Luvi was working out in the early morning. She had only arrived to the city a short time ago and she had little rhyme or reason when it came to what she did to push herself. All she needed to do was keep on pumping those muscles to get the blood flowing, even if the weight she used was embarrassingly small.
She started curling some discarded yet heavy metal parts on the side of the road. She felt the burn in her arms and whenever it got too great she dropped what she was holding and walked around for a couple minutes. Then she would find another something or another to lift and she’d be off curling determinedly. Such a workout was only right for someone who wanted to get stronger without caring about how much it hurt.
With her head in the clouds she continued to pace back and forth, doing her best not to cheat too much on her curls when her rest was over. It was actually an effective workout simply because she kept changing up the weights and the reps. If she didn’t know what she was doing then there was no way her muscles could know what she was doing.
Once her biceps started complaining, Luvi plopped down on the ground and looked for a sturdy set of handles to grab hold of. Usually a couple chairs worked good but she didn’t see any around. She peered into a narrow alleyway and saw two crates next to each other that looked just about right for doing some dips.
With a childish grin she ran over and started dipping off of those and realized that her arms were burning a lot. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to keep working her arms like this. She could barely do more than a couple dips anyways before her triceps screamed for relief. Working out without the assistance of strength runes was incredibly tiring.
She really needed to lose some of that upper body weight that was always pulling her down. She had heard that the real way to lose weight was to eat less but that was absolutely out of the question. No way was she giving up all the things she loved to eat when she was still young. She would rather be a little flabby. Nope, the only option was to do more exercise.
Luvi spent considerably less time on dips than she had on curls. There was something about doing too many dips that made her elbows hurt, especially when dipping off of slightly uneven surfaces like the crates.
Suddenly, her muscles gave out. Her body lurched towards the ground and she landed awkwardly, ultimately groaning in pain. “Okay, okay, that’s enough for today,” she told herself as she crawled to the side of the crate where she could rest against it.
She was in enough pain to where she didn’t want to even get up. Minutes ticked by and she started to get bored, so she tried to imagine the kind of life she wanted in the future. She pictured herself prowling the streets in a guard’s uniform. She imagined that she would listen for the sound of screams and if she heard one, she’d go confront the ‘bad guy’.
Luvi got to her feet slowly, imagining herself in such a scenario. She pretended there was an evil doer in front of her and that he was coming at her with violent intent. He’d been so sudden that Luvi was almost too slow to react. She had to stumble backwards in order to dodge the knife attack and she had to twist out of the way to dodge the follow up.
She was weaponless so she jabbed and then crossed to establish some safe space. The evil doer brandished the knife scarily so Luvi threw out a hook with the attempt to hit the man in the jaw but he blocked it without much trouble. Luvi didn’t let down though. She tried stringing her motions into a jab jab cross and finally switched it up with a hook that she hoped would land in a real life fight. The man backed up a couple steps but Luvi was quick to match his momentum and land a solid uppercut. She then faked a kick which made the man lower his hands to absorb the blow but she used the momentum to carry herself through to a three hundred sixty degree backhand right to the face. The force of her strike was enough to send the imaginary man into the nearby wall and knock him out cold.
Luvi’s already tired arms ached even more after her shadow boxing. “One day,” she said between labored breaths, “I’ll be that strong.”
The young woman had gone so long without a proper workout for most of the season that she had felt the compulsive need to work out. Now, she somewhat regretted her decision. She was in a new place without any job and she only knew the names of a small handful of people in the area – most of which she would likely never see again.
Luvi finally mustered up the strength to get up and applied some endurance runes to her arms to give them some relief. After doing so, she walked out of the alleyway only to be stopped by an arm that was held out to block her path.
“Finally done training, are you?” asked a silver haired man in a hat. He smoked a pipe which sent a small stream of smoke into the air.
“For now, yes,” Luvi said with a puzzled expression, “what’s it to you?”
“You don’t seem like you’re from around here. You know the army would be happy to take you in if you’ve got that much energy. And is that magic I see? You’d be quite the asset.” He withdrew his arm and waved her on, “food for thought.”
“The army? Why would they want me? I’m a foreigner,” she said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t mind a job, but I’ve tried a military out before… it wasn’t for me.”
“Then you’re in luck,” he said with a grin that showed a couple missing teeth, “they take basically anyone. I spent a handful of years in the service myself when I was down on my luck. The military isn’t for everyone but it’s a paycheck.”
Luvi’s smile faltered a little, wondering if a few years had been enough to put the man in his current… questionable state. “Why’d you leave? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”
“Got my leg injured. I’ve got constant dull ache in it despite barely being able to move it. It’s quite unfortunate, but I’ve had luck in other areas of my life.” He tapped his bad leg with a hand as he spoke.
“You’re not making a life in the army sound very glamorous,” Luvi replied with a sigh.
“I won’t lie to you, it can be hell. But… not everyone ends up like me. I know many who’ve only sustained minor injuries even in the front lines. You don’t have to take part in combat either. You could be a medic, or even a cook.”
“Well, I’ll consider it,” Luvi said. The military was sounding better by the minute. “If I can’t figure out anything else to do, I’ll give it a shot,” she promised the man.
“Good gal, I’m sure you’ll do fine,” he smiled toothily at her then went back to smoking his pipe.
The inn Luvi was staying at was just down the road so it didn’t take her very long to get there. She passed her horse who was tied up near the entrance. She caught a glimpse of its long face which made her stop. “I bet this sucks for you, doesn’t it,” Luvi said, approaching it. “All the way away from home and without anyone to take care of you properly. Sorry you’re stuck with me for a while until I figure out a more appropriate place to keep you.”
She got on top of the horse and untied it absent mindedly. Despite having travelled for many weeks atop this creature, she still felt like she was in desperate need of improvement. This seemed like as good a time as any to ride around without a caravan to follow.
Luvi’s heart rate shot up as she nudged the horse forward. She could feel its powerful muscles ripple beneath her which was still terrifying to her. The horse started off at a gentle walk, but it wasn't long before it broke into a trot. Luvi quickly learned that she hadn’t adjusted the saddle properly so she ended up getting jostled around. She gripped the reins tightly, trying to steady herself, but it only made things worse. Before she knew it, she was bouncing around uncontrollably and begging the horse the stop.
The horse came to a stop and she made the necessary adjustments. She had to place some endurance runes on her legs this time to give her muscles some relief. Despite her discomfort, she refused to give up. At the very least she wanted to travel around the block and get back to the inn so she wouldn’t have to walk the horse back. So, she gritted her teeth and hung on, doing her best to mimic the movements of more experienced riders she had seen along the way. To her surprise… she made it back in once piece!