[Flashback] Keeping the body warm (solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 88, Fall of 507 AV 35 Chimes after the 19th Bell Savintar Warrens Eridanus stirred and he blearily open his eyes, reaching for the time-keeping device on the little table beside his bed. Grasping it, he brought it over him to see what the time was, and was partially surprised when it was actually night. He placed it back on the table and dithered on the bed, trying to find the motivation to sit up. The Ethaefal was normally an early waker, and it was not common for him to oversleep by so much. Then again, he was only partially surprised for his last memory before waking up on this comfortable bed was collapsing into it after a satisfyingly hot bath in the evening yesterday. He had decided to visit his previous incarnation's home (should he be existing now) during his study break from Zeltiva University's knowledge-intensive courses, and the incoming winter there actually gave him the inspiration to come here. He had travelled to the city of perpetual snow together with a trade convoy as per his usual protocol in travelling, offering the protection of his swords along the many guards and mercenaries hired for the operation in exchange for shelter and the safety of a large group of people. They were delayed due to a logistical error of some sort, in which he was not privy to the details, while making their way to Avanthal, and the merchants demanded they speed up the rest of the journey in order to reach the place according to their schedule. He did not fault them, for time was money to the merchants, and as long as he had a source of food and a wagon to rest in while he was off-duty (for the guard detail was done in shifts) he did not complain. Still, he had thanked Morwen when he finally reached the city, and after collecting what he was due minus the difference in food, he went straight to the Warrens to rest. He finally sat up, twisting his body aside to side hearing the customary crack of his muscle joints and he reached over to peel the thick blankets off him. He climbed over it over the blankets and sat cross-legged on the comfortable linen to begin his usual routine. Closing his eyes, he tried to let the thoughts clear from his head, slowly silencing the usual clamour of thoughts in his hyperactive mind one by one. When he finally achieved an acceptable silence, he took a deep breath, slowly reaching forward while exhaling (while still sitting cross-legged) until he could go no further comfortably. That was his comfortable limit, but his actual limit was slightly further. Struggling to keep his back straight - for bending it would defeat the purpose of this exercise - he took another deep breath and exhaled in bursts as he gently nudged his body forward, trying to fight the urge to go back to a less straining posture, in order to increase his flexibility. He did this as often as he could when he had the place and time, as well as peace and quiet, to do so, and he was a firm believer in 'practice makes perfect'. He pushed his body forward until he could go no further and lower, forcing himself to maintain a consistent breathing rate. His body quivered as he tried to keep himself there for a few more moments, and he relaxed, straightening his body until it was upright again. He repeated the exercise once more, and again after that one, and soon tiny beads of perspiration began to dot the Ethaefal's back, indicating that his muscles were beginning to warm up. The increase in metabolism was welcome, for it relieved some of the cold and Eridanus thought that it was pretty comfortable and snug to be doing this on top of soft linen while it snowed gently outside, the warmth of the cabin making him appreciate the existence of a shelter from the elements.

[Eridanus]

Next, he turned ninety degrees to the the left so that he would be facing the side of the bed and towards the door. This would allow him space to stretch his legs sideways and still remain on the bed. It was not often that he could experience such comforts and he intended to take advantage of it as much as he could. He could not spread it in a proper hundred and eighty degrees angle, and so he increased the angle as much as he could without causing his body to quiver involuntarily, and he gently edged forward again until he back began to protest. Calming his thoughts, he tried to keep thoughts of imagined pain out of his mind as he slowly pushed himself forward, edge by edge until his elbows could barely touch the mattress in front of him, if he supported his chin with his palms facing upwards. Grunting, he recovered his angle, and stretched forward again, every time increasing the distance that he went, every time going further forward and lower. After a few repetitions, he slowly pushed his legs further apart in order to increase his flexibility. And reach my goal of pulling off a head-kick without difficulty. Not many warriors realized this, but flexibility was also as important as strength and stamina, for it opened a new range of combat options and also made one more manoeuvrable and thus adaptable on the battlefield. Eridanus felt a mild tugging in his inner thighs and at a generally sense of physical discomfort, and his thoughts began to wonder. Without changing his position, he gritted his teeth, at the same time attempting to peel away the thoughts of complaint to maintain a clear mind and he gently swayed his body forward and back like a willow, warming up his body and conditioning his legs to this unfamiliar angle. After a few more chimes of doing so, he stopped, leaving his legs in that stretched position. They were getting numb, but time was the key and he would slowly let his muscles get used to it. The intention of the previous stretching and gradual increase of flexibility exercises were to get his body warmed up so that he would not cause muscle tears and strains. Now was the important part of the practice. He realized that he had been unwittingly clenching his eyes shut, and he relaxed it, slowly inspecting every part of his body mentally and releasing it from tension if it happened to have any. Having travelled the length of his physical body, he was satisfied that he had relaxed his body as much as he could (except the legs which were locked in the same position), he now directed his focus inwards to his astral body. Flux was the art of resource allocation. It was the art of redirecting the djed streams of the astral body to other parts corresponding to the physical body, and so reinforcing the djed streams already there with additional strength, mass, or energy. It all depends on what kind of streams and the intent. Now, however, he was unable to differentiate between them and so he usually just directed a portion of the whole wave in general. It was time to get more familiarized with the way his astral body synchronized to his physical body. Focusing inwards, he mentally poked and felt the rich streams of djed that spread all over his body, sometimes spreading out into several tiny rivers or combining into larger ocean-like mass. It was important to note exactly where the djed density of his astral body would be highest, and where would be the lowest, so that he could better balance the djed distribution and also for further applicative knowledge so that he would know where to draw from. Eridanus took a deep breath and tried his best to visualize a leaf floating up into the air against gravity as he gently and slowly redirected a tiny stream from the lower part of his body to the upper part. It took a long time, and he would never be able to do it on the fly. But here, where time is his friend and where he could practice in relative safety and comfort, there was no rush to do so and he inspected every process of the djed stream travelling, slowly shifting its way upwards. Correspondingly, the area in his lower torso felt a slight decrease in vitality and the top an increase. It would not be usually noticeable, but being in a deep trance help for he blocked out most external stimuli and even most of his unnecessary thoughts, his mind know full of the visual imagery he used to correspond to his mortal shell's astral body, and the 'map' he had in his mind's eye of the various streams of djed in his body that he could only call up if he was in a meditative and calm state such as this. He took another deep breath, regulating his breath patterns such that they were slow and unhurried long breaths instead of the usual fast pace of humans, and the even faster panting of people locked in combat or other more... rigorous physical activities. There, his mind was wandering again, and he consciously clamped that path of thought right there before it could wander again. Pushing the mental map of his djed streams into the middle of his mind's eye, he 'glared' into it until the 'image' was burnt into his 'retina'. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Without skipping a beat, he redirected that stream of djed he just manipulated back downwards, watching with satisfaction as it recovered to its original round-about routine faster than the time he expected it to take. He knew that returning djed streams back to normal obviously worked faster than redirecting them, for in redirecting them there was a natural resistance that resulted from the inertia of the position where they were supposed to be. Still, he felt that he managed to recover faster than normal and it was with a jolt that he discovered a new technique. In order to help a body to recover and redistribute the astral body properly after being wilfully arranged by flux workings, one must help the djed streams in recovering. Redirecting them was like pushing a wagon up the hill, but recovering them was like letting it roll down the hill. If one pushed against it, it would go there faster, and even faster if one ran down the hill along with the wagon. However, there was a caveat in that there might be unpleasant circumstances in recovering too quickly, and using the above analogy the person running along with the cart might crash together with the cart. Thus, one must always know when to give the cart a little push, or to run along with the cart in order to slow it's descent. Eridanus gravely annotated this realization in his mind, and decided not to take advantage of this knowledge in combat and fast-paced situations until he properly mastered it for he did not want to veins bursting due to a huge influx of recovered djed streams. However, now he had all the time he needed, and it was the perfect time to discover and familiarize himself with both techniques to gain a better understanding of recovery in flux.

[Eridanus]

The Ethaefal calmly redirected the streams again to another part of his body, feeling the perception of strength and vitality shifting accordingly as portions of his astral body shifted to occupy and fortify new locations corresponding to his physical shell. He kept the energy pulsing there for a moment to ensure that there would be no more stray djed streams flowing in, and he applied the cart pushing mentality, imagine himself gently pushing a wagon holding a mass of raw energy down a gently sloped hill, and he felt the redirected djed gently flowing back to their original positions quite normally, occupying their usual courses without much ado. His confidence boosted by his initial success, he re-enacted the same scenario several more times, using the flux to move the djed streams somewhere else then using the technique he discovered to nudge them back to return his body's astral essence distribution to the status quo. Each time he slowly up the strength in which he 'pushed the cart' until he stopped when the last time the djed streams crashed back into position quite painfully, and the Ethaefal felt quite drained of energy as his heart thumped painfully into his chest, causing him to heave for breath for a few chimes. He was sweating quite profusely by now, and his skin warm to the touch which made for a rather intriguing feeling for despite the shelter the eternal winter in Morwen's lands continued to chill the foreigner and the contrast between the warmth within his body as a result of his exercise and the cold from the environment made his body quite confused indeed. Eridanus slowly stood up, deciding to finally stop and he silently willed the rest of the stray djed back to their original positions, steadily controlling his breathing while his body calmed down. Turning back, he headed for the wardrobe and piled on several layers of clothing, for he intended to head to a location where he expected would have many locals for him to mingle with - the tavern. Reaching for his two blades, he gently secured their leather sheaths to the back of his clothing and he opened the door into the steadily snowing land. Little did he know that the night would turn out to be more interesting than he expected it to be.

[Cheshire]

Character: Eridanus Experience: Meditation +3, Bodybuilding +1, Acrobatics +1, Flux +2 Lore: Flux Meditation Additional Note: Great solo! PM me with concerns.