As Ari ascended onto the main deck and made her way towards the front of the ship, the fresh salty morning air surrounded her. It felt extremely refreshing to end up outside after spending the better part of the morning confined in small, cluttered chambers of the ship. A nice change of pace after several unpleasant conversations that she didn’t want to be a part of.
She walked up to the side of the ship and spent several minutes overlooking the vastness of the ocean, only obstructed by the two last islands of the archipelago, what the kid claimed to be the Sea Gate, the place that separated the waters of the Armada from the outside world. The view of the seemingly limitless body of water surrounding the comparatively tiny islands that stretched far beyond the horizon captivated Ari and made her forget about all the worries she might have had just moments prior. This was what freedom looked like…
It was quite ironic that Ari, a shipwright, someone whose job and only talent in life was tied so closely to sea travel, had never ventured into the wider world by sea herself. Of course, she had made a few commutes between the islands closer to the centre of the archipelago, around the area where the capital was situated, but those paled in comparison to what she was experiencing right now. It was her first experience with the world outside of the archipelago and she couldn’t contain a child-like wonder as she looked on into the distance.
This view lifted Ari’s spirits significantly and she seemingly moved past all the unpleasant experiences she’d had earlier in the morning by the time she approached the front of the ship. Th view was nice, but she came up here for a workout, not to look at pretty scenery.
Once there, she made sure that nothing would be interfering with what she was about to do and began stretching, having put down her metal bat next to her. Once that was done, she picked up the bat and started doing reps of swinging it in front of her, repeating the same motion over and over again dozens of times while counting. She would keep going of a while, doing similar exercises, occasionally using her weapon as a weight, until she deemed that the workout was sufficient enough (which meant that she physically couldn’t keep going anymore) or was interrupted by someone or something…