24.Jan.21, 11:02 PM
Cold morning air stung her lungs, and she adjusted her breathing to take it in smoother, slower breaths so as to not freeze herself from the inside out. Light had only barely started to fade the night sky, but it was still dark enough that she would be able to slip out to the hold road, and then to the traces, without drawing attention. There was something about the crunch of snow underfoot, the way the frozen trace moss compressed and bounced against her steps, the winding and weaving of the trace around the terrain, that running in the bowl just couldn’t recreate.
She’d been out for half an hour already, just lightly jogging around the bowl, warming up her muscles and reacquainting them with the work an actual run would bring, when she stopped to stretch and work a kink from the muscle down the back of her thigh. Digging the tips of her fingers into it, she worked the knot loose before dropping herself forward and touching the ground, allowing the pose to pull and fully loosen the tightness there.
From her awkward vantage, she spotted another runner coming up behind her, and she stood and straightened, momentarily afraid that her little excursions had been found out, or worse, found out and deemed wrong…
The young man caught her off guard with a question about her running habits, and glad that he at least didn’t seem upset about them, she shrugged. “I try to be up and around before I have to actually be anywhere else. Classes start early and morning chores earlier. I used to love night Runs, so this time of morning, still a bit dark, is really something I do whenever I can.” She laughed a bit, hiding a smile at the memories.
He introduced himself, and she remembered having seen him around the Weyr, but that had been it. She thought it was in some of the weyrling classes she’d watched Cazan and Malvayth in, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Aederyn, candidate.” She dipped her chin in a nod by way of introduction. “Nice to meet you.” Wanting to keep moving and keep the chill at bay, she nodded toward the path she’d been on. The trace could wait just a bit.
She’d been out for half an hour already, just lightly jogging around the bowl, warming up her muscles and reacquainting them with the work an actual run would bring, when she stopped to stretch and work a kink from the muscle down the back of her thigh. Digging the tips of her fingers into it, she worked the knot loose before dropping herself forward and touching the ground, allowing the pose to pull and fully loosen the tightness there.
From her awkward vantage, she spotted another runner coming up behind her, and she stood and straightened, momentarily afraid that her little excursions had been found out, or worse, found out and deemed wrong…
The young man caught her off guard with a question about her running habits, and glad that he at least didn’t seem upset about them, she shrugged. “I try to be up and around before I have to actually be anywhere else. Classes start early and morning chores earlier. I used to love night Runs, so this time of morning, still a bit dark, is really something I do whenever I can.” She laughed a bit, hiding a smile at the memories.
He introduced himself, and she remembered having seen him around the Weyr, but that had been it. She thought it was in some of the weyrling classes she’d watched Cazan and Malvayth in, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Aederyn, candidate.” She dipped her chin in a nod by way of introduction. “Nice to meet you.” Wanting to keep moving and keep the chill at bay, she nodded toward the path she’d been on. The trace could wait just a bit.