Overview

"You do not aim with your hand. He who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. You aim with your eye. You do not shoot with your hand. He who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. You shoot with your mind. You do not kill with your gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. You kill with your heart." These are words of the potential gunslinger's teacher, Cort. Roland and his two friends, Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns, are having a lesson with their hawks. All the students are too slow for Cort but Roland's hawk was airborne before the others had taken the hoods off their hawks. Roland will have to best Cort to become a gunslinger.

Roland discovers his mother Gabrielle Deschain naked with Marten Broadcloak. Marten deliberately set Roland up. Now Roland wants to kill Marten. He hears Marten beat his mother. Roland kicks in Cort's door and demands to have his test to be a gunslinger. Roland takes his hawk David to the field for his test. Cort laughed at Roland's choice of weapon but David tore Cort's eye. Even though David's wings were broken, he still assisted Roland in attacking Cort. Cort finally yielded and granted Roland his graduation to gunslinger. Cuthbert discovered the reason why Roland had taken his test so young and asked why Roland let Marten live. Roland told him he "simply didn't kill him yet," as he buried David.

Roland spent the night with a prostitute and in the morning he was abruptly awakened by someone shooting at him and destroying his practice gun. It was his father Steven Deschain.