Can you keep up? (Attn Saline)

[Jaydena]

Lyssa massaged her sore calves, it was obvious that she was pushing herself to hard for a number of emotional reasons. She loved him, he didn't love her, and she didn't want to ruin their friendship by telling him how she felt. He was a playboy, the rogue and everyone knew it including her. She had known it but had of course forgotten when she had been held in his arms and had seen how tender he became after he was her lover. Lys shook her head and pushed those thoughts from her head, she finished her warm up and headed over to the glade where she was to meet Saline. The girl was already waiting, it would do her good to learn patience, before she had a gaidin and learned to have on at her beck and call. She slowed her pace and walked up to Saline, "Good morning Saline, today you begin a training routine that will last for several weeks. When we are done with this perios you will be in much better shape, and this will benefit you in the long run. Especially if you ever have to defend your self in battle and the One Power is not an option." Lyssa smiled at Saline, "Do you have any questions at all for me before we start?"

 

 

She waited for Saline but the girl didn't appear to have any questions, Saline could of course ask her those questions, if she could breath enough to talk that was. Hearing that there were no questions Jared smiled again as he began to talk. Lys nodded and began talking again, "Well, then we will start with the same thing I had to do when I came to the Tower. We will do laps around the walls of Tower, we shall see how you do and what kind of condition you are in now. First however we stretch and warm up so that we don't hurt ourselves or cramp. Remember that both warming up and cooling down are very important. If you injure yourself because you didn't do these than it will be weeks before you can do anything again or you will have to do it through pain. Lyssa began showing her things to stretch and warm up. She pulled her leg up to her bottom, standing on one leg, then she put her hands on tree and put one leg behind her, stretching her calves. When she had shown Saline how to stretch before warm up, she started out at an easy lope. The girl followed her and after a few minutes, Lysssa decided she was warmed up enough and began to run the girl faster.

 

Lyssa Simeone

[Lih-Lyh]

By the time her blade was sharpened to satisfaction Saline felt she had transgressed the acquaintance stage - she, her pouch, and the whetstone had become fast friends. By the smashing of metal over anything it could reach: stone, metal, cloths, flowers... she had upped her grip against everything she could imagine until it was firm. By the time the Accepted next door had grown thoroughly disgusted with the clanging, the infernal rackett as she named it when the sounds of Saline going over every millimetre of its lovely length ((a scimitar was it?)) polluted the small of the dawn.

 

Armed with the scimitar she rushed through the corridors of the Tower her disposition was much improved. Saline waved her soggy wrinkled hands confidently, earning sympathetic looks from those who were thinking of their serving out their own sentences in the kitchens.

 

Saline was disgruntled. She was eager to learn the forms. How to stand, how to step, how to execute parries, and thrusts.

 

They stretched. And they stretched. And they stretched.

 

Saline was about to ask what they were learning today, but the woman knew the question already. All properly warmed up and loosen - too warm by Saline's standards, Lyssa greeted her with the news ((before setting off without a backwards glance!)) that they were going to run today. Her mouth stayed open. She stared as the seconds stretched out. Run? Anybody could do that. She was here to learn more about how to take care of herself with a sharp edge, wasn't she? Nevertheless she set down her scimitar, and followed Lyssa's lead.

 

I will do this and do this right, she thought as she sprinted madly to catch up. I can show her.

 

By the fourth lap the lass who had not bothered to pace herself or her breathing was winded. Pain stabbed into her sides she fell behind on the next round and lay on the ground, panting and gulping down air. She never wanted to get up again as her eyes pleaded.

 

Collapsing on the grass she had found her sharp edge. Was there a point to life? Oh, yes, many nasty stabbing points.

 

I must continue. She hauled herself up trying to steady her position, her head swam, and she was still breathing hard. Se winced as she stood upright, but started to jog. The first stride is the hardest. She repeated to herself, staying at her own pace, conserving but did not lag behind as she got into the rhythm of the run, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, she counted to herself as she passed the distinct boulder near the wall again and over.

 

Soon the lass was able to make quiet conversation with the woman, whose eyes seemed to hold more compassion than she could bare. Saline asked: "We do this every morning?"

 

She resolved to start running regularly. With practice, and time, she'll be in better shape.

[Jaydena]

Lyssa ran carefully along, not pushing to hard, after all the girl was new and would likely fall and hurt herself if they ran to hard or to fast her first time out. On top of which Lyssa didn't want to have her first trainee end up in the Infirmary, Light she would never live that one down if a future Aes Sedai died in her care. She smirked and just imagined what certain people would say and what kind of ribbing she would get if Saline passed out. Looking behind her she noted that the girl was breathing just a little to deeply, shaking her head she turned and jogged backwards as she watched Saline. The girl really was out of shape, you would think after all her years of running up and down the Tower steps for Aes Sedai, her condition would be much better than this.

 

Lyssa smiled as she watched the girl collapse on the grass, she jogged over to her but saw the girl had already regained her feet. Lys spoke quietly to the girl, telling her she could do it and working on motivating her. Eventually Saline had started to ask her questions, and could job while talking. Lyssa was talking when Saline suddenly asked a question, "We do this every morning?" She smiled at Saline as they ran and then spoke, "Yes we do this every morning and in a week we will change the routine, you will have to wait until that time to find out exactly what we will do and hopefully by then you will be ready for the change. For now we will begin our cool down and then stretch out before you head off to begin your day." She smirked as she turned away and slowed their pace...

 

One Week Later

 

Lyssa ran out into the yard and smile, Saline her mentee was doing much better after just a week and she was proud of how hard the girl was trying to make herself better. After all, this wasn't something that was required and Saline was choosing to do this on her own. When she arrived at the glade where they met every morning, Saline was already doing her stretched and Lys smiled at her and spoke, "Good job, I love how you are going ahead and getting started every morning without me. Today we will be changing how we do things, instead of just running we will now be stopping every few laps to do a block of Sit-ups, Push-ups, and Jumping Jacks. We will do ten laps with ten of each the sit-ups, push-ups, and Jumping Jacks after every two laps. Once this week is done and if I feel like you are ready to advance we will increase that to twenty laps around the walls, stopping to do twenty of the sit-ups and so on. We will do this for another week and then we will begin your sword forms, I want you to be in prime condition when we start them." Lyssa began her own stretches and ignored the shocked look on her mentee's face.

 

Lyssa Simeone

**********************************************************

"Know that story of the Warder who had a sword hanging over his head, a sword that's attached by a string? It's kind of how I am now - waiting for the other foot to drop." Confided Saline to her good friend. "It'll come anytime now from nowhere. Watch, you."

 

The whetstone was nonresponsive. Nonetheless the Warders had made the mistake of letting her on inanimate objects, for the babbling was unstoppable. As were the echoes. There they were - dark haunts in her mind. She supposed she was nervous, yet it was not only the nerves on edge. The anticipation was killing her; it had built up while she stretched, and now limbered she distracted herself with sharpening her already fine tip.

 

With one last swipe she sheathed the blade, and rubbed its length down her cheek.

 

Saline felt warm in the regard of her Mentor, who was smiling at her, praising her, making the Accepted very flustered, as it was self-serving really.

 

Lyssa's words nipped. Sword forms. She had been looking forward to practicing Sword forms. As they ran she mused. Had read a book on mystic Baqli by a well-known brown sister who was part of the Safi, who shocked her with his thinking.

 

What if one worships Creator in private and yet intends to eliminate ego by performing outrageous acts in the public, training for desensitisation to the opinions of the others like they do. Is the reliance on audience ridicule not paradoxical if one considers the need to eliminate ego? Was it religious regimen or madness? And was it Legitimate? Yes and no. For laws were made by the divine, and laws were made by men. Yet Baqli claimed to have felt revelations in his experiences, and to love another person is to love the Creator. Saline wondered if her maker had intended for...

 

And the hanging sword, the other foot dropped.

 

The break was not long enough, and going from speed to keeping warm to speed workouts was driving her a tad mad. But anything was better than anticipation. She pushed herself to set a faster pace.

 

Saline

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Lyssa watched as her mentee put her sword down on the ground, the sword looked shined and cleaned from her and Lys nodded in approval. Saline began to stretch and Lyssa continued her own stretches as she thought about their training last week. The girl had done very well and obviously had enough guts to get the job done. She had made a choice to do this and she was sticking with it, this was exactly what they neded to be Aes Sedai and she hoped she passed all her tests to be just that. Saline was also very friendly which you didn’t see in many future Aes Sedai. Turning away from her she began to run and they were soon running along at a good pace. The Tower was large and running around it this many times was not an easy feat. They made it to the first strength training exercise and Saline struggled through the push ups the most but made it through all of them.

 

Lys smiled at how hard the girl was trying but hide the smile from her. They kept running around the Tower and the sun got higher. Saline was starting to look slightly haggard, every single time they stopped for the next group of workouts and Lyssa hoped her mentee didn’t give up. She had great confidence in this young woman and she hoped to someday see her walking through the Tower with a shawl around her shoulders. Time passed and eventually they finished their work out. Lyssa took her mentee through the cool down and they headed back to the Tower. The days passed slowly and eventually her mentee didn’t look so tired when they made their stops. The next week she increased the things they did and the next she added in pull-ups. Saline took it all with good humor and soon they were ready for their sword forms…

 

Lyssa Simeone

 

Ooc- I should be able to do the next set of training tomorrow

[Lih-Lyh]

It was a change to be out of the White Tower. There was a reason why the people in Baqli's nation did not walk in the heat of the day. It was sweltering - she felt the temperature unbearable even drenched in perspiration.

 

The late summer sizzled. Tar Valon was in the North, and should not be this furnace, but it blasted Saline every run. As the mornings crept by, she received some attention to the alterations in her physique, thanks to the basic training that Lyssa gave her. For the first time in a long while, she was in shape.

 

Transformations in the body affected the mind. The Accepted was never much of an exerciser, but she enjoyed her morning sessions with Lyssa. Running acted to exorcise her of worries and tangles, and she truly focused on manners in which to improve herself.

 

Pull-ups are upper body. It is easy if you're light, for it would not take much strength.

 

Reaching the bar might be a problem though.

 

She jumped. Luckily the brownish grass provided scant padding.

 

Who would have thought training acquired a sore bottom?

 

Saline could not wait until they start horseback riding lessons.