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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:58:12 GMT -6
After the stretches were done, Aster posed the question again. “Well? What do you want to do?” he said.
{What I want to do is go home,} Avander replied. {But since that’s not an option… Let’s try something different.} Even as he said it, he sounded wary. Aster honestly didn’t blame him. Even Aster himself didn’t know if he would like the alternate exercise better or worse than the one that they had done last time. It was still stamina training, but there were a wide variety of ways to train stamina, from running and jumping along the track to… well, pulling heavy loads, for one. After all, there were plenty of ways to tire a creature out, if they were big enough and could run at a fair clip. What he would do with a bird, say, he didn’t know, but for Avander it was easy enough to come up with ideas.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:58:48 GMT -6
“Well, we won’t be needing these then,” Aster said, and gathered up the poles. He put them away at the edge of the space, to be cleaned up more properly later when it was time for them to leave. For now, with Avander freshly warmed up, he would rather not waste time.
With a mix of curiosity and apprehension, Avander followed as Aster led him to a piece of equipment that was already present at the gym… A cart. It wasn’t a particularly attractive cart, being made of plain wood that looked worn down with time, but it was sturdy, and in good repair. It had probably seen quite a bit of use. Loaded on top of it were a series of sand bags, all of which added to the weight. Aster patted a sand bag, as if that might make it look more inviting. “We’ll hook you up to this,” he said.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:59:13 GMT -6
He went on. “And you’ll have a go on the track. Don’t worry, this time you can walk the whole way.”
{I knew it,} Avander said. {I knew I wasn’t going to like it.}
“Hey, don’t knock it til you try it,” Aster said. “Maybe you’ll be really into it.”
{Right,} Avander said, sounding completely unconvinced. But he did allow Aster to put a harness on him. He had been trained to do this when he was very young, so he didn’t kick up a fuss about it now. Aster took his time to make sure the harness fit well; he had to adjust it since it had been thrown on probably any number of other creatures, and right now the straps weren’t at an optimal length for a Wiurn. Avander was patient, though Aster knew that this patience was at least partly because he wasn’t exactly eager to get to work himself.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:59:24 GMT -6
And while they were at it, Aster wrapped Avander’s legs for good measure too. He was more used to doing this for agility training, but Avander was still running for this, so it seemed like a good measure to take just in case.
Once the harness was fitted properly though, there was no more room for delay. “Give it a go,” Aster said. Avander turned his head around to take one more look at the cart behind him, as if evaluating it. Aster followed his line of sight, then sighed. “Alright, we’ll start you off with a half load.” Honestly, he thought that a creature of Avander’s size and strength ought to be able to pull the full load, but he also didn’t want to strain Avandre too hard to start out with… And giving him this bit of a break might make him more amenable to actually doing the work.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:59:41 GMT -6
With a heave, Aster tossed off one of the sand bags, and then another, and another, until only half remained. “That’s all I’m giving you,” Aster said. “Let’s go.”
With a grumble, Avander set off. He went slowly at first. Aster had half expected for him to throw his full weight against it, because it was his first time doing this and he probably didn’t know how much force he needed to use. And it was true that he didn’t know, but Avander was also not going to put in more work than he had to, and right now he felt it was a better use of his time to figure out exactly how much work that actually was. He pushed, and increased his amount of force until the cart got moving. Then he increased the amount of force he was using until he could get to a comfortable walking pace…
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 22:59:57 GMT -6
Or at least what would usually have been a comfortable walking pace, anyway. With the current situation, there really wasn’t much room for comfort considerations of any sort. He would just have to bear it, as it wouldn’t have been gym training without that discomfort. The point was to push one’s body to its limits, after all - within safe and humane reason, of course.
Avander really never went any faster than a walking pace, but this time Aster just let him be, unless he saw Avander slowing down too much. After all, with the cart, it wasn’t about speed. Actually, it hadn’t been about speed the last session either, but without as much weight on him, Avander had to sustain a faster pace to tire himself out properly. With the cart, on the other hand, there was already more than enough to start wearing on him even at a walking pace.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 23:00:11 GMT -6
Avander completed one circuit around the track, and already Aster could feel the weariness starting to pull at Avander.
But it also wasn’t as bad as Avander had been expecting, apparently. There was a little surprise there, beneath all that. Aster suspected it was a mix of the half cargo, the fact that Avander was a lot bigger and stronger than he used to be, and the fact that they had already done some stamina training earlier on. In fact, Avander wasn’t ill equipped at all to pull a heavy load like this, though there were better uses for a Wiurn than as a cart puller and bearer of heavy burdens. In terms of practical application, well, Aster already had Grunty for that.
Still, it would be remiss to overlook actual stamina training for Avander just because Aster already had a creature who had greater reserves of it.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 23:00:25 GMT -6
On the battlefield, each creature had to account for itself, even if they could work in tandem. And so, even though this wasn’t something Aster would ever have asked of Avander in their real work - excepting if Grunty wasn’t available, he supposed - it was still a good method for training him up.
There was just one thing about this method that Avander would probably like less than the jumping course… And that was the fact that you couldn’t really take a break, short of stopping entirely. As Avander rounded out a second circuit and went into a third, Aster caught him slowing down. “Keep up the pace,” Aster called out. He saw one of Avander’s ears angle back toward him, but Avander didn’t immediately obey. The fact that there was no snippy comeback meant that his weariness was real, but Aster simply repeated his instruction.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 23:00:51 GMT -6
“If you slow down, you’ll lose momentum. That’ll just make the cart harder to pull,” Aster explained. He figured he owed Avander that much, at least.
He was sure Avander didn’t want to hear it, but unfortunately it was true. With the jumping track, at least he could take it at a walking speed for some of the laps to give himself a break, but for this, it was better to keep at the pace he was going.
Avander gave another louder, more pronounced grumble, but picked up the pace again. Aster could see the muscles straining under his scaly green hide; it was harder to get the cart going faster again after he had already slowed down. But once he got back to the pace that he had been sustaining, it got easier, just as Aster said it would.
Well, there would be no point to listening to anything Aster said if he didn’t speak some sense, right?
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 23:01:04 GMT -6
Avander went on around the track like this for just about as long as he could stand it, and then some. Aster egged him on with encouragement and taunts by turns, though near the end he was pretty sure Avander was just ignoring him. Eventually, however, Aster called him to a stop, and Avander was all too happy to do just that. He walked over to where the cart was supposed to be stored, then stood exhausted as Aster unhitched the cart from him.
“Take your cooldown laps while I put the rest of the sandbags back on,” Aster said.
Avander gave another unhappy goran at the prospect, but after a brief break, he did two very slow laps around the track. By the time he was done, Aster had put everything away, and had a pail of water waiting for him.
While Avander drank, Aster gathered up the poles that ended up not being used in today’s session.
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Post by Noa on Nov 13, 2020 23:03:18 GMT -6
It was a shame; Aster had taken the trouble of bringing them in, only for them not to even be used... But he supposed there was no real helping it. And anyway, they'd be doing something completely different next time, so he wasn't going to make that mistake again.
Well, what was done was done, and they had had a pretty productive session.
"You ready to go home?" Aster said.
{Do you even need to ask?} Avander replied. The rest had given him a little reprieve, and he was back to his regular self as he shuffled after Aster towards the exit.
That was another gym session down. Avander, despite his protests, was shaping up nicely as Aster put him to work here. They had a little more work ahead of them at the gym still, but it might not be long before Avander could say good riddance to this place...
14 (Ending loyalty: 132)
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:31:06 GMT -6
Their final stint at the gym was, Aster thought, probably the one that Avander would like the least, in the end. Stamina and speed were both relatively straightforward things to build up, predicated on exercises that were tiring, but not particularly unpleasant outside of that aspect. Resistance, on the other hand… Well, there were only so many ways you could learn to better take a hit that didn’t involve, well, taking a hit. At least, Aster presumed they must in fact exist; in practice, he didn’t know of any, excepting maybe theoretical knowledge, which had limited application anyway with a creature who wasn’t particularly cerebral. Avander was perfectly intelligent, likely better than average, for what he was… But he was certainly not at a level where academia was either accessible or of interest to him. Aster, leading him out back to the gym area for larger creatures, considered how to break the news to him. 1
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:31:22 GMT -6
{Oh, that expression. That can’t be anything good,} Avander said. The unpleasant thing of such a long standing relationship was that Avander could read Aster even when Aster didn’t want him to.
That saved Aster the trouble of having to come up with a nicer way to put it though, if the jig was up before it could even be begun. Aster sighed. “So I’ve got good news and bad news,” he said. “Which do you want first?”
Avander did actually consider the question for a moment before saying, {Give me the good news first.}
“Alright, this is probably the last intensive round of gym sessions we’ll be having for a while,” Aster said.
{That does sound good,} Avander agreed, but in a tone of deep suspicion. {So what’s the bad news then?}
“We’re working on your resistance today,” Aster replied.
{Which is a fancy way of saying…?}
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:31:33 GMT -6
“You’re going to be spending most of your time getting hit. And no dodging out of the way either, or the exercise isn’t going to work,” Aster said flatly. This wasn’t to reprimand Avander for being a coward, of course. If you could get out of the way of an incoming blow, why wouldn’t you? And they hadn’t put in so much work with Avander’s agility only to have him not make use of it… most of the time. Not today, of course, but today was a special circumstance.
But it did mean that Avander’s first instinct was to dodge if he could, and Aster needed him to set that aside for this session… And possibly a few other ones after this, if they didn’t manage to make enough progress today. Honestly, he didn’t know how any of it was going to go.
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Post by Noa on Feb 26, 2021 19:31:48 GMT -6
It was his own first time training a creature on this sort of thing in the gym, even if he had done other types of gym training plenty of times before.
As expected, Avander wasn’t keen on the idea. He seemed as if he wanted to make a retort, or ask what the point of such an exercise was, but he must have come up with an answer himself, since he didn’t do that. {You’re right,} he said instead. {That does sound like bad news. Did I make you mad recently, or something?}
“Ha ha,” Aster said. “Look, you know I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think---”
{Yeah, yeah,} Avander said, huffing a quick breath through his nose. {Let’s get this over with. You want me to warm up?}
“Couldn’t hurt,” Aster said, though he didn’t know if it was strictly a requirement for what they were about to do.
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