Chapter Twenty- Nine - Warmups

  Nie Ruyi

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to bring them, Nie-Shijie?” The newly returned Song Fengling fussed, walking her through the cultivated landscape towards the Willow Hall. Nie Ruyi chuckled, and nodded her head, the yellow ribbons Sun Xirong had woven through her twin buns today swaying in the wind as she did. She could never get used to the sheer amount of fuss that went into her clothing now. She was glad that Song Fengling was back from visiting his mother, because honestly, his morning grump through her routine was the only entertaining part of it.

  Beneath her feet, like air-filled soles, Izzy and Goober hid, making her steps just a tiny bit bouncy. She didn’t mind, however. The cool near-winter wind cutting at her cheeks was annoying, but the four layers of her clothes were helping immensely at keeping it off of the rest of her. Next to her, Song Fengling didn’t even seem to feel it, despite how red the apples of his cheeks were.

  “Of course I’m sure. They behaved just fine the other day when I attended the first class. And they sat outside the library just fine without any worries.”

  “I’m not so convinced of that, Shijie.” Song Fengling huffed, his lips forming a cute little moue. The twelve year old was very worried about all of this.

  “Look, they’re contracted beasts, right? So I need to keep them with me at all times, so that they’ll be used to performing guard duty, right?” Nie Ruyi cajoled, threading her arm through the preteen’s and tugging him along. He sighed out and seemed to decide it wasn’t worth arguing.

  And it was true. As far as Nie Ruyi had heard, there had been no damage or danger in having Izzy and Goober with her, and she hadn’t heard any complaints or reports of bad behavior about them. So until then, she wasn’t going to worry too much about their behavior. They seemed mostly interested in sticking with her anyway.

  They arrived at Willow Hall with little fuss and fanfare, and headed for the central courtyard, where other students were milling about. Beneath her robes, Nie Ruyi had opted to wear pants today, and a less fancy version of the robes the other students were practicing in. A few cutting side eye stares made her wonder if maybe her more practical outfit was standing out. Song Fengling gave her a nod towards one of the stone benches around the pebbled courtyard, and she nodded, leaving the boy so that he could go sit down for the duration of the lesson.

  He’d joined her this morning already for the six laps she’d wheezed her way through this morning, and she was sure his thighs must be shaking and jumping the way her own were. Her calves ached with the effort, and honestly, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep up with the training today, but she had to try. She noticed, however, that when he moved away, the stares followed him, instead. Perhaps these maidens were embarrassed to be seen exercising by a young man? What a silly thing to be embarrassed about.

  Soon enough, Elder Chun entered the hall, creating a low in the chatter. The disciples attending started filtering into lines to begin what appeared to be a standard warmup. Nie Ruyi moved herself towards the middle so that she’d be able to see Elder Chun and her assistant Elder Xiao during the lesson. The warm up reminded Nie Ruyi of the sorts of warmups she used to do in gym class at school. It started out with touching one’s toes and then moving out into the shaky position of one doing a pushup. And of course, as Elder Chun’s voice declared to drop into a push up, Nie Ruyi felt a whine build up in her as her arms failed to keep her held up.

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  The only thing that made the embarrassment of her poor performance a little better was that she was not the only one, apparently, who had trouble doing a proper push up. Some of the other girls made noises of strain along with her, and thank goodness for that. They continued this exercise by walking their feet to their hands, and then doing it again. After eight of these, Nie Ruyi’s breath was panting and her body felt like it was a bit on fire.

  Then came the lunges and now Nie Ruyi was beginning to regret taking any sort of martial arts training. Why couldn’t she just be a glass-cannon, fighting in the back with ranged attacks?! Why had she decided she needed to be able to defend herself? This was just the warm up, and her limbs burned already! She recognised this particular stretch as something she’d learned in the single yoga class she’d taken as a young adult. To her shame, she’d quickly dropped the class, but she’d learned enough to know this was the Sun Salute. As she looked up at her hand stretched above her head, one of her knees bent ninety degrees, and the other stretched out long behind her, she realized she’d come full circle, somehow.

  The chatter around the courtyard picked up Elder Xiao demonstrated the next move, which spread the thighs wide and dropped into a squat, before swinging the leg around so Elder Xiao was facing the other way, and even Nie Ruyi felt a bit of embarrassment as she squatted like some kind of sumo wrestler. She now understood why the girls were so nervous about being seen like this. She felt ridiculous. After ten of these, the lines of women moving up and down the courtyard, they moved to the next exercise, which seemed to involve slamming an invisible enemy’s head into one’s knee, alternating the knees and keeping them high. This moved into a lift of the leg with toes pointed out, which Nie couldn’t get as high as Elder Chun or Elder Xiao, but she was starting to have trouble keeping her breathing steady, so she didn’t have time to look at the other girls and see if anyone else was having trouble.

  Then, the same sorts of leg stretches, but this time with toes pointed to herself, and it hurt along the back of her legs. Her legs were shaking when Elder Chun called for a halt, and thanked every god she could think of when the next steps were neck stretches. She lolled her head around in circles, feeling the tight twinges along the back of her neck, and then lolled her head in the other direction. Then, like the other girls in their whole straight lines, she rotated her shoulders forward round and round, and then backwards, round and round. This turned into making huge arm circles, and then twisting to either side while bringing the arm over the head.

  Nie Ruyi was incredibly grateful for this reprieve from the bouncing and squatting, although she could barely feel the cold now. Or rather, it felt refreshing and nice, since she was coated in sweat. Stretching out her arms in front of her, she rolled her wrists this way and that, feeling an odd burn in her forearms. Then, she turned into rotate her elbows, making circles with her forearms. Next, Elder Xiao demonstrated twisting left and right from the waist, about ten times each, and Nie Ruyi followed along. Then, with a red face, she followed through the hip-circles that reminded her of those horrible hip-thrust dances that used to be popular. Several girls broke out into nervous giggles, and Nie Ruyi couldn’t help but do the same.

  Next came knee-bounces, with her hands on her knees, bouncing back to straighten the leg, and then into a squat, bouncing three times gently. This felt kind of funny too, the breathless giggle rising in her throat, as they rotated the knees back and fourth, almost like they were trying to bounce their booties like modern age background dancers. This was followed by stretched legs and turning ankles in circles. All in all, a thorough workout that she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to continue.

  That said, it did help cut the cold a bit, which Nie Ruyi was incredibly thankful for. Once the warmup was done, Elder Chun spoke over the sounds of panting breath and shifting cloth, “Today, we will have minor sparring matches. These are meant to be at half-speed, movements broadcast intentionally, and no one is meant to be thrown to the ground. Always keep your feet, and do not hesitate to back away. This is just to help you mentally prepare to discern what sort of combinations one can make from the standard forms. You will pair off, and each pair will fight three times. Listen for the bell, it will begin the round and end it.”

  Oh. Well, that was terrifying. Nie Ruyi hadn’t even attended two lessons yet, and already she was expected to spar?? What kind of safe practices was this?!

  Mini Character List -

  Nie Ruyi - Our protagonist. 34 year old american woman - Screw excercise, oh my god, why can't I just be a sedentary office worker again???

  Lao Xiaojun - Lao Minghui's little brother and Sect Heir. Mr. Does-Not-Appear-In-This-Chapter

  Cai Bingtian - Disciple of Severing Firefly Sect. Still Mr. Does-Not-Appear-In-This-Chapter

  Song Fengling - Nie Ruyi's little assistant. Really thinks this is a bad idea... But also wow, lots of pretty Shijie's here.

  Missy - Worried, although it does not know how to express that.

  The Green Egg - Not forgotten. Currently lives wrapped in blankets on Nie Ruyi's bedside table.

  Goober & Izzy - Sedimentary Sludge Hounds who now live in Nie Ruyi's canopy of her bed. Having a good time on the bottom of her shoes.

  Sun Xirong - Nie Ruyi's maid, a fifteen year old mortal girl. What a lovely day! Her mistress isn't getting into any trouble, things are going well!

  Elder Chun - An elder of the sect, who is in charge of teaching one class of the Glowing Fragrance Chill Earth Style to the young women of the sect. Begrudgingly responsible enough to help Ruyi get her feet wet.

  Elder Xiao - an elder of the sect who works with Elder Chun to teach. Convinced Nie Ruyi is trash and should probably just find a husband and get out of the sect.