Strong Arms And A Strong Back

by **Ximal** on April 9th, 2013, 4:22 am

6th spring 513AV

Xi'd been in the city for a couple of days now and all he could think about was training. But having said that he needed money so he'd have to figure out a way to combine the two after all having seen how much ana and zand chipped through his already quite magnanimous stash. Still Xi was looking to both replenish it and gain some more training. So Xi headed to the "Nykshela Quarries". The slow walk there through the centre of the city in to the northern quarter. He'd brushed through the roughest part of the city, where brawls happened at a moment's notice. Xi shook his head at it, even though he wanted to test his own skills against them. Xi just sighed and headed onwards further until he could easily see the wall of red looming over him, like a strategically designed cliff face. Still Xi drew closer still his imposing form drawing more attention than he wanted.

Xi drew closer to the foreman of the quarry, one of the monks flicked him a look he drew closer. Xi drew up on him before saying quite bluntly or at least attempting too before being cut off by the monk.
"Lemme guess foreigner, you want work? Look there's some stone over there go and move it once it's clear your works done fro the day got it ?" Xi barely said two words before the monk had spoken to him ald already knew what he wanted. Xi just nodded and headed off to go and do what he'd been newly tasked to do. The marble on the floor, was unlike any he'd seen it wa a striking reddish colour and weight n absolute ton. but each piece was shaped into smaller bricks for building. Xi just slid them off one by one and carried them to a cart along with about three other men both shorter than him obviously, but they were almost as wide. Thick men strong and hardy. Xi now knew he had to show off a bit and instead began to slide off the bricks in stacks of two to go and carry then across like that.

by **Ximal** on April 14th, 2013, 2:53 pm

Xi hauled stone adter stone the hard sharpened corners digging into the leathery skin of his hands two bricks brought over at a time before after forty bricks one fo the two other spoke.
"Hey new lad...What's ya name ?" Xi placed down the two bricks upon the cart's back and twisted his body his arms now a little sore. Xi brought his arm up rubbing his hand over his shoulder before speaking quietly. Xi spoke the low an slow tone of his voice. "My name is Ximal...Just call me Xi. What is your name?" The larger of the two men helping him announced himself as Marlow, and the smaller of the two claimed his name was Marvin. Strange names for a pair of lifters. Still Xi didn't argue, it was something that he could do that benefited him to do. The hours passed fairly quickly with the two blokes there for him to talk to having said that the bricks fell to the point where it took two people at a time to carry em. Larger heavier stone bordering on about two hundred pounds, with flat surfaces grinding against each other. The lifting and moving was slow work but it moved on.

"Xi i've a question for ya. What do you call, a polite sunberthian?" Xi looked at marvin with a quizzical look shaking his head before answering. "I dunno what do you call a polite sunberthian." Marlow almost burst into laughter then and there almost dropping the stone he was helping Xi shift into a different cart. Before marvin answered with a similar smirk. "A ravokian." Xi couldn't help but crack a smile at that as he helped haul the heavy stone up and onto the cart. Then thought of his own sharp and some what witty reply. "Is that because they'll stab you with a smile on their face ? Or just because they wont stab ya in the back ?" Marvin almost fell over in laughter and mar low was holding himself up with his hands pressed into his knees. Xi smirked he'd gotten them to laugh maybe they'd loosen up a little. "Y'know Xi your not that bad for a foreigner. You can carry your own weight and you know how to take and give a joke." Xi almost took that too literally as he flipped over rolling into a forwards flip placing his palms into the ground in-front of him and walking back to the stone on his hands. "Well i can take the eight of my self and odds are i could probably lift the pair of you."

by **Ximal** on April 20th, 2013, 2:50 pm

Eventually the bricks of marble became fewer and fewer to the point where Xi and both marlow and marvin were growing exhausted. However the whole affair had only taken about two or three hours to shift, even with small bits of the pile of bricks and stone replenishing it'self with a miraculous pace. Xi hung over his hands on his knees sucking down air with deep slow breaths whilst marlow and marvin were both panting tryignt o force the air down then and there. Within a few minutes Xi had regain his breath and was standing tall again even if his arms were sore and his legs ached. That had been the first real chunk of consistent weight training he'd done since leaving the blood pits at sunberth and...it felt great. Xi rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck lightly walking over to take the last few of the remaining smaller marble bricks to pile them into the last cart. When as he piecked them up...Something caught his eye. A small blue stone.Xi reached don and plucked it from the dirt. looking it over in his hands he held it up to the sky and saw light running through it. Xi placed it in his pocket thinking nothing of it and lifted the two marble bricks up and carried them to the cart.

Shortly followed in stride by both marvin and marlow not wanting to be shown up. The speed the remaining few bricks were lifted and placed upon the cart with was almost as fast as when they'd started, apparently marlow and marvin didn't want to be shown up by the new guy and were trying their best to keep up with him. But it was taking a toll on them as their red faced and shaking arms could attest too. They were probably used to getting a break to take time between their movements to let the stack replenish a little, Xi though was used to working consistently without a chance to relax or slow down. Eventually the work load drew to a close. and The pile of bricks vanished. Xi then went to speak to one of the monks to ask about how he'd done, the monk just looked at him gave a grunt and told him to come back the following day...That probably meant he'd done well. For a foreigner at least.

by **Abstract** on June 20th, 2013, 11:36 am

Ximal :

Ugh the first two posts were hard to read with that font. Thank you for not using it anymore!! It was a liittle short, but you got the stuff you were working on. It's funny, since when I was reading this as you wrote it... I never thought I'd be grading it! Please PM me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments!

Solo Strong Arms And A Strong Back