Chương 10: Morning practice
Leo woke the next morning hearing the sound of his own name. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he looked over and saw Iris dressed in her leathers. Finishing putting her hair in a pony tail, Iris indicated he needed to get dressed as well and left. Quickly getting dressed, after opening the door Leo saw that there wasn't even a glow on the horizon from dawn; saying that there was still plenty of time till sunup.
Iris indicated to follow her while she carried a bag of supplies including a bow. Following her he realized that they were headed to the pond again. After arriving, she took a pose and motioned that he should mimic her. Mimicking her pose, she then led him through a series of stretches that almost seemed like a dance to him. Nearly twenty minutes later she stopped and he could feel a cold layer of sweat on his skin.
After a small breather from warming up, Iris then instructed him to do a series of exercises. Following her example, he would do push up, sit-ups, and some other exercises he was familiar with from P.E., as well as several others he wasn't familiar with. While he wasn't an all star in school, he did stay pretty well in shape and worked out occasionally; however when he first came to this world he had been unconscious for quite a while so he wasn't sure what to expect. What was completely unexpected however, was that on the exercises he was familiar with he completely shattered his old records!
Previously his best was only forty two push-ups in a row, instead Iris had him go until he couldn't anymore and easily cleared one hundred with ease! It was only when he reached the triple digits that she stopped him. While he was excited from the surprising increase in strength, Iris simply acted as if it was a pleasant surprise he was already able to do that much. Leo wanted to think about why his physical abilities had increased, as well as his senses now that he thought about it! Because there had been so much going on the day before he didn't think too much and now he compelling baffled.
Iris had him focus on his next exercises however so he was forced to wait until later the think about it. While he was going through the exercises she gave him he realized that instead increasing muscle like he originally thought, it felt like she was just trying to get a measure of his capabilities. After the exercises were done, Iris took out the bow and showed Leo how to hold it.
After showing him how to hold, aim, and draw the bow, she then left him to practice himself while she took out a target the size of his head. Placing the target on a nearby tree, she then counted paces away from the tree, as he hadn't learned numbers yet and was too focused on how to hold the bow he didn't know how far she had gone before stopping and placing a marker.
Indicating to go to the marker, she then pulled out some arrows and guest urged that she wanted him to practice shooting the target. Drawing the arrow back, he was about to let it loose when she called out,
"Wait! Hold it!" Leo didn't know what she said but froze. She then came close and fixed the areas that he was apparently mistaken on, while not appearing to notice how close she was while doing so. While she was correcting his mistakes, Leo forgot what he was doing and stared at her face. Iris was oblivious to his staring at her until she finished correcting his posture. Gently slapping the side of his head, he suddenly remembered what he was doing and apologized for being rude. Due to the low lighting she didn't notice him blushing, but he did notice her ears turning red again.
He refocused himself and took aim, as he tried to line the arrow up he let go.
SWOOSH!!!
He missed. Even with his enhanced senses, he had a hard time aiming properly due to lack of experience. Iris barked an order, which he assumed was "AGAIN!" and he lined up the next arrow. Going through the ten arrows, he only missed completely two more times, hit the trees four times, and only managed to hit the target three times. After collecting the arrows she had him practice several more times. By the time practice ended, he had increased the amount of times he would hit the target, but still couldn't hit the bullseye.
With the sun partway up by now Iris called a halt to the training and after collecting the target, headed back to the house. Leaving the things by the door, Iris tended to the fire and got out some cooking utensils, while Leo with nothing better to do got out the flash cards to review them. As Iris prepared breakfast, he suddenly heard a familiar sizzling sound accompanied by the familiar smell. He could help thinking that not matter where you go, bacon was indeed the go to for breakfast.
Curious where she got the meat at since there didn't seem to be a refrigerator, Leo watched as she put it away and noticed that she was walking towards a plain old barrel. When she lifted the lid however, he noticed the room got a degree or two colder, and there was a small blue gem on the underside of the lid. Interested, Leo got up and went to look at the gem. When he reached out to touch it however Iris grabbed his hand. Seeing her shake her head, he could only go back and keep reviewing flash cards until the food was done.
Thinking back to the magic he had witnessed the day before, Leo figured the crystal was related to a type of ice magic. Intrigued by other modern consciences replaced by magic, Leo resolved to learn the language as fast as possible in order to learn more about magic. After she finished cooking the food, he and Iris ate in silence since he still didn't know enough to carry a conversation. When the meal was over she led him back out to the pond for what he thought was more exercises. While he was partially right, they were the mental kind instead of the physical as Iris continued drilling him in their language.
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