Only then did I realize that I was in a carriage. I couldn’t move my head, so I didn’t know if there was anyone else with me. It was daytime, but I couldn’t tell how long it has been since the battle. Earlier the carriage was shaking and that’s what stimulated my pain and woke me up, but now the shaking stopped, which meant that the carriage also stopped. I was tempted to try to meditate and assess the extent of my injuries, but the pain was keeping me from focusing and if we stopped then someone was probably coming to check on me.
I heard the coach men talk to someone, then more light made its way inside as the curtain in the back was pulled aside. Garrick had come…
“How’s everyone?” I asked, the pain I was in obvious in my voice.
“Mostly shaken but uninjured… The kids, the other instructors and lady Cassia, all heard you, but me and the bandits didn’t…”
“If everyone’s fine that’s good… How’s Cassia? Last I saw her she was fighting with an archer and a fist fighter…”
“I see you’re doing quite well yourself if you have time to be thinking about girls…”
“Oh, please… She’s just a kid…”
“… You’re a little kid yourself…”
I was left speechless… He was right, unfortunately I couldn’t think straight, so all I could do was to keep my mouth shut and keep quiet until the awkwardness of those words faded…. Eventually Garrick opened his mouth again.
“Lady Cassia’s doing well, she was pretty worried about you…”
“It’s good, then. How long until we reach the Academy?” I asked to change the subject. Or else who knows how this old man will find himself teasing me.
“Not long, in fact. We should get there by tomorrow afternoon. You were out of it for three days…” He said after a bit of contemplation. Then he stopped and looked at me with some worry in his eyes. “But you… The bones in your legs and forearms are cracked all over… The bones of some of your fingers are outright shattered, a lot of the limb muscles are ruptured… Honestly out of all your wounds only the stab one is relatively normal… It’s a miracle you’re alive!”
“You have no idea…” I chuckled thinking back to that space I haven’t seen in over eight years… If not for that I’d probably not be here, and this body would belong to a probably just a bit above average child…
“Anyhow…” He said seeing how I treated the whole thing lightly, despite the pain in my voice. “What was that scream? You startled us all…”
“Well, you know my condition… This freakin’ wagon shakes and as a result it triggers pain in my wounds…” I said feeling very aggrieved…
“Hm… We did not consider this… I’ll go ask lady Cassia to let you stay in her carriage. It somehow doesn’t shake as much…”
“No need. It hurts but I can endure it, take it as forging my will.”
“I understand but… We don’t want a screaming choir…”
“If you are woken up by someone pouring hot water on you, won’t you wake up screaming like there’s no tomorrow?”
“Well…”
“And yet if you are awake and decide to use hot water as a way to steady your mind and increase your endurance you would at most grunt. No?”
“I’m not going to argue with you from now on…”
“Ok…”
“Well then I’m going.”
“Wait, where are the others from my village?” I asked feeling a bit weird being alone all of a sudden.
“We got them to move in other carriages and leave this one for you only… They agreed quite readily…”
“Why?”
“Well, you reek of blood and we did not want you to be disturbed. It’s best if you rest and conserve yourself.”
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“Alright…”
Afterwards Garrick left. The carriage started shaking again and pain once again aggressively assaulted my senses. I gritted my teeth and waited. There was nothing else that I could do after all. Only endure. Slowly the pain started to fade, or rather, I think I was becoming numb to it. As the pain grew fainter in my senses I started to focus on the different parts of my body. It was also a form of meditation. After all pain gives something for your mind to lock on and cling too, it made it easy to concentrate and sense the specific spot.
It… wasn’t exactly an accepted method, but it worked for me. I needed to better understand my physical body anyway. The biggest number of modern successful practitioners came from people in convalescence the reason was exactly this. Many would attribute it to more free time, desperation, the desire for salvation and so on things that while definitely helping, are not decisive. One has to understand that mainly… Spirituality was built on healing. If you have nothing broken, how are you going to learn to fix or repair? And right now, I was one hell of a broken mess…
Now normal meditation was practiced to enhance one’s sensitivity, but many, attracted by the prospect of supernatural abilities failed to understand the purpose of it. I was in that category too… For Taoists in particular this focus was even greater in early stages. Even yoga did not place as much importance on the physical health as Wei Dan practice did. The reason? Yoga was designed to release energetic blockages in order to let the body heal, while Taoist practice was built around preparing the body to sustain practice and survive the stress brought by dedication to the practice.
The differences aren’t all that big, however the focus is different, and the approach differs too. But pain also has a big downside… It radiates… It blends the surroundings together to the senses. In other words, if one was to train their sensitivity and focus on a region that did not hurt, they would get zones they wouldn’t really feel and zones they’d get the equivalent of a 4k picture. Someone that focused on pain would feel the entire area, but the ‘resolution’ will inevitably be lower.
Now focus is still good because it redirects the resources of the body. So, while many find various distractions to keep their mind off the pain… The actual best way to deal with it is to focus on it because this will make it end sooner. Everyone will argue on this but anyway.
And so, I was alone focusing on my hurting limbs and while I felt like swearing at every stone or hole the carriage took, I also benefited from it. Sure, it would take longer to recover, and the pain was flaring up, but the shaking and changed the way the various tissues felt. This allowed me to gain greater clarity, into the structure of my body.
At some point, I did not know how much time had passed, I started to fear that if the pain was to continue for much longer like this, I was going to turn into a masochist… I really did not want to go strange in the head like that, but I couldn’t make it stop… ‘How long until evening…’
I was still bravely holding on and not making a sound, my consciousness was wearing out and my mind was slipping… I couldn’t think straight anymore… Just as I was about to happily descend into unconsciousness the carriage took a very bad rock. The sudden shock not only caused me great pain, but it also threw me up… As I fell back on the floor of the carriage, I couldn’t help but curse at the coach.
I honestly can’t reproduce the words I uttered back then as they were the worst kind of swear and insults my mind could build. ‘What the hell is wrong with this guy? Is he a brain-dead idiot or trying to kill me? He heard how bad my injuries are and still takes shit like that?’ Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately the guy did not answer… If he did then my skills of swearing and cursing would definitely improve, after all it wasn’t for nothing that carriage drivers were renown for their exquisite ability in this field…
In any case the fall fully jolted me awake and increased the intensity of the pain, making me unable to fall unconscious again…
Indifferent to my suffering the wheel of time spun and evening came. We finally stopped and outside camp preparations were taking place. Before the attack I had taken over cooking. I couldn’t stomach that salty stuff and decided to just take care of it myself. The solution was simple. All one had to do was to put the meat that was going to be used in water since morning to hydrate it and have the salt come out. The water had to be changed about every two hours, but together with me making better use of the few vegetables we had stocked up and some other tricks like slightly frying the meat over low heat to pull out the juices and only then adding water, the meals had become quite good.
I was really worried about having to go back to that broth from before, but had no way to influence it… I didn’t have long to worry as Cassia pulled the curtain of the carriage to the side and looked in. In a small voice she tentatively asked.
“Are you awake?”
“And aching…” I answered, trying to crack a joke.
“It’s good if you can still find things to laugh at…” She spoke. Her voice was neither friendly nor hostile So I had no idea what she could be thinking.
Cassia climbed inside the carriage and sat on one of the benches, looking down at me laying on the floor. I could see her face now; she looked as though she was contemplating something.
“So, what brings you here?” I asked, not wanting her to spend too much time with me alone like this… I had a feeling that if she did Garrick wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.
“I’ve never seen or heard of anyone fighting like you did.” She eventually said.
“Mhm… I doubt others could… And I still ended up disabled...”
“Could you teach me?” I felt that this time she was very serious. Her voice carried a kind of longing…
“No. I fought in a very inefficient way. I’m sure the standard methods are better. I just never got trained or fought before so I recklessly followed through with whatever first came to mind.” I stopped a little as the wound that went down from next to my neck to behind my chest made it hard to talk. “I can reproduce it, but there’s nothing to teach.”
She looked at me as if she was trying to discern whether I was telling the truth or not. After a while she rose to her feet and walked towards the back of the carriage. Before getting off, she said.
“If you’re telling the truth then your intuition is terrifying. We’ll see at the Academy which is which.”
What an ominous way to end a conversation… She jumped off and went away. With the pain still flaring in my limbs my thoughts moved on to the Academy… I wonder what it’ll bring.
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