A Song of Silence

Chapter 32: Yoga in the Dark

PSA: To my loyal readers,
My schedule has gotten a lot busier and will continue to keep me unable to write and post as much as I used to. Therefore, all postings on Saturday and Tuesday will now be one chapter. Sorry! This book is my heart and soul right now and I will do my best to resume double chapter postings!

The morning light filtered in slowly. I had slept like the dead. Literally. After recovering almost four weeks from a near death injury, you'd think my body would be tired of resting. Oh, how wrong I was. The soreness of my thighs from my impromptu ride last night made it difficult to get myself dressed, but with a lot of cursing, I managed to get myself into some trousers and shirt. Proper attire, like a dress and a corset could go to hell, for all I cared. I wasn't going to waste my time on trying to wrangle myself into those trappings while the injury to my stomach still chafed at me. I unlocked my bedroom door and walked out. Karasi waited, a ball of nervous energy, outside.

"Aerilynn!" She squealed and rushed to hug me. Her embrace made the new bandages around my waist chafe and I winced at the pain. Karasi noticed me tensing and immediately let me out of her crushing hug. "Oh my, I totally forgot! Is it healing at all? How does it feel?"

Her bombardment of questions stubs me for a minute before I can think of how to respond. I'm fine. The wound is just a little sore. It's healing as fine as it can for the circumstances.

Karasi still has a worried look on her face, even with my assured response. "I don't know. I think you should rest some more. Here. You go to bed and I'll come back later."

Karasi turns to leave, but I stop her. If I lay in bed for one more moment, I might start stabbing things for the fun of it.

Karasi shakes her head and says, "Fine, but you still look like shit." This makes a laugh unexpectedly escape out of me.

Alright, get your training stuff on. Have you been training like I taught you to?

Karasi gives me an exasperated look, "Training now? But you can't teach me anything."

Even injured, I can put a make on the floor in seconds flat. You can't. Which is why you will continue to train until you can at least put a make on his back. That is what you signed up for when you asked me to train you. Reluctantly Karasi nods and goes into her rooms to change. When she comes back out, I grab out training weapons and we walk to the grounds where we had been training. Have you been running every day and building up your strength?

Karasi nods, "Well, every other day. I'm trying to make time to do it every day, but my schedule has been packed since you were unconscious." I merely nod at her and we start on our morning run. I had forgotten what weeks of recovery felt like. By the end of our run, I was sweating and achey, my muscles groaned with every movement. "It seems someone is a little tired," Karasi teases as she drinks from the water buckets next to us. Her exhaustion barely shows and it is obvious that her strength and endurance has grown while I was recovering.

Learned any new stances while I was recovering?

Karasi nods enthusiastically, "Oh you bet! Since you weren't here to teach me, the High King taught me when we both had free time!" I raised an eyebrow in skepticism. Karasi gave me an exasperated look, "You know as well as I, he was an awful teacher at first, but then he learned and taught me a few things."

Would you mind demonstrating?

"Oh I thought you'd never ask!" Karasi says, she quickly gets into a fighting stance for the wooden swords we are using to practice. She was right, her form was perfect, Azazel really isn't that bad of a teacher. She goes into a different stance, meant for knife throwing. Several more stances she demonstrates, all perfect form. The problem though, would be using those stances and keeping them in the heat of battle.