11 - Routine!

“Hup-”

Thump. Thump.

The sound of my arms whaling against wood filled my ears as I hit the training dummy. A week had passed since then, and my limbs were slowly toughening up to physical strain.

After reproducing the training dummy outside my home, I made it a habit to practice in the morning. At first, I wrapped the bundle of wool over the training dummy in an effort to cushion the impact, but Hooty’s advice echoed in my head, making me change my mind and work through the pain.

Instead, I learned how to spin the wool into yarn, readying it for knitting. The process was tedious without modern technology; I had to craft combs out of wood, and that too required careful and precise woodmaking. But I found the work to be therapeutic in a way; it kept me busy.

I was really good with my hands; crafting items and findings ways to make things that shouldn’t work, work. Of course, a lot of that was thanks to my mind palace, but I’d like to give myself a little more credit than that.

“Phew, that should be enough for now.”

“Muu.”

“Woolie, you’re here.”

I gave Woolie a little pat on the head. He’d only just awoken, his face even lazier than usual.

“Let’s go then.”

During emergencies, I could count on my explosive power to get me out of sticky situations, fueled by adrenaline. However that took quite a toll on my body, and if I exhausted myself it’d be game over.

To train my stamina, I did morning runs around the open field. It took about ten minutes to run to the lake further up the hill, take a quick break and run back in another ten. Three times a day was the pace I set for myself; probably a bad idea for any child on Earth.

I was however, not like the average child.

“Come on Woolie, can you keep going?”

“Muu- muu-!”

Woolie could run surprisingly fast for a creature of his build. Unfortunately that same build meant he carried a lot of weight on him, and didn’t have as much stamina to compensate. Despite that, Woolie sincerely accompanied me, trying his best.

“And… here we are!”

“Muu-”

We’d take a drink of water at the lake, and resume training a minute later, finishing after three laps. Woolie never followed me for all rounds, opting to pull out after the first or second depending on his mood. While he waited for me, Woolie would scrounge around the forest edge for berries and herbs—breakfast.

“Hmm… maybe I can try making a fishing rod.”

I daydreamed about non-vegetarian cuisine while stuffing myself full of berries.

Seriously, I need another source of food. There’s practically no supply at home, leading me to wonder if that’s the reason I left in the first place.

I gazed into the horizon, wondering if civilization was just across that boundary I was still afraid to cross. The hill looked so daunting I expected it to take quite some time to climb, especially with Woolie’s constitution.

There was however, a small cluster of trees just barely protruding out the cliff edges in the distance. It caught my attention when I spotted a flock of rotund birds flying from there to our forest, suggesting it might go on a lot deeper than it appeared.

I set that as our next destination to explore, thinking it might be a good rest point during the climb up the hill. After mulling over it for a week-

“Woolie, we’re going there tomorrow,” I pointed to the trees in the distance.

“Meh?”

“Yeap. It’s finally time.”

I managed to find an old backpack at home, stuffing it full of some medicinal herbs I could use in emergencies as well as the makeshift bandages I fashioned out of wool. It wasn’t much, but it was progress.

“For now, let’s take it easy the rest of today.”

“Meh!”

I spent the afternoon playing with Woolie, foraging for supplies and retreating to my mind palace till sundown; just another typical day in the highlands.