Northern Skies - Janet! (Page 2 of 21)

For info, I've posted a new chapter ... Chapter 11 (Title: Chapter 9 - Falling).
Cheers
Janet

I think just changing the tense would work.
Simple Past will put it into the rest of the story.
If you want a long flash back it is better to put it in Simple Past and use italics to show that it is a flash back.
A lot of "had"s can drag the reading out so it is best to avoid using a whole lot of Past Perfect in fiction.

Rebecca, I'll keep this as my get-out-of-jail card if I can't do the one paragraph thing!  There is a heap of "had"s that makes it really slow.
Thanks!!!!

I've made some changes to Chapter 12 (Chapter 10 - After the storm).  This is what I've added because it makes better sense to do it in Ch12 than the next one.  This will clarify why Matthew is still planning to raid Aiden Tower despite Catherine's assurance that Anthony (or Lord Brat for those who's more inclined to his proper title ) isn't involved.

Black John chuckled.  “Aye, but only because I don’t want to miss witnessing the young lord Aiden’s long overdue rebuke.”
The mentioning of Aiden’s name forced Matthew to replace pleasant thoughts with not so pleasant ones.  He needed to focus on today’s pursuit at some point.
Although he believed Catherine when she had stated her brother meant him no harm, he wasn’t about to extend the courtesy to Aiden until he proved himself wor-thy of Matthew’s trust.  Matthew also knew that sitting down with the young Lord Aiden and reasonably discussing the finer points of border politics in a civilised way wasn’t going to be enough to bring Aiden around. 
Today’s raid on Aiden Tower was to serve the sole purpose of showing the younger man what the stakes were.  And Aiden was about to make an important de-cision, whether he liked it or not.

Thanks for everyone reading and all your support so far!
Cheers
Janet R

Aren't crossbow bolts quite short?  Too short to pin someone in place?

If you mean to pin someone, you probably want to shoot them through the big part of a big muscle and hope you don't hit an artery or a nerve.

But Amy will probably tell us that even that's improbable, and that anyone who does it deliberately means for the victim to die there.

Heard you yelling...I would expect the crossbow to go through the meat and bury itself in the ground. If the arrow was 12 inches long, figure at least 4 inches would be in the dirt, drastically shortening the shaft that would be sticking through of the person. However it is possible, so I'll run with it.

If the arrow was stuck in wood or a cleft of stone, that would be an entirely different thing.

To answer your question, any blood from the lungs can froth out the mouth. To get a lot of bleeding, shoot across the carotid and into the windpipe. Have the arrow go through and bury itself(or have the person pull out the arrow) this leaves a hole for the carotid to bleed into the trachea and froth up/drown the person in their own blood. The only true requirement is to have a hole that connects from windpipe to big bleeding vessel.
I suggest having the bad guy knock down the victim and step on his chest to shoot. Have the Vic's head turned to the side so the shaft goes across the neck.

Another idea. Have the killer step on the Vic's forehead to shoot him. It would turn the head correctly and besides, it's evil.

I was yelling pretty hard!    And, lucky for you I don't have a crossbow, so you can say bolt-bolt-bolt na-na-na-na as many times as you like!  hehehe 

So, ok, shooter shot victim on horseback.  Victim takes a hard fall, probably breaks a leg or something, but first shot didn't penetrate or wound due to "jack" armour he's wearing.  Shooter stands on victim's chest, victim doesn't turn his head to the side, only close his eyes and wait for the shot.  It goes through the windpipe.  Doesn't have to stick out, but I'd guess victim won't move his head either way with most of the arrow still stuck in his neck.  So since a major artery hasn't been nicked, there won't be any blood frothing from his mouth and he won't die quickly.  If need be, shooter can take another shot at close range, but that would depend on the impact of the neck shot.  So consider only a single shot through his neck.

If he's young and healthy, and found 3.5hrs later.  Still alive?  Any movement from him would cause some bleeding?  He'd be weak but still breathing?  Able to speak?  I doubt, but you'd probably know better.  I also doubt there's much they would be able to do to help him survive something like this.  So once they've pulled the arrow/bolt out, his time is pretty much up?  How quick would depend on the blood loss?

If all else fail, could always have him step on the victim's head like you've suggested! 

Although I think we're going to test K's sensibilities with this 

Thanks a mill!

A shot to the neck could break the neck which can although might not make death very fast. A shot to the neck will likely make the wounded unable to breathe. The wounded would then pass out in 30 seconds to about a minute. Once the wounded is out cold, actual death would come from suffocation or bleeding. For a lot of blood to come out of the mouth the arrow might need to be removed from the neck. This would likely speed up death.

So basically it depends.  Which works fine for me as it gives me options.  I'm a few chapters away from this scene still, but I'm curious now what the comments will be!

Thanks for this!!!
xx

Flattery will get you anywhere, including out of a circle of daft crossbow archers, especially when you compliment them on the length and quality of their arrows!