On His Face Is A Map Of The World (Lulu)
Posted: July 24th, 2016, 1:09 pm
Nathaniel Carridus
The black uniform did not suit Nathaniel, at least not to his eyes. The man was used to wearing loose, freer clothes than this. The trousers were too fitted, the coat buttons constricting, not to mention the boots were heavier than he liked. But this was the life he had chosen, and in spite of the questionable fashion choices that came with it, the new Soldier did not have any regrets.
The decision to learn to channel had come to Nate slowly, because honestly he’d been more interested in learning to hit people with a quarterstaff than anything else, and he was too occupied with the idea that his brother could channel, and he couldn’t, than to consider that just because he hadn’t sparked didn’t mean he couldn’t be trained. If he was going to have any chance of bringing Reuben into line, he was going to need to be able to meet him on the battlefield with the same weapons. A stick wasn’t going to cut it against weaves of Fire.
So far his training had been tough, but not more than he could handle. The routine was not dissimilar to that the Drin went through, it was just that Nate did less hitting people with weapons and more throwing rocks around with Saidin. Or trying to. Nate found it much easier to make them explode than to toss them about but he needed to practice all of the different weaves, which is why he was here this fine morning. He had a private lesson with a Dedicated, someone Nate didn’t know and didn’t really care to either, he was just here to learn after all. Any friends he had made as a Drin didn’t seem to carry over to being a Soldier, and that totally had nothing to do with that scrap he’d had with Carlos, at least he told himself it didn’t...
The training grounds were fairly quiet at this time of the morning but Nate didn’t mind the early start. He needed as much time as possible so he could learn to channel properly, so there was no point in wasting time. There was this whole frustrating “no channelling unsupervised” thing which made sense but still felt ridiculous to the fellow, seeing as there was no way he could make any decent progress if he didn’t try to do this himself in his spare time. The void was there, the warm light of Saidin was easily accessible to him now, but Nate needed to form the weaves and get the experience down. How could he do that if the Tower insisted on holding his hand all the time?
But Nate was no fool in spite of the frustration he felt. In the middle of the training grounds he was not about to practice so instead, he did some stretches whilst he waited and kept himself warm in the chilly morning air. It was going to rain at some point, the air had that horrible heavy feel to it Nate never experienced in Mayene, but lessons were never cancelled because of a bit of water. Or a bit of cold. Or a bit of anything unpleasant, that Nate knew of. Even an attack on Hama Valon had done nothing to disrupt things for too long. He leaned down, stretching his left leg and then his right, working the muscles into something resembling readiness. Funny how channelling could tire the body out in a way that running and sparring couldn't, even without moving all that much.
The decision to learn to channel had come to Nate slowly, because honestly he’d been more interested in learning to hit people with a quarterstaff than anything else, and he was too occupied with the idea that his brother could channel, and he couldn’t, than to consider that just because he hadn’t sparked didn’t mean he couldn’t be trained. If he was going to have any chance of bringing Reuben into line, he was going to need to be able to meet him on the battlefield with the same weapons. A stick wasn’t going to cut it against weaves of Fire.
So far his training had been tough, but not more than he could handle. The routine was not dissimilar to that the Drin went through, it was just that Nate did less hitting people with weapons and more throwing rocks around with Saidin. Or trying to. Nate found it much easier to make them explode than to toss them about but he needed to practice all of the different weaves, which is why he was here this fine morning. He had a private lesson with a Dedicated, someone Nate didn’t know and didn’t really care to either, he was just here to learn after all. Any friends he had made as a Drin didn’t seem to carry over to being a Soldier, and that totally had nothing to do with that scrap he’d had with Carlos, at least he told himself it didn’t...
The training grounds were fairly quiet at this time of the morning but Nate didn’t mind the early start. He needed as much time as possible so he could learn to channel properly, so there was no point in wasting time. There was this whole frustrating “no channelling unsupervised” thing which made sense but still felt ridiculous to the fellow, seeing as there was no way he could make any decent progress if he didn’t try to do this himself in his spare time. The void was there, the warm light of Saidin was easily accessible to him now, but Nate needed to form the weaves and get the experience down. How could he do that if the Tower insisted on holding his hand all the time?
But Nate was no fool in spite of the frustration he felt. In the middle of the training grounds he was not about to practice so instead, he did some stretches whilst he waited and kept himself warm in the chilly morning air. It was going to rain at some point, the air had that horrible heavy feel to it Nate never experienced in Mayene, but lessons were never cancelled because of a bit of water. Or a bit of cold. Or a bit of anything unpleasant, that Nate knew of. Even an attack on Hama Valon had done nothing to disrupt things for too long. He leaned down, stretching his left leg and then his right, working the muscles into something resembling readiness. Funny how channelling could tire the body out in a way that running and sparring couldn't, even without moving all that much.