Training

"Why do you train so much every day? It's not like you're getting stronger. You've gotten as strong as you're gonna get, at least as long as you keep doing the same exercises everyday. So what's the point?"

Dylan slowly lowered himself down from the handstand that he had been holding for about two minutes. His daily training was an hour long, and consisted of a number of high intensity strength drills interspersed with held endurance positions. "Because I'm not interested in getting stronger," he explained to his younger sister. "I've already become as strong as I want to be. But I want to make sure that I don't lose that strength, so I keep working everyday."

"But doesn't it get boring doing the same thing day after day? It looks boring. I don't know how you had the patience to get where you are, much less to try and maintain it."

Dylan chuckled to himself as he threw his rope over the tree branch. He tied the hanging ends together, and then rotated the rope around the branch, so that the knot was above the wood, rather than under his hands. "It may seem boring to you," he explained, repeating the process with a second rope, "but I enjoy it. It's good for me, and it gives me time to think."

"What do you think about, though? You seem engrossed in your exercises most of the time, I find it hard to believe that you're thinking about something. Except maybe for what you're doing. But that seems like it would be boring to think about."

Dylan smiled and tested his rope loops. He knew they would hold him, as they always did, but he made it a habit to test them anyway. He didn't want to be taken by surprise. He positioned himself between the ropes and slipped his hands into the loops, pushing down on them to lift his feet off of the ground. Slowly he lifted his legs in front of him until they were parallel to the ground. And like with his handstand, he held it. "I think about a lot of things," he answered. "I think about what I want to do. Where I want to go. The work I have to do. What I'll get to do once I finish my work."

"Those things sound boring."

"Sometimes they are, yeah. But sometimes I think about fantastical things. I'll think about how I can use my training to save the world, or how I could challenge a dragon."

His sister giggled at that. "Those things won't happen, though. That's just in your head."

"I know it is. But does that ever stop you from thinking about those things?"

"No."

"And do you think about stuff like that to help you get through boring things?"

"Sometimes."

"Well, there you go."

"Hey brother?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I could ever be as strong as you are."

Dylan chuckled and let himself down. "Maybe. But you'd have to train like I do."

"There's no other way?"

"Not really, no."

"Darn."