18th of Winter, 519 AV
Reed groaned when he saw what awaited them on the training grounds that morning. Several wheelbarrows waited at the bottom of a steep incline, filled to the brim with dirt. Beside them, Miriam stood smirking at the squires as they filtered in. Setting down aside his Pollaxe, he shortly joined the small group that was gathering before the woman. Call it intuition, but he had a feeling they weren’t starting off with sparring today, which had quickly become the norm for them. The instructors seemed to prefer trying to exhaust them first, which Reed supposed made sense. It made it harder to learn how to use his weapons, but he supposed that would come later. Right now, the focus seemed to be on getting fit.
“As you can see, the training grounds needs some tending to, so today we are going to help. I’m thinking we can start by bringing this dirt to the top and going from there. If you are quick about it, we might just be able to get some sparring in today.” Unexpectedly Miriam turned around a grabbed a wheelbarrow and started making her way quickly up the hill. She moved much faster in plate than he than he’d thought was possible. The other squires and Reed hustled after her. Grabbing the closest wheelbarrow, Reed heaved the handles up and started trundling up the hill. Initially he made good time as the soil was hard packed near the bottom and he caught himself gaining ground on those in the lead. They were about half way up the hill, and suddenly lagging at half their initial speed which Reed took as a good sign till he hit a soft patch on the hill.
His first indication that something was wrong was when his wheel snagged, and he found himself scrabbling for purchase to keep moving forward. The front end sank a few centimeters before finding traction and then slowly, it crept forwards. Next his foot sank into the ground, and the mud sucked at his boot as he lifted it to take another step. Great, he groused to himself, and with considerable effort put his next foot forward. Now the crawling pace made sense, and he wondered which petching genius at the training grounds came up with this shite. As he cleared another two steps he saw Miriam burst back into the lead at her initial pace and hoped that meant that this mud patch wasn’t a long one. Around him, the other squires dealt with the mud with mixed results. Some of the younger ones like Galina and Coen really struggled with it, while the older ones like Reed did a middling job of it.