Chapter 124

K'tharkle, Day 40 - Saturday

Jay woke up with a groan. He had woken up early it appeared and the sun hadn't even started to rise. He wanted nothing more than to go back to bed but he really should get up and do his morning staff weapon practice. He wouldn't get any better without more practice.

He might not get better even with the practice it seemed sometimes.

Jay dressed in a light weight set of undergarments first then pulled on and tied his leather armor over it. He pulled on his load bearing vest with all of the many pockets and cinched his belt around his waist. His Mighty Book went on after that and attached to his belt neatly.

Why not just wear the leather armor with nothing under it? One word: Pinching. If something is going to get caught in the leather armor Jay would rather it be the light-weight undergarment and not his skin.

He had no idea what he would be doing that day but didn't feel like lugging his backpack around with him that morning. He settled for his coin pouch and tied that to his belt.

Lastly, he grabbed his telescoping staff and focused on it and set it to 5 feet ten inches. It was just the right height for him.

Looking around his bedroom he smiled as his view passed over the pictures on his bed side table of him and M'redith. Although it was just a dorm room it had begun to feel more and more like home to him.

Home. There was an idea. Where would he live after graduation? Should he buy himself a home? He probably had enough gold for it.

Jay shrugged. He didn't need to worry about shelter just yet. That day would come, Jay was sure of it, but not today. For now, Guild housing would do just fine. He only visited his rooms to sleep anyway.

Jay looked out his bedroom window one last time before he left the room. It was still dark out and he couldn't hear any birds chirping yet.

He left his rooms and locked and shut the door behind him. He walked in the pre-dawn darkness across campus until he reached the spot where he and his friends used to practice their weapons. Or had until they were forced to run from the city. Now that they were back they could try to go back to their normal routines.

The spot was out of the way and no one would mind him practicing there. It wasn't as if he made any noise, practice was mostly silent save for some heavy breathing.

Jay slowly went through all of the moves he knew and then again, at speed. The first time through his moves looked decent if not perfect. It was easy to move correctly when moving slowly. When he tried the second time at speed his movements weren't nearly as skilled.

Jay worked on his movements for a time until he had worked up a good sweat. He did a few more attempts of the movements he'd learned before he paused for breath.

“That last one was much better!” a happy chirpy voice informed him out of the darkness.

Jay startled as Norri walked in to view and waved good morning happily. She was wearing a faded blue robe over her leather armor and she held her staff in both hands.

“I didn't expect to find you here, I just thought it'd be good to get in some practice.” Norri said with a grin.

Jay waved it away, “No worries. I figured I needed all the practice I can get.”

Norri nodded but kindly stayed silent.

“Here, try this. Watch first,” she said as she stepped away from Jay and stood at attention. She bowed then held her staff out in front of her. She moved with one foot to the side and slightly forward, widening her stance. She stomped when her foot set down and then moved her rear foot forward in a half circle motion. She repeated that, moving forward, a few times before changing direction. When she moved forward she attacked with her staff. Side strikes, over head strikes, rising strikes. When she changed directions her staff would whip out to block imaginary opponents, maintaining a firm grip on her weapon at all times.

It wasn't a long dance, maybe thirty seconds at the most, but she moved with purpose and force the entire time, each motion precisely calculated and with no wasted movements.

She taught Jay the dance which wasn't difficult to learn. The difficulty lay in performing each movement in a technically perfect manner. Form and motion must both be performed correctly – an error in either would ruin the strike or block.

Jay ran through the dance many different ways. She had him do it on his own, then with his eyes closed. At one point she had him hold the staff with both hands over his head and focus only on his foot placement. Another time he held the staff in front of him, arms straight, as he concentrated on how he breathed, and when.

She would run him through it repeatedly, each time in a way that forced him to focus on one single aspect of the dance.

As the sun rose the first rays of orange light pierced the dark sky and the horizon bloomed in to bright streaks.

“You did so good!” Norri said excitedly and Jay was forced to smile.

“Thanks? I don't feel like I'm any better than I was yesterday.” Jay said a bit slowly.

Norri nodded, “You're not any better. Yet. But now you have more tools to get better. Try again, this time focus on your breathing and your foot placement. Just those two things, ok?”

Jay nodded. Just those two things. Even one of those things was still too much for Jay to get right. Breathing didn't sound difficult until you were being tested on it.

Jay nodded and bowed. His foot went to the side and stomped. His other foot swept ahead of him in a half moon circle.

He didn't focus on his staff movements, he just made them. All he thought about was his breathing and his feet. He moved with his breathing.

Norri clapped excitedly as Jay practically floated across the clearing they had been using for a practice area. His staff motions were stilted, awkward, but his movement from one spot to another had progressed by leaps and bounds. He moved more like a fighter and less like a student.

His head stayed level as he moved, neither bobbing up nor down during movement. When he moved to the side his entire body moved as one, the staff followed as he did so. His body felt light and its movements felt quick and responsive. Completely different from the way he normally moved his body.

Jay had just changed directions and as he did so Norri stepped forward and delivered a blistering over hand strike towards his shoulder.

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Jay didn't pause but continued his dance, his staff rising up as his body finished its turn and faced Norri directly. Her strike was deflected off to the side as Jay followed up with a sweeping strike towards her chest then smoothly took a half-moon step around her.

She took the blow with her staff, protected herself, but did not strike back, and allowed Jay to continue his dance.

After another moment the dance was over and Jay stopped with his feet placed directly next to each other. He bowed.

“Great job!” Norri said with a smile. “Just keep doing that. Focus on only one or two things at a time, never more, until you have more skill.”

Jay nodded, “Thanks! That was actually fun.”

Norri grinned. The sun had risen by that point but was so low to the horizon that it was throwing streaks of color across the sky.

“Breakfast time?” Norri asked.

Jay nodded. “Bath first!”

He took a step closer to Norri and activated his Tropical Island Aura. First came the tingling. Then the scent of a tropical island, then the motes of light as any dust or dirt was wicked right off of them in to little motes that disappeared themselves after a few seconds.

Norri sighed as it came to a close and Jay turned off his aura. The two of them had felt a bit unclean after over an hour of weapons practice not to mention all of the sweating. The aura cleaning took all that away and left the two feeling as if they had just gotten out of a bath after being scrubbed clean. Even their hair looked light and fluffy.

“Goddess I love that ability,” Norri insisted with a wide grin as the two of them began to walk towards breakfast.

They reached the dining hall and got in line. The sun had risen properly by that time and Jay smiled as the sun rose further. Dawn was over it appeared.

They waited in line and could make out Aiden and M'redith already seated at a table towards the back. They tried to wave to them but neither was paying enough attention to notice. Jay and Norri turned back to the line and Norri shrugged.

“They'll notice us when we get to the table,” she said. “Ooo! Oatmeal!”

Jay made a face. “Oatmeal?” Jay asked uncertainly.

“Sure, its not great plain but they put sugar and fruit in to it. It tastes great.” Norri insisted.

She helped Jay pick out a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal while she took one as well. Jay got a blueberry muffin to go with it while Norri took a cranberry muffin. Jay slathered butter on his muffin while the muffin was still hot and let it melt whereas Norri just slapped pats of cold butter on to hers.

They both took small plates of hash browned potato patties, three on each plate.

It was a decent breakfast.

They wormed their way through the breakfast crowd. Some people ignored them while others greeted Jay by name. He always said hello in return even when he couldn't remember someone's name, which was often.

“Morning!” Jay said and sat next to M'redith. Norri took the seat closer to Aiden.

“Good morning you two! Where were you guys? We tried to pick you both up for breakfast.” M'redith asked with an amused expression.

“We were practicing! I showed Jay some more staff work.” Norri answered happily as she took her first spoonful of oatmeal and made an mmmmmm noise as she chewed.

Jay looked at his oatmeal and took a bite. Maybe it would be better than how he remembered oatmeal tasting?

It was not. It was just flavored oatmeal. Almost all of the other meals Jay had in Eden were delicious. Very rarely would Jay have anything negative to say about the food. Oatmeal however seemed to be one of the foods he just did not like after his experience in the living library.

“What's the matter?” Norri asked when she noticed Jay just moving his oatmeal around with his spoon.

Jay shook his head, “Nothing, just not a fan of oatmeal I guess.”

Jay ate some of the oatmeal and it was actually pretty tasty. The problem was the mouth feel of the oatmeal. It was a bit rubbery and reminded him of the gruel from Ashagi. Finally he put the spoon down and shrugged.

“I don't think this oatmeal is for me.” Jay admitted.

M'redith laughed and Norri looked shocked.

“But it's so yummy!” Norri said as she took another bite.

Jay shook his head. “No worries. I still have a muffin and some hash brown patties.”

He busied himself with eating the things he did like as the rest of the table finished their meals.

“Any plans today?” Jay asked.

M'redith smiled and shrugged as she leaned up against Jay's side. Jay smiled back at her but kept the public display of affection to a minimum.

Norri nodded. “I need to...” she began but did not finish as a runner appeared at the table.

“Jay?” the runner asked while looking right at him. Jay nodded while the others at the table paused what they were doing and looked on in interest.

“Walter has asked for you and your team to stop by for a visit this morning, the earlier the better. He'll be waiting for you in the front office at the main entrance. He's asked you to bring anything you may need?” the runner stated in a business like tone.

Jay raised one eyebrow but didn't ask any questions. “Ok, thank you. We'll be there shortly.”

The runner nodded and left to do their next delivery.

“You were saying Norri?” Jay asked with a half grin.

Norri shrugged, “I was looking forward to a day of minor errands and a lot of nothing.”

M'redith laughed, “So much for that if Walter is involved.”

Norri hopped out of her chair and grabbed everyone's plates.

“Hey! I'm not done with my oatmeal!” Aiden complained as Norri took his tray out from in front of him.

“We'll buy you some meat on a stick later on!” Norri said as she flounced away from the table with an armful of trays.

While she was gone Jay gave M'redith and Aiden an aura cleaning which they were both very thankful for.

“Any idea what he wants?” Aiden asked as motes of dirt rose off of him like falling snowflakes, only rising instead of falling.

Norri came back just as he answered.

“I'm guessing we're going to be traipsing off to only Goddess knows where. We'd better go grab all of our things just in case. Go ahead. We can meet back at the front entrance.”

The rest of them except for M'redith nodded in agreement. She just smiled for a moment.

“What? I have all of the things I need. I'll go with you to get your stuff.” she said happily.

The group broke up and everyone ran off in separate directions.