"One lap around town, twenty push-ups, and ten pull-ups."
Do I have to?
"Yes, you have to." I pull back and give the kid control of his body again as I sink back into myself. It's a bizarre sensation. I suddenly have no agency but I can still feel everything, the pained muscles, the ragged breaths. It's as if I'm looking out of someone else's body with my own eyes. Despite the discordant sensation, it's surprisingly relaxing. I can see why the kid is so comfortable with me in control. All I want to do is sit back and watch the movie of my own life.
"How long do I have to do this?" He asks between gasping breaths.
Until I say so.
I'm forcing the kid to push himself the same way my brother pushed me; although, hopefully with less self-loathing this time. He lacks confidence and this is the fastest way I know how to build it. You are someone because you've done something. You've pushed yourself or you've made something or you've gone somewhere. Anything that you can say to yourself, 'I did that.'
After half a lap around the outside of the town palisade, he starts slowing down.
Pick up the pace.
"I can't."
Yes you can. You're nowhere near your limit.
"I can't do it."
Move.
I force him out of the way and retake control of our body. Sure, it hurts, but I can push myself much harder.
I open my stride and sprint as hard as I can. My chest feels like it's going to burst but I can't stop smiling. I missed this feeling so much. How did I forget?
I fall to the ground laughing as I make it back to the North gate. Every muscle in my body is telling me to stop but that just makes me want to keep going.
"You okay, kid?"
I sit up and see a stocky man with blond curly hair looking down at me.
"I'm great." I say with a smile.
"Well, you're kinda creeping me out." He says with one eyebrow raised.
"Then you sir, I pity." I say as I jump to my feet.
"What, you pity me because I didn't barf all over myself like you did?" He scoffs. I look down at the small pool of vomit by my feet.
"That was here when I got here."
"I literally just saw you spill your breakfast thirty seconds ago."
"What you saw was perseverance; a man pushing himself to limit he didn't know existed."
"Well your 'perseverance' smells like eggs so could you bury it or something? I don't want to smell that all day."
I grab a stick off the ground and start digging a hole. I can feel the man's eyes on me as if he has more to say, maybe he's just bored.
"The name's Sampson." He says.
"I guess I passed some type of arbitrary-"
"Just tell me your name, asshole." Despite his tone, Sampson couldn't shake the smile clinging to his face.
"I'm Nick." I quickly size the man up. "Why are you a guard?"
He smiles and tosses his head back.
"I used to be an Adventurer."
"Until you took an arrow to the knee?"
"What? No. I couldn't cut it. Because of the forest, there's only strong monsters or weak monsters in the area so it's hard to make a living. After a few years of risking my life and still not being able to fill my stomach, I quit." He shrugged.
I watched him for a moment as I imagined what is life must have been like. The struggles and tough decisions that eventually led to a boring job guard job that could at least pay enough so you don't go to bed hungry.
'BOOM!'
I turn around and see a mountain rise out of the forest.
"What the hell is that?" I shout. Dirt and branches rain down and reveal what looks like a bunch of boulders all stacked up on top of each other. Then, it takes a step. Some two hundred feet of stone shakes the ground with every step.
"Holy shit, an Elemental!" Sampson yells. "Everyone get in the gate."
"What's a gate going to do against that thing? It's at least twenty stories tall!"
"We're not hiding for protection, dumbass, we're just trying to not get its attention."
"Oh, that makes sense." We all scurry into to town and close the gate. "So, are those things attracted to movement or something?"
"Keep your voice down, and how the hell should I know?"
"I don't know, you just seemed so confident I thought you had some secret knowledge or something."
"No, I'm just not an idiot. And be quiet." Sampson says as he shoots me a glare.
"Ah! That explains it. You'll have to teach me how to do that sometime."
"I'll teach you whatever you want, just shut the fuck up!" Sampson whisper yelled at me. We all sat in silence until the Elemental faded into the distance.
"Wow, that was incredible." I finally break the silence as i try to sneak a peak over the palisade.
"We got lucky." Sampson said as he reopened the gate. "I've heard stories of those things destroying entire countries."
"I'm sure. That was incredible."
There's no doubt about it. I'm in another world.