55th of Searing, 120 AS
Lantern light flickered and cast wavering shadows on the wall of the room in the Inn. It offered very little in the way of illumination, but at the moment Bell did not particularly require her eyes for the movements she was making tonight. She winced slightly as she leaned down and pulled on the towns of her left foot, the angle and the force stretching her calf and sending a shooting pain up her leg. Tonight performance, perhaps she had overdone it. She had tried to incorporate a few more advanced movements into the dance, but it seemed her body was not quite ready for that just yet. All she had succeeded in was a less than ideal performance which ended with her in more pain than she had experienced in weeks. Every muscle was tight and screamed for attention, and so Bell now was working her way slowly through each and every one of them until bed.
From her calves Bell moved on to her arms and shoulders, rolling her head back and forth as she stretched out the limbs and wiggled her fingers to stop them from tingling. Her back felt like a horse had trampled on it, and there was a constant ache in the lower part just over her butt that just wouldn't go away. She leaned forward to touch her toes in an effort to remove the feeling, but that just wasn't reaching. With a sigh of frustration she ended up on the ground, facing up and practically glaring at the ceiling above. Breathing in she rolled her hips so that the offending side was on top, stretching her foot out until it was at a near 90 degree angle to her body and she felt the pull in her hip region she was looking for. At first the pain of it made her body tremble, but slowly her muscles began to adjust and relax and she signed in relief. This was repeated on the other side, and she proceeded with a few more stretches on the ground in an effort to release even more of the pressure from the nights antics.
When her body was finally in a state of semi normally Bell stood and set her hands on hips, frowning down at her toes which she wiggled experimentally. Much as had been the case several times this season, the Rathari just couldn't believe how much of her skill she had lost. Thinking back, she remembered when a dance like tonight would have barely left her winded let alone hurting as she was now.
Maybe I'm getting old? she thought, rolling her shoulders and looking up at the ceiling. The thought was an unsettling one, but quickly it was dismissed. Surely it wasn't her age, it was laziness. After all Reimar had practically been an old man when she last saw him and he could still bend and twist as well as a person half his age. No, what she was suffering from wasn't age, it was lack of practice. She had gotten too used to relying on a handful of simple tricks, and as a result those muscles and reflexes for other actions had withered over time. Well, that would end tonight.
Squatting Bell tucked her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins and rested there for a few moments. She hadn't done this in... 20 years she supposed. She raised herself onto her toes, wobbling as she tried to keep her balance before letting herself rock backwards. She rolled, ears tucking close to her head. As she did she raised her arms over her head, pushing and lifting herself just slightly off the ground as she extended her legs. It was the beginnings of a handstand, or rather the beginning of the first exercise to PRACTICE a handstand. With her body extended she let the roll carry her the rest of the way over, bending at the waist and touching the floor with one leg to stop the roll. She ended up in what looked like a modified push-up position, but with both hands on the ground and one foot in the air. Her arms wobbled a bit, but Bell was pleasantly surprised to see that she was still strong enough to handle her own body weight without much issue. Pulling in a breath Bell pushed off the ground, throwing her head back and swinging her raised leg with her knee up to her chest to push her momentum further until she was standing on one leg, arms to the side for balanced.
A smile touched the rabbits lift as she did a slight hop and returned to her starting position and repeated the motion. She remembered when Reimar first taught her this exercise. It was within the first week of her joining the circus, and he had been very strict that she perform it correctly. 'This', he had said, 'is the foundation for the rest of your life. Practice it like your very life depends on it.'
Though he was not here, going through these stretches and the exercises made Bell feel closer to the man, and once more she wondered what had happened to him. Was he ok? Was he dead? With a shake of her head Bell abandoned that line of thought, returning to the present.
With the practice done Bell walked to one of the walls of the room, looking over her shoulder at the lantern that she had intentionally placed in the farthest comer of the room tonight. Once she was sure that the flame was well enough away she lowered herself to the ending position of the first exercises, hands on the ground with one leg slightly raised. Oddly enough Bell felt a little bit of hesitation, which was odd considering the handstand was one of the most basic acrobatic moves one could learn. Basic, she reminded herself, did not mean easy. Rather it just meant that this was a technique that every acrobat needed in their skillets, and she could kick her past self for letting it slip to the point it was at now.
Closing her eyes Bell slowed her breathing, controlling her heart as it beat a little too fast for her liking. She tried to remember what it felt like to do the motion, but gave up after the act of thinking about it only served to make her more nervous. Setting her jaw she pushed off the ground with one foot, swinging her other foot higher into the air until her lower half was fully off the ground and over her head. Her arms trembled slightly as they accepted her body weight, but they did not buckle. Her core tightened as she adjusted her feet and legs, working to balance the new distribution of weight as best she could. Bell managed to hold herself for almost 10 full seconds, until she realized she was holding her breath and let it out in a woosh. Her body wobbled, and she bent her knees slightly so that she tilted toward the wall instead of away. Her feet touched the wall and she felt herself balance once more. Her arms still protested, but they did not fold and now she was positioned upside down facing the rest of the room.
The rabbit held this position for a few seconds, trying to accustom herself to the feeling of her body in this moment before gently pushing off the wall again until she was standing freely once more. She held the handstand for another 10 or 15 seconds before the wobble increased to the point that she hand to rest against the wall once again. This was repeated 3 more times, each time the intervals of freedom shrank by several seconds until the last she started to waver within the first 5. One leg was lowered to a 90 degree angle, altering her center of balance until she tilted toward the ground. When her foot touched Bell pushed off the ground with her tired arms, struggling to a standing position with waving arms until she steadied herself on one leg. Each breath was a bit labored, but not out of control. As she settled her heart Bell relaxed, rocking backwards without thinking until her hands touched the ground. Suddenly she found herself in a back-bend, and balked at the position. In the past this was how she ended the exercise, flipping back into another handstand and rolling into a tumble. Unintentionally she had started that routine, muscle memory taking over her body. She stopped herself before she attempted the 2nd handstand and instead slowly lowered her butt until she was laying on the ground.
Hands came to her face, covering her eyes as she brought her beating heart under control. Despite this however, Bell smiled. Her mind wasn't quite there yet, and her conditioning still needed work, but her body remembered what it was supposed to do. She blessed that grouchy old man and his military routine, thanking him for forcing her to do these exercises until they came without thought. Her body knew what to do... she just needed to make it remember.
And on to the next for me! 
