Omake: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Canon)
- Location
- A house
Harder, better, faster, stronger
(alternatively: We're gonna need a montage)
(alternatively: We're gonna need a montage)
"I need to become stronger than I am now."
There was a point where he could have taken back those words.
"Oh? And what brought this along?"
Right there, when he'd heard his wife reply with those words, that had been his first chance to back down.
"... Is that a rhetorical question?"
His wife, his beautiful, lovely wife, shook her head. "No, it's not. I know you, Garrick. You're a leader, not a fighter. While I appreciate you asking that, it's just... well, there's no need for you to put yourself in harms way again. You've said it yourself before. You're much more useful in the tents than out there on the field."
And there, there was his second chance to back down.
"No... I am certain this is what I want." He replied, reaffirming his resolve. "I hate feeling useless... Watching you and hardbeak able to do what I can't... I can't stand it, especially when I know I can put in the time to make myself better. And as the emperor, it's my duty to be an example for every other citizen of the empire. If I can't at least look like I can claw the head off a troll, then how will they have faith in their own ability?"
"If the king doesn't lead, then how does he expect his subordinates to follow, hm?" Gabriella quoted.
"Exactly," He nodded, "I'm surprised you remember me saying that..."
"And what makes you think I wouldn't remember?" She said, a certain twinge he had come to associate with annoyance in her voice. "I may not nearly be as good at chess as you are, but I know enough that moving the king as one of your first moves is a rather insulting gesture."
"Ahah... ah... hmm... Well, at the time, I wanted to get a gauge on how well versed you were at the game."
"By making as many stupid moves as possible while still checkmating me?"
In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have gone with 'honesty is the best policy' in regards to his reply.
"... yes."
And with those words, his wife's smile grew, eyes filled with a new fire, before she turned around on the bed they shared and spoke. "3 A.M. That's when we start."
His fate had been sealed.
The first day started with him getting thrown out their balcony window.
With instincts honed through his wifes training and war, he had only barely managed to right himself and soften his landing with a wing flap before crashing into a conveniently placed pool of very cold water.
"Are you insane, woman?!"
His wife, already covered in her battle gear, laughed softly before landing near his suddenly very sore body. "I told you, 3 A.M. Sharp. And what do you do? Sleep in."
"... I'm not a morning griffon..." He mumbled half-heartedly, attempting to dry himself off with a shake.
"Better learn to become one then."
"Well, I wasn't expecting you to throw me out the window if I didn't wake up! Last time you did this you just kicked me off the bed..."
She lifted him out of the pool with annoying ease and threw a towel at his face. "You weren't in any real danger. I had the pool dug here just in case. And you were the one who said you wanted to become strong. Becoming strong isn't all about putting on muscle. You have to learn to stay vigilant."
"And that includes tossing me out a window."
"And that includes tossing the poor baby chick shivering in the cold out the window, yes."
"Tch." He finished up toweling himself off and put it over his neck, knowing he'd need it for later. "So, what tortures do you wish to inflict upon your prisoner today, my queen?"
She placed a nail to her chin, giving them impression that she was thinking deeply. "Hmm... let's start off with... 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 wing-ups, and a round of running and endurance flying to the build site for the memorial."
"... That's it?" He asked, genuinely confused. His usual workout was much worse for just keeping up his current fitness.
"That's it. For a warm up at least."
"Alright then, let's get started..." He spoke as he got himself into the proper pushup form, one his wife had drilled into him the first go around.
"Oh, no, not like that." She chuckled out. "For starters... guards! if you could bring out what we had archimedes prepare!"
from above, his usual standing guard dropped down, also in combat gear, one in particular carrying a bundle of cloth on their back.
The guard unceremoniously dropped the sack to the ground, it flowering open and revealing a strange bundle of shining metal, wires, pulleys, and springs.
"You are going to be doing those exercises with this on."
He walked over to the strange contraption and carefully prodded it, finding that it barely moved under his touch, before turning back to his wife. "When I was 'tortures,' I didn't expect you to literally bring out a torture device."
"I didn't realize Gawain was the one I was training, with all this complaining..." She joined him at his side and lifted up one of the parts to the device, wrapping the cold metal around one of his limbs. "Here, stay still, I'll help you put it on."
It was more than a few minutes before the entire thing had been put on, but after it was finally done, he had gone from regal looking griffon to sporting the 'restrained prisoner' look.
"WHat even is this?" He said, trying to move one of his limbs forward and failing to do so. "I can barely move in this thing..."
"The archimedes adjustable training harness! Heavy enough on it own to feel like you've put a boulder on your back, and with tension springs and pulleys to up the resistance. And don't worry too much, you'll only be wearing this for warm-up. For now, at least." Her words filled him with no confidence as she fiddled with something on his back. "Try moving now. I loosened the tension a bit."
Once again, he tried taking a step forward, this time putting a bit more effort into it. He found he could move, albeit with great difficulty. "You truly are an incorrigible slave driver, you know that?"
"You know you love me for it~" Gabriella sing-songed. "Now into position! We don't have all day!"
Getting into pushup position proved to be just as difficult as attempting to do push ups back when he had first taken the throne, but if Garrick was anything he was no quitter. And, after some rebuking from his wife, he managed to get himself into proper form.
"And now to 100."
Taking a deep breath, he let his arms fall into an L-shape, bringing his body closer to the earth. Just as he was reaching the end of his descent, he suddenly felt another weight added on top of him, nearly causing him to fall flat on his face.
"Good, good... you didn't instantly collapse." His wife spoke from atop his back. "Well, get on with it. you've only done half of one so far."
He could feel her smugness from atop him, and couldn't help but feel this was going to be a long, long year...
"Welcome to your new home for the next year or so!"
The sun had broken through the horizon, leaving the snow covered pass away with light. Ruins of an amphitheatre from days long past lay around them, columns of marble lying on their side, along with a variety of other things that would seem out of place, such as rope and bricks. Seats and stairs had been carved into one face of the pass, following the gentle slope to the top, where a few of the royal guard watch vigilantly. On the other, laid a sheer cliff face, the perfect backdrop for whatever announcement or play was happening that day.
However, today, the main attraction would be her husband.
Said husband was currently lying on the ground, burying his body in the snow to cool off from the intense warm-up she had put him through, their two children circling around him and building a mound of snow atop his prone from.
"Papa's a snow griffon, papa's a snow griffon!" The youngest called out.
"Come on, lyn, let's see if we can get it even higher!"
"Higher! Higher!"
Watching her two children brought a serene smile to her face, "Come now, children, your father needs to get back to his workout. I'm sure he's had enough laying about."
"Mmf Fnn Hmff."
"I said, I'm sure he's had enough of laying about."
Garricks kingly visage popped out of the snow, gave her a hard look, sighed, and rolled over, collapsing the snow pile on top of him.
"Awww..."
"It's okay, Gwyndlyn." She reassured her draconic daughter, "I am sure he will be ready to dive back in the snow before you know it."
"Mhmm." She replied, apparently now distracted by rolling up a ball of snow in her hands, "Snowball fight, 'wain!"
"You're on!"
The two shot off to a nearby snowbank intent on continuing their plans for the morning.
Her husband, meanwhile, dragged himself over to her and flopped down on the ground. "So... ha... What next... ha... my queen?"
"Still tired? Even after that break?"
"It ... was... haa... only ten minutes..."
"Ten minutes is all you'll get on the front line! Now up and at em!" She yelled. "We're getting you into fighting shape whether you want to or not!"
"Alright... give me... a moment..." He took a deep breath before coming a shaky standing position. "What's... the plan...?"
"The plan right now is to work on your wing endurance." She said sternly, using the voice she projected back in her mercenary days. "After that, arm strength, then leg strength, back and abdominals, another round of wings, and then a cooldown run."
"It's... not going to be... as simple... haa.... as it sounds, is it...?"
"You can bet your ass it won't be!" Gabriella took out a metal flask and passed it along to the still quivering wreck in front of her. "Here, take some of this. Should help you get through the rest of today."
Garrick gingerly took the flask and took a small sip, his eyes widening a bit. "Honeyed water...?"
"Yup! Plus a bit of alcohol and some other bits here and there for a kick. Drank it a lot back in my mercenary days. It'll get ya through a lot. Did for me."
He took another sip before capping the vessel and turning to face her. "Haa... alright. Wings. Let's get to it."
She walked slowly over to where the pile of bricks sat, making sure her husband wouldn't trip over himself just walking there.
"See these bricks? They're your new best friend. Wings out," Garrick complied, letting his wings stretch to their limit, "Now hold still... If I don't do this right, you'll get injured, and that would suck for the both of us."
One by one, she placed a pyramid of bricks along his wingspan, making sure they weren't accidentally digging into something sensitive and securing the stacks with rope.
"I've placed twenty for now. There's going to be more in the future, but for now, that'll do." She nodded to herself, seeing that her handiwork was holding in place. "Now, what I want you to do is slowly, and I mean slowly, lower your wings. Keep them there for several seconds. Then raise them, and keep it there for several seconds. Finally, back to level, and hold it for several seconds. You are going to continue doing that until I say stop."
"How many... should I aim for...?" He strained out, his wings already trembling.
Well, if she were being honest with herself, 100 would be fine.
"150."
But it was always nice to shoot for a higher target. And she doubted Garrick would do something as stupid as sprain his wings on the first day of harsh training. He knew when to stop.
"150... haa... Bullying a middle-aged griffon like this... your cruelty knows no bounds." The life seemed to bleed out of him. "But needs must. One...! Two...!"
"Mama, why are you tying rocks to papa?"
Gwyndlyn had long since stopped playing with 'wain (He was a big cheaterface! Making a big snowball and rolling it at her... grrr), and had decided to sit down next to her mama, who was tying rocks to papa.
"'Cause he needs to get stronger, lyn." Her brother answered from the other side of mama, still flipping through the book he'd brought (He wouldn't even let her look! She didn't know how to read yet, but she knew the letters!) "You know how mom's really strong? She's trying to make dad like that."
"But papa's already strong!" He could lift her up and throw her in the air and all sorts of strong things!
"Thank you darling." Papa spoke, "But I'm still not strong enough."
"Oh." Gwyndlyn still didn't quite understand it (how could anyone be stronger than papa? Papa was the best! Even if he lost to mama sometimes), but she nodded anyway. "Okay..."
She just didn't know why he had to lift rocks now (Archie said they were called boulders. That was a word for reaaaaally big rocks), instead of do something awesome like play with her.
Feeling a little frustrated, Gwyndlyn walked over to the ropes mama was tying, poking and prodding the line. Maybe she could still play with papa...? Mama said he needed to carry heavy things, and 'wain always said she was heavy when she jumped on him, so obviously she just had to be one of the things papa carries!
Revitalized, She quickly belly flopped onto the ground and rolled side to side, getting herself tangled in the chords.
However, her stealthy actions did not go unnoticed, and soon she found her mama's claws around her form, plucking her away from her recent mastermind scheme.
"Noooooo..." She found herself saying, reach back toward the ropes.
Her mother, noticing her mood, sighed and turned to her. "Let me guess... You miss play time with papa?"
Slowly, Gwyndlyn nodded. "Morning is Gwyndlyn's turn..."
Her mother pulled her close to her chest, giving her a warm hug. "I know, I know... But this will be fun too! I promise. Just watch."
She put her down and went back to securing the ropes, giving one final tug before pulling him upward. "Next task! Short and simple." She pointed toward the sheer cliff face next to them. "Climb. Now."
Her papa looked to her, then looked to the rocks he was attached to, then toward the cliffs, and then back at her. "Are you-"
"Tick tock, husband. You're alcohol stash is on the line."
He sighed before walked over to the wall and getting a clawhold.
Gwyndlyn started to wonder what was so fun about watching papa climb a wall (she did it all the time and mama everyone only yelled at her when she did it. It's not like they couldn't get new curtains...), but then he tried to move one of the boulders off the ground.
instead of the boulder going up, papa went down. Plop, straight into the snow.
"Hihihihi!" She giggled, "Papa! That's dooown! Not up! Mama said up!"
His hard burst out of the snow, giving a thumbs up gesture. "I'm still okay, thank you all for asking... And thank you for the information, sweetheart."
She hopped over to papa and tried lifting him out of the snow (papa was heaaaavy, it wasn't her fault she wasn't a big dragon...), but all she could manage was accidentally pulling out a couple of feathers.
"Ah- It's okay, Gwyndlyn, your father is alright." His form popped out of the snow like of one archie's diamond dog in a box toys, "See? All good."
"Well if you are all good, then get back to climbing!"
"Yeah, get back to climbing papa!" She repeated after her mother.
"Haha... yes, I suppose I should..."
Papa went forth once more, claw to the wall, but as soon as he tried to lift himself up, his hand slipped, and he plopped right back into the snow, pebbles from where he tried to grab falling loose and thunking onto his skull.
"Hihihi!" She laughed again.
Mama was right, watching papa was fun!
"Knight to F7"
For the past several hours, Gawain had watched his father put himself through hardship after hardship under his mother's watchful eye. Using bricks, carrying boulders, climbing sheer cliffs, attempting to lift one of the largest rocks he had ever seen by just lifting it through wing power...
Of course, Gawain understood well enough why his dad did this. He kept an ear to the ground. Or, to his dad's office (He still hadn't found out about the tunnel he, gwyndlyn, and one of their diamond dog friends had dug to the backside of one of his office cabinets), and so he knew perfectly well of the threats to the nation. Even though his parents tried to downplay it (He wasn't a kid anymore! He could handle it!)
So, he had done his best to cheer for his dad early on. He had eventually made it to the top of the cliff, and Gwyndlyn had been so happy she had nearly burned his book (He really did love his sister, but she had the strong propensity to cause massive amounts of destruction when she got bored, whether she meant to or not),and had walked next to him as his mother had forced him to drag a boulder all the way to the coast of aquiline and back, but he, unfortunately, just didn't quite have the endless enthusiasm that Lyn seemed to have, and thus sat out for the rest of the exercises.
Therefore, he had decided to take out his book and read while offhandedly challenging one of the royal guards to a chess game.
'Knight to E4...' he thought to himself, 'well if he's going to do that...'
"Knight to D8."
He had already asked his mom when they'd be done, and as of asking ten minutes ago, she'd said he only had one more exercise to go.
"My prince," The guard, who had remained silent with his face tightened in concentration until now, began speaking, "If I may speak...?"
He flipped a page. What, no! Dawnwing, you can't do something that reckless! "Ah, yeah yeah, go ahead... don't really need permission to speak with me like you need to with dad, do you?"
"It is only proper." The guard replied. "I simply mean to ask, what do you make of this situation...?"
The situation...? "Hmmm... Well, you put up a good fight. I'm only half paying attention and you've taken a lot of my pieces. But I'll still win in the end. I can already see the path to victory from here."
The guard rolled his eyes and made a move. Rook to A1, putting his king in check. All according to plan.
"No, my prince. I meant on your father's current state."
He lowered his book for a moment and turned to face where his father was. Currently, it seemed they were in what his mother called the 'cooldown phase,' which really just meant forcing dad to run up and down the steps of the theater with that weird body armor thing he'd seen his teacher making the night before (Not that anyone was supposed to know he was up past his bedtime.)
"Dad's just being dad. He puts his mind to something, he does it. That's just how he is."
And king to H2... how will he deal with this...?
"I mean in if his body can handle it." The guard corrected, "He is no warrior, despite having fought on the battlefield. And at the end of the day, he has never been pushed like this... We royal guards have a similar routine, and many who accept tryout for the guard fail to keep up the rigorous training."
Gawain thought for a moment. "You know... I never really thought about it. Dad's just... dad. I can't really imagine him failing. at anything."
Well, maybe arm wrestling his mom. Or out drinking gramps. Or getting lyn to stop breaking things. Or keeping his desk clean. Or- oh, pawn to H5! Playing it safe, huh...? knight to E6! bye bye free pawn~!
"I see. So you have complete faith in him."
He turned another page. Dang it Dawnwing! All you had to do was talk to the girl after healing her with the sun stone, and what do you do, ignore her and go talk to some other girl! "Of course...? Why wouldn't I?"
"... I suppose I am being foolish. You are right, of course. Your father will get through this somehow."
And now he's pushing with pawn to H4. Rook to G7. Check~!
"'Wain! 'Waaaain!" Gawain looked up, hearing the familiar high pitched voice of his sister call out from atop the stairs, next to the collapsed figure of his father and the beaming look of pride on the face of his mother. "Papa's finished for today! Let's go home!"
Gamain closed his book, using one of his feathers as a bookmark. "Dang, was hoping to finish this chess game before then..."
The guard shook his head. "I resign, my prince. I could fight my way out of this position easily, but I have no doubt that with your full attention dedicated to me, I would find myself at a loss."
Gawain beamed "Another win for me~!"
And another day closer to beating dad!
'Although...' He turned to face the exhausted form of his dad at the top of the stairs, 'Dad never does stop improving himself... I wonder if I'll ever beat him...?'
Maybe he should ask mom for some training too...? All his friends were joining the morning exercise clubs... but he had his mom to count on.
On second thought, dad does look like he's in a lot of pain.
... Well, he could decide later. Maybe now that he was tired he could finally beat dad at a chess match~~!
Decided to cut it a bit short, since it was already exploding in length...
Last edited:
