controlled burn, and being stressed over not having enough time to roam about and shoot.

Not much else going on here although I'm realizing that experimental designing in ecology can be quite the challenge! I wanted to measure the use of trees as an escape route for a low-intensity fire (as is typical of slash pine forest) based on the quantity of flammable materials (ie, saw palmettoes) near the tree. After I presented this idea to my FL ecosystems prof, we must've spent a good half hour going over the pitfalls of the various possibilities in sampling schemes, logistical issues, and statistical analyses. All this for a simple experiment in catching bugs during a fire! I'm looking forward to taking out my frustration on the saw palmettoes though and watching things burn -- the lack of archery time does have an interesting effect on me of late.

Writing update: I now have a bit of an "out-take" section that'll probably grow soon. You can reach it at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~greywolf/out-takes

I might also do another writing FAQ soon -- I've been getting a lot of verbal questions of late!

Hilarious Video

For some reason, this just made me laugh to the point where I have to share it!

End of January Updates...

Besides trying to nail my prospectus together and surviving my classes, not too much else has happened aside from the following:

-- Went on a field trip to Seahorse Key. It was a real blast and was actually worth missing the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida tournament for. My immune system didn't approve of the saltwater marshes or the mangroves though :(

-- Dabbled with the yahoo picture service. Besides Seahorse Key, I also did one for my Bowtech Equalizer and my Chek-Mate Hunter I. Once I figure out how to post them on my blog, I will post them here!

-- Took first place in the traditional category at the 3-D circuit shoot. Admittedly, it was a rather embarassing score for me (104/300) but heck, it's still a record for me considering I only lost 4 arrows (as opposed to my usual 7-8) and hit 60% of the targets. I've done much better at practices with 80% hit rates and scoring closer to 120/300, but under competetive conditions and extremely cold weather, I can't complain too much! I've now got a base-line for the rest of the season too and some much-needed practice for the upcoming TBoF shoot in March! And wish me luck that none of my professors decide to dump a mandatory field trip on THAT weekend! With luck, maybe I can dodge some of my field trips so I can make it to the rest of the circuit shoots -- after all, I'm also learning about Florida ecosystems... I actually did take my field notes with me to the shoot to practice my plant identification :)

-- Still writing the sequel to Telcontar Restored. It'll be a long time before I post this one, probably an even longer gap than with Telcontar... All I can say at this point is that my ecosystems of Florida class is really leaving its mark on me, as is my time with my shooting buddies!

Won't the Lizards Ever Learn?

For some reason, my most interesting shots occur right when I don't have my camera. Today after a rather torturous bus ride to avoid the rain that never came, I decided to go to Gator Bowmen for a bit before studying. I took my recurve with me and here's a list of some of the more exciting shots besides being able to get decent groups up to about 25 yards and even hitting fairly small spots at 20 yards and under:

-- There was a bit of a dark spot on one of the field targets that showed up much more clearly than the actual spot. I nailed it from about 10 yards and it was under fairly low light conditions. Turned out that dark spot was a lizard who apparently got a bit too lazy (or cold) to move. I saw the spot writhing after I hit it and sure enough when I went to retrieve the arrow, it was bloody and there was a pretty mangled-looking lizard with a big hole in its back.

-- There was a shot I was taking from about 12 yards for one of these 10 yard target (for compounds) because there are some pretty darned close shots in 3-D shoots with tiny 10 point rings. I aimed a bit high as I tend to do when it's fairly dark and I saw a lizard scampering out and another falling out from under the target and yet another flying out in panic. The one that fell out was in two pieces and I pulled out a bloody arrow.

What did I do afterwards? I continued shooting -- I get far too little time at the range as it is so I just kept shooting until it was too dark! I got some strange sense of satisfaction in being able to shoot these little guys and there's also something oddly fun about being able to catch these lizards, preferably without forcing them to jettison their tails.

As an aside... it's also quite satisfying to be able to shoot a palmetto bug, roach, or freakishly large spider from about 10-20 yards back. I think it's the whole concept of the target that shows up really strongly against the black or white background that draws me to these more interesting targets. Let's just hope that if I do start hunting, I can land a nice solid kill-shot either through the lungs, windpipe, or femoral artery!

And Now I Know!

I finally shot through the chronometer today to get an actual number for how fast my trusty Chek-Mate is with my wooden arrows. The number that came out was 134 feet per second consistently at a 25" draw (anchoring at the corner of my mouth instead of the back of my jaw). This means I'm getting about 37-38 lbs of draw weight tops. That's not too bad for that piddly of a draw weight and heavy arrows! So I'm guessing that I was getting around 145-155 fps at my preferred draw (back of the jaw) with the much lighter but still fairly heavy carbon arrows I used to use.

I'm so tempted to get 50 lb @ 25" (around 57-59 lbs @ 28") limbs for my Chek-Mate recurve to see what kind of speeds I can get, plus I know that 50 lbs on a traditional bow is within my comfort range... but that'll have to wait until I have more daylight hours to myself.

Daydreams...

Earlier today after I sneaked in a bit of time at the range with my compound, I came back to the sight of a pair of fairly large ducks wandering around. I suddenly felt an urge to stalk them for a few yards, taking my time to estimate the distance and adjusting my field sight for the shot. Keep in mind, my sight is NOT appropriate at all for hunting and most people who hunt with a compound use fixed pin sights, although I know a few compound shooters who shoot bare-bow. I'm just following the ducks, trying to move as undetectedly as possible. I went so far as to practice nocking an arrow to my bow quietly and taking aim, but I didn't draw back, knowing that some psychotic neighbor might report me just for drawing back. Plus I don't have appropriate points on my carbon arrows -- the field points would doom the ducks to a rather slow death compared to a nice broadhead. And then there was the issue of dealing with the carcasses. I merely continued to stalk the ducks, always estimating distance and imaginging where I'd aim on them. Maybe someday I can really take a real shot, but for now, I have to content myself with target shooting. Oh I also came to the conclusion that if I ever do shoot those ducks, I'd use my recurve -- at that short of a distance, I think I can still get a good pass-through and my aim is good enough to guarantee a good kill shot.

I really hope I can do something about my academic schedulling -- the prospect of having at most one day to shoot (unless you count destroying the walls in my apartment as shooting) isn't a pleasant one. I came close to using the school's free psychological services when I couldn't get to the range for over a month... so the thought of a semester with almost no shooting is one that leaves me with a very nasty feeling in my stomach and more than a bit of anxiety. I don't function without alone time out in the wilderness as most people around me become painfully aware of! To be honest, I don't think I could ever return to living in a big city -- I need my outdoors a lot and there's few things that nauseate me more than seeing open spaces being turned into horrible things like shopping malls. Aren't there already enough of those horrible things where the only things worth looking at are the book store and hardware store... and a sporting goods store? But I digress... bottom line, not enough time for myself outdoors and I become a real safety hazard.

There's nothing that can compare to the joys of being outdoors among the trees with a trusty weapon and mastering it to the point of being able to consistently hit that distant, almost abstract spot. The compound is a wonderful blend of both physical and mental challenge, a chance to empty the mind and to "be the spot" as I aim and hold it up until I can slowly squeeze that trigger for a smooth release. The traditional provides a different set of challenges for me, mostly mental as I develop my aiming instincts and sense of distance, but also physical in making sure my form is consistent in everything from the angle I lean in to where I anchor my shot. It is in shooting that I can really re-energize myself both mentally and physically, a truly intense source of happiness and relaxation. I guess a friend of mine was right when he once told me that I'd find my strength, both mental and physical, once more if I spent more time outdoors in the wilderness with a quiver full of arrows and a bow in my hand!

3-D Vanity Shots

All I can say is despite having done well in 3-D last week with my compound (distance judging, finding what to hit, etc), I like the feel of my little Chek-Mate recurve much better for 3-D... even if I'm getting about half the points that I would be getting with my Equalizer. With my recurve, I was quite pleased with myself for hitting almost all of the targets, even if I miscalculated on my aim and hit any of the following locations: under the tail, where the sun don't shine, nose, knee. I'm looking forward to the upcoming 3-D shoots, academics permitting!

I'm Going to Lizard Hell...

I think I just set a new record for myself today. I've maimed 4 lizards today, 1 of which I know was fatal. As I was pulling my arrows, I've had the following occur:

-- What looked like a smooth, thin twig fell out of the target, except it was twitching violently. This happened twice.
-- A butt, tail, and hind legs with blood on them came out as I was pulling one arrow out. It was followed by the rest of the little critter. My camera was dead by then, so sorry, no picture :(
-- A lizard with a mangled-looking leg/foot running away from me when I went to pull the arrows.

I managed to catch 3 lizard too -- they were unusually slow today. One of them actually shed the tip of its tail. I swear, I am NEVER going to pick up another lizard by the tip of its tail again! The tail actually fell off like a really weak rubber band. Then there was one lizard that peed/pooped so I just let it go. Then there was one lizard that I was able to hang onto long enough to take pictures of it. It was pretty neat actually because once I let it near my arrow, it latched on like velcro. I was extremely tempted to take it with me, but I decided against it and just let it run off and do whatever things lizards do after the terror of being caught by an archer who's probably killed many of its buddies. They should be grateful that I wasn't shooting traditional, which has a much larger error function and is more likely to hit them! Most of the lizards seem to be smart enough to avoid the bull's eye area, which protects them from most compound shooters. If there's a lizard god, I'm probably going to go straight to lizard hell for all the lizards I've maimed or killed!




Here's some of my highlights from today: A 36-36-36-36 yard fan and a 64-59-55-52 yard walk-up. I seem to be a lot stronger in the hunter side, although targets 22-26 seem to always give me trouble, probably from my stamina flagging a bit before my energy comes back at targets 27 and 28, which are so close that even I can see where I hit. I did go past 500 today -- got a 503, although I know there were several targets I could've easily done a lot better on, especially all of the under 35 yard targets, where I have a tendency to give away points by either taking my shot too soon or having my left wrist twitch at the last instant. All in all, though, I'm happy that I'm starting to close that gap between me and my shooting group -- with enough practice, I should soon find myself slowly approaching a perfect 560... not sure how long that will take, but it's a goal as long as my academics will let me outdoors! I'm not exactly thrilled about having early morning classes, late afternoon seminars, and class/seminar chopping my afternoon so I can't even sneak off campus, and most likely, most of my weekends being taken over too, but heck, I'm here for my education and to contribute to the field of ecology... and that takes priority over everything else, even over my own mental and physical health. I already miss having those night-time geography classes!

More FAQs on Dunheasa/Telcontar

I've been getting yet more questions... so here are my responses to them:

From Whispers from Afar"

Q: Who is Tarathorn based on?
A: Academically, Tarathorn's based on me, but the persona is based on someone I knew at Caltech from the ballroom dance team. She was also inspired by some freakishly young students I've run into -- those little 14-year olds who made the grading curves in my biology classes really hurt!

Q: How close-to-life were the professors in the story?
A: Some were almost dead-on, some are amalgamations of various characters I've run into over the years, most just had quirks from memorable professors I've had over the years.

Q: Who or what was Billie-Joanna (from Whispers from Afar) based on?
A: A favorite D&D character I played in a very long campaign, who also shows up in Telcontar Restored but in an older, mellower form.

Q: Was organic chemistry THAT bad to have a story like Whispers from Afar?
A: Yes and no. It was a pretty painful series, but at least I didn't have anything more embarassing than a yield of 1% on an experiment that should've yielded at least 25%

Q: Who/what were the Tuonela from Whispers from Afar based on?
A: To be honest, I wasn't thinking too much about that. The name "Tuonela" I think comes from either Finnish or Scandinavian mythology, Finnish more likely. As far as the people themselves, physically I visualize them as looking more Aztec or Mayan but culturally, fairly western European. The name "Andraste" comes from Celtic mythology, the name just stood out for some random reason at the time. A future story may flesh out the Tuonela a whole lot more.

Q: Will Tarathorn ever go back to Tuonela?
A: Who knows... ?

From multiple stories:

Q: Which characters are based on you?
A: In a sense, most of them are in some aspect or another, usually something academic or some really interesting/amusing (mis)adventure. Joanne de Salvo (from Journey to Dunheasa) is most blatantly based on me and Captain Greywolf is a fantasy version of me. Kestrel is also pretty blatantly based on myself, although a much spazzier version!

Q: Is Tuonela connected to the Crossroads? And where exactly is Tuonela?
A: Not directly but it is a lot closer to the Crossroads than this world! It's in the world known as Palindor, which is where Vincent and Ivan end up going in Telcontar Restored when Kestrel takes them on a the little trip.

Q: Chronologically, how are these stories supposed to go?
A: Journey to Dunheasa is first. Whispers from Afar and Peek at Geekster Life take place around the same time, although Peek goes further ahead in time. After those two, Telcontar takes place.

The Wicker Man

Here's the Wicker Man that my friends built before we set him on fire. Basically, my traditional archery coach and her husband have a New Years party where they build this big Ent-like thing and all the guests put something in, either a scroll with a note or some paper/wood/cloth-based item into the Wicker Man as a new year's wish or resolution. My fellow archers and I nick-named this one "Treebeard" after the old Ent in Lord of the Rings and I really felt at home once again when we were discussing how big Treebeard really had to be to be able to pick up two hobbits. It's really refreshing to be able to talk about Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons again! Besides the ritual burning, there was also plenty of really good food, including barbequed wild boar, which is much, much better than the store-bought stuff! I might just take up bow-hunting to get that occasional fix for really good meat!

There were some people who cracked me and my friends up when they decided to make Treebeard anatomically correct, at least for a human! I didn't realize that they put a sock somewhere amusing until one of the children couldn't stop laughing and pointed out where the sock was hanging. Then we also noticed that several people had placed their scrolls in other places where things didn't quite belong. You can probably guess based on the pictures what was so hilarious!

There's Treebeard burning brightly:

Traditional Fun

I tried my new arrows for the first time on Friday and got pretty good results... considering that I'm fairly rusty in my traditional shooting and had to work to get my form back to par. I forgot that 40-50 yards is VERY difficult for me, but even when I missed, my arrows always came back to me. Nothing broke, nothing came off, but darn, my bow nailed those arrows in harder than some compounds I've been around! It's amusing knowing that my recurve is nailing those arrows in deeper at 40 yards than my compound coach's 61 lb compound does at the same distance, although a lot of it is also the weight distribution on the arrow. I also tried a precision drill at 15 yards and while I wasn't quite able to hit the bull's eye on those tiny little things, I did get a pretty good group once I got my form back together. I think these arrows are a real set of winners in my book and hopefully I'll be able to nail some 3-D targets at the upcoming TBoF shoot this month! It's very refreshing to shoot traditional and I think I've decided that even if I am a lot more competetive and have a blast with my compound, I still love my recurve more!

Crystal River and Completed Arrows

I finally finished constructing the arrows that I'm planning to use for the Traditional Bowhunters shoot and other 3-D shoots on Sorondil-Telcontar (my Chek-Mate recurve). The points were rather fun to put on, aside from my fear of setting the place on fire because of residual methyl-ethyl-ketone fumes. It took a fair amount of effort to make sure they didn't come off while they were cooling down and I got a small cutting board dedicated for the very purpose of making sure the points stayed on until the bond between the point and shaft was set. All in all, I think these arrows should fly fairly nicely -- I spin-tested them again after adding the points and they were still spinning nicely, indicating good balance and straightness. The real test, of course, will be when I shoot them in the morning at the range.



This was a golden-hooded night heron that I got to approach when I was hiking out at Crystal River and ran into a group from the Audoubon society that was doing diversity and abundance censuses in the area. The camera really didn't do this bird justice because when the light strikes the head feathers at the right angle, it looks iridescent gold, even in the immature ones.



At the Withalacoochee River, I had an up-close and personal encounter with a pelican with the help of a family that was out fishing. I've never seen a pelican that close before and I was tempted to approach it, but with my luck, I'd probably get attacked or worse. The family actually offered it a fish they had caught and it was pretty aggressive about taking the fish, so I decided to play it safe, although pelicans don't have any obviously dangerous attacks like parrots. Of all birds, I have to honestly admit that I'm most afraid of getting into a fight with a parrot because for their size, they can do some serious damage with their beaks. I know someone who lost a finger to a cockatoo once and I know another person who had to go to the ER to get their nose fixed after a cockatiel (a fairly small, docile member of the parrot family) took a good bite out of it.

All in all, it was worth the trip out to Ingliss/Yankeetown/Crystal River to do a bit of exploring! Next time, I'm going to be better prepared with more food and water so I can take some of the more exciting hikes.

Nearly Forgot...

I also have a revised version of "Whispers From Afar" posted. More on the Dunheasa series once I'm done building this set of arrows and actually have something to post!