you're stronger than you know -- Mistrim

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]Tena was... well, not okay, but stable. Her wounds weren't infected, and Lavi had taken the supplies from Rin to redress them. She would live, even if her eye would likely never recover.

  Rin sat in her room, holding a cup of tea that had long since gone cold. The taste was still bitter on her tongue, but at least it had helped her to calm down somewhat. The shock of detaching and reattaching had faded away quicker than it had last time- she still hadn't figured out why it was happening, but she could probably ask Goldenluxury the next time they visited. Until then, it didn't seem dangerous.

  ...She needed a distraction. Something to take her mind off of what happened to Tena. Maybe she deserved to feel guilty over failing to protect her, but doing so didn't help anyone.

  Setting down the tea on the table, she walked out of the house and headed out into the streets, looking around for Mistrim. Mistrim's behavior had been... odd, recently. It probably had something to do with the Captain's attack- near-death experiences had strange effects on victims. Rin hadn't found any signs of shock when she checked Mistrim after the battle, but the lack of physical symptoms didn't mean she wasn't suffering emotionally.

  Detecting Mistrim's scent nearby, Rin headed towards the source, internally preparing a list of things to say and questions to ask.

[Mistrim]

MISTRIM

—Tomorrow is another day—
——And you won't have to hide away——

—Mistrim was training...again. She wasnt feeling up to dealing with everyone’s colors since it just made her headaches worse, and training atleast gave her a bit of relief. Of course, afterwards she knew that she would need a bit of time to recover her body instead but bruises, scratches, and soreness was easily more bearable and faster to heal then the migranes she normally got.

Her paws skid along the ground as she ran from one point on the field to the next and then back again. Her legs burned but she kept streamline, her tail was kept straight and her ears flattened. This was only the beginning of her training course. After this, she set up dummies made of twigs and string, a bit prickly but otherwise a good size. She practiced running around them, jumping over them and different manuvers to get to weakspots. Then weight training, then more running. It was nonstop until Mistrim dropped from exhaustion.

But it never felt like it was helping. She never felt any stronger or faster or more agile. It was just temporary work to make her feel like she was doing something. And it was harsh but she continued becuase she couldnt bare to be useless again. She needed to be there to get people out of danger and be fast enough in order to get herself out of the way as well...she shuttered at the uselessness she felt during the battle against The Captain.

She had been training for a while by that point in the day. She didnt normally do so much but Mistrim had lost track of time. She was doing her agility training, making sharp turns in the dirt that scratched at her legs and left a burning sensation from the friction. She tucked and rolled around the target dummies that she had placed around the field.

She didnt expect anyone to come looking for her. Nobody does in any normal situation and Mistrim had thought that she had been around town just enough that people didnt need her for much. She didnt think that they would be worried.

Not about her.

Much less that someone would find her training. It was so unexpected that she didnt even realize that someone was coming up on her clearing. It mustve been a sight, watching her silently leap around the target, swiping at specific points with precision. But it was obvious, Mistrim was tired. Her breathing was ragged and her pauses were getting much longer in between each attack. Still, she didnt stop. She couldnt stop. She had to be strong for Elysium.—

——Elysium — Decurion — Speak in #C2BEEC ——

© madi

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]Rin could hear rapid footfalls as she drew closer, and eventually came upon the sight of Mistrim waging war against what appeared to be training dummies. Her pauses, increasing in length, and her heavy breathing... she was clearly running herself ragged. Had been for a while, if Rin had to guess.

  "Please tell me this isn't all you've been doing since the Captain attack," Rin said after a moment, twitching her tail. She'd seen Mistrim in town a few times prior to this, but if this was how she spent the rest of her time... the constant physical training, with nothing else, couldn't be good for her. Rin occasionally took to physical activity in an effort to avoid thinking about what was troubling her, sometimes even to excessive levels- but even she knew to stop eventually.

  Furrowing her brows, she went on, "You're just going to get diminishing returns if you keep going like this. You should take a break." She had no problem using her authority as a medical professional to demand that Mistrim stop, but she figured it was best not to immediately jump to that. Once Mistrim had the opportunity to catch her breath, and probably drink some water, then they could talk in further detail- that much, Rin knew would be necessary.

  /ish