Summer 3 124
When Sjal used her kunai in a sparring session with another swordsman, she realized that she had been letting her competence with shorter blades go out of practice quite a bit. It wasn't to her taste because shorter blades meant she had to take more risk. After spending a half hour to restore her familiarity with the weapon, she concluded that she needed to put kunai to use more often.
She therefore made the decision to come up with a few techniques to practice. Serah ran up to her as Sjal twirled her two kunai simultaneously. After running the entire distance, she was out of breath when she arrived.
"You're getting faster," Sjal noted. Then again, anything would be better than what Serah had been capable of when they first met.
"I think I'm just getting a little more adjusted to the heat," Serah said before downing most of the contents of her flask.
"Watch me for a while, I could use the company," Sjal said, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, and released it as she always did. She then opened her eyes, straightened her posture, and tried to focus her muscles. She shut her mouth, and held her breath for a brief moment, stopping her chest from rising and falling to better improve her aim. She then took aim and threw two kunai at once while letting her breath escape her lips. The kunai flew with such speed that they were hard to follow. One pierced right through the desert mouse that had been scampering a dozen feet away while the other whizzed right past it.
"What do you think?" Sjal asked.
"Uhm, I think that you killed a mouse?" Serah said questioningly.
"Yes, but do you think I could have done better? I only hit it with my dominant hand's throw. The other was askew."
"I don't see the point, honestly," Serah admitted. "Why does it matter how well you can throw two at once? It was a moving target. I'm surprised you even hit it at all."
Sjal gave herself a head scratch and inhaled once more. She then drew out some shuriken and threw them in a similar manner. Sjal let out a sigh and swung her hand fervently as the shuriken soared clear past the mouse. "Maybe I was just lucky the first time," Sjal admitted. Then she felt the rush of wind and shook her head, "or maybe the wind was just fucking with me. Hitting things that are far away seems out of my control. How am I supposed to know if the wind is going to blow?"
"Don't beat yourself up over it," Serah said. "There has to be some limit to what you're capable of."
"Perhaps," Sjal said, disappointed in her imperfections.
"Are you still planning on going climbing today?" Serah asked after fetching the thrown weaponry.
"Yes, I was just waiting for you to get here." Sjal had agreed to climb on top of a large rocky formation that she was standing next to. It would make a good vantage point and she'd pitched the idea of using her vantage point to get a good look at the surrounding area.
"Aren't you scared?" Serah asked as they walked to it.
"Eh, not that much. It will probably be very bad if I fall, but I'm not intending on doing that." She winked at Serah and flexed her fingers. It'd been ages since she last bothered climbing. The only thing she didn't like about this particular structure was that it didn't have many places to hold onto at the bottom part. The handholds were higher up.
She ran her hand across the surface of the rock and frowned, trying to find a good spot and coming up empty. A big reason why she'd been throwing weaponry earlier was because she had thought of making her own handholds in the rock, but she now doubted her ability to throw hard and accurately enough to make them.
"I'll try to run up it a bit," Sjal said after some internal deliberation.
"Run… up? What?" Serah asked.
"Yes. I don't see why it couldn't work," Sjal said with a shrug. She stretched out her legs and didn't pause to discuss it further. She took off as fast as she could, built up a good amount of speed and then leapt at the last moment while angling her foot such that it would let her transition directions. She took one step, then two, but the third eluded her. She backflipped through the air and then landed back on the ground with a grunt.
"Odd," Sjal said, "the last time I tried that I could only get one step before I ran out of energy. I'm a lot stronger than I was back then… and I didn't feel like I ran out of energy but I fell anyways." She rubbed her chin and looked at the wall again. "It felt like I was pushing off of the rock."
Serah ran her hand along the rock and said, "it's pretty smooth. Think that's why?"
Sjal said, "could be. It might be like trying to run across a slick surface. But I think there's something else too it as well. I think… when I'm running on the ground, I have traction under my feet. I didn't get that feeling when running upwards.
Neither of the two had the brains for science in a traditional sense. Serah was the most learned of them but her smarts were related to other things. She shrugged and said, "so I guess you can't get up there then."
"Oh, no, we're just getting started." Sjal gave her a mischievous grin and started narrowing her eyes
"Please don't," Serah said with a shudder.
"Wish me luck!" Sjal said as she took off with enhanced strength and speed. She was like an arrow whipping through the air as she approached the rock that turned ninety degrees to zip up the side of the rock. Now that she knew what to expect, she wasn't so surprised by the constant reduction in traction as she slammed her feet against the side of the wall. Despite her superior physical attributes she still couldn't get any more than two steps in before her body started to push significantly away from the surface of the wall. It was mainly her initial momentum that carried her to the height that she ended up achieving.
Luckily, Sjal had gone high enough to grab onto one of the gaps in the rock. She held onto it for dear life as her momentum ran out at the last moment. She didn't stop to look down. She kept on going, knowing that if she saw the height she might get second thoughts. Her hands and feet worked in unison to figure out safe places to hold her weight as she made her way up the face of the rocky structure. When she finally crested the peak, she felt like she'd made quite the accomplishment.
"I did it!" Sjal shouted, peering down at Serah.
"Yes, but how are you going to get down?" she called back.
A chill ran down Sjal's back – she hadn't thought about that. She'd think about that later. For now, she would do what she came for. She squinted her eyes and covered them from the sun with a hand and looked around, taking note of the surrounding area that wasn't quite as easy to see at ground level. "Some coyotes, that's about it," she said with a sad realization that she'd done all of this for basically no useful information. "Well, I didn't see any bandits, that's always good news."
Now it was time to get back down. It was easier than she thought it would be. All she had to do was find handholds and lower herself back down. The only trouble was when she got down to the smooth area towards the bottom. She didn't want to drop down but she hardly had a choice in the matter. She hung there for several minutes, trying to think of a plan.
It wasn't a drop that would injure her, but nobody wanted to stress their body that much unless it was necessary. She sighed and resigned herself to falling. She allowed herself to drop and immediately started moving her legs into an appropriate posture to absorb the impact.
"See? Easy," Sjal said with a grin after landing beside Serah. Her expression was pained – it hadn't been the smoothest landing even if her experience had helped ease the force of impact. In any case she thought that she ought to avoid using her legs too much the rest of the day.
"Did you see anything interesting up there?" Serah asked, shaking her head at her crazy teacher's antics.
"Nothing useful, that's for sure. But hey, at least this got me out of doing chores for a few hours. That's got to be worth something, right?"
Serah shrugged and said, "I guess. But I hope you don't hurt for too long."
