22, Stretching is Evil

"Good work everyone, now we need to do stretching. We are working on the three splits and toe touch variations; legs apart and together." Dotam whimpered at the mention of splits.

Minili didn't seem happy but she didn't appear to be as distraught as Dotam. "Everyone stand up and stretch your arms up." We all mimicked John's actions. "And down, reach as low as you can. Try and grab your toes without bending your legs."

I wasn't doing too bad in this stretch, my longest finger could just touch the ground. I looked over to see how the others were doing.

Minili was the best at this, she could have her hands flat on the ground without any obvious strain. Dotam on the other hand was just able to touch the top of his feet, it was obvious that he was very uncomfortable.

"And up." At Johns words we all stood up much to Dotam's relief. "Now we are doing Middle splits. Bring your feet as wide as you can without bending your legs."

We all widened our feet to get into the splits position that he demonstrated. The trainer was able to go down all the way with ease while the rest of us were struggling.

I was able to spread my legs to around 3 times my shoulder width. Minili was able to go over 4 times hers and Dotam was just around 3 times also.

It didn't take me long to understand why Dotam hated stretching so much. The insides of my thighs were on fire and begging me to stop this but I continued because I didn't want to be the first one to get up.

"And up." John pushed himself up with ease while the rest of us were bringing our legs together with stiff mechanical motions. "Now bring your right foot forward and drop down the same way. Make sure that your hips do not twist. Keep them facing forward even if you can get lower by twisting."

I got into a lunge position and slowly separated my feet while paying attention to my hips. My hamstring was the first to start protesting then my hips soon followed suit .

It was at this point I stopped, I had no desire to see if I could go further. All my self control was spent on keeping my form in keeping this position.

My knee was starting to get sore from resting it against the stone so I tried to straighten my back leg but it put too much pressure on my other hip so I bent it again. I thought to myself 'This sucks, I completely understand why Dotam hates this.'

"And up." Thankfully after what felt like 20 minutes John finally said to get up. "Now switch legs and go down again." I joined Dotam in his whimper this time as we slowly came out of the splits.

Minili finally had something to say about our behavior. "Come on guys, It's not that bad. Getting hit with all those weapons was way worse don't you think?"

Both Dotam and I looked at her and shook our heads. Minili also shook her head, just for a different reason.

The splits with my left leg forward were slightly better than my right but not much better. "And up." John's words seemed to come sooner this time but maybe that was just my own perception.

After all of us were standing again John continued his instruction. "I will be using my magic now to help you stretch. You will hold each of the splits and two variations of toe touches for 4 minutes each. Dotam and Etanali will hold them all for 5 minutes due to them both losing their bet. Now drop down to your middle splits."

The three of us dropped down as far as we could go and then our feet were encased in stone so we couldn't pull ourselves back up. The stone below our feet turned to sand causing us to slowly slide further into the splits.

There is no way for us to do anything but slide down and it is impossible to go against that stone to pull yourself back up. Another stone appeared in front of us to prevent ourselves from leaning forward, it also made our upper body stay atop our hips which put more force pushing us down.

This whole thing could be viewed as some kind of elaborate torture but after my illusions I knew what real torture was. This was merely a way to do stretching without cheating, but this sucked almost as much as one of my illusions.

I wanted to try and break out of this with my own magic but I knew that this wasn't the point. I needed to try and relax into it. I was happy that I didn't scream but I definitely made some unflattering sounds and so did Dotam.

I tried to calm my breathing and relax but it was harder than balancing an egg on a toothpick. I gave up trying to relax and just focused on not making a louder noise than Dotam and not fighting against the stone.

This made it marginally better, like going from a hot tea that was undrinkable to a tea that is still hot enough to burn your mouth but still palatable. Dotam realized he was the louder one of the two of us and then we started a small competition of who could make the least amount of noise.

After an eternity where I could swear that I'd never walk again John finally said "and up, Etanali and Dotam you have another minute to go." IT HAD ONLY BEEN 4 MINUTES!

Both Dotam and I let out a defeated whimper at the same time causing Minili to let out a giggle and John to smile. I interpreted that smile as that of a devil, I imagine Dotam felt the same.

After another dreadful minute where time seemed to have stopped John finally released us. The stones released us and sank back into the ground and I toppled onto my back and didn't have the strength to pull my legs back together.

The ground underneath my legs began to vibrate and slowly push them together, it made the action slightly less painful but painful nonetheless. It was like the separated hips were slowly being pushed back into their socket; I knew they weren't actually displaced but it felt like they were.

"Come on boys it's time to do your splits, I'll be nice and let you pick the leg. When the stone touches you the time starts." "Oh how kind of you John." I threw all of the sarcasm I could into those words. My hips weren't sore, they were on fire.

I knew that there wasn't much to do other than to continue. I just made a note in my heart that next time I shouldn't use stretching as a consequence for a bet.

I got into position and the sand thankfully wasn't going under my toenails as I slid my foot backwards, and the sand under my knee was better than the stone. I gained two blocks of stone securing my hips so they couldn't tilt at all and the blocks again encased my feet.

My legs slowly separated further and further and my competition of silence between Dotam and me started again. There was no way to prevent my legs from sliding so I focused as much as I could on my breathing and eventually I just stopped paying attention to anything outside of me.

My focus was entirely on breathing, not the feeling of stretching or the stone or Dotam, just the breath in my lungs. I found that I had a strange amount of control over it.

The closest thing I could compare it to is my abdominals. I could make waves going down and up and other weird things in the mirror back on earth.

But now my lungs seemed to be a muscle that I could control the same way I would my hand. I could inflate it and contract it in different ways.

I was about to start testing things when my concentration was broken by the rocks that were supporting my disappearing, causing me to fall over. My hamstring on my right leg was a little sore but my left hip was worse. "Are you ok Etanali?"

John had come to sit beside me since he noticed my strange behavior, I had fallen like a limp noodle. "Yes I'm fine, I was just exploring this feeling in my body. They seem different, I can control them strangely."

"It is fine to explore but try not to do anything too dangerous outside of the spell testing room." "I won't." Good. Now it's time for the other leg."

The same phenomenon on the ground occurred again, it vibrated and brought my legs closer together. It was slightly less painful than the previous time but not something I would willingly do.

"Time for the other leg you two." Datom and I put our left leg forward and allowed the stone to encase our feel and another block of stone rose up and braced our right hip.

It slowly pulled our feet across the now sandy ground. Minili was already in the splits and seemed to not hate the stretching.

Now in the position I wanted to get back to that feeling in my lungs so I tried to meditate but it wasn't as easy the second time. The feeling wasn't the same.

This time instead of feeling the lungs I felt the mana within the organ. It felt just like my other two cores did only, more alive. Maybe active would be a better word for it.

Like my other cores I could feel the mana and it seemed to be growing restless, like it wanted something. I decided to try and move it, just like I would do with my other cores.

I tried to draw on the mana, it slowly moved but at a certain point it stopped. It was like it had hit a wall and was unable to progress, I decided to push it further but was hit with a backlash.

I could feel my lungs spasm and I lost my breath and was unable to breath for a few seconds. Then I was coughing as if I had swallowed spit incorrectly, it was uncomfortable but the burning sensation in my lungs seemed to grow in intensity.

I was just about to ask for help when the burning started to dissipate so I assumed that whatever it was it was fine. Soon the stone disappeared and I fell over once more.

The vibrating ground brought my legs together and John announced the next exercise."Next up we have sitting toe touches." This exercise was self explanatory so I got into position while still trying to keep my focus on the lungs.

Stone enveloped me to help maintain my posture, it kept my back and knees straight and was less painful than the splits but still not something I would do for fun. The situation in my lungs had me curious and I tried to go back to that sensation but it didn't happen.

Eventually the stone allowed me to sit upright but it didn't free my legs. It separated them and then the stone responsible for bracing my back returned.I didn't give up on that sensation in my lungs and continued to try and regain that feeling and eventually I succeeded.

It wasn't the first sensation but the second one with the mana awareness. The area of my mana was now bigger than it was, it encompassed my diaphragm now, it was not only limited to the lungs area.

This was a big discovery! I knew that I should be developing a dragon form at some point but I didn't know how or when this would happen.

I merged the core with my lungs because it felt like it was the right thing to do, but now with his discovery I had my first hint. I theorized that if I could make this mana encompass my entire body I would be able to change forms.

It shouldn't be that simple but I can hope, at least it was a direction to go. I tried to pull the mana but I hit the barrier right away so I didn't try to push it, it should be a slow process anyway.

A little time later the stones released Dotam and I and we could finally stand up. "Freedom!" Datom yelled as soon as the stones released him. "John, can we get the weapons now?"

I chuckled at Dotam's drastic change in demeanor. He went from a stiff and sore old man to an energetic kid on christmas morning in a split second. "Go for it, make sure you bring the other two. And like before you can only stay on the first floor."

"Ok! Come on you two! Let's go!" Dotam yelled at us before running towards the weapon storehouse. "Is he always like this when it comes to weapons?" I asked Minili. "You have no idea. Just wait until the sparring, it's like a fat person at an eating contest."

I looked at her with a strange face. "Oh don't be like that. He is just happy to be there." "Oh, I guess that makes sense. You could have just said that instead."

This time she gave me a strange look like I was the one being weird. She left and started jogging after Dotam. I was left standing wondering what I did, after a few seconds I gave up trying to figure it out and just ran after the two.