a pain. Literally, I'm getting too large for it to be comfortable at all anymore.”
Tor didn't wait, climbing out while the slow vehicle still moved along slowly. It was hard for him to approach the guards and ask a favor, but Rolph had set the conditions, so he made himself find Wensa. He knew her best after all. When he asked, she just nodded at him and gestured to two people on horseback. One was Veren the guy that had kicked his butt a few days before over wanting to take Karina off to school. The other was a familiar looking woman with medium dark skin, raven hair and a hawk like nose.
“Veren, Kara, job for you.” Wensa didn't wave or do anything else to signal them over, but seconds later they were both there, not looking eager, but not really seeming like anything.
“Master Tor here needs to get the first part of his daily exercise done, running. I want to use it as a forwards scouting mission too, so push him at best speed about fourteen out and meet us as quickly as possible on the return.”
Veren didn't make a move that showed any interest in what was being said at all, but his words were questioning.
“That's going to be close to twenty miles. Best pace?” The implied question to Tor was clear, could he do it? Tor wasn't sure. He couldn't outrun a horse, so could only hope Wensa meant his best pace, not the animals.
Wensa gave a single nod.
“Yes. When you return we'll move directly into practice for the day.”
“Alright. Ready then Tor?” The huge man said casually.
Tor blew out a breath.
“Probably not, but I know it's what I need to be practicing, so… yes?”
Veren didn't wait, just spun the horse and kicked Tor in the back with his right boot. Nothing happened, because his shield was on, making them all laugh out loud, except Tor.
Kara took off at a trot.
“Run!” She called back.
So he did. It was fast, faster than he'd ever tried to go for more than a mile or two before and he gasped in pain through the whole thing. He had to drop into a meditative state, focusing on the world around him so he wouldn't fall down, and how his body moved, in order to bear the discomfort. He could still feel his insides trying to turn to water and the cramps along the side of his stomach wall on the left side as he traveled. The road curved and had hills, but instead of slowing as they went up, the Royal Guards helpfully spurred their horses to go faster. On the downhill they slowed a bit, but it was never enough to actually catch his breath.
The trip back was faster, since the whole group had been moving along the whole time and basically caught up. When Tor saw the dust he nearly fell down in relief, but it was just an illusion, the actual wagon and carriage train was miles off yet. He wanted water badly, and they found the whole group sitting under some trees by a decent little stream, without waiting Tor ran to it, checked it for quality and started drinking straight from it.
“Not too much Tor, space it out. You can only absorb a few cups of water per hour anyway. About three, maybe less for you, being so small.” This came from Kara, who joined him, laying on the bank, sipping the water from cupped palms.
Tearing himself away was hard, but getting sick wasn't going to help him, and she sounded like her information was real enough. It wasn't something he'd ever thought of before, but it wasn't like he had an actual water tank inside that needed to be refilled, was it? He went slow, as hard as it was and felt embarrassed that he was still gasping a little three minutes later.
Then he got five minutes to try and focus himself and rest before the weapons practice and unarmed fighting drills took place. It was way different than in school. The guards pushed him, but everyone worked at the same time, Rolph and Karina joined, and, rather cutely, so did Ali, though she didn't have a clue what she was doing.
The big difference was that it was a group effort. If you made a mistake, it would be capitalized on in the moment, but your opponent would instantly tell you what you'd done wrong. It didn't matter who you were, from the Major in charge, who turned out to be George, to the girl taking her first lesson. Everyone was treated the same way. It was a little scary at first, as every move was looked at through a lens, and a lot of what he was doing was found wanting. He knew he needed to get better, but was he that bad? Apparently so.
It was about half an hour in when Tor decided to try and work in the new ideas he had, based on what Burks had mentioned and a few other things besides. Shorter movements, combined striking and getting rid of the gaps, merged with trying to read his opponents field. It sort of worked, enough that George, who he was going up against grinned at him.
“Better! A little man needs to be precise, you’re missing half the blows and it seems like you keep getting stuck every seven seconds or so, your flow of attack hitches. Is that on purpose?”
Tor shook his head and tried to focus more, since George was going to attack as he answered, he could feel it.
“No, I just suck that much. Working on it though.” Rather than try to block the attack Tor moved in and attacked as fast as he could, managing to keep his flow going for nearly twelve seconds this time.
Then George skipped in lightly and took him to the ground easily.
When finished, an hour later, they all bathed in the stream and got back in the carriages and wagons, since Tor didn't think he could manage doing much else at the moment. Everyone else had books with them, even Ali, which seemed a great idea, only Tor hadn't thought to bring any. Well, he had the ones instructor Fines had lent him still. He took out one that was simply entitled “Theory”.
The book was fascinating once started. A lot of it he already knew or had worked out for himself, but some of the things he'd never even heard of. For instance, on the tiniest level space and time didn't seem to run the same way. Even before the book pointed it out, Tor understood some of what that might mean. Actions could be done at a much greater distance than he'd ever thought. Maybe even further away from himself than he could imagine? The idea was hard to put into a device, of course, since most of them didn't have direct mental feedback mechanisms and when the book was written, a long time ago it seemed, no one had managed it.
But Tor had. Trice’s arm.
More, it should be possible to make a field device that let people move through space. Just going from one place to another instantly. Quantum particles, the little pieces of reality, apparently did it all the time. A group just had to be organized properly to make it happen. All of them moving at once…
Ah!
It was riveting and he read until dinner, when they stopped at an actual inn, a place that had a slightly doubtful appearance on the outside and didn't get a lot better once in. It wasn't that bad, a lot like the unpainted house that he'd grown up in, some gaps in the walls that let the breeze in from the outside in the front room, and tiny rooms that actually were just… tiny. About enough room for a small bed and a chamber pot. It had an outhouse, something Tor had grown up with but that made the Prince and Princesses a little unhappy. Tor offered to set up a small house for them off in the woods, but George put his foot down.
“No. We don't need to advertise that the great Wizard Tor is traveling with this lot. Put up magic houses all over the place and people will talk. Just tough it out and we'll leave early in the morning.” His voice wasn't stern, but the feeling behind it was clear even without reading his field. Stop being whining little brats.
Tor chuckled and agreed with a head nod. It made sense after all. They were supposed to be hiding not on a real pleasure trip. That it probably didn't need doing wouldn't change the Royal Guard’s orders, would it?
He and Rolph shared a bed, which worried him a little, not wanting to wake up with Rolph trying to mount him in his sleep, but that part went fine. He got an arm thrown over him, since the bed was tiny and ended up waking with Rolph hugging him closely, but he just chuckled and jabbed his friend in the ribs with an elbow that didn't connect. Waking up Rolph stiffened, his body going rigid.
“Oh, god Tor… Sorry. I wasn't…” The yawn that interrupted him was huge.
“No huge thing.” Tor stretched and got up trying to act casual.
At least Rolph wore pajamas to bed. Otherwise Tor’s virtue may have been violated, at least in spirit. It was awkward, since his friend was clearly hiding the fact that he'd been aroused, even if in his sleep. That happened though. Half the time Tor woke that way himself. Not today, thank god, that would have been embarrassing. As it was his giant friend was holding the covers up, pretending to just want more sleep.
Not a problem.
Getting up, he grabbed his toiletries and went to clean up, finding that the basic washing at the inn took
