I open my eyes with a rush of excitement. The usually overcast sky breaks for a bright, sunny day. I stayed up pretty late, working on the fairy clothing, but I still feel well-rested. While walking downstairs to the breakfast table, I do my best to conceal my elation.
"You seem happy today," Carroll speaks up as soon as I sit down.
[Damn, mom-senses.]
"Yeah, I've got some stuff I'm excited about," I answer as vaguely as possible to end the conversation quickly.
"Like what?" I can't tell if she knows that I don't want to talk about it and is trying to force it out of me anyway or if she's just genuinely curious.
"I made some things for some friends of mine."
"Ohh. That's so sweet. What did you make them?"
"I don't want to talk about it. It's embarrassing."
"Leave him alone, dear. You know he's been hanging out with that Sakura girl." Vincent intercedes on my behalf, and I jump on the convenient misunderstanding, smiling awkwardly at Carroll.
"Alright, I won't pry." Carroll grins and turns away. I sigh in relief while internally thanking Vincent for the save. He doesn't know how much he just helped me and has already returned his focus to the book he brought to the table.
I clear my plate and burst out the front door. The warm light of the suns beat down through the cool morning air. A bit of dampness remains on the ground as I run to the front gate, holding the pack. I meet up with my party as they arrive a few minutes later. I hear some of their conversation complaining about their families, but I decide to announce my presence to avoid eavesdropping further.
"Goood morning, lady and gentleman." I greet them weirdly to try and throw them off.
"Good morning, Nick." It doesn't work. I shake off the mild embarrassment and continue the conversation.
"Are you ready to head to the woods?"
"I was thinking we should get a run in first." Josh disagrees with me and makes a suggestion.
"Okay, let's do that." I temper my excitement and follow them out the front gate. We start with four laps around the town and do some mild calisthenics. We head out into the woods after doing some stretches to freshen up our muscles.
My heart still feels heavy whenever I think of Ashley, so I try to focus on the forest's magical surroundings. Every time I walk along the path to the den, I notice something different. I've been so focused on the bizarre appearance of the fungal layer that I haven't thought much about how it sounds. The forest floor is covered in leaves from the trees above. They come in all shapes and sizes, but a particularly large leaf, similar to that of a maple leaf, makes up most of those below our feet. These leaves are rather thick and make a loud, crunching sound with every step. Given their frequency, it's most likely dropped from the Mammoth trees that dominate the landscape. The cries of the bird and ape-like creatures create a discordant melody to accompany the chaos of the undergrowth. I lose myself in my senses until I hear someone call my name.
"Nick!" I turn around and see Sakura staring at me with confusion on her face. "Where are you going?"
I check my surroundings and notice that I've walked past the fort.
"Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I tread lightly back to the den, and we head down to the basement. Yesterday, the kids and I talked about how to spend our money, and we agreed to buy some cushions for the benches. Using some spare rope, we strap the firm rectangular pads to the top of the hard wooden benches. These will be necessary as we start to use heavier weights.
We go through our workout as planned. Now that our muscles have finally started to heal, there isn't anything holding us back. I make sure to focus on form over mass, as that will further impact how much we gain from our lifts over time. My brother always used to tell me that no one ever did a perfect lift. There's always something you can improve on during each exercise. Proper benching form consists of multiple seemingly conflicting steps that must be performed simultaneously. To bench press, you must: squeeze your shoulder blades inward, raise your lower chest off the bench, arch your lower back, press on the ground with the balls of your feet, pull the elbows inward to engage the laterals, tighten the core muscles groups to maintain stability, and use the solar plexus to push the bar off of your chest to get out of the hole. These probably aren't even all of the steps. Just trying to do even these steps simultaneously is very difficult, let alone adding weight to it. That being said, the thing I'm most concerned with is the integrity of the bars. They're still made out of wood, so I worry that one might snap during a lift which would be incredibly dangerous. I test one of the bars by putting four large plates on either side, and it doesn't break, so it shouldn't be a problem, at least for now.
We lift for a few hours and then head outside to practice meditation. Inari guides us through our cognitive journey while we all sit in a circle around her.
"We are going to do something a little different than last time. I'd like you all to take a deep breath and clear your minds."
I struggle to keep the lyrics of the song "Creation and Destruction" from running through my mind repeatedly. The wind is becoming brisk as we descend into winter, and I can feel the cool, wet ground beneath me. I take a deep breath and focus on the air leaving my lungs.
"Now, relax your arms. Allow them to fall comfortably into your lap. Don't breathe deeply. Allow your body to rest into steady, comfortable breaths. Feel the air entering and leaving your lungs. Notice the expansion of your chest. Focus on the transition between breathing in and out. In… And out… In… And out. I want you to move your attention to your base. Feel your connection to the planet. You're one with the world, part of a system of life and death that has existed for millions of years. Focus on this connection. We're all going to return to the soil. Rid yourself of the fear of death and think of your survival."
I'm a bit surprised to hear her talk about a time millions of years in the past. It wasn't until we had technology like carbon dating that we could speak concretely about things that happened eons ago. It makes me wonder how she even knew the world existed that far back. In fact, how old is she? After several moments of silence, she continues.