[Lorden's Apartment] Earning Strength

[Lorden Ladis]

6th of Spring, 515 AV

Lorden bent over, from where he was standing, and began to ruffle through the massive pile of equipment, that now dominated the south-west corner, of his small apartment.

I'll have to find some way to sort... all this, Lorden thought, as he reached forward, and wrapped his dominant hand, around a small grey piece of shaped iron.

But not right now. I'll do it later, he continued to muse, as he hefted the weighty dumbbell-esque item, up and over. With his right bicep already beginning to whine, but not quite protesting yet, the twenty-year old unfolded his torso, and brought the dumbbell, to hang in his right hand at his dominant side.

The knight gritted his teeth, as he noted the imbalance in his equilibrium, that the weight he now held caused. Lorden clenched his stomach, bent a little too much over to the side, and allowed the muscles in his jaw to relax. There was nothing to this, he just had to relax, and get it done.

The knight refused to fail, refused to not meet his new year's resolution. He might not end up being a chiseled tower of granite by the year's end, but he'd be petched to Hai, if he didn't try to get there. Well, maybe he wouldn't go that far, but the point still stood.

I'm going to get this done, Lorden reassured himself, as he forced a relaxed smirk to form over his features.

The twenty-year old took a step, feeling his right calf flex; then he took another, and another. Soon, he had cut a diagonal path across the floor, of his apartment. The knight slowed his step, as he approached the familiar bed, that was in the north-east nook of his room. Still, the simple bunk was not the subject of his quest, rather as he stopped, he turned westward, and lowered himself on to the short bed-side table, that sat off to its left side.

The knight took a breath, as his impromptu seat squeaked under his minimal weight. Lorden lifted his right elbow, to rest uncomfortably on his dominant-knee.

Here we go, the man thought, as he bent the heavy weight, that he held down, and back up again.

Lorden's bicep flared.

Indeed... we're going alright, he thought, in an attempt to block out the stinging, that was beginning to permeate his arm, as he lowered the dumbbell once more.

[Lorden Ladis]

6th of Spring, 515 AV

Down, up, down, up, the knight repeated the words, to himself over and over again. As he hefted the dumbbell up once more, Lorden's teeth clenched at the growing feeling of soreness, that permeated the area on his thigh, where his elbow was sitting, as he folded the iron weight that he held, up and down.

Up, down..., Lorden tried to push through, regardless of the pain, but he could practically feel a bruise forming, as his elbow continued to dig into his right leg.

"Bahh," Lorden half-said, half-exhaled, as he lowered his dominant arm between his knees, and dropped the weight held in its hand, to the ground between his legs. As he released his grip on the weight, his shoulder and tricep, and bicep, almost instantly began to move towards sweet numbness.

Lorden bent back up, hefting his arm from between his legs, as he did.

Can't be right, the twenty-year old thought, as he rubbed the numbing spot on his thigh, which elicited tingling shocks from the nerves underneath his skin.

I have to be doing something wrong, he continued to figure, as he stared down at his legs. A tick after he confirmed his suspicions to himself, Lorden's eyes drifted to his right elbow. With a thought, the knight allowed his right hand to stop massaging.

An inquisitive look framed itself on Lorden's features, and as it did, he maneuvered the burning muscles in his arm, to bring his dominant elbow back down gently upon the area of his right thigh, that was so sore. As his eyes flashed with knowing curiosity, the novice-bodybuilder slowly pressed the sharp bone of his elbow joint, down into his leg. As he pressed upon the sore spot, the pain from before quickly resurfaced; and along with it, a shot of a dumfounded feeling, shot up Lorden's spine.

Of course it's my elbow. Good gods I'm daft, the swordsman all but laughed at himself, as he thought on his delayed realization. Still, Lorden's mental chuckle, quickly faded as another musing bubbled itself to the top of his mind.

I'll have to change how I do it, he thought to himself, a bit apprehensively.

Lorden reached down and grasped the weight, that lay between his legs. As he began to lift the iron object, with the same arm as he had before, said extremity began screaming its protests.

I guess I could just..., the blue eyed man's thoughts trailed off, as his arm lifted up, till his elbow was propped off the the left side of his knee, rather than on top of his leg.

Grimacing a bit, the knight folded the dumbbell up; the action elicited the sharpest pain he had felt up to that point, that night. However, pain or no pain, his elbow was no longer digging into his flesh, the knight could tell that much. Not to mention the fact that the exercise 'burned' more. The added pain, had to be a good thing... right?

[Lorden Ladis]

6th of Spring, 515 AV

As Lorden's right arm, and the weight held in its hand, unfolded down over his knee and came to rest at the bottom of his calf, the knight's face twitched. The twenty-year old's arm was shaking, spasming even, and practically screaming; he knew he couldn't keep going.

Nevertheless, the knight began to lift his arm for another rep; the novice movement elicited nothing but unbridled agony. As the twenty-year old hefted the dumbbell, a raging fire of heat and pain, ripped its way through his arm.

Watching as the dumbbell raised one fourth of the way, Lorden could almost swear, that he could feel the fibers of his muscles snapping under his flesh. The knight closed his eyes, as his chest clenched painfully, unbreathing in his strain. The knight's face began to burn, and scream, and his hand flexed, and dug even more heavily into the iron bar, that it was wrapped around.

Breeath, the novice-bodybuilder thought, as his bicep strained to move the dumbbell up, even by another inch.

The knight's throat clenched, when he ripped forth the musty air of his apartment, into his crying lungs. Lorden's arm faltered for a moment, as he redirected his train of thought; yet, a sudden burst of strength, and a slight reprieve from the burning in his forearm, allowed him to halt the dumbbell that he held, and keep it from falling.

Lorden exhaled, and watched as the outflow of air, allowed him to punch up the dumbbell by another half rep. With an instinctive sense of knowing, the knight took another refreshing breath; this time he breathed through his nose, and made sure to keep his attention on his dumbbell, as he did.

Soon after he had flooded his muscles and veins with oxygen, said tissue thanked him by slightly diminishing their painful outcries, at his exercising.

The knight exhaled, bringing the dumbbell up to almost touch his shoulder.

Breath... I just have to breath, Lorden thought, as his hand spasmed down, and crashed the dumbbell that it held more than shakily, into the floor below his bare feet.

[Lorden Ladis]

6th of Spring, 515 AV

Let's try this one more time, Lorden thought, as he reached down, and wrapped his around the dumbbell, that had fallen to the floor.

The knight's right arm still ached; however, what burn still permeated it, was numbed by a strange euphoric feeling, that had begun to set in, only ticks after dropping the weight, that had tormented his muscles.

Luckily, Lorden wasn't using his right arm this time. No, rather, the twenty-year old's non-dominant hand, was the one, the was now attempting to grasp the cold chunk of metal, that lie between his two feet.

Lorden noted just how easily the metal had gotten cold, only after about half a chime of him resting, with his hands off of it.

The knight quickly put down his stalling observations.

Just got to get it done, he thought to himself, as he began to shift his right shoulder up in its socket; the action simultaneously lifted the flat edge of the the primitive dumbbell, that the shoulder's arm's hand was holding, up off the ground slightly.

The knight couldn't believe how quickly he had gone from eagerly anticipating this workout, to wanting to rush through it. Maybe his redirected eagerness, was caused by not wanting to deal with figuring out how all the new equipment, that he had just bought, worked. Maybe it was just the fact that the workout was already hurting his minimally developed form. Regardless, Lorden flexed his bicep, nonetheless, and hefted the heavy dumbbell, that he held, up, till the area above his elbow touched right behind his left knee.

I wonder what Tyveth would think of this, Lorden thought unthinkingly, as he flexed his arm up, and completed his first rep. The knight bit his lip, at the thought, as he continued on through his bicep curls.

Lorden knew, that he had a few ticks, to think about the random musing, that his head had cooked up.

Do I really want to though...?, he thought to himself weakly, trying to decide whether or not he should devote his thoughts, to one of the gods of his order. Did he really want to work through, his apprehension towards pondering divinity? Was he up for that?

The knight's teeth clenched, as he completed another bicep curl. Lorden didn't even notice the burning in his arm, as the barbell moved up and back down.

[Lorden Ladis]

6th of Spring, 515 AV

Lorden finished one last rep, as his arm burnt in absolute agony; almost as if something had bitten deeply into it.

The knight threw his barbell down on to the ground, and began to take a few ragged breaths.

"Daaa-mmnit...," Lorden said shakily, as he stood himself up recklessly, and knocked the bed-side table, that he was sitting on back to the stone wall, as he did.

"Pe-tch it Lo-rden, he doesn't care about you" he continued, referring to 'his' god, as he grabbed a hand up to his face.

Lorden's vision began to blur, and he stumbled over to the side. The knight just barely managed to prop his left hand, up to the nearest stone wall of his apartment. Against the man's will, flashes of the recent past, flooded into his mind. Lorden began to mutter to himself.

"I'm so sorry.. I-I thought he was with us," he whispered, as tears leaked from his eyelids, and streamed down his face.

Lorden crushed his eyes closed. Yet, even the blackness, that his eyelids should have promised, gave no reprieve to the flashbacks; if anything the visions, only began to bubble up with even more force, as if laughing at his futile attempts to quell them.

A flash of a little, limp, blonde body, flashed before his sealed blue orbs.

"I'm sorry... So sorry. Please stop... Get away from me!," the knight stumbled away from the wall, as he half responded to a nonexistent father of a murdered child, and half screamed for the enemies of the past to leave him alone.

The knight turned and dove for his bed, as he did he snatched his sheathed arming sword, from where it lay on the sheets. Quickly, Lorden whirled back around, and drew his blade. Pointing his arm out, the dazed swordsman dropped down into his instinctive combat stance.

The knight blinked.

Where are they...?, he thought, as he looked for the wolves, that he was sure were attacking him. There was nothing but smoke-clouded air, in front of him.

"You're a fool, push it aside Lorden, let it all go. It won't hurt anymore if you do...," a devious, and deathly familiar voice, worked its way to his ears.

The knight glanced down to his sword.

"You can't be...," Lorden trailed his words off, in unbelief. Up until this point, he had shaken his hallucinations off, as just that. But it was so real right now, so impossible to ignore.

"Keep you're god even. But be of some use to him, and stop sniveling. The girl died, she's dead, and you know it," the silent blade, continued to 'speak' to the knight, in his mind.

"I know she is. Bu-," Lorden was cut off, by the false voice, that permeated his entire being.

"But it wasn't your fault. Her guardians were weak, you weren't. You saved some of those merchants, and all should thank you for your kindness," the nonliving sword cut him off, almost sounding darkly pleased, at the knight's previous admittance to even part of 'its' point.

"You're no use to anyone like this. Take what I said, use it. Use it for your city, your god, for something. But don't submit to these fantasies," the blade 'continued'.

Lorden dropped the sword. The voices, which he didn't know to be but hallucinations, ceased almost instantly.

[Aoren]

Lorden

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Organization	+1 EXP
Bodybuilding	+5 EXP
Endurance	+5 EXP
Planning	+2 EXP
Meditation	+2 EXP

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Bodybuilding: Dumbbell Exercises
•	Bodybuilding: The Importance of Proper Technique
•	Endurance: Pushing Past The Pain
•	Endurance: Regulating Breathing Through Controlled Motion

+4 Shield Points

Notes :

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