Kelski padded around barefoot in an oversized shirt that used to belong to someone from Sun's Birth. She didn't know who nor did she care. It was a decadent pleasure to pad around her own place with her hair wildly spilling around her shoulders and wearing nothing but the soft silk against her skin. There was no one here to tell her what she could or couldn't do. There was no one to halt her reaching hand from picking up the apple and biting into its tart skin as she greeted the sunrise and started her day.
It was days before the shop would open. That gave her plenty of time to get a bit of work done in her workshop and things organized. But before she did that, Kelski wanted a good look at her basement. There was also heavy lifting to do, something that would in and of itself give her a workout. All the targets had to be moved downstairs. The wooden disks would have to be hauled below as well. She had the training dummies and the punching bag to set up. Those too had to be moved below. The work didn’t deter the Kelvic. She’d take it slow, set up the training dummies, and hang the bag all in good time.
Finishing her apple, the Kelvic slipped out onto the deck, tossed the core off the end, and slipped out of the shirt. She transformed in a swirl of colored lights and beat her wings frantically to gain altitude. Catching an early morning onshore thermal, the Sea Eagle surged upwards, circled The Midnight Gem, and then banked left to head south down the coast. It felt good, letting the cool onshore winds buoy her up. The exercise stretched her wings, calmed her nerves and focused her for the work that would come today. Slowly, she circled southwest past the slag heap, flapped harder, and did a slow lap of the city to oversee what was happening today. Things seemed quiet, the weather fair, and no one out and about. A half bell later, she descended, back winged, and landed on the deck. She slipped the shirt back on, her cheeks rosy and her skin glowing, before she headed back into the shop.
Kelski slipped upstairs, dressed, and slipped on a pair of gloves. When she came back down, she began the work for the day. That meant clearing out the deliveries she’d left at the front of the store by the stairs leading to the basement. The thick lumber she had to move downstairs one or two lengths at a time. The stands for the throwing dagger targets were another story. They were heavy, but already put together. They resembled oversized artists easels that were as chunky and awkward as it was possible to build something not suited to easily haul up and down the stairs. She struggled with the three of them, moving one at a time and gently pulling them down the stairs by edging them leg by leg, inch by inch, until she was sweaty, groaning and utterly tied of doing the literal heavy lifting.
After the stands, the practice dummies were easier. She carried them down the stairs quickly, carefully, making short work of it. Even the punching bag with its heavy length of chain wasn’t as big of an issue. The problem was, she did save the worse for last. The chunks of wood cut out of the diameters of trees were heavy. She could only lift one at a time and even then her back screamed in protest as she lugged one down the steps, taking multiple breaks, until she was completely and utterly exhausted. There were three disks, designed to be set up in the stands, and three extra disks to use when the front and backs of the first three wooden disks were so torn up by gouges that it was time to change them out.
After moving everything downstairs, Kelski carefully retrieved a broom and carefully and methodically swept the steps down to the basement and the basement itself to make sure there were no chunks of wood or splinters that would effect bare feet. The Kelvic roamed the area too much without shoes to be wary of splinters when a bit of cleaning would ensure there was none.
That meant six trips down the stairs. By the time everything was safely in the basement, including the candlestick wall holders and the cases of candles, Kelski was stinking, sweaty, and completely utterly over setting up her training area. Her entire body ached, and she couldn’t get out to the well fast enough to get fresh water to rinse off with.
Once she did that, she descended to the workshop, and spent bells working on getting stock ready for her grand opening. After a long day at her jewelry bench, she’d be ready for more setup and training downstairs. It wasn’t going to be an easy day, that was for sure, but it was definitely going to be productive by the time she was done.
