Chapter Nineteen - On the road (Part One)

“This is not a good idea.”

“Seriously, if I got a punch in the face for every time you said that already, I’d be dead by now. And I can take a lot of punches, just ask Nex.”

Arette rolled her eyes at Zenon, who was fidgeting far too much.

They were only on the second day of their two week journey and Arette already wanted to wreck something. Zenon’s mouth, preferably.

“Besides, we sure as hell won’t turn around now, just because you got cold feet,” she snorted.

“Cold feet?” Zenon echoed with disbelief, “I never wanted to do this to begin with! You were the one who decided it would be a good idea!”

“That’s because it was the only way to get you out of your sorry moping. Besides, if your don’t talk to her, you’ll never know if she really hates you as much as you think she does. Come on, Lizzy, you agree with me, don't you?” she beckoned her best friend, who had fallen behind a little.

“Huh?” Lizzy looked up, surprised, “Oh, I agree with you.”

Arette giggled.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about, do you?”

“Uhm...err…” Lizzy blushed, looking down guiltily, “I’m sorry.”

Arette laughed and Zenon showed a rare smile as well, even though he was mostly gloomy. He tried to spread his gloom over all of them, but Arette determinedly pushed against it.

This was an adventure and she was quite happy to get out of Redhall, even though she’d only been there for a month.

Travelling under the sun, sleeping under the stars, that was a life she enjoyed far more than studying in cramped halls in an even more cramped city.

Leaving Redhall was, surprisingly, not much of a problem. Leesha turned out to be quite the big admirerof soul companionship. She swooned and found it incredibly sweet of Arette to be so helpful in trying to bring two soul companions back together.

Needless to say, she immediately agreed to give her a few weeks’ leave from her classes. After meeting up with Rize and Lyndon, Lyn even offered to lend them his travelling carriage, one of the kind that could move on its own as long as someone supplied it with a certain type of crystals. The crystals were provided by Rize, who also found their endeavour 'sooo romantic' that she wanted to be a part of it as well.

Arette had been more than thankful - jumping to hug every of them - but Rize and Leesha didn’t even want a favor in return except for an invitation to the bonding ceremony of Zenon and Elea. Lyn only shrugged and said she could repay him alter on.

Leesha, Lyndon and Rize were very optimistic about the success of their journey.

So were Arette and Liz. Liz knew enough about soul companionship that she could trust the fact that they would recognize each other and forgive each other and Arette thought that if this Elea girl was someone Zenon loved so much, then she would surely find it in her to forgive him.

The only one who wasn’t optimistic at all was - no surprise there - Zenon himself.

He was firmly convinced that Elea hated his guts and wanted nothing to do with him and he used every possible opportunity to voice said conviction. So often that Arette was already annoyed and it was only the second day. The high gods knew what would happen when they neared the end of their journey.

Right now, Zenon and Arette were sitting on the front of the cart, watching the road. Zenon was currently driving, since Arette's cart-steering skills had turned out to be quite nonexistent.

Liz sat in the back of the cart, her nose in one of the books she brought with her. How she could do something so tedious while the world opened up around her was beyond Arette, but that was Liz’ choice.

Seeing that Zenon was about to say something - no doubt to convince her to turn around and forget this her plan - Arette gave out a loud yawn and stretched herself.

“I’ll be going to exercise for a few hours. Don’t wait up for me!” she said and jumped off the cart. When she had told Nex that she was about to leave for four weeks or longer, her martial arts instructor hadn’t exactly been pleased. After a lot of begging and promising from Arette, she caved in, but not before thoroughly instructing and threatening her.

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‘A hundred squats, a hundred push ups, every day. And at least six miles worth of running. If possible, more than that. And weapon practise, every evening. If I find out that you slacked out on even one of those, you can forget about me teaching you anything for the rest of your immortal life, you got me?’

Arette had grinned and nodded and Nex sent her on her way. She wasn’t planning on skipping any of it, not when she had noticed that most of her practise was helping her body.

After a month of Nex’ training, she felt a lot more agile and powerful than she did before.

So, letting the carriage get ahead of her, she started with the body training.

Later on, she’d have to sprint to catch up to the others, who would be at leave five or six miles ahead of her then - perfect for her running practise.

There was something about physical exercise that calmed her.

It made her focus on her body that began to ache soon enough, but the pain pulsated with her flame and brought her into a state where there was only her and her body, pushing against her limits.

Nex’ training may be harsh, but she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

So she didn’t even count when she started her squats. She liked to push herself towards her limit, fighting not until she reached a number, but until she couldn’t move anymore.

It took quite a while until her breaths grew laboured, but from then on out, every movement felt like agony. Still she continued.

Breathing in, breathing out. Forcing her knees to lower, then stand back up.

Another breath.

Her knees started shaking, yet she continued.

I’m too weak. I need to get stronger.

Another one, then another, then another - and then her legs gave in. With a loud thump, she collapsed onto the ground, catching her breath and trying to ignore the pain in her muscles.

Sweat was pearling down her forehead, but she hardly cared as she wiped it away.

Too weak.

With the sun filtering into her, the pain didn’t take long to dissipate under her flames that pulsated within her.

Immortals tended to heal fast - at least Liz told her that mortals did so considerably slower - but under the sun, her healing speed was apparently top notch.

In the rain, without stars or the sun or the moon giving her the light she lived off, a wound took far longer to heal, a few days instead of a few minutes. Right now, the cramping pain in her legs disappeared after a few moments, enabling her to continue with her training immediately.

Even though she felt a little worn out, she didn’t waste time as she started with her push ups. These were easier, at least in the beginning, when she hardly felt strain or aching.

The more she did the harder it got though and soon, she felt the ache creeping into her again.

Now, she could already do a lot more exercise before breaking down compared to a month ago, when she’d first arrived her. Still, it wasn’t enough, by far.

Compared to Nex, she was an amateur. Nex told her she hadn’t even reached the limits of a mortal yet and the limits of an Immortal body such as hers were much higher.

An Immortal body was, after all, directly forged from Chaos. If it didn’t have a capacity far higher than a mortal’s, the name ‘Immortal’ was hardly fitting.

And so, Arette pushed herself.

Up, down, up, down, another breath, one more and then another.

I need to get stronger. I want to get stronger.

It took longer this time to collapse, but eventually, she did.

She sat down and breathed heavily, waiting until she caught her breath.

Then, she did the entire thing again, until she doubled over from pain and figured it would be enough for today. If her body wasn’t soaked in sunlight, she would’ve probably seriously hurt herself with this kind of training.

After a few moments of catching breath, she stood up and began to run on the road they had taken when she’d jumped off the cart.

She didn’t know herself what it was that made her so determined to get stronger. On the one hand, it was enthusiasm, surely, and she couldn’t deny that she found a lot of fun in the exercise. She also loved fighting practise, but that wasn’t all.

It was like there was a voice inside of her, telling her that she needed the strength.

As is something terrible would happen if she didn’t get strong now.

She didn’t know why, but the feeling was always there, urging her legs on even when they threatened to spasm and break down under her body.

It was also that very feeling that spurred her on, made her press her body to go faster, faster, until the road flew by under her and the wind that hit her face lashed like a whip.

Not fast enough.

She was never fast enough to outrun the nagging feeling inside of her.

In record time, she reached the cart where Zenon and Liz were still perched on, looking all relaxed. Arette meanwhile, was drenched in sweat, face redder than her hair, but she had a broad grin on her face as she jumped up next to Liz and collapsed onto the wood.

Liz looked at her with a mix of disbelief and concern, but Arette could only smile.

It didn’t matter if her friend didn’t understand. She didn’t need to.

Arette didn’t really understand either.

But with the sun on her face and the world around her, she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“Arette, I really think this is a bad idea, what we’re doing here…”

“Oh shut up, Zenon.”