Post First Martial Arts Class

[vneef_healer]

On the plus side, NONE of the students lived up to their instructor's high standards, so Alia and Fajah didn't embarass themselves too much.

On the down side, this means the students are, one and all, badly bruised and exhausted from their training.

Once the two of them are safe back in their dorm, Alia shuffles over to her shelves in search of her stash of bruise healing balm.

And they get to do this again tomorrow morning. Joy.

Comments

[infinitest]

Fajah is facefirst into her bed already: even the hardy southerner did not pass the grueling first day unscathed.

She mumbles something in Firetongue, or what Alia can guess is firetongue.

[vneef_healer]

"I'm not sure precisely what you said," Alia replies, "but I agree with the tone wholeheartedly."

Success! The salve is right where it should have been. "I can ease the bruising a little, if you want?"

[infinitest]

"I said I never imagined a bath could feel so good..." Ah, right, if it were not for the hot baths, half the cadets would not have made it back to the dorms.

[vneef_healer]

"Me neither!" Alia agrees with a rueful chuckle. "I don't think I'd be able to even MOVE if not for that."

She starts applying the salve to the bruises on her body that she can reach, watching them fade a little. She grumbles at the number of bruises on her back that she can't reach. "Looks like I'm going to need a hand with about half of these, I can't reach that far to put the salve on."

[infinitest]

Fajah mumbles something from her pillow: it might have been 'here, let me help'.

You know, in Pillow-Mumble dialect of High Realm.

[vneef_healer]

Alia is remarkably fluent in the Pillow-Mumble dialect, who knew?

"I can put some on your own bruises first, if you like?" Since Fajah's already face down and all...

[infinitest]

The other girl gestures vaguely to her right shoulder.

Ah, right, that second kata, the fifth sequence where a third of the students ended falling hard.

[vneef_healer]

Alia's muscles remember that sequence all too well. (She was in that third that fell hard.)

She nods and gently rubs the ointment onto Fajah's right shoulder. It feels very nice when the ointment soothes the ache and starts to heal the damaged tissue almost immediately.

[infinitest]

Mumble.

Groan.

Sigh.

"Thank you." She flexes her right hand, amazed it is there.

[vneef_healer]

"You're welcome," Alia replies with a smile. "Anywhere else troubling you?"

Ouch, that is a nasty looking bruise Fajah can glimpse on Alia's back, it looks like it covers most of her spine.

[infinitest]

Fajah will see it in a moment, when she gathers the energy to move and look. "Oh gods, heavens... Sifu really expects us to master those katas before the end of the week?" With a sigh, she will take the lotion from Alia and start applying it to her roommate's back.

[vneef_healer]

"That was the impression I got," Alia replies with a sigh. "We're just going to have to work very, very hard." And maybe pray a little. (It can't hurt.)

She relaxes visibly as Fajah begins applying the ointment. "Looks like it's a good thing that I made a few extra batches of that salve to bring with me to the House of Bells."

[infinitest]

"We'll run out of it in a month if things continue like this." The other girl sighs. "And we have classes tomorrow at the crack of dawn."

Really.

[vneef_healer]

"I'll make more," Alia promises. "I think we get at least a half day of rest at some point during the month."

Alia pats Fajah reassuringly. "We'll get through it together, somehow. They wouldn't assign something that was ACTUALLY impossible, surely?"

[infinitest]

"I guess not." The girl flops down with a sigh. "I never felt so tired before."

[vneef_healer]

"Nor I," Alia replies, flopping down next to Fajah. "I thought that I'd trained hard at home since my second breath, but it was nothing like that!"

[infinitest]

"I trained hard before, just this..." Fajah gestures, mimicking the kata stances vaguely. "I don't see how Sifu does that, it looks like his bones bend."

They don't, but then again supernatural martial arts are like that.

[vneef_healer]

"It does, doesn't it?" Alia replies with a weary chuckle.

Supernatural martial arts that they have to master, somehow.

"I think the bending bones must be a trick of the eye....but I can't figure out what the true movement should be."

[infinitest]

"Well, Sifu says we have to figure it out." The girl flops down on the bed. "I hope to, soon, because I don't want to end this bruised every day for the next five years."

[vneef_healer]

"Me neither," Alia grumbles. "I wonder if...."

They can discuss some possibilities, although how much that will help with mastering the kata of the Earth dragon is debatable.

[infinitest]

They can discuss several, but after a while, silence indicates Fajah conked out asleep.

It was a very long day.

[vneef_healer]

Very long indeed. Alia gently pulls the covers over Fajah before falling into her own bed to sleep.

Tomorrow may be even longer....