Summer 3 124
The morning was hot even before the sun rose. Sjal dunked her head into a bucket of water – not the cleanest water, but one had to make do in the firelands. "Fuck it's hot," she cursed as she lifted her head and let the liquid travel down her clothed body. It'd been a while since she'd had a proper bath. It was mornings like this that made her wonder why she'd even signed up for this job. They hadn't exactly told her that they'd be sending her off to one of the most terrible climates imaginable when she'd signed up.
"It's early, too," Serah said with a groggy rub of her eyes. She had only just got adjusted to the sleeping schedules of a mercenary. Sjal was busy most of the day so the only time she could really interact with her was in the mornings and evenings. There were odd pockets of time in the day where Sjal had some free time, but those were rare.
"If we're going to train you up to be halfway competent then we might as well train when it's as cool as possible," Sjal said, somewhat dreading the training session even though it was entirely her idea.
"If you say so…" Serah started with a yawn, "what are we doing, exactly?"
"Running," Sjal said as she pointed outside the camp. "We'll run laps for a while."
"Running… I thought you were going to train me how to use a sword!"
"We will get to that in a bit… but until you get good enough, your primary line of defense is going to be to run away from danger. Getting behind me is probably your best bet if we ever run into trouble that I can't deal with immediately."
They started off slowly. Sjal let her student set the pace as she started jogging and she didn't like what she saw. Serah clearly didn't have much physical prowess, even less than the mercenaries that Sjal was used to being around. "She's hopeless," Sjal thought as Serah tired before completing even one lap of the camp.
"No rest," Sjal said, "keep going."
Serah looked at her like she was crazy and stopped anyways. "I can't."
Sjal elevated her voice and said, "you will keep going. Are you going to listen or not?" Perhaps she had gotten used to the military environment where questioning someone in charge was not acceptable, because Serah just shook her head and laughed.
"I'm not a mercenary, dummy. You can't order me around like that, and plus, you're not exactly in charge around here."
Sjal dropped her voice back down and sighed. "You're right, but I am leading this training session so you could at least try to listen. You're only going to get better if you practice and if something dangerous is chasing you, you don't get to take a break."
Sjal didn't want to sit around and talk about it further – she saw the sun rising in the distance which meant they had precious little time to make the most out of their time. Sjal had her own things she wanted to practice. Namely, she wanted to get better at picking up speed. She was already a fairly fast runner, especially when she tried, but she always saw room for improvement.
Sjal bent her legs a little and focused on her legs before sprinting straight ahead as quickly as she could. She went until she felt that she wasn't picking up speed anymore before she finally started to slow to a light jog and then ultimately stopped. She reoriented herself so she wouldn't be straying too far from camp then tried again, working on improving her posture and moving her legs ever faster.
She tried to keep an eye on Serah during the times where she wasn't trying to sprint. The other woman did continue running, albeit at a pathetically slow pace. Sjal thought that she was giving it an honest effort, which made her feel a little better. She wished for the millionth time that she was some kind of mage that could simply give the woman the strength and speed she needed.
Sjal eventually tired and decided that she could stop torturing Serah. She caught up to the woman and tapped her on the shoulder. "I think that's enough. You did well today."
"Did I? Because you were running laps around me like it was nothing. I don't feel like I accomplished anything," Serah said tiredly. "And now I'm too exhausted to do anything else today… and the day just started."
"Nonsense, you did just fine," Sjal consoled, "I was probably a bit too hard on you earlier, but you have to remember that I haven't really had to teach someone as… unaccustomed to physical activity as you. Usually when I teach people they at least have some basic combat skills." She thought for a moment then inclined her head. "I think the best thing for you to do is to keep pushing your body with running and some light weight lifting. It's going to hurt and be annoying but it's going to be good for you." Sjal was doing her best to take into consideration her student's limited capabilities… but the advice she knew to offer was limited.
Sjal led Serah over to where the training equipment was kept. There wasn't much since this was a relatively small outpost in the desert… but there was some. There were some practice weapons so Sjal had her student practice holding and carrying them around. "Just… do your best," Sjal said after a while, "I've got to get to work."
Work, as it so happened, was not all that interesting. They couldn't go off and fight bandits every day even if that's what Sjal would have preferred. Some days were filled with monotony. It was the nature of being a lowly woman on the totem pole. While the higher ups discussed strategy, she and a few others of her rank were made to clean. There was always something to clean when the winds blew sand and debris all over the place.
After hours of labor, most of the soldiers were exhausted and ready for lunch. Sjal, on the other hand, didn't feel all that tired. Even without using runes she seemed to be capable of pushing her body longer and harder. She chalked it up to her magic making her body naturally stronger, though that was far from the case. Years of pushing herself had made her resilient. She also had a 'get it done' mentality that he used to urge herself on when others took breaks.
"Take a break, would ya?" a mercenary asked her when they came back from lunch.
"Hm? Why? I feel fine," Sjal said as she finished moving around some things.
"You're making us look bad."
"Oh come now, you can't seriously think the higher ups will think lesser of you because you can't keep up with a girl," Sjal said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Then tell me why we got chewed out for letting you come out and finish up by yourself? Just take breaks with the rest of us. It's simpler that way."
"Isn't it simpler if I finish the work? Then we all get to wrap up earlier. I think you're thinking a little too deeply into these tasks."
The man clenched his fist, fighting every urge to throw punches but he calmed himself down. Sjal was not a scary person, but he'd seen her fight and he didn't want things to come to blows. He ended up shrugging and saying, "I've said what I said. I'm not the only one who feels that way. You may want to start caring about what people think about you."
Sjal was hurt by the comment. Of course she cared about what people thought. She sighed as the man left her to her own devices. She would have to think about what he'd said. It seemed that there was some level of politics at play that she couldn't wrap her head around. She was too straightforward a person to immediately realize that there was some merit to the man's words.
Before she could respond, Serah walked up to her and tapped her on her shoulder. "You ready to study?"
Sjal looked over her shoulder and smiled, "hey you're still walking. That's good news." She went through a mental checklist of the tasks she'd been given and realized that she'd done them all. Then, she nodded and said, "yes, I think I have time to study. What will it be today?"
"Oh a little of this, a little of that. I've got to make it challenging enough to match the workout you put me through today." Serah's tone was filled with fake malice.
"Oh great," Sjal said sarcastically. "You would work my brain, the one muscle that I can't improve by slicing up a bandit."
"I don't think the brain is a muscle," Serah said with a giggle. "Anyways, let's get started…"
