Little Gourd, Troubling Gourd

“You Ingrate! Have you not learned any of what we’ve been teaching you? Are you that lazy? Run twenty laps!” The Instructor yelled at Yusuri, his voice loud, and obviously angry. Reaching up with her well-covered arms and pale, almost ghost like hands the young Clypeus gripped her earphones gently. Adjusting her sound-canceling headphones ever so very slightly. Lowering her hands back down to her sides, she swiveled on her left heel and began to jog the track. Her foot steps following a slow, rhythmic beat and tempo. Her cadence and breathing following a similar pace. Her entire body moved like fine clock work, in it's almost robotic and systematic movement. Her sandals beating against the tracks woven and grooved path with barely an audible sound. Her legs carrying her as if she was gliding across the very land. Fluid movement brought her around the worn out curve  for the first of her twenty laps. As she began the next straight she slowed her cadence, but kept her pace and speed. The beat to which she followed still constant in her rhythmic moving. Her feet still effortless as if guided by wings hidden within the light of the day. Reaching the next bend she took a deep breath into her nose and released slowly from a only slightly parted mouth and lips. Reaching half way through the second turn, Yusuri upped her cadence again back to that of her original pace. The first lap of her twenty was finally finished.
  As she ran Yusuri's mind traveled across a plane of thoughts, moving and shifting about randomly. Her mind a odd fluctuating  pattern of rain showers a fire lilies. Words falling from the heaven's peak within the very tip of her gourd esque mind, like the tears of their cloudy pastures as they droop down, sleepy from the weight they release their wooly burden upon the grounds and rolling hills that fill her mind. The seeds of thoughts yet to be brought up from the sowed earth nurtured by the acknowledging rain of words that falls upon the suckling seeds. These seeds find their way through the earth into the open air, becoming spouts of thoughts. In the spring of mental plane of existence they become Fire Lilies. Bright, flashy plants that dance like flames in the wind, as the thought they withhold still burns fresh within her mind. Dying off as the thought leaves to let others dance like flames. The particular thought that went through the mind of Yusuri Clypeus, was one of neutral disdain for punishment. Punished like her town's people, not for a particularly noticeable reason, but it was there Yusuri was sure. Finishing the straight and moving onto the curve she followed her rhythm from before. Slowing her cadence once again she began the pacing of everything at a lower rate. Taking her time with running her next Eighteen and a quarter laps, as she did so she began to sing a song. A song that held but a single note, shifting between high and low monotones as she sang it.
  Her voice filled the open air, as she found no need to be quiet. Her slim, well-covered legs carrying her across the finish line as if it was a breeze carrying her weightlessly. Yusuri was a weightless bird, Not just that of any bird, but one that sings and dances. The wind was like a playground for her wings to glide on as her melodious voice rang out with a distinct and well-known song. She was a true hummingbird her feathers, giving away the graceful dexterity of which in the eye of a mere human transcended a mere sense of beauty. However, this beautiful bird had a bad heart. A heart that was hurt many times by piercing shrieks that sounded like burnt themselves into this gorgeous young avian. Yusuri for this reason had to stop her harmonious voice, she tuned out her hearing. Her voice soon became flat on every note, a bludgeoned note at every new verse of her favorite song. She could not hear over the shrieks, even her own comforting habit to sing. She couldn't hear the voices when she deafened herself, however, her own voice was lost as well as all the avian that were around her. This was what she wanted. it turned the bird to a iron maiden. This new contraption was empty, without thorns, a gourd of sorts. This bird skinned gourd hopped now, letting the wind roll her forward. Yusuri didn't bother changing pace this lap and instead continued her normal strides. Her body moving quickly down the track, as if propelled by some unseen god-like force. Incapable of deciding the movements as the rhythmic beating picked up pace. For a third lap she crossed the finish line, still barely a trace of exhaustion yet to be seen on her.
  Why should she be exhausted from just three laps. The school made do so much more than this on a day to day basis. It wasn’t unnatural to see a child run extra for punishment and for it, in return, not bother them. The Sensei’s words rung in her head, “Stamina is very important. Without it you could be severely injured, or worse, killed. You need to conserve your energy so that you can keep your enemy at bay at the very least.”  Yusuri at least found these words of wisdom useful. Of course it was impossible to completely hear what the teacher was saying so she would slowly teach herself to read lips. A incredibly tedious process that she had only yet to begin mastering, however, she had learned the basics. She knew the ways to figure out different sounds being made by someone’s lips, but had yet to begin learning to put the letters together completely. Messing around a bit she jumped up, flipping in a full arc before her first turn. The turn was quickly passed and the next straight came up. The track obviously followed its own pattern, a pattern she easily matched with her moving cadence and beat. There was nothing out of tempo, or tune in this physical melody of quiet pattering. As if she was sliding, Yusuri blew down the track at a moderate speed to finish the lap. Lap four was finally finished, and the one-fourth mark of her punishment run had finally started up.
  Yusuri broke into a full out sprint, the tempo, off, as she flung herself down the track and around the next bend. The straits murdered beneath her winged legs, as if they were being scraped by iron. Before long she had finished her next four laps. Then five, then six. Slowly
Clypeus grew tired of her long run. However she kept going, finishing the task at hand was always her priority, nothing came before the task. As she finished her fourteenth lap she was starting to feel the pain of running laps. By her fifteenth lap she was starting to control her breathing as she was starting to tire out. On her sixteenth lap, Yusuri broke out into her quickest of sprints yet. Her next few laps over the passing straits of track were a blur and the curves were practically slick lines in a half circle, passing memories.
  As Yusuri passed the finish line on her last lap she went to the tree swing by the school’s front, lifting herself into the seat she sat boredly, trying to quell her racing heart back to its original tempo. It was at a dangerous cadence and she needed to conduct it back to a calmer tranquil state. As she focused on this task the bell rang for the academy to release its students for the afternoon. Of course, Yusuri didn’t hear the bell, however she saw the flood of waves that were children. She just continued to sit where she was and wait, for what? She didn’t really know. Her eyes scanned the field of new sprouts and the next set of academy graduates as they passed her, Yusuri's instinct told her she needed to wait for that someone or something.


Word Count: 1357