Training for Battle - James learns how to fight

James question took Robyn a bit by surprise, she hadn't expected him to ask about her own training scheduel so to speak.
"Uhm... just regular all over condition training," she answered, "usually as a warm up. Then I practise either my earthbending, hand to hand combat or sword fighting. Sometimes all of the above. Why?"

James nodded silenly as Robyn replied, imagining her doing all that training and realizing he thought of it alone was tiresome*.
This new information did make him wonder though; "did you always do that? That much training I mean?"


* Now I realize that this makes him sound quite lazy. I should specify that it sounded tiresome to him because he was planning - before his question had been awnsered - to do the same himself.

Robyn chuckled and shook her head when James asked if he had always done that much training.
"No not in the beginning," she answered with a smile, "In the very beginning I just mainly practised my earthbending. Later on when Axel had adopted me and he allowed me to take, well for lack of a better word, knight lessons. I split up my training. One day I would practise my earthbending and the other I would focus on the things that I had learned in the 'knight lessons'. It wasn't until everything was familiar enough for me and I had enough condition for it that I started combining the two."

James listened to her, a little enstranged; he couldn't imagine much of it, let alone ones family allowing you to do pretty much anything on the basis of you wanting to. For a moment he felt like saying something about that, but then he quickly decided he'd already made himself look pathetic enough.

So he decided to side-track his thoughts, and continue the conversation by asking: "so... what moved you to train so much anyway?"

Robyn had been asked before why she had wanted to learn how to fight, mainly by her little sister, though that didn't mean she had a good answer for it. Knowing how to fight and how to defend herself had always being something that she had wanted to do.
"I've always just wanted to know how to fight," she answered, "I can't really explain it. I've never wanted to get into fights, but I just wanted to know how... And well my earthbending is just a huge part of me, probably like your magic is a huge part of you. And I wanted to explore it too the fullest."

James nodded slowly, trying to understand. But to be honest he just couldn't really relate to the idea of wanting something so badly, and just for yourself, and then really going for it too. He knew really going for something, and he knew really wanting something, but he knew these things as two sepperate aspects, not conjoined.

But he could understand and relate to wanting something without a good, grounded, logical reason. And he could understand how other people would be motivated to persue their goals, regardless of norms and disagreements.

But mostly, Robyn's awnser gave him an insight into her, who she was and what drove her. And admittedly, that was what he'd mainly been interested in when he asked his question.

"Ah," he replied, somewhat understating how much had gone on inside of him. "Well, that's a good reason."

Robyn smiled a little when James said that her reason, though she couldn't really put in words, was a good reason.
"Okay I think you have had enough of a break now," she said with a smile and a small wink, "let's continue practise. What do you want to do? Push ups or chin ups?"

James smiled and nodded agreeingly when Robyn said the break was over. His smile faded though when she asked which he'd rather do, push-ups or chin-ups.

Neither, would the honest awnser be. At least, not now, not here rather! He hadn't minded the idea of working out a little more, building up his body strenght; actually, he rather liked the idea of him becoming a little more muscular. But he'd rather not start with it here, surrounded by all these people who'd surely laugh at him for being so weak...! At least, that's what he expected to happen.

"Uhm..." he muttered reluctantly, "could... couldn't I try something else? I can just do things like that in my room, right?"

Robyn was a little confused when James asked if they could do something else. That he could do push/chin ups in his room on his own, rather then here.
"Uhm... sure... I guess..." she answered not really understanding why he didn't wanted to do it now, "But what do you want to do now then?"

That was a good question. Suppose there wasn't much use in trying any other combat discipline, he thought, in concurrence with his usual pessimistic attitude, his strenght, or lack thereof, would still prove problematic.

James thought about it for a moment. He could try his hands at archery? But surely Robyn couldn't help him train with that... And though he hadn't come here to see her or spend time with her, he felt a little reluctant about training without her.

Buying himself some time to think, he asked: "how many push-ups and chin-ups can you do in one go?"

Now that was an excellent question. Robyn had no idea how many push or chin ups she could do in one go. Mainly because she hadn't used them as anything as a warm up for several years now.
"To be perfectly honest I have no idea," she answered, "I haven't counted in a long time, or even pushed myself to the limit doing them either... I usually only use them during warm ups..."

"Ah... great!" James lied rather unconvincingly. He couldn't help but feel bummed out by the idea that Robyn wasn't even phased by the idea of lots of push- or chin-ups, while even the thought of it alone tired him out.

He pulled up his shoulders, making himself seem quite small, as he tried some impression-management-control; "well, I surely can't do as many as you..."

Robyn let out a sigh when James beat around the bush of not really wanting to do any push or chin ups. She thought for a few moments and then decided upon something else.
"Okay then we will do some laps around the castle for overall conditioning," she stated, not wanting to go into a yes-no-maybe discussion again, "Let's go."
She grabbed his hand and pulled him along while going into an easy jog out of the training area and close to the castle.

Not feeling like he'd been left with much of a choice, James just followed Robyn - and his arm - and started running. "O-uhr, alright," he muttered as his feet got moving.

He was anticipating the worst at first, but as it turned out he had some reasonable skill in endurance; he actually managed to keep up with Robyn pretty well.

"Hey," he remarked in a sincerely enthusiastic voice, "I can do this!"

Robyn let out a chuckle when James said with clear enthusiasme that he could keep up with her. She wasn't planning on telling him that normally she would run at a slightly faster pace now.
"How about I make it an obsticale course?" she asked him after they had run long enough to be warmed up enough for that.

Pulling a face at her, James replied: "I would think the not-yet-crossed distance makes for enough of an obstacle!" He grinned though, and the tone of his voice betrayed he was joking.

"Alright," he also agreed after that, though smiling a little nervously, "let's do it!"

Usually he wouldn't have agreed to the idea of an obstacle course this easily, but having ran like this -and actually reasonably keeping up with Robyn without dropping dead-tired to the ground - had given him a confidence boost. And so he decided he shouldn't refuse things out of hand, but rather try them first. So, he prepared himself for whatever obstacles Robyn would conjure up.

Robyn rolled her eyes a little at James's joke about her suggestion of an obsticale course. She was already planning one in her head just to get back to him for that when he agreed to it.
A few moments later, without slowing her speed, she earth bended a stone obsticale course between them. It had things that you needed to climb over, jump over, crawl under and things that combined a few of them.
"Let's do this," she said with a small grin, quite enjoying obsticale courses herself.
Increasing her speed just a little so that she was running in front of James she showed him how to handle each obsticale. Waiting on the otherside of the obsticale until he had handled it as well before moving on to the next.

James looked a little paniced at first, as he saw the obstacles raised from the ground. His expression turned more into agrieved when Robyn went ahead and passed the first obstacle with quite a bit of ease.

After a deep breath, he spurted after her, giving it a go himself. Despite it looking less than impressive, he managed to get past. Afterwards, he stood by a little perplexed at himself for a moment. Then he turned back at Robyn, to see what was next.

Robyn gave James an approving nod and then continued with the rest of the course. She took one obsticale at a time, waiting on the other side until James had joined her and then went on to the next. Until they had had the entire obsticale course after that she continued the jog around the castle. When they reached their start point she came to a stop and looked at James slightly out of breath.
She felt energized, considering what they had just done as a nice warm up and stretched her muscles a little.
"So do you feel like you can handle more?" she asked, "Or do you think it best to call it a day for now?"

Even before Robyn could finish her question, James sank through his knees and fell down to the ground. While down, he muttered something incomprehensible, though the tone of his voice suggested it was sarcastic and unpleasent.

Finally, panting severly, he raised his head and gapsed: "I think I'm good for the day...!" Though it would probably mean little to her - she wouldn't even notice it, in all likelihood - he glared up at her. He stayed put though, safely lying on the ground, until he felt like standing up again without the risk of blacking out.

When James all but KO'ed even before she could finish her question Robyn felt bad. She hadn't noticed that she had pushed him that far with one lap around the school and a small obsticale course. Admittedly she had no idea how much someone with pretty much no experience in any of that could handle in one go.
She crouched down next to him, waiting for him to stand up again. Not wanting to push him even more by helping him up before he though he would show he wanted to.
"Sorry," she said with honest regret in her voice as she waited patiently for him to catch his breath again, "I wasn't aware I was pushing you so much. Next time just yell at me that you've had enough or something."
She grinned a little, hoping that he would forgive her.
"Want me to walk with you to your room?" she then asked when he started getting back on his feet again.

James smiled up at Robyn as she crouched next to him and apologized. He felt silly now, for glaring at her, for being upset with her. She hadn't been mocking him when she asked him if they could go on or not, he realised.

"No - I mean, no it wasn't that bad..." he said with a semi-cheerful smile, "I'm sorry, I'm just not used to... well, never mind." He chuckled at his own incapability to explain himself - though that was at least partially to blame to his lack of oxigen. Finally, after a brief pause, he calmly replied: "yeah that might be nice. I'm so tired I might just accidentally head into the girls dormitory."

Robyn smiled relieved and amused when James said that it hadn't been that bad and that he just wasn't used to it. Her smile increased a little when he said that he would like her to walk with him to his room. Her smile turned into a grin though when he said that he might accidently end up in the girls dorms if she didn't.
"How come I have the feeling that it wouldn't be completely by accident?" she asked him as a slight tease, "you are going to have to help me with going to your room though, because I have no idea which one is yours."

James blushed a little in reaction to her joking remark, but also chuckled. "Hey!" he replied, pretending to be insulted, "I happen to be a gentleman!"

He got up, accompanied with quite a bit of groaning, then grinned jokingly at Robyn and said to her; "let's hope you haven't worked me too hard for me to remember where my room is then..."

Immediatly after getting up he wobbled a little dizzy, seeing black spots in front of his eyes, but it soon faded and he felt fine again. "I'm good," he said, in case Robyn had noticed him feeling a little woozy back there.
Then they started heading for his room. During this, he looked sideways to Robyn, still impressed and wondering if she really did that kindoff training every day, which such ease...!? But he wasn't going to ask that.

"So... remind me again?" he asked instead, his expression somewhere in between joking and hessitatingly serious, "what is it you do when you're not in between trainings that would bring a grown man to his knees?"

At first Robyn just chuckled at both his gentleman comment as well as his amnesia comment, but then he wobbled a little when he had gotten to his feet. Having gotten to her feet at the same time, though a lot smoother and with that faster, she immediately held out her arms in case his legs might give. She relaxed a little when he just straightened up and said that he was fine, but she did keep a close eye on him while they where walking just in case.
She wasn't bothered with the silence between them while they walked. It gave her some time to think about what to do next, or more specyfically what practise routines to do next. And that's when James asked her about what she did besides practise. She opened up her mouth to answer, but then fell quiet and after a few moments she closed her mouth again without having said anything.
A thoughtfull look came to her face as she tried to think of an answer to that question. At home she used to play with Christine and help out her mother around the house when she wasn't practising.
When they had been travelling she had helped with setting up camp, making a fire, hunting, cooking meals, dishes and keeping guard, teaching the others how to fight.
But now that they where within the safety of the castle and she only had to help out in the kitchen when it was her shift. Outside of the class she was following and the homework that usually took up little time she pretty much only practised.
It was on the one hand a sad realisation, but on the other they where on the furge of a revelotion. Or so she told herself, though she couldn't quite shake the feeling of it not being right. Sir Axel would without a doubt agree with her on that, but she just didn't really knew what else she could do. There where just so little things that she could do that would not bore her out of her mind within fifteen minutes.
"Uhm..." she started breaking the long silence that her poundering had created, "not really all that much... I used to do all sorts of things at home besides practise or when we where travelling, but here... I don't know. There just isn't all that much for me to do here really, at least none that I can think of. That's kinda sad isn't it? What about you? What do you do besides school and homework and now practise?"