Closed The great unraveling II

[Cleon]

16th of Summer

“Okay, now back into the same pose as before briefly before we move into the tree pose. Remember deep breaths, in through the nose and then back out through the nose. Long and slow. Lets acquire those poses now.”

Starting with his right leg, he more or less adopted the same pose as before with his right bent at an angle while his left leg was stretched in a straight line behind him. Then he straightened his arms, outstretched before and behind him for balance, holding that pose for as long as he could manage to without toppling over. He was sort of growing to like this pose. It brought relief to those muscles he kinked up with his training which in turn did its part to bring a little peace to his mind. It was never empty, but he was beginning to grasp how he could nudge it along certain avenues just by focusing on physical sensations. The task that had been set before him was still a little troubling, but at least this step felt like he was making progress and setting a goal for himself had a way of sharpening his focus for what was to come.

Instead of holding onto each and every thought, he let them drift through him instead, idly inspecting each one as they blossomed into his consciousness although remaining detached was a short lived affair. Naturally one came along that he couldn’t help but follow, that being the more recent events that currently burdened him with more questions than answers. Forefront in his thoughts was the task that Akajia had laid before him. A task which even now he wasn’t entirely sure he understood but all the same he was pretty sure about whom she meant. The girl from last season with a secret that could get her head cut off. There was no one else with a secret like that, at least, not that he knew of anyways though he supposed that could be a number of people he just didn’t know yet. That was the thing about secrets after all. Only for him, well once he caught a whiff of a secret there was nothing he could do to stop his mind from digging, worrying at it like a dog with a bone. The events of last season had conspired to keep him from truly figuring Senora out, but now… Well, there was a small problem about that concerning the stipulation of this particular task.

Cleon blinked several times trying to push that line of thought back. He was getting distracted. If he was going to meet this deadline by the end of the tenday he needed to focus. Last night he’d dreamed he surpassed all expectations and conquered it in one night. A foolish dream, but he woke up with a fire in his belly intending to give this day his best effort. He focused once more on his breathing. How it went in and out of one nose, filling up his airways before slowly being expressed.

WC - 508

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[Cleon]

How his muscles tensed and quivered. How his body trembled holding this pose for as long as he had so far. Belatedly, Cleon realized Zayne had switched to the left leg which Cleon was hastily trying to do when Zayne straightened up with the rest of the class.

“Alright, now we are going into the tree pose. Carefully curl your left foot up under you as you stand on your right leg and fold your hands before you. We’ll maintain this pose for thirty ticks before we switch legs.” Zayne said slowly as he put his body into that particular shape. Cleon did likewise, although he was far less adept at standing on one leg and had to pull his left leg up with both hands, wobbling for several ticks before he managed to get his posture just right. It almost felt like he barely had the chance to get his hands together and hold that pose before they were switching legs which he did this time a little better. Enough so that he had space to think while he was holding that position, looking straight ahead and trying to focus on nothing once more.

Naturally, he wondered why people tried to fast while doing this, wondering exactly how it helped their focus as to him it only seemed like it would distract. He didn’t really know however because he was only at the start of his fast now, and his memory of leaner times was fuzzy. Fasting for a tenday sounded like a pain in the shitebox, but if this was what it took for him to understand how magic worked then so be it. He would do anything to achieve that goal, and missing a few meals was a small price to pay for such knowledge. He tried focusing his mind on just the pose his body was holding and that helped keep his left leg from trembling so much underneath him. Briefly at least, before a slight breeze almost bowled him over. Cleon caught himself with a foot, and hastily resumed the pose, taking in a deep breath and holding it in for the rest of the pose, releasing it as Zayne placed his feet flat on the towel.

“Alright, now that we are all warmed up, lets try something a little more complicated. Don’t worry if you can’t hold it quite like I can, just do the best you can and I can assure you that you’ll benefit all the same from the stretch.” Zayne said as he turned sideways and with his right leg straight he slowly extending his left leg horizontally behind him while extending both of his arms before him.

This was by far the most difficult pose they had tried so far, and the hard part wasn’t extending his leg in such a way but holding that position for longer than two ticks. Cleon felt like his foot was constantly wobbling under him as his body wanted to go right then left as he over corrected all the while looking like lumpy hill instead of the straight horizontal line that Zayne presented.

WC -520

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[Cleon]

. It was all Cleon could really think about was holding this position without falling which was liberating for his mind somewhat as it finally took a break from his ceaseless running and allowed him to stay focused on the importance of maintaining his balance through a pose like this. His could feel the muscles along his back, sides and legs stretching to their fullest extent as he struggled to maintain the posture, having to take a break about halfway through the pose before haltingly trying it again a tick later.

Fortunately it wasn’t long before Zayne switched to the other leg, giving Cleon a brief respite before that other leg caught up with the punishment and started setting him to rocking back and forth again. Cleon wished he could imagine himself still as water as Zayne was holding the pose, or even exercise a bit more control over his balance but he was just getting his first little kicks in, sensing the broad, and vast tapestry of unknown knowledge that he simply didn’t have yet. Most of this was physical knowledge, memory in his muscles that wasn’t a unfamiliar concept to him although he hadn’t thought much about it since his days as a Sunberth street brat. No, his mind now was entirely focused on clearing everything else out as he held onto this pose instead, and tried to remember the way it made his body felt. He remembered to breath, and as the air filled and then was later expressed, he felt a sort of calmness coming back to him, overwhelming his brief panic as he turned his mind towards holding that pose.

Then Zayne stood up, stretching out his arms briefly as he smiled at the class. “That was great. You are all doing great. This is about freeing the body in a certain way. Liberating your mind and making you more in tune with what your body is trying to tell you. It is my hope that you will learn to listen to your body in order to gain a measure of control over it that you did not know was possible previously. That is in part why I so enjoy the art of yoga. Now, lets move from Warrior three into tree again briefly before we move onto the prone poses.” Zayne said, once more tucking his left foot underneath him and raising his arms high above his head. Cleon nodded and reached above his own head once he had tucked his leg in, stretching as far as he could manage while he tried turning his mind upon how this posture was loosing up his body.

Becoming more aware of his body was a nice way to phrase it, and it felt like he was actually even progressing when it came to how he had been approaching this whole meditation thing in the first place. He could feel his body stretching out, every little bit of it inch by inch while he trembled to maintain his posture with a slight grin. There was a slight bit of pain at first but as he carried forward with the stretch, he could feel tension releasing throughout his body.

WC - 531

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[Cleon]

It was hard to imagine how his mind could ever be separated from his body in such a pose though he did try. He wasn’t sure what sort of feeling he was going for. Was it like a child pulling the limbs of their straw doll into place, or was it like one of those dreams where he was standing at the foot of his bed, looking down at himself. He had this itch that maybe if he married the two ideas that he would get one that approached the actual truth of the matter, spurred on by the bone deep truth that was his existence the past season. This yoga practice in a way felt like unifying with a body that had become an absolute stranger to him in the spring, and it felt good.

Perhaps it was just the fact that he wasn’t consistently being invaded by foreign desires, but Cleon felt like this was the first time he had a clear thought like that in a long time. As they switched legs and he began to balance on his left foot, he tried holding onto that idea for a while. Blocking everything else out save for the fact that what he was doing was in order to become better acquainted with his body. Tucking his right leg up a little farther, he tried to stay on that wobbly left leg for as long as he could, not necessarily fighting the imbalance but growing used to it. Making it apart of his routine. That was the lesson he had learned the last season to keep his last shred of sanity, and he found once he wasn’t fighting it nearly as hard, he didn’t wobble so much. Cleon smiled as Zayne put his leg down along with the rest of the class following his gesture soon after. Then it was time for them to all get on the ground, which Cleon did readily.

“Okay for the snake pose we are all going to lay flat on the towel and then raise ourselves up into a gentle curve while keeping our hips flat on the ground just like this. Yes, that’s right, keep your head slightly tilted up as well. Good. Now lets all take in a deep breath and hold this pose for a good thirty ticks to a chime alright?” Zayne said as he demonstrated. Cleon followed the man’s motions, feeling the muscles in his back pull away and stretch as he copied the gesture. Fortunately this pose was much easier to hold than the others which qualified it as somewhat of a break not that his back would exactly agree with that statement, or his core for that matter.

He still trembled slight pushing himself up, but it wasn’t like he was going to fall flat on his face. At least he hoped not. Taking in a deep breath, he slowly released it through his nose, noting that sometime during all of this activity he’d started breathing mostly through the right nostril which was an interesting change.

WC -510

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[Cleon]

He wondered what that meant if anything before he remembered that was not today’s task. His responsibility was getting better acquainted with his body and mind so he could tap into this power the book spoke of. A part of him though couldn’t help but to think of this being some bizarre way the book was pulling his leg, because really he never thought magic could be acquired this way through the power of thought alone. However that wasn’t necessarily a fair assessment of it as the challenge lie in becoming attuned with his body enough so that he could sense the djed within himself and then use it to change himself? He didn’t exactly follow that part but he had to imagine that he could change physical things about himself because of what the book had said.

Cleon closed his eyes briefly as he felt a strong tug followed by a popping sound from his back, and then he opened them again with a sigh. He was starting to think he ought to try a bit of this before bed. It was leaving him quite relaxed which was a nice change of pace after the season they all had. That relaxation was like a wave, slowly washing over parts of his body that he hardly paid attention to and giving him a brief clarity as he held that pose for a full chime. His thoughts of course strayed towards the visions he had been having but he didn’t want to focus on that now. He wanted to focus on becoming better acquainted with his body so instead of focusing on those images how the stretches made him feel. Almost as if to reinforce the point, he straightened his posture somewhat taking the stretch as far as he could until finally the chime was over.

“Next we are going to be doing the half locust pose. Lay flat on your belly and stretch your arms like this while raising your right leg to make an acute angle with you legs like so. We’re holding each leg for a full chime.” Zayne said, and Cleon flopped prone on the towel, first bringing his leg up as Zayne demonstrated, then extending his arms stretched out before himself. Out of all the poses they had tried, Cleon felt like this one was certainly the easiest to maintain and the friendliest on his core. He almost felt fresh laying there with his arms stretched out, but then he realized the hard part was keeping his leg open at an acute angle. It didn’t take many ticks for his legs to start trembling but he didn’t let that get him down as he gritted his teeth in concentration.

He focused instead on what he was going to do after this. Work of course but then later he might go for a swim or a smoke along the beach. Maybe sit with Faye for a bit. Remembering to go without eating would be difficult, especially on the first full day of his fast, but he would do his best to remain aware of that fact.

WC - 519

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