Chapter 7 — Training

"The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit."

— Morihei Ueshiba

If she wanted to get her body back to the level it had been at before, then there were several things Serena had to do.

The first would be to once again build up stamina, so that she could maneuver around the forest freely and easily. For that, she had to be physically fit, which included running long distances.

She started her training by running a route she had explored earlier that morning. She estimated it to be a little over a mile long, the path clear enough to be able to run without stumbling every time. It extended from her new home around a large mountain until she reached a small clearing. From there, she had to run to the right and come across a big stone that was shaped like a potato until it was only a few more yards to her destination.

Another thing that was indispensable was for her to eat healthily. She had to regain some muscle in her arms and legs so that they wouldn't buckle whenever she put her entire body's weight on them — like when she performed a back-flip or something similar.

For starters, she would have to live off of berries and some herbs she recognized from ecology classes to sustain her energy. But she knew she couldn't keep that up for long. If she wanted to gain muscles, she needed to eat meat and fish too. Her body needed the extra fat and proteins, which meant that she would soon need to go hunting. But that was a problem for later.

So from then on, she woke up early every morning and started her day with running, then took a bath and ate breakfast. She mostly ate berries and some nuts and drank tea that she made out of leaves. It wasn't much for breakfast, but it was all she had at the moment. She repeated the run at noon and then again in the evening. At first she had to push herself a little to run the distance in one go, but her body soon got used to the exercise and it was on the third day that she found herself not panting as much for once. The fifth day she finished the course within thirty minutes, and the tenth she ran it like it was nothing at all.

She proceeded by extending her course and thus explored more of the forest as well. She realized that the leaves kept their constant red color, assuming that it would be like this no matter the season. It was probably also why people had called the forest Forever Fall.

She also noticed that it was pleasantly warm for it to be winter. It must have been around 18°C outside — not too cold and not too warm to do some training. It was thanks to this that she could wear only a T-Shirt and pair of leggings when running, and sometimes only a pullover was enough. She hadn't needed the warm cloak once, not even at night. Temperatures dropped then, but the fire and blanket kept her warm.

When she'd finally regained her previous strength, she started re-attaining all of her old moves — the somersault, back-flip, front flip, back walkover… But also the more dangerous ones she's performed on the trapeze. The former ones were easy enough to do and it only took her two days to get used to them again. The dangerous ones, however, were a little more tricky.

For most of them she needed something like a podium. The Amanar was one of the more daring maneuvers. It was easy to lose control over one's body and not turn enough in mid-air, resulting in a serious injury if one wasn't careful enough. She had always had troubles with this particular form and it took her several tries to get used to it again. But thankfully none of which resulted in injury.

She trained all of her moves for at least a week — enough time for her body to once again get accustomed to the way it had to move and bend. She quickly found herself doing every maneuver once in the morning and once in the evening. She relished in the feel of being able to float through the air again, defying the laws of gravity

The moment she was in the air, she felt… free.

Serena had always loved gymnastics for this — the sheer feeling of freedom that she got when she pushed off the ground and saw everything go by as if in slow motion. But she had had no time when she had entered middle school and it had only been in high school when she could take the lessons again. Her luck was that her school's team had one of the best gymnastics teams. She had learned a lot in the time that she had trained with the others.

She continued her vigorous training, mixing in some kicks and punches, training herself in martial arts as well. She had seen enough movies to be able to perform a decent kick and — combined with her gymnastics — it gave her the advantage of mobility and speed. Not to mention that she was extremely dilative and responded rather fast.

Additionally, she commenced using tree branches as bars and was ere long able to swing from one tree to another, or simply pull herself up onto one branch and then use her skills to travel. It was sometimes faster than going by foot and it would help her in hunting, minimizing the possibility of making too much noise.

Now that she thought about it, she also had to get accustomed to using her new weapons if she didn't want to continue living off berries and herbal tea.

She started off with the bow, getting familiar with it, learning how many times she had to push a button so that it would change color, and the way in which she had to hold the arrow so that it would hit its mark. It was not much different from the bow she'd used back in high school, and she was able to hit a bulls-eye nearly every time she let go of the arrows after little time. The only problem was that she only had twenty arrows and they were not cheap either. Though they were sleek, modern and extremely durable, she knew she had to be careful with them and preferably not lose them or anything.

The spear was like-wisely easy to use. It was made out of what seemed to be steel, yet it was fairly light in her grip, making it easy for her to twirl and fight with it. At least she wouldn't exhaust herself by the sheer weight of it. She had to memorize that she had to push the little button once so that it would extend to its full height.

Despite it being a head taller than her, she got used to it quickly and was wielding like she'd been doing it for years in no time. The spear she would only use for fishing. It would be impossible to impale an animal from such a short distance and frankly, she refused to kill in such a way. No, she would use the bow for hunting rabbits or deer and the spear for fishing. And — if it ever occurred — she would also use the stick, not the spear, for self-defense.
If someone were to visit her, that is.

The next part that was on her schedule was far more difficult: she wanted to start training with the Grimm.

For that she had to first find one and then hope that what had happened before had not just been her luck. If she could become friends with them, then at least she would have someone to keep her company.

But that could wait until another day. She had trained so much in the last few days, she didn't even notice how tired her body was and only two minutes after she had done her daily exercise and eaten some berries did she fall asleep next to the fire, its warmth and gentle crackling lulling her to sleep.

Edited 17/12/2016

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. All I do own are my OC and the idea and plot of the non-canon parts of the story.