Endurance

Riel’s lungs were burning. He was dying — probably — but it was a damn real thing. Endurance, fine, he could endure. He could— he thought he could. Next to him, his two companions were heaving exhaustedly, but neither of them seemed to be faring as badly as he was.

“Simran, was it? I love your name!” Therasia was saying next to him, and why was she less winded than he was? Riel was content to keep lying down in the grass, but he lifted his head anyway so he could pay better attention to Therasia and their new friend. Simran was lovely. She was, perhaps, a bit uncharacteristic for a Redwood Lopilu (unless they’d recently changed their name to Yellowood without him knowing) and she wasn’t as much of a sunshine as he’d expected. As frowned as she spoke with the two of them, like her face was permanently pinched somehow, but she didn’t leave despite her obvious distaste.

“Thanks,” Simran said, and then: “I can’t remember yours.”

“No issue,” the human assured her. “I’m Therasia and this is Riel. We’re from Nightglade.”

“You?” Simran asked, still checking Therasia out from head to toe like she was waiting for some silent reveal. But Therasia had her blunt ears, and her tall, muscled build of a human, and she decided didn’t have a tail or paws. Then, Simran’s gaze turned towards Riel, like she was judging him too and not finding anything she liked.

“I trained in Vinegrove,” he offered, and her frown deepened even as she said:

“I trained in Heaven’s Arch.”

And that was the end of the conversation. As Riel caught his breath, Therasia offered him a water bottle. He was barely two sips in when she snatched it from his hands. He couldn’t even get out an indignant Hey! before she pulled him up to his feet. And then, to his surprise and horror, she turned towards Simran too.

“What are you looking at me for? Get up, you guys aren’t done.”

“Aren’t done with what?” Simran’s frown was immovable. If looks could kill, Riel and Therasia would’ve been gone an hour ago.

“With training, what else? Come on, I’m not asking you twice,” Therasia didn’t sound like she accepted complaints either. “You came here, you stayed with us. I don’t care why you’re here, but apparently, you are, so we might as well join forces instead of glaring at each other. We have work to do.”

“Are you telling me to scram?” Simran asked, clearly affronted, and Riel wondered how this conversation could’ve gone so badly and why was he there to witness the trainwreck of it.

“I’m telling you to stay and train with us!” Therasia snapped, and Riel could see how she held in you idiot at the end of that sentence.

Simran took a step back, and then her frown eased.

“Oh,” she said then, looking like she was weighing her options. “Alright. I’d love to train with you.”

“Great!” Therasia’s whole tone shifted, and then she turned to Riel with a smile. “Give me your sceptre. Come on. You too, Simran, I have no idea how your magic works. This is endurance training. We’ll going to run up that hill.”

When she vaguely pointed somewhere behind her, Riel followed her hand and no way. He was not going to subject himself to that— mostly because that wasn’t a quaint hill path Therasia was pointing at. First things first, she was pointing at a mountain. Secondly, she was pointing at a tight, rocky, winding path that disappeared into the woods almost immediately, and the only parts Riel could see were serpentine and so high up that he highly doubted that he could survive the climb.

“Maybe I can run with the shield? It’ll slow me down a little, but it’s good, isn’t it?” Simran asked and Therasia considered. After a few moments, she nodded.

“I can run with the scept—”

“You’re not running with your sceptre. Do you think I’ll let you summon anything when you’re not supposed to use magic?” Therasia said, and he sighed. She was right. She was right, and he hated that he, too, was so damn on finding the Lost that he was willing to follow the instructions of two individuals who were sketchy at best? And again, as it was, he wasn’t the only one.

“Alright. Let me know when we’re starting. Can we have breaks along the way?” His muscles already hurt from the thought, but he was willing to clench his teeth and endure.

It had taken them hours to ascend to the top. The path was as bad as Riel feared, and they took several breaks just to keep breathing. His lower back was aching because of his bad posture, and his legs were aching because of the strain. Simran hadn’t been willing to give Therasia her shield and sword, and so she kept sweating profusely in her light training clothes. Therasia kept waving his sceptre as if though it were her own. By the end of their ascent, she seemed ready to give everything up as well.

When they reached the top, Riel’s shirt was sticking to his back, his shorts were so uncomfortably damp from all the sweat that he was overstimulated and ready to cry, and the slight wind was making him shiver even though he was still sweating from the effort. The view was amazing.

“This wasn’t worth it,” Simran heaved next to him, voice small as she desperately tried to get her breathing in check. “Oh, I hope this will be worth it eventually.”

“It will be,” Therasia said, and Riel thought, ridiculously: Yes, but not for you. What did she gain from this? Nothing as far as he could tell. She didn’t have to run circles around a mountain. She was naturally in better shape because it was just one of those things she took care of, and Riel relied on his magic too much. But he could gain something from all of this, and her? A human?

He’d had half the mind to ask her why she was there, but when he turned around, he was rooted in his spot. Simran was next to Therasia, overlooking the view with a small smile on her face, which had finally lost its everlasting frown. Therasia, however, was looking at her, a smile on her face crowning the proud look she’d had. Like he had done something amazing (like she hadn’t forced him to run up until he was feeling like a shadow of himself).

“You enjoy torturing me,” he said, then, smiling back, and he meant something else entirely.

“I do,” Therasia winked, and he thought she understood what he meant. Then, she looked around and then caught both Simran’s and Riel’s gazes, one after the other. “Alright, that was enough rest. Let’s run back.” When they groaned in unison, she claimed it’d be easier to go down than up. Sweaty and tired — but happy — Riel sighed and prepared himself for the long way down.