Physical Training

The next morning I woke up among a mountain of pillows, there was light streaming through the window as the sun crested into view. 'I still woke up early?' I groaned and got out of bed. Another servant was waiting for me outside the door and asked if I would like him to draw me a morning bath. 'One more couldn't hurt, I guess.' I thought to myself.

After washing myself, I came back into the room to find a new set of clothes laid out on the bed. My uniform had been ruined the night before, but they had supplied me with some simple, comfortable clothes, including a tunic, trousers, and boots. I quickly put on the clothes and headed out the door. I looked down the hallway and could see that some of my friends were on the same schedule as me. Grace was waiting for us at the end of the hall, I saw Sarah coming out of Derek's room, but I was just going to pretend I didn't.

The Archer blushed slightly, knowing that she had been caught, but she went down to Grace anyway. I didn't see Tim, Laura, or Derek. However, I had a feeling that Derek was already awake. I walked down the long hallway towards Grace and told them good morning. They returned the greeting before asking me if I thought we should wake them up.

"One of the servants said that they would be having breakfast here soon." Grace explained. I wanted to let them sleep, but at the same time, I knew that they would regret it if they didn't come and get some of this food. Derek came out of the room less than thirty seconds later and immediately blushed when looking at Sarah.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked him in a teasing manner; the man nodded in response, not wanting to use his voice, which he knew would give away his secret. Grace and I shared a chuckle before deciding that I would go wake up Tim, and she would go to Laura's room. I turned and headed back in the direction of the Clerics room to wake him up.

I rapped on the door three times, but there was no answer, so I decided I'd open the door. I went inside, and sure enough, there was Tim completely dead to the world asleep.

"Tim..?" I said softly while making my way towards the bed. "Tim!" I got slightly louder as I got to him and began to push his shoulder gently in order to wake him up. I didn't get the response that I was looking for, however, because instead of waking up, he grabbed me and yanked me down to him. He then proceeded to wrap his body around mine. All the while, I'm protesting.

"Tim, let go, you giant! You're going to smother me to death!" I was mostly joking, but the man was a good bit taller than me, and I wouldn't call him thin. Years of training in the army must have made his body swell up with muscles. But I was rather twiggy myself, so it was still a possibility that he could smother me on accident. It wasn't until I reached down and gave him a hard pinch that he woke up.

"Ow, what was that for dangit!" It was then that he noticed the position that we were in and scooted away from me. "What are you doing in my bed?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"You put me here. Almost killed me in the process too!" I was kidding with that last part, but Tim still blushed and scratched his head. He mumbled a quick apology at me, and I told him that it was fine, and that breakfast was going to be ready soon. I then quickly took my leave of the room. Waiting outside the door for him to get into his new clothes, I realized that my heart was beating rather fast. 'Dang it who wrestles first thing in the morning?' I blamed it on the exercise, and shortly after, Tim came out dressed in an outfit similar to mine, just differently colored.

We all went to breakfast together and were pleased to find Jake, Master, and Sean already seated at the table. The table itself was filled with delicious looking foods sausages, and eggs, pancakes, pastries, you name it, and it was probably on the table. We ravenously scarfed down anything that we could get our hands on and only stopped whenever each of our bellies were completely full.

After that, it was time to ready ourselves to leave. We got any of our belongings together that we had brought, including the tattered ball wear because you never know what you could use the cloth for. The King and Queen came to see us off. Master and her father drew a new transportation circle together, and I got to talk to the royal couple one last time before we headed out.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay the night." I thanked the two sovereigns, and they responded kindly. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I have something that I would like to ask you." This was finally my chance to ask for the favor that I really wanted, which was to be able to serve the military with my friends by my side. The couple let me ask my question, and I got a favorable response. The King even laughed and told me.

"It wouldn't do to separate adventurers that fight so well together!" I thanked them one more time before the circle was ready for our departure. After climbing into the circle with the rest of my friends, I helped my Master activate it once more. Again the scenery passed by us in a blur until Master stopped us. I stretched my arms out a little bit and yawned.

"You know I did like the big room to myself, but I'm also kind of happy to be home." I walked up to my Master and told her that I'd see her later.

"And where exactly do ye think that yer goin? Eh?"

"I'm just going to head home, get rested up," I explained. The alchemy instructor shook her head.

"No yer not. Ah told ye when we got back I was goin te start teachin ye more battle alchemy, didn't I?" She did say that, but I hadn't realized that she meant that we were going to start the moment that we got back. "Ye have a lot of trainin ye need te do. Ah saw yer battle in the ballroom, and ahm tired of seein ye get stuck like a pincushion. So yeh yer goin te start trainin now, starting with a run to my place from here."

"A run? Why a run?" I asked.

"Cause yer body is physically weak, Todd. If yer goin te make it through a war, yer goin te need te get in better shape. Now start running." I looked at my friends for help, but they just shrugged. I guess it was true that I wasn't very strong physically, after all. 'But what does that have to do with alchemy?' It didn't matter though my Master was being serious, so I took off at a slow pace. The cottage was pretty far off after all.

A few minutes passed by as I was running, and I started to hear a voice from behind me. There was my Master easily catching up with me.

"Yer gonna have te do better than that!" She pointed directly beside her, signaling for me to fall in line to her left. "Keep up, every time I leave, ye behind, that's gonna be twenty pushups." I couldn't believe my ears. 'What is going on?' We had never worked on physical stuff before; I didn't even know that the woman worked out. I still did everything that I could to keep up with her pace, though.

I fell behind a couple of times, but every time I did, she would yell, "Twenty pushups!" At me, causing me to run faster. It took us about an hour to get to her place, running at the pace that she set. When we got there, she immediately had me drop and give her the pushups that I owed her. Once I was done with that, she invited me inside.

"Ah, bet yer wonderin why we're doing this now." I expressed that it had crossed my mind a couple of times. "Being an alchemist like I told ye before is about creativity and grit. That part is true, but in order to be effective on the battlefield, ye also can't rely on just alchemy te save ye. If ye do yer gonna wind up ran through, injured or dead." I was understanding so far.

"Yer most powerful alchemic processes are things that will take time te prepare. If yer being attacked up close and personal say by a large Paladin yer gonna take a lot of damage unless yer able te keep up with em." I was starting to see what the issue was. Even my electrical tattoo stopped working as well once I took too much damage. If I had been more physically fit, there was a chance that I could have had the strength to fight off my attacker instead of having Tim beat them to death.

"So, what does that mean for training?" I asked my Master.

"It means ye have te start exercising every day. Ye can pay me fer the new lessons but consider this one free." She spent the next few hours teaching me a set of workouts that I was required to do every day. By the time we were finished, the sun was setting. But she would still not go easy on me.

"Now run home." I groaned because I knew that she really wanted me to run.