Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Let me be the one to help, not Tolief
Ningning’s arms gave out completely. She slumped forward, her chest hitting the stone ledge with a soft oomph.
She whipped her head around, gasping for air, her hair plastered to her forehead in a sweaty mess.
Tolief was perched on a high, jagged outcrop just a few feet away. He was shirtless, his pale, lanky frame looking like a statue against the morning sun.
In his hands were his charcoal stick and stone tablet. He wasn’t looking at her with mockery, but with the same intense, analytical focus he used to study the stars.
"Tolief!" Ningning barked, or tried to, but it came out as a ragged cough. "What are you... how long...?"
"I have been here since your ’run’ began" Tolief said, hopping down with a light, effortless grace that made Ningning want to throw a rock at him. "I followed the sound. It sounded like a large animal was in distress, but instead, I found you performing... this."
He walked over, circling her like she was a new invention. He tapped his charcoal against his chin. "You are moving your mass against gravity repeatedly. It is a fascinating use of energy. Is this how humans in your ’home’ maintain their structure?"
Ningning leaned her back against the rock, sliding down until she sat on the dirt, her chest still heaving. "It’s called... exercise, Tolief. And yes. It’s supposed to... make me stronger. And smaller."
Tolief walked a slow circle around her, his analytical eyes scanning her from her flushed face to her trembling legs. "To change the vessel through motion." he mused, scratching a mark onto his stone.
"I came to find you because of the ’logic’ of your cooking, but this is a far more complex puzzle. You believe that by ’running’ the meat of your body will fall away?"
"In a nutshell, yes." Ningning sighed, still trying to get her breathing under control.
"Intriguing." Tolief murmured. He looked at his tablet. "I shall assist. I have been looking for a long-term study on physical transformation. I will record your progress alongside my inventions. It will provide... accountability. Is that the word?"
[Ooh, a data-driven partner!] Doudou chirped. [He’s basically a walking Excel spreadsheet. This is perfect!]
"Accountability," Tolief repeated, his voice devoid of emotion but his eyes alight with a terrifyingly sharp curiosity.
Ningning didn’t have the breath to argue.
She hauled herself back up to the flat rock ledge. Her arms were trembling so violently she looked like a leaf in a storm.
[Ten more, Dumpling! Don’t let the stick-man see you quit!] Doudou barked.
She lowered herself.
Ten.
Her muscles screamed.
Nine.
Tolief didn’t just stand there. He knelt beside the rock, his head tilted at an angle as he watched the way her skin flushed and the way her breath hitched.
To him, this was a masterpiece of biological struggle. He noted the way her body resisted the upward push.
As to why she was doing this? he wondered.
There was no predator.
There was no immediate danger.
Yet she was putting herself through a torture that surpassed a day’s hunt.
He looked at her form, the heavy curves, the soft edges.
Weijie didn’t see to mind.
And he wasn’t bothered by it as well.
Though he had always found Xiaoli’s build, strong, yet lean and agile to be the most logical.
He didn’t think Ningning was "wrong" but he wanted to understand the "right" she was chasing.
Driven by a sudden need to understand the resistance she was facing, Tolief set his tablet down. He mimicked her stance, placing his long, pale hands on the same rock ledge.
He lowered himself.
"The tension is... localized in the chest and arms," Tolief observed aloud, his voice strained as he pushed back up. "The energy cost is immense."
So, there they were, the tribe’s only human, sweating and groaning, and the tribe’s most respected scholar, lanky and pale, both bobbing up and down against a rock in the middle of a misty mountain path.
"What is this?"
The voice was a low-frequency vibration that seemed to shake the very pebbles on the ground.
Weijie stood at the edge of the clearing, a large mountain goat draped over his massive, bare shoulders. His blue eyes were wide, darting from his mate’s trembling form to Tolief, who was currently mid-push-up beside her.
He didn’t look angry, he looked completely and utterly baffled.
Though he was still a bit annoyed. He had gotten up to see Ningning was no longer with him.
He tracked her scent and found running round in this clearing, he didn’t want to disturb so he want on a little hunt only to return and find Tolief all over his mate.
"Ningning?" Weijie stepped forward, dropping the goat with a heavy thud.
He ignored Tolief for a moment, his focus entirely on the way her face was the color of a sunset and her chest was heaving.
"Are you being attacked? Why are you fighting this rock?"
Ningning collapsed against the stone, her arms finally giving out. "It’s... not... a fight." she panted, looking up at him with a weary, lopsided smile. "It’s... body... logic."
Tolief stood up, dusting his hands on his hide skirt, completely unfazed. "She is reshaping her vessel, Weijie. I was simply verifying the mechanical stress required for the transformation."
Weijie walked over, his large hand settling on the back of Ningning’s neck, his thumb rubbing the base of her skull to soothe her.
He looked at her frame, the woman he had coiled around all night and then at Tolief.
"Reshaping?" Weijie’s voice was deep, a hint of his possessive rumble returning.
"She is perfect as she is. Why would she seek to change what nature has provided?"
Ningning looked at Weijie’s honest, confused face. He genuinely didn’t see the "extra" her.
"I want to be able to run as fast as you, Weijie." she lied slightly, not wanting to admit her deep body consciousness. "I want to be... agile. Like Xiaoli."
Weijie’s gaze flickered. He did admire Xiaoli’s strength, but the thought of Ningning suffering in the dirt to reach it made his heart ache. "If you wish for this." he murmured, his eyes softening as he pulled her up into his arms, sweat and all, "then I will be the one to watch you. Not Tolief."