Lyle watched as more than the usual amount of students for the basic body training arrived while he and Nel stretched. Lyle saw students that have beards, mustaches and more developed chests absent on 15-year-olds, the cutoff age for the enrollment exam. Lyle decided to focus on warming up and talking to Nel than to think about why the other freshmen were here, doing basic body training like them.
Ten minutes into the 8th bell, Coach walked to the middle of the courtyard. Lyle followed him and so did the rest of the class. “You won’t need introductions here so we will start today but I have a few words. You can and will call me coach during the first two weeks. Surviving the first two weeks without the pills, trust me when I say that I will know when you use them, and you can call me by my name, which will be given at that time.”
Coach began pacing, panning his gaze at the 400 odd students, before speaking once more. “For the new students, the other students you see in this class are the ones who failed the previous year’s class by being too weak or by cheating. Do not be like these failures.” The coach paused and Lyle took that time to look at the older students with new eyes, labeling them as the dregs of last year’s batch and the training overall as hard to pass to have this many students. The coach continued as the new students finished their reassessment of the class and its students. “To pass this test is easy, just don’t quit or cheat. That is all. Now, give me ten laps! every time I pass you, you get to go another lap. Every time you pass me, You get one less lap. Start behind me. Go!” The Dark-skinned coach began running, pumping his arms and going in a, for him, a leisurely pace in front of the class.
Lyle learned early on that arguing or complaining about the training was futile, and so did the rest of the class, as they started running around the courtyard with no preamble nor a single voice of complaint. The first three laps no one lagged behind the group, some of his classmates even started running faster and tried to catch up to the coach. By the fourth lap, people started to lag behind and the others started passing the coach. Lyle thought to try passing the coach too but thought better of it, he’d just try to keep up with the coach for 5 more laps before attempting to pass him.
By the sixth lap, students started flagging, most of them being ones who passed the coach a while back making the black-haired teacher catch up to them. Panic set into the students that were still ahead and made them run faster. The next lap saw the coach passing the exhausted students still ahead of the lap before. Lyle could hear his heart beating from the running, a phenomenon usually reserved for the last lap. Only seven laps in and some of his classmates slowed down enough that Lyle, still in the pack of runners, could see the coach passing them. The pack caught up to them in the eighth lap.
As Lyle began passing the starting point, he ran as fast as he could without being too tired to finish the lap. During the eight laps they ran, Lyle lagged behind his coach and already Lyle struggled to breathe, just as most of the students did, and Lyle could already see coach a tenth of the way to the course. Lyle panted, his breath becoming even more labored as he struggled to go a bit faster to the approximately a tenth of a bell per lap jog.
Lyle dashed passed the mack and broke away, feeling for the first time since the run the chill morning air. His extremities suddenly got colder and his breathing already labored, got heavier. Still, Lyle continued with his dash towards his coach, his back getting bigger and bigger.
The curve from the oval track came and coach suddenly swerved, Lyle had been so focused on passing the dark-skinned man that he failed to notice the curve and lost a few seconds readjusting. The other students were not idle however as Lyle saw the shadows of the other runners at his sides. Nel, Chris, and Henry had all followed Lyle when they saw him pick up speed.
Nel, winded but still jogging with an easy smile, ran up next to Lyle with an eyebrow raised. “Hey, slowpoke. Are you okay? Better stay back, ‘cause the real runners are here.” Before Lyle could reply, Nel ruffled his head and dashed off. Chris and Henry passed by him, getting a nod from Chris and "Good luck” from Henry.
Not wanting to lose, Lyle pushed his legs into the ground harder. He ran faster but Lyle could feel his lungs freezing and his legs burning. And on he went getting closer to the coach as Nel passed the coach. So did Henry at the halfway point of the last straight before the last curve to the finish line.
Lyle pushed, as hard as he could, not because he didn’t want to go that last lap but because he wanted to win, to be exceptional. To be the best. And so Lyle did what he could and pushed himself like he did so many times in his life.
At the quarter point before turning, Lyle was only a few paces behind his coach, the grass beside the oval track brushing against skin. He could only see the back of his coach, the dirt path, the sky, and even the other competitors becoming a blur, his eyes only focusing on the man in the pants and shirt jogging like he was on a nice stroll and not an intensive training session. Oddly enough while blurred, Lyle could see or rather could sense his surroundings, he could place his foot in a spot where there were no stray pebbles that could shift his balance. He could also count the people in front of him while not aware of them at the same time. Lyle could see the coach getting bigger and bigger.
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At the curve, Lyle finally caught up to the coach. But Lyle could see the finish line a few feet away. Lyle gave it his all, instinctively leaning to gain even just a little bit of advantage. Both began to turn, Lyle outside and the coach inside on the track. Lyle’s strength was flagging, pure determination pushing him forward. His strength was waning and only his will pushed his legs to go from one foot to the other.
Lyle passed the finish line, he and the coach was neck and neck but Lyle did not accomplish his goal. But that did not matter to him. Not anymore. In his addled mind, Lyle was only able to think of one thing and one thing only: passing the person beside him. So Lyle ran, he ran faster than he ever did and for a sliver of a second he gained his strength, a second wind. When asked by Nel later where Lyle gained the sudden speed he had, Lyle would be unable to explain what happened it just did. But for his coach, during the neck and neck race, he smiled for Lyle used his qi to temporarily replenish his stamina and permanently strengthen his muscles a tiny bit.
Lyle cheered as he passed the coach, a bell after the class started, but in doing so he ran out of energy for the two bell class. Lyle ran for a few moments, going into the middle of the courtyard towards those that finished, almost dragging his feet from exhaustion. Nel, Henry, Chris, and a few others Lyle only vaguely knew to be his fellow new freshmen came to congratulate him, patting him at the back or saying their congratulations. Nel suddenly appeared next to Lyle making him lean on his shoulder and carrying his arm. Henry followed after a heartbeat.
At the center of the courtyard, Nel and Henry let Lyle down. He lied down and stared at the morning sky. Lyle absentmindedly recalled what happened in the past two weeks. At the kalend of December Lyle had taken the test for the enrollment of the Abeseth Academy for the Gifted. It was just three days before the mid of January and already Lyle had experienced many things. And things will keep on getting more interesting from here.
As Lyle’s mind wandered, the people still jogged. While the majority would end on their tenth lap, other students got caught by the coach bringing them towards an eleventh lap and Lyle a little more time to rest.
“Maggots! Come here!” The coach went in the center of the field, just like all the other times. “Now I’ll give you 90 heartbeats before we proceed to the next activity. No pills or you’re out!”
Lyle’s friends all went to a corner and decided to take a breather there. While they were together they did not talk to one another and just rested in companionable silence.
“Time’s up! Gather and form twenty lines!” The coach bellowed his orders and the students followed his order as fast as they could. Failure to comply would result in another lap around the courtyard.
Once the twenty lines were formed, the coach whistled and nine men and women arrived, some jumping from who knows where some walked seemingly from thin air and some just straight-up grew from the ground. “These are my assistants, which you will call ma’am or sir. They, together with me, will teach you exercises that will make your body stronger. We will do this for the rest of the class starting today until the end of the year. Am I understood?”
Despite his fear of the coach’s new assistants Lyle couldn’t help but feel excitement at the possibilities of being a cultivator.
The coach drilled Lyle and his classmates into the forms and stances of what he called the Agua fomar meaning water form. As Lyle and the others continued their study of the martial art, The assistants and the coach corrected and advised the student on their forms. Lyle felt the correction and the guidance of the instructors made this class more official than last week’s training, which felt more rushed and more hectic.
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Lyle breathed in and out, concentrating on feeling his body, finding every nook and cranny of the tips of his toes up to the top of his head. As Lyle learned to meditate, Diana droned on about the feelings one should feel when concentrating on making a constant, pleasing noise that Lyle could either lose himself in or ignore completely. Lyle listened to the meditation teacher. How every breath coming into Lyle was making his heart beat faster, making his lungs swell and making his mind sharper peaking in the middle of breathing in and out and weakest at the end and beginning of breaths.
Lyle concentrated, listening to his stomach and how it rumbles as his stomach ate his breakfast for the second time and how his qi runs through his body. Lyle could sense something vague. Something he could reach out but not touch no matter how far he reached. Lyle still had five to sense his qi. It would not be long until he had it figured out.
The droning faded and Lyle heard the noise of his other classmates’ breathing. The room felt empty and suddenly very large. “Class, step out of meditation. We’ll continue the lesson tomorrow.” Lyle opened his eyes and looked at the brown-eyed woman. Lyle looked at the teacher’s face closely, something he couldn’t focus on the first day due to him being occupied elsewhere. Despite her serious demeanor and emotionless attitude, Lyle could call her cute with her round face and her big upturned eyes. She still carried herself in a strict manner of course and her demeanor made her radiate authority.
The next teacher, Teacher Mills entered and quickly Lyle and his classmates sat down.
“Now can anyone tell me what cultivation is?” The Mills looked around at her students’ raised arms. She chose one, the same student that answered yesterday. “It is the way to defy the heavens.”
The teacher nodded. “Good. Now ms. Mayfield, can you explain what you have just said?”
Mayfield, a small and thin girl taller than Lyle nodded her head, her blue eyes bright and had that glint of intelligence only a few of the people have. Okay, maybe Lyle kinda liked her. A person can have two crushes, you don’t know him.
Anyway, Mayfield answered. “From who I asked, to defy the havens is to actively do things that nature says is impossible. To pass a mountain in a single leap, to fly without wings.”
“Very good. Now can anyone tell me why meditation is important to cultivation?” Again the teacher looked at the raised hands and picked Nel.
“Oh, yeah. I totally know this.” Nel said, pumping his fist. “Meditation is important ‘cause like you said, it makes the connection with the body and mind stronger.”
“How is this important to cultivation?”
“Right. So when you make the bonds between your mind and body or something, you get stronger? Like maybe sensing qi is part of the process?”
“Very good. Now let’s continue the lesson.”