Chapter 55 The Unsatisfied Girl

The next morning at five a.m., her annoying alarm and an already wide awake elf forced her awake.

“Good morning!” Meira announced in a chipper tone.

“Morning.” Evernya groaned from under her sheets.

She sat up, causing her vision to spin for a second as her groggy mind adjusted. When Evernya’s mind booted up, the events of the previous night flood in, causing her to swivel her head toward the chipper elf.

“What happened? Did I backlash myself? Why do I feel fine now?” Evernya questioned in rapid succession.

Meira’s chipper mood dulled as she looked sheepishly at her kitten. “I may have pushed you a little too far. I was just so excited to train you. And yes, you received minor backlash, but the actual damage occurred before that. Your mind teetered at the edge of mana vein overload during the entire shield training session. The shield break only pushed you over the edge. I don’t even know how you could maintain your cocoon through all the abuse. A human would have fallen unconscious after the first few air blades. As for your quick recovery, I’m not sure. I prodded you to wake to feed you liquefied dinner, but from your question, I doubt you remember that. So maybe the nutrients were enough to expedite your healing overnight.” Meira explained, avoiding eye contact with her kitten out of shame.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter now. I feel fine. I’m sure I will encounter tougher situations in the future, anyway.” Evernya stated, brushing off Meira’s mistake.

Evernya left the shocked elf to clean up in her bathroom. From the previous days of training, she felt disgusting, with her face caked with sweat and dirt. Once in the bathroom, she stripped her training suit off for the first time in two days. She checked her reflection, marveling at the stark difference between her face, hands, and feet compared to the rest of her body. The skin covered by the training suit kept its flawless pale coloring without a speck of dirt. Meanwhile, her head, hands, and feet were several shades darker from caked-on grime.

Driven by an instinctual need to clean, she turned toward the shower, turning it on full blast at max temperature. She fidgeted impatiently as the water heated. Once the temperature reached scolding level, Evernya dove into the shower. She grabbed the soap and scrubbed her body raw, eradicating every molecule of grime. After ten minutes of scrubbing, she finished.

Now clean, Evernya stood in the shower, eyes closed, basking in the scolding heat of the water cascading down her body. Her previously raw red skin visibly healed from her natural healing unimpeded by the scorching water. A quiet purr vibrated in her throat, obscured by the loud, raining water.

A half-hour later, she left the steaming shower relaxed. Taking her time stretched the skintight training suit over her flawless, lithe, petite body. After activating the suit, adhering it to her skin, she exited her steaming oasis of a bathroom.

In her bedroom, she found Meira sitting on her couch, waiting for her kitten to emerge while reading a book on enchanting. The abrupt change in temperature from the steaming bathroom caused Meira to glance up.

“Took you long enough. Did you try to empty the lake?” Meira commented, storing away her book.

“Was tempting as the hot shower felt so nice,” Said Evernya, glancing back into the bathroom, tempted to return to her steaming oasis for the rest of the day.

Upon catching her kitten’s longing expression, Meira shot out of her seat and rushed her kitten out of the room. In record time, Evernya found herself back in the home gym.

“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Evernya inquired while drinking the provided pinkish smoothie.

“Same as yesterday. I want to check how much you improved,” Answered Meira, pointing toward the treadmill.

Also curious, Evernya trotted toward the torture equipment known as a treadmill. With a slight hesitation, Evernya sealed her mana, leaning against the treadmill for support as her body adjusted. She skipped a stretching session, feeling her body warm and limber. Evernya hopped on the treadmill to begin her distance run.

At first, she set her pace the same as the previous day at thirteen kilometers per hour, but within a few minutes, she increased the pace in increments until reaching fifteen kilometers per hour at the ten-minute mark. Satisfied with this pace, she fell into a rhythm, gracefully jogging in place. Before she knew it, Meira stopped her at the thirty-minute mark, breaking her trance. She stepped off the treadmill, red-faced and panting, but more than capable of continuing.

Her excited Elven keeper handed her a bottle of MEL before gushing about her progress. “Fantastic, your body’s adaptability is off the charts! You accomplished what would take a human or even an elf weeks if not months in just one day!”

“I’m sure my progress will level out soon. Maybe my body didn’t fully recover until today. As you said before, I was below average in most exercises for a shifter. Now with my body healthy, I caught up.” Evernya theorized, offering a logical reason after downing her bottle of MEL.

With Meira’s previous enthusiasm doused, she looked down at her tablet, displaying Evernya’s readings with a critical eye. “I suppose you’re right, but only time will tell. Are you ready to move on?”

“To the intervals?” Evernya inquired.

“Yes, the intervals. We will see if your body can handle more after that.” Responded Meira.

“Give me a few minutes.” Evernya requested, receiving a nod in response.

Evernya handed Meira the empty MEL bottle before walking up and down the alleyway while focusing on calming her breathing.

Five minutes later, while internally psyching herself up, Evernya stepped onto the treadmill. She found the treadmill already set for her interval training, so she pressed start and took off.

In record time, she finished the 2K run, dropping to the floor to perform the push-ups, despite panting and sweating profusely. After one hundred two push-ups, her arms gave out, prompting her to climb back on the treadmill for the second 2K. As with the last, she finished only slightly slower than the first 2K before waddling to the pull-up bar. She reached the pull-up bar with only one hop, performing twenty-four pull-ups before losing her grip, landing softly on her feet. Meira handed her a MEL bottle, which she chugged, then focused on calming her breathing for the next interval.

The following intervals followed the same theme as the weakening girl pushed herself through the workout, achieving personal records for each interval. This time she managed to complete the pull-ups on the last interval, but as soon as her grip gave out, she fell to the floor in a sweaty, panting, unmoving mess.

“Incredible, you are almost on par with an average shifter your age in only three days. I’ll give it one more day, but I think this workout isn’t taxing you enough.” Meira teased her exhausted kitten.

Evernya gave her a withering glare from her position sprawled out spread eagle on the floor, unable to talk.

After several minutes of glaring at her elf, Evernya caught her breath enough to force words through her panting mouth. “Just because I didn’t pass out, you think it's too easy!? I can’t move!” Evernya fumed.

“Fine, I may have gotten ahead of myself. Your progress makes me so excited.” Meira admitted, showing no remorse for her comment.

“Please let me keep this routine for the rest of the week before you change it. I want to be the best I can be, but not kill myself in the process. Yesterday I pushed my body into a life-threatening condition.” Evernya pleaded between gasps for breath.

Unable to withstand her kitten’s pleading expression, Meira gave in. “Fine, I understand, but you must push yourself to the limit. As a reward for your hard work, take the next few hours off, then train with the weighted balls. I will come and get you around lunchtime.” Meira instructed.

“Ok, I’ll just lay here until my legs decide to work again,” answered Evernya, still unable to move.

“Want me to carry you to the couch?” Meira offered.

“Na, I’m good. Do you have a smoothie in that ring of yours?” Evernya begged, eyeing Meira’s crystal storage ring with a starved expression.

Meira shook her head at her kitten’s antics while materializing a purple smoothie and floating it toward her downed kitten.

“You drink a ton of those,” Meira commented.

“What’s not to love about them? They taste amazing, and they are nutritious too!” Evernya proclaimed from her position sprawled out on the floor.

“Except I tasted one, and it is nasty,” Meira commented with a grimace.

With a trembling right arm, Evernya poured the smoothie down her throat. Once the jug emptied, Evernya’s right arm dropped lifelessly to the floor. “To me, they taste amazing. This one, for example, tastes like the most amazing grape I’ve ever had.” Evernya insisted after licking her receding fangs clean.

“That’s funny because there aren’t any grapes in that recipe, nor does it taste anything like grape to me,” Meira revealed while retrieving the empty jug with air magic.

“To me it’s grape, I don’t care what other people think.” Evernya declared firm on her stance.

“Whatever you say. Need anything before I leave?” Meira inquired, giving up on trying to convince her kitten the purple smoothie tastes like sour grass.

“Nope, go do your elfy enchanting thing. I’ll be fine.” Evernya replied, giving Meira a shaky thumbs-up.

“I’ll be in my enchanting room then,” Meira stated, shaking her head as she left the gym.

Once alone, Evernya laid on her back, unmoving, staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore her painfully throbbing legs. Five minutes later, she weakly lifted her arms to view her suit computer. After a few attempts with her numb fingers, she released the seals on her mana. With her mission accomplished, she allowed her arm to flop limp on the floor, as she braced herself for the imminent rush of mana.

A second later, her body flooded with delicious mana, washing away all her pains, replacing them with pleasure. Her back arched and her toes curled, but she kept her mouth sealed as she silently rode the waves of pleasure. She thought to keep herself lucid, knowing in the future she would need to unseal her mana in public.

Finally, after several minutes, her mana stabilized, allowing the pleasure to die down. Unfortunately, the painful soreness returned, no longer overshadowed by her pleasure. Bored with staring at the ceiling, Evernya attempted to stand up. She grabbed onto what she assumed were dip bars to help herself up. With great effort, she succeeded only to regret it immediately. Sharp jolts of pain shot up her legs as they crumbled underneath her, forcing her to hold herself up with the dip bar. Within seconds, her arms also faltered.

Unwilling to lie on the floor any longer, Evernya pushed mana into her legs to heal and stabilize them. Before they could give out again, she stumbled out of the gym and down the hall, darting toward the living room couch as fast as her painfully abused legs could take her.

With an ungraceful flop, she dropped her pain-filled body onto the couch. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as her body began to feel heavy. She gave in to the growing heaviness, knowing she wouldn’t be moving anytime soon. Within seconds, her body sent her into dreamland as it worked to heal itself.

Over two hours later, Evernya awakened. She stretched her arms and legs out of their awkward positioning. A smile graced her lips as she found her body was as good as ever. A loud rumbling and pointy fangs interrupt her inspection. Tentatively, she placed her bare feet on the floor before pushing herself up while keeping one hand on the armrest for support. Once sure her legs could support her weight, she rushed to the kitchen to find herself another smoothie.

She darted toward the fridge, feeling hungrier by the second. Using a bit more strength than needed, she yanked the fridge door open. Her hands flashed out lightning fast, grabbing a blue smoothie, chugging it immediately before grabbing another. Just as fast as the first one, she downed the red strawberry-flavored smoothie. Still feeling a little hungry, she took one more smoothie, a white one this time to go. She left the two empty jugs on the counter as she wandered toward the sliding door sipping a vanilla flavored smoothie.

As she walked past the patio table, she set the final smoothie jug down. She stepped out into the yard while her tongue curled around her receding fangs, savoring the tasty combination of blueberry, strawberry, and vanilla. On her journey to her dirt dome, she telekinetically grabbed five, five kilogram weighted balls. Once at the top, she sat down cross-legged, setting the timer on her suit before beginning her training session.

She first focused on shooting one ball in random directions, trying to stop it as fast as possible, or change its direction suddenly. With the extra weight, the ball responded sluggishly, but she refused to give in.

Over the next thirty minutes, the delay in stopping and change directions shrunk steadily. Unsatisfied until she managed perfect control, the grind continued despite her growing headache. She fell into a trance, cutting out everything but the zigzagging ball.

Another thirty minutes soon passed with the ball, doing its best to imitate a pinball. Despite the ball zigzagging faster than most humans could perceive, the sweaty girl with bloodshot eyes remained unsatisfied.

The ball dropped to the ground, connection cut, followed by a scream and thud as the girl slid down the dome, impacting the ground while cradling her head. Evernya rolled on the ground, tears flowing from her bloodshot, pain-filled eyes. In desperation, she flooded her brain with mana, hoping for some relief. Her hopes came true as her excruciating migraine dulled to a moderate headache within seconds. She continued to pump every ounce of mana she could into her brain, but her headache remained unchanged.

After several minutes, she dialed back the rush of mana to her brain, only for her migraine to spike. Forced to dedicate most of her mana flow to keep herself lucid, Evernya relented to a break to her body’s relief.

She pressed her palm to the polished dirt dome as support while attempting to stand up. Without trouble, she lifted herself to her feet, but a moment later, her vision blurred as she swayed. She accidentally pricked her tongue on one of her fangs, reminding her of her rapidly diminishing mana reserves. With unsteady steps, Evernya stumbled to the sliding door leading to the kitchen, almost crashing into it because of her impaired vision.

Her body condition worsened by the second as more and more of her mana poured into her brain. Once at the fridge, her hand shot out blindly, grabbing the first smoothie she could, chugging it with at least half of the pink liquid running down her chest, dripping on the floor. The second smoothie, another purple, was her next victim. This time, she managed to drink most of it. By her third smoothie, her frenzy calmed, allowing her to drink it with more civility.

She rubbed her flat stomach, sated while wandering back outside. Wow, telekinetic training really takes its toll on my mind. I think I’ll take it easy for a while to allow my headache to die down. Evernya returned to her training spot atop the dirt dome with three-five kilogram balls in tow. With her timer reset, she sat cross-legged in orbiting the balls.

First, she corrected any imperfections in her orbit, then closed her eyes, allowing the balls to rotate around her shoulders gracefully. Evernya entered a meditative trance as her mind lulled from the gentle pull of her orbit. A half-hour passes in a flash like this until her trance broke by the quiet footfalls of a certain elf approaching her dome.

Evernya’s eyes fluttered open to find Meira standing at the base of her dome. With a spring of her legs, Evernya flew off the dome, landing softly on the grass below. She turned her attention to the new arrival while telekinetic grabbing two more five kg balls, adding them to orbit.

“How’s the training going?” Meira inquired, inspecting her kitten’s smooth use of telekinesis.

“Good, but I have a long way to go,” Evernya replied with a frown while mentally reviewing her magic progress for the day.

Meira’s eyes flicked between the graceful orbiting balls and her frustrated kitten with an urge to knock some sense into her kitten growing by the second. “Do you realize how talented you are? Your telekinetic progress is off the charts! Sure, it is true you have a long way to go, but frustration should be the last thing on your mind. Most telekinetic’s your age couldn’t levitate five two-kilogram balls, yet you’re not satisfied with casually levitating five, five kilogram balls!?” Meira ranted, staring directly into her kitten’s eyes.

“Fine, I get it. I just want to improve as fast as possible.” Evernya defended with her hands raised in surrender under the unyielding glare of her Elven keeper.

Unable to stay mad at her cute little kitten, her glare morphed into a reassuring smile, with a hint of mischief in her eyes. “I understand the need to improve, but please don’t be so hard on yourself. Besides, if you keep pushing yourself to the brink of mana vein overload, I’ll be out of a job. It’s my job to torture you into shape, not yours.” Meira teased, causing Evernya’s tail to puff, shooting a shiver up her spine from the veiled threat.

Evernya eyed Meira with suspicious worry as she smoothed out her tail fur. “Arent Elves supposed to be nice forest folk? Why are you so sadistic?” Evernya questioned instinctively on guard.

“Just because I like forests and am nice most of the time doesn’t mean I don’t like to be mean from time to time,” Meira replied, flashing a toothy smile.

“Meanie.” Evernya slumped her shoulders, defeated.

“Its payment for outlawing dress-up time.” Threatened Meira with a hint of hope in her eyes.

“I’ll take the workout. At least I will get something out of that,” Announced Evernya, shivering at the prospect of wearing a frilly dress against her will.

“Damn, I was hoping you would choose the other option, but I can’t be too selfish.” Meira fake pouted.

“So, lunchtime?” Evernya asked to change the subject.

“Yep, though, I’m reluctant with your habit of falling asleep right after eating a major meal.” Meira teased upon catching the hungry expression on her kitten’s face.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I have a severe case of food coma!” Exclaimed Evernya in panic.

With a teasing smile, Meira continued, “Oh well, worst case, I get some more enchanting work done.”

“So little faith in me, I can stay awake!” Evernya proclaimed.

“I guess we will see,” replied Meira, before turning to walk to the house.