We meet the next day at that the north gates. The kids are just as antsy as I am to get back to the den. We make our way through the forest, which is much more bearable with the illuminated leaves above our heads. Woohee is floating about excitedly when we arrive at the fort.
"Morning Woohee."
"Morning!" She hugs herself and flies around my head. I tell the kids to head down into the den while talking privately with the enthusiastic fairy.
"Now, Woohee. I want you to be safe so you can't just hang out around the fort and wait for us. You need to stay hidden until we get here. Okay?" Her demeanor changes at the behest of my tone, and she nods her head. "If someone finds out that we know any fairies, then they could force us to come to the forest and have us call you over to capture you."
"But Woohee doesn't want you to get hurt."
"Well, you can't save me if you get captured, right?"
"Yeah…" She begrudgingly accepts my fallacious argument and I continue.
"So, when I come to the forest and yell 'Woohee,' you need to hide, and when I call out 'fairy,' that means it's safe to come out."
"Woohee isn't called fairy," she says with a frown and crosses her arms.
"That's why it will work. If the people who have captured me hear me telling you to run, they might hurt me. But, if I make it look like I'm genuinely trying to help, then we'll both be safe." Woohee kicks her feet as she floats in the air. She doesn't like my argument but seems to be coming around.
"Okay," She reluctantly agrees
"Perfect. How about hanging out with us in the den here?" I say, gesturing towards the hole in the ground.
"Yay!" Her mood shifts on a dime and she rushes down the cave ahead of me. When I reach the main area, I find Josh and Sakura chatting lightly on one side and Woohee poking at the gym equipment on the other.
"Okay!" I clap my hands together to get everyone's attention. "Let me explain how this works."
I walk over to a rack with a wooden bar and place even weights on either side. The plates aren't perfectly symmetrical, but it should be fine for the low mass we're starting with. I place a small plate on either side of the bar and lie down on the bench. Before doing a couple of bench presses, I half lift it to make sure it's balanced.
"So, that's a bench press," I say as I finish my reps. "This will allow us to get even stronger. Push-ups are limited by your body's weight, but with this, we can go much higher.
I explain as I stand up from the bench.
"Couldn't we just stand on each other's backs while doing push-ups?" Josh asks.
"Sure, but again, we're limited to our body's weights, and we're all pretty small. Plus, we can isolate certain muscles by changing up the exercise." Josh nods his head but is still not convinced. I then go on to explain how to squat and deadlift properly. These are the three main exercises I plan on stressing while we're starting. As we progress, I'll have Josh construct smaller weights so we can do ancillary exercises as well. Things move pretty slow on this first day. I spend most of my time correcting the two of them on their form and explaining which muscles should be working. We start with very light weights before moving on to heavier ones after a few hours of practice. I have them do reps to failure while spotting them on each set and then do some myself. The pain and endorphins flowing from my fatigued muscles are nostalgic. A smile comes to my face as I drift back to my time playing football.
"What a strange contraption."
"Ahhh!" I yell out in surprise at the fairy leader's words that come out from behind me.
"Where did you get this idea from?"
"Could you not do that? You're gonna give me a freaking heart attack."
"It's your fault for having such a low perception stat."
[It'S yOuR fAuLt FoR HaViNg A lOw PeRcEpTiOn StAt] I repeat her words to myself in a mocking tone due to my frustration.
"Are you mocking me?" she asks as she narrows her eyes.
"No, and it's rude to read other peoples' minds."
"Fufufu, I can't read minds, I'm just very perceptive."
"How'd you manage that?"
"Have you ever tried meditating?"
"Um, a couple of times?" I think back to high school when I had a spiritual phase. I tried meditating a few times but soon realized I hated it and never tried it again.
"Try meditating in these woods. There is so much going on that you're not aware of. Clear your mind and take in everything the world is showing you." I swallow my suspicion and make a note of what she said.
"I'll give it a shot."
"So, where did you learn how to make and use this equipment?"
[Damn. I was hoping she forgot about that.]
I glare at her, and she meets my gaze with a subdued smile.
"I'll tell you if you tell me your name."
[I've got her now. She'll never tell me her name, so I'm safe.]
I have a smug grin on my face as I wait for her response.
"Fufufu, you think you're clever."
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't; you'd just call me out for lying anyway."
"Inari."
"What?"
"My name is Inari." I'm stunned into silence, but she continues. "I don't really care if you know my name or not. Yesterday I didn't tell you because I was annoyed that you were keeping a secret from me."
"What? Are you a child?"
"Surprising to hear that from a child."
"Takes one to know one!" I retort
"Pot, meet kettle." she coolly replies.
I glare at her in frustration as I can't think of any other pertinent sayings.
"We're waiting," she smiles coyly.
[Fuck, how should I phrase this to give away as little as possible?]
"So, before I met anyone here, I was part of an organization that relied on physical strength to accomplish our goals. Since we didn't have access to the seal system, we had to use equipment like this to get stronger." Inari stares at me to see if I'm lying. It was a vague response, but nothing I said was untrue.
"What was the name of this organization? where exactly is it located?" I drop all emotion from my face and completely relax my body. I don't want to give anything away, especially considering I haven't even talked to Ashley about it yet.
[Think nothing. Feel nothing. I am nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing...]
Inari scans me for a moment and frowns. After realizing she won't be able to glean any information from my gestures, she clicks her tongue. I change the subject.
"The plan is to focus on gaining as many stat points as possible before we start leveling up. I don't want to plateau later on because I'm not strong enough to fight tougher monsters."
"Makes sense. Have you tried raising your perception stat at all?"
"No, I don't know how. I'm going to give that meditating trick a try."
"It's not a trick. You must focus on expanding your senses. This is a tried-and-true method the fairies have used for millennia," she says in a harsh tone.
"Okay, I didn't mean to offend you. I've just never heard of it before." I raise my hands and back up from the fired-up fairy.
'Hmph.'
Inari grunts at my apology. I turn back to the kids to avoid further enraging the fiery fairy.
"How are you two feeling?"
"Tired."
"It hurts, but it kind of feels good?" Sakura looks confused about her condition and lays a finger on her cheek as she thinks about her answer.
"Why don't we try out meditating? We can have Inari show us how it's done."
"I never agreed to that," Inari shoots back.
"Would you mind showing us how to meditate properly?"
"Please, Leader?" Woohee pleads.
"I suppose I could since you humans are too stupid to figure it out on your own."
"Great! Let's head outside and get started."