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ravychan · 6 years

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Trials of the Heart Part Two: Memories and Lies

The following morning, I was in the garden with the sun rise, passing maids seemed to laugh at my clothing. I looked down at what I was wearing, the same usual clothes I wore for farm work, a white and brown kimono. Plain mostly but was useful when you needed to get dirty. Watching the koi fish in the pond, a foot step approached me. Instinctively, I swung my body around to see who was behind me. Surprised, Masamune smiled on me as I looked at him,” You have good instincts, lass. Though I don’t think those clothes will suit for our planned tour, come with me,” he told me as he dragged me by my arm. Without a chance to protest, I was being dragged down the hallways to a room that was tucked in the corner of a hall. From the outside the room looked like any other room in the castle, though that was not the case. Opening the door, he motioned for me to follow him inside, there my jaw dropped. Kimonos lined the walls from top to bottom in every color or design you can think of. I was in awe, I had never seen so many variations of Kimono before. “Go on lass, find one you like,” he prodded. Wide-eyed I shook my head,” These are not mine, I can’t just take what I want,” I said in disbelief. He smirked,” You think Nobunaga would want you wandering around town like that? People know you are staying here, it would reflect badly on him,” Masamune explained. With some coaxing, I gave in and scoured for something I liked. An hour passed as I looked around the room, I had not found something that stood out to me. Then, near the back of the collection, a purple color stuck out to me, from the side I could see golden butterfly trimmings. Fixated on it, I pulled it from where it was and measured it against my body uncertain. It was then that Masamune walked over,” That one huh? I have just the things to go with it,” he told me with a smile. He left somewhere in the room and came back with an obi and what looked like a hairpin. It was the shape of a lotus flower and around it was a butterfly, on the back of it was a golden clip so it was easy to slip on the hair. I was breathless, it was a beautiful hairpin. I bowed accepting everything he had handed me. With the clothes picked out, he escorted me back to my room and motioned for me to go inside and change with the wave of his hand. I didn’t understand why he was being so kind to me, but I appreciated it all the same. After I got the kimono on with the help of a few of the maids, I put the hairpin in my hair and then left my room and met up with Masamune. He had been outside waiting for me to get ready, leaning against one railing. As he saw me in the kimono, he nodded in approval,” It suits you,lass,” he told me with that signature smug look of his. “Now, you are ready for the tour I promised you,” he said as he got up from the railing and waited for me and walked with me to the market. As we arrived the market, my eyes grew wide; there were so many stalls from food to clothing, it was hard not to get overwhelmed with how much there was to look at. For the rest of the day Masamune took me to see anything in town that caught my interest, all day we were going this way and that. I was having a good time though it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Once the sun sunk behind the horizon, he took me to his favorite restaurant, there we ate dinner and talked about anything we could think of. Once we were full, we left the restaurant, the food had been so good. Once we were at the door to my room I bowed,” Lord Masamune, thank you for today,” I told him with a smile. He smiled and nodded at me,” You have been through a lot, lass. I can tell you are still full of anxiety thinking over what Nobunaga wants to know. If nothing else, know this you aren’t as alone as you think. If ever you need to talk to someone you can find one of us, though I would personally advise against Mitsuhide he is as sly as any fox in that forest, “he warned. I looked at him confused, not sure how to respond but I nodded anyway. Standing there looking at him, there was something that was bothering me, and I had to get it off my chest. “Tell me something Lord Masamune, why are you being so nice to me? I am the daughter of your enemy,” I said confused. He looked at me thoughtful, as if thinking of the right way to answer me. “You are his blood, yes but you are not him lass. Now, if you were to be hiding him from us, that would be a different story. Get some rest, it is late, and Nobunaga will want information from you,” he told me as he walked off waving at me. Once he disappeared around the corner, I turned and went into my room and went to sleep. Come morning just as Masamune had said, someone was knocking on my door waking me up. Groggy, I sat up and walked to the door and opened it an inch, just enough for me to see who it was. On the other side of the door, Hideyoshi stood waiting and then he noticed the door cracked,” Oh morning Luciel, Lord Nobunaga wants to see you, I will wait for you to get ready,” he told me. That is awful nice of him I thought as I nodded and closed the door. Once ready in the new kimono, I left my room where he was waiting. Before leaving, he looked at what I was wearing from top to bottom,” You look cute, Luciel,” he told me with a smile. Flushing red in the face, I bowed and thanked him and then followed him to the main hall and followed him inside. Reaching the Dais Hideyoshi and I bowed to Nobunaga, then Hideyoshi left to sit as I was left to stand waiting,” You are here, good. Time for you to fulfill your part of the deal. I want any information you have,” Nobunaga told me as he crossed his arms. “I remember, I will tell you what I know but I will need a map to do so,” I informed Nobunaga. He nodded and took one out and some markers placing it in front of me. “Ok, these are the places I know he has been to, maybe if we look, we can find a pattern and figure out where he will go next,” I told them as I placed each of the markers. Leaning over, Nobunaga studied the map carefully,” There’s a pattern,” he told me as he pointed at each area,” these spots are the small villages all dealing with a bandit problem,” he told me. I took another look at the map,” It’s not just that Lord Nobunaga, these are all villages congested together. He would look for a place to speak to them all though,” I said thinking out loud. “Why is that?” Nobunaga asked with a smile on his face as if he wanted to know if we were seeing the same thing. “Because, he’s recruiting,” I told him looking up. “Very good, girl. The biggest area would be over here, near the Uesugi territory,” he said placing a marker. “It would seem, you helped us more than I thought you would,” Nobunaga said with a grin. I gave him a wry smile as my eyes returned to the map,” I have a request,” I said as I looked to him, he looked back at me sternly,” What is it?” he asked me as he sat back up into his seat,” I want to talk to him, even just for a moment, within earshot if need be. There are things I must know,” I told him. He thought for a moment and had a smile as if he was planning something,” I will allow it but only because you will be his bait. So, if you have something to say to him do it then,” he told me with a stern expression. Hearing what he had in mind I swallowed hard, I would have to make a choice, could I really betray my father? Telling them what I knew about where he has been is one thing, but to lure him as their bait that was a hefty task. To betray him to the one person he has hated for as long as I could remember, could I do that? I bit my lower lip as I looked at the ground, I pulled my hands on either side of my legs into tight fists that turned white. As Nobunaga made his intention, he dismissed us from the main hall. I left for the garden I had come to love. I was at a mental crossroads, but I knew what had to be done though I didn’t like it, he had walked his path and I had to walk mine I thought to myself. A few days passed since the meeting with Nobunaga, soon he would move out against my father. Needing to think on what I would do when the day came, I took a walk to the market. As usual, it was bustling with people, I found a shop that sold dango and sat down and put one in my mouth allowing the taste to melt in my mouth. After I ate, I wandered around the market until dark and then made my way back to the castle. Feeling someone behind me I turned around to find no one there. Something didn’t feel right, my breathing quickened as my heart sped up, I felt paranoid for some reason and looked around the rooftops and alleys for whoever it was that was sneaking around. Then, I felt something hit my arm, looking down I saw an arrow in my arm with a note tied to it. I removed the arrow carefully and removed the note, only one word was written, ’traitor.’ As I continued walking to the castle, I felt light-headed in the distance I saw a shape though it was blurry. Not long after I saw them, I fell to the ground barely conscious. I could hear feet scuttling around me, then it felt like was lifted into the air. Someone is carrying me I thought to myself as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I did not understand where I was being taken to though I stared to feel hot. “it’s so hot,” I muttered a few times to no one in particular. Eventually, I felt myself be placed on something soft, a bed I thought. Then, I felt something cold and lost consciousness completely. I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I woke a rag slid from the top of my head and there was a shadow outside of my room. At first, I was a little shaky on my feet but once I got my balance back, I opened the door. Two soldiers had been placed outside of my room, I looked at them in surprise just as they did. One of them bowed,” You need your rest, miss. You have been out for three days,” he informed me. “Three days?” I mumbled not sure what to think. “Why are you posted here though?” I finally asked as my brain seemed to sluggishly move. “For your protection, miss.” One soldier answered. Letting that process, I closed the door and returned to my bed. As I looked at the door one shadow left, I was still trying to place together everything that happened from my leaving the market to making it back to the castle. “I was carried by someone,” I muttered. “You passed out from a poisoned arrow,” a voice said as the door opened, I looked up and saw the man from the main hall who was always wearing yellow,” You’re…Ieyasu?” I guessed as I put my hand to the side of my head. “That’s right, you are still affected by the poison, so you need to lie down,” he told me with that same cold look I recalled from the main hall. Reluctantly, I did as I was told with a frown,” I don’t want to go back to sleep though,” I whined. He shook his head,” I really don’t care,” he snapped as he put a spoon of something bitter in my mouth. “Uuugh, what the hell did you just give me?” I asked as I wanted to vomit. “Medicine, to help with the poison,” he responded as he took the rag and dipped it in cold water and then replaced it on my head. By the time I was fully well again, almost a month had passed. Waking up someone was walking in, one of the female assistants that always helped me put my kimono on. “What is it?” I asked. The girl smiled at me,” You look better, I am glad. Everyone has been worried about you. Though some won’t admit it,” the girl added with a giggle. I stood and walked over to her,” I am sorry for worrying you,” I told her and went to bow but she stopped me,” No, don’t bow to me, miss. Let me help you dress so everyone can see that you are better,” she told me with a flushed face. I smiled and nodded as she helped me put the kimono on. As I closed my door, I heard a small sound, looking down I saw a small tiger cub,” Well aren’t you the cutest little tiger,” I told it as I kneeled. The tiger looked up and ran up to me making small little chirps at me to pet it. Laughing at it, I pet the tiger and stood back up to continue to the castle. To my surprise, the tiger followed me all the way to the main hall and into the main hall where all the warlords were meeting. As I closed the door, they all went silent and looked over at me. Nobunaga smirked,” Good to see you up and about again,” I bowed to them all,” I apologize if I caused worry or delays,” none of them knew what to say in response. “Nonsense, you are well and that is what counts,” Nobunaga told me as he motioned for me to come closer to them. They had the arrow I pulled out of my arm, they seemed to be investigating it. “Something tells me that your father knows that you are with us,” Nobunaga told me as he placed the arrow back on the floor in front of him. I nodded,” Now that I am well, I think we should try to find them,” I said as I looked at the arrow in front of Nobunaga. There were a few that protested, in particular Masamune and Hideyoshi but Nobunaga held his hand up to silence them,” I agree. They may know you are here, but they do not know if you are healed or not, we can use that as an element of surprise,” Nobunaga told the others in the room. Reluctantly Hideyoshi and Masamune nodded,” We will just have to make sure something doesn’t happen to her,” Hideyoshi said looking fired up. “I’m not that helpless,” I told him. None of them seemed to believe me as I said this as no one said anything. Later that day, we were heading out for where we believed my father was hiding. They believed that since I was attacked either he wasn’t far from here or he ordered them to attack me. Riding horseback for a while, though I was placed between the others we made it to the destination. Looking around we saw people clustered together in one spot,” That has to be it,” I mumbled. Finding a section with a wall separated from the cluster, we hid the horses there. As the army hid behind it with the horses, I walked out with a hood over my head from a cloak I had been given. “So, this is where you have been, this is your meeting?” I asked projecting my voice, so everyone heard me over him. The man on a platform looked at me with wide eyes, “Luciel, how are you here?” he asked in surprise. “Do you mean that as how did I find you or how am I still alive?” I asked him narrowing my eyes. He didn’t know how to respond to me at first, he walked down the platform as people watched the scene unfold. “Luciel this is not the place nor the time, we must rise against Nobunaga and stop his tyranny,” he told me as he grabbed either side of my arms. I pulled myself free from him,” Do we now? You have yet to answer my question. Did you or did you not have some shoot me with a poison arrow in hopes I would die?!” I demanded. He looked taken aback,” I would never- “I cut him off before he could finish by shoving the note in his face,” THIS is your handwriting, FATHER,” he stepped back seeing the note. “So, it wasn’t my imagination you did go to them,” he muttered as anger filled his eyes. “Correction, they saved me from being sold off thanks to you leaving me alone in that village. One citizen oversaw the bandits there,” I informed him. He tilted his head back as he laughed,” No, dear daughter. I oversaw her. She was told if you grew too smart about them to deal with you, but it seems once again you bypassed everything, so tell me how you found me,” he asked me laughing. “You made it easy, you always travel to towns of clustered villages, so I noticed with the help of Lord Nobunaga that you were in fact recruiting not going to meetings,” his eyes darkened at my response. “You left me to die, I protected that village for several years thinking you would return but you never intended to return,” I said with anger,” You are supposed to be my father!” I yelled at him shaking my head. “I think I have asked what I needed to, you had your fun and now it’s time to close your curtains,” I told my father as I pulled a bow from beneath my cloak nocking an arrow to my bow. “You would kill me?” He challenged grinning,” I should but no, I am making it so you can’t run,” I told him with a smug look on my face. I let the arrow fly free landing right into one of his kneecaps, then I sent a second one through the other knee. He let out a scream of pain as he fell to the ground. Nobunaga and his army filed out, picked him and bound him and placed him between a few soldiers. It took all the will I had to not shake from what I had to do. A shadow lingered above me, as I looked up it was Masamune. “That had to be rough, lass. I know the feeling, though different. My father had been taken prisoner by another clan, I had the choice of killing him or letting the enemy have their way. He yelled at me to shoot, so I did. He died in the gunfire, but like you I had to do what had to be done, let’s go back now,” he told me as he placed an arm around my shoulder to comfort me as we walked. By dusk, we had made it back to the castle my father was taken to the dungeon and I didn’t even want to know what plans they had for him. In my mind, I accepted that he had died with my mother. Sitting in the garden under the moon, I looked up as a small tear fell from the side of my face. I now had no family to call my own, what would I do now? They don’t need my help anymore here, so where will I go now? I wondered. I thought the threat my father brought was over, but I couldn’t be more wrong. I didn’t know at the time that he had many men under his command that would do anything to get him free of Nobunaga. A few weeks after the capture of my father, I was informed that he had passed away in the dungeon. I looked at the one that told me, Hideyoshi and shook my head,” No Hideyoshi, he died with my mother many years ago. That man you captured was but a shell of a human,” I told him as I turned away from him and walked off. He watched me go seeming concerned. “You know, you surprised us all Luciel,” he told me causing me to stop. I turned around to look at him,” What do you mean?” I asked confused. “None of us expected you to immobilize him with your bow, you were right when you said you weren’t helpless. Please, accept my apology. I thought you weak because of your being a woman,” he said as he bowed to me. “Don’t bow to me, Lord Hideyoshi, I know that I don’t look like much in appearance. Just don’t forget that I had to protect a village from bandits for several years,” I reminded him with a small smile. “I won’t forget again,” he promised as he returned the smile. With that, I returned to my room for the night. One morning, I heard whispers outside my door, sitting up I looked at the shadows on the wall,” Looks like Hideyoshi and Masamune,” I muttered. Dressing myself, I approached the door and just as I was about to open the door, I overheard them. “She hasn’t been the same since she had to help with the dealing of her father,” Hideyoshi said,” You can’t blame the lass, that was her last family member,” Masamune retorted. Hideyoshi let out a sigh,” You always know how to cheer her up, find some way to help her, people are worried about her,” Hideyoshi told Masamune. All he got in response was a smirk and Hideyoshi growling at him went the other direction. Thinking it was now safe to open the door, I pulled it open to see Masamune standing in front of it,” Morning lass, “he greeted with a smile. I returned the smile,” Good morning, Lord Masamune. I heard you and Lord Hideyoshi arguing about something,” I mentioned. He shook his head at me,” No need to fret, he is just worried that you may resent Lord Nobunaga for what you had to do,” he assured me as he leaned against one railing. “I don’t resent him, Lord Masamune. I have decided that my true father died with my mother when I was a small child. Her death transformed him. He blamed it on Nobunaga though I never found out why, but in the end, he was fanatical and couldn’t be allowed to roam free. He may be gone now, but I can’t help but feel that the danger hasn’t passed,” I told Masamune as I looked at the ground. He looked at me with a serious look on his face,” You aren’t far off as usual, there still is activity from his group. So, we need to find the rabbit hole to get rid of them,” he told me with a frustrated look. I had an idea on the matter, but they would never allow it, I thought in my head. “If you need my help, I will do what I can,” I told him with a smile. He shook his head,” Not this time lass, you surprised us all doing what you did, you have guts that is for certain, but I won’t let Nobunaga endanger your life like that again,” he told me protectively. “Alright, I won’t do anything reckless,” I told him with a smile. He nodded at me in approval and went on his way. That night, at sun down I decided that I had to figure out how to help them find the rabbit hole. I couldn’t think of anyone else that could get into their circle but me. Information on what happened to my father had been suppressed by Nobunaga, he didn’t want other members thinking they would just take his role. I knew better though, I grew up around his rebellion members. Putting on a hakama with my kimono, slipping my bow and side quiver under my cloak which I placed the hood on my head I slipped out of the castle grounds and into the forest. Entering the forest, I checked for a trail I could follow which took some time to locate. After finding the trail I found a small camp that turned out to be several small camps. This was a huge problem, they were as big as a normal army. While I was investigating, the maid that always helped me out of the kimono rushed into the main hall bowing to Nobunaga,” m’Lord, miss Lucil is gone. Her bow and her cloak,” she told him in a panic. Nobunaga had already foreseen my plan without my knowing and had Masamune tail me as if he knew what I would do. So, he had just smiled at the woman and assured her that I would be brought back soon enough. A twig snapped behind me, I turned around and saw Masamune crouched behind me. I looked at him in disbelief,” Now, lass. Nobunaga saw you doing something like this. We all knew they would rise up and grow so of course he wanted them found, but for you to go alone that is reckless and I don’t want you trying it again,” he scolded. “Take me with you next time,” he said with a smile. I couldn’t help but shake my head and agree to his proposition, he was a strong samurai, so it wasn’t a bad idea to have him along. Behind a bush, we watched as several of the members paced this way and that. “The leader was supposed to be here yesterday; his daughter survived my arrow I heard. But there is no saying what she will do next,” one member said irritably. Seeing the bigger camping tent, I decided that was the target of the higher up members, we saw shadows moving around in the tent. Normally, I would have sent flaming arrows down on them but with this being a large forest I didn’t want it spreading and involving innocent people. Masamune looked at me and pointed at a certain angle,” fire an arrow there,” he told me. Looking where he was pointing, I nodded and notched an arrow and let it go. One body in the tent fell, causing people to flood out of the tent. Masamune grinned at this,” perfect” he said as he rushed in on the camps. As he rushed in, his scouts covered his back from the protection of the trees. Between all of us, the camps here had been wiped out. Once it was over, we searched the place for any clues of any other gathering spots. I found a map in the bigger tent and on it, markings of every spot my father had been,” his members are spread out in every area he has visited, we will have to send small parties to each area,” I told Masamune as we looked at the map together. He nodded in agreement and escorted me back to the castle, where I got a lengthy lecture from Hideyoshi on recklessness. I smiled and nodded at him,” It won’t happen again, Hideyoshi, I will bring Lord Masamune with me next time,” as I said that Hideyoshi was at a loss for words. Taking advantage of that, Lord Masamune escorted me to my bedroom and bid me a good night. I bowed to him and went in my room to rest for the night. After our excursion, Masamune had given Nobunaga the map we had found the other night. Smiling, Nobunaga did just as I had advised and sent parties all over the map wherever my father had been. He wanted to be sure that not one of their members were left standing. During this time, I was left to wait at the castle, bored out of my mind. I was forbidden from going anywhere at the time since there was no one to help me if something were to happen to me. So, I reluctantly obeyed to their orders only because Masamune had asked me to stay. I was feeling drawn to him more and more each day and I couldn’t explain why. Just seeing him, made my heart jump I couldn’t wait for his return, I worried over his well being it was like I was a mother hen worrying of her chick. Going crazy with my chaotic emotions, I confided in one maid that helped me day in and day out. The one helping me dress this time, was an older woman with gray hair and kind blue eyes. She smiled at me as she did my hair for me,” Tis love m’lady,” she told me as she finished my hair. I turned around and looked at her,” love? But he and I haven’t spent too much time together one on one,” I told her as I tried to figure the logic part out. “M’lady, come sit and let me explain my experience with you,” she offered. I nodded and sat next to her,” Love does not happen just because you spend many days alone with a person, it happens over time yes, but it can be from watching the person through their deeds or interacting with them regularly. Lord Masamune often gets you gifts to cheer you up, so perhaps m’lady tis not just you feeling this,” she told me with a warm smile. I nodded in understanding, “Perhaps, you are right. Thank you for helping me understand,” I said with a small bow. She smiled at me and returned the bow,” It is an honor to help you, m’lady,” she told me as she ducked out of the room since she had finished her job. I sat there for a moment letting what she said sink in, is it possible that Masamune could like someone like me? I wondered as I looked up at the night moon. I had a hard time believing it, but I guess anything could be possible. I heard hooves coming in through the town, hearing the amount I did I knew they were back and bolted from my room after putting something decent on and went to find Masamune. As if he were psychic, he turned and looked at me smiling and he waved at me. Breaking formation, he pulled his horse over towards me, pulled me up onto his horse almost as if he was longing to see me. I smiled up at him as he rejoined the ranks and with me on his horse, he rode back to the castle.

#otome #fanfiction #ikemen sengoku #oc

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ride-run-sleep-repeat · 7 years

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There are many types of fun and for some reason, I keep having to push the limits of this “fun”.

I was asked to be part of the Mont Adventure Racing team for Wildside Adventure race as unfortunately, Dane had to pull out due to injury so we got bumped into the mixed category. Now I’d done Wildside back in 2014 at short notice and after vowing to never do one of these types of races again (for at least 5 years), I was now saying yes to my third.

So the fun I was looking for came in a 400km race on bikes, foot, abseiling, kayaks and packrafts to get to the often elusive finish line in as little time as possible. Easy right?

Here’s the course break down:

Leg 1 – 55km Trek Leg 2 – 107km MTB Leg 3 – 50km Trek & Abseil Leg 4 – 45km MTB Leg 5 – 33km Packraft Leg 6 – 10km Trek Leg 7 – 45km MTB Leg 8 – 14 km Paddle Leg 9 – 10km Trek Leg 10 – 26k MTB

Leg 1 was basically the ultra-marathon I hadn’t planned to run in many years. The boys set a cracking pace and I could only put my head down and keep my feet moving. Starting at Lake Eucumbene we made our way along the shoreline for 3/4’s of the trek till we went up over the hills and hit the first TA at the big, beautiful Trout. We were also rewarded with a cold lemonade and iced coffee from the servo.

After building our bikes up and making a quick transition we started on the 107k MTB which took us towards Orroral Valley. This leg was great. Mostly for the fact that I could keep up with the boys and that it was all very rideable. There were some big bloody hills, but nothing too outrageous. Morale was high, we got to the TA in Orroral to pack up bikes and start the 3rd leg which was a 50km trek & abseil.

It’s a weird thing racing on your home turf, good – because you know parts of the course, bad – because you know parts of the course. For example, the first part of the trek went through the AMRA Deep Space Mountain Marathon course (from which the mug I won in the race a few years ago I am currently drinking coffee from) and up to Booroomba Rocks. There are some big ass hills to get up and down. Once we got to the trailhead for Booroomba though, we knew there was only a short walk up to meet up with the Abseiling crew to get harnessed and ready to go. Not that I was nervous to do the abseil but I was kind of glad we were doing it at night. After a short and sweet abseil, we reached what i’m going to rank as an equal first worst experience of my life, the other being hike a bike up a mountain in China with 1 billion mosquitos trying to bite me.

We’d estimated it would take us 16 hours (which was the long estimate given to us at the start) and it took almost 24. Paul and Tom had planned for us to go a different way to the river but once we got to the bottom of the rocks, decided it was “easier” via the river. We took bush bashing to a whole new level on this leg. I tried to keep up with the boys but would literally get stuck and have to play Marco polo to find them a whole 5 metres away. Expending a lot of energy to go a whopping 1 km/ph is well… there were words said about Richard (the race director) that would make you blush.

Rare image of bush before I put my Gopro away for about 24 hours.

The rock hopping up the river was fun-ish, and there were some really beautiful waterfalls along the way, often accompanied by some really extreme farts thanks to Paul.

After getting out to near Corin road my feet were pretty wet and sore so I asked if we could take 15 min in the sun to dry them out. I think it took about 20 minutes to discuss this possibility, along with our sleep strategy. In the end, much to our time guardian Lee’s displeasure, we took the 15 which would probably prevent problems in the long run. (Or so we convinced ourselves).

Scott met us for a photo op near Woods reserve which was lucky because not long after I got an epic nosebleed which dripped on Lee’s walking poles (sorry Lee!).

Leg 4 was a ride started at Pierces creek and travelled through all the 4wd tracks in the pine forest. After collecting a CP at the cave, in what turned out to be an excellent navigation move, we decided to ride around to the Deep Space Observatory removing a disgusting part of Bullen Range. After doing a lot of down, up, walk, repeat we got to the descent of the range just as the sun was rising which was pretty speccy.

We arrived at the TA at around 6:30am and after packing the pack horse aka Paul with all the paddles and packrafts, we walked the 12kms from Point Hut crossing to Kambah pools to start on the water. Mel met us a little along the way on her commute to work which was really nice too!d

I always knew there was a nudist beach just down from Kambah pools but only go to experience this first hand literally 20 metres into our raft. It was a sore sight for eyes, I tell you what. After some full frontal nudity, and not because we were changing at a TA, the packraft was really enjoyable. We’d been worried at the start of the race that we might have to do this leg during the night, which meant we were either going to have to sleep before it or risk hypothermia. Somehow the stars aligned and although the river was pretty low, we got through it without a problem during the day. (Except for flooding our dry bags and giving the people watching at home small heart attacks because our tracker stopped working, sorry!). Also, huge shout out to Kim for the Riverview cafe, those brownies were epic!

Leg 6 was a 10km loop around the Cotter to some really cool lookout spots. We passed Stromlonauts as they were starting and they looked in pretty good spirits (although Tom says Clare’s eyes told another story). Then, because it was too easy, the last CP on the leg was 500 metres up a gully. You know, to keep it real again. We saw a few teams at the TA but don’t ask me what they were doing or where they were going.

With morale high, Leg 7 took us back on the bikes up the road to Stromlo to climb the steep fire road to the top. Having not slept for 48 hours + at this point, I decided to take a nodoz just before the climb. Holy. Moly. My eyeballs returned to their sockets, knees stopped aching and, clicking down into my granniest granny gear, I charged all the way up to the top without getting off. I even managed some primal whoop. I think everyone should get to experience a caffeine high after two days of sleep deprivation. Like, I’m pretty sure you haven’t lived until that moment.

Being locals to the area, the boys put away the maps and from Stromlo we sped on fire trails around the Arboretum and Black Mountain to the peninsula where we started the paddle leg.

Paul says this was the highlight for him because it was so trippy. We started this leg at 1am and there was no wind so the lake looked like glass. Everything on the bank had a reflection and everything was morphing into weird shapes. We were all feeling pretty tired by now and I couldn’t get my bearings for the life of me. Sleep monsters were everywhere we looked and while we made some good time collecting the first two CP’s after the third around Kingston Foreshore we slowed down considerably. I was having what felt like 5-minute dreams to jolt awake and find I was still paddling. Lee was also having trouble keeping himself awake because when I managed to keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes, I’d have to make sure he steered us clear of the trees and other debris around the edges. We finally made it to the TA and got ourselves a bit warmer around the gas heater.

Leg 8 was basically a huge hike around the Parliamentary Triangle to answer questions about buildings in Canberra. I would have prefered this be done on bike but as Tom pointed out, it was probably safer on foot. After passing the War Memorial, we decided to pop into Campbell shops around 5:30am to see if something was open. Lee knocked on the bakery door because there were lights on. Miraculously, someone came out and opened the door for us, we asked if we could buy something to eat and get coffee, she said she was just a baker and couldn’t make coffee for us but would let us buy food. I asked if I could make the coffees, as I knew how to use the machine and SHE AGREED. (Although I’m sure if she knew we hadn’t showered in a while it might have been a different story). So I made everyone a coffee, we scoffed some pies outside and marched onto the TA and our FINAL LEG.

Two climbs is what stood between us and the finish. We took the run-up fire trail to the top of Ainslie, which was mostly a hike a bike, then through the saddle to hike a bike up Majura. Close to the top, we came across a supporter’s sign for us, which had been vandalised and defaced by the BMX bandits and their grubby zinc. Soon after we met Ollie about halfway down the descent where he followed us along the wind tunnel of Majura parkway before wishing us well.

We crossed over the finish line after 3.25 days (78 hours) of racing with only 1 and a half hours sleep. To say our sleep strategy was aggressive is probably an understatement but got us through in the end.

On reflection we had a pretty good race partially due to the navigation of the boys being spot on, thanks to Richard Old and his crew for putting on a well organised expedition race in Canberra. We loved the course (even the hard parts) and really enjoyed racing around home.

Wildside Adventure Race 2017 There are many types of fun and for some reason, I keep having to push the limits of this "fun".

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inthenameofotome-blog · 6 years

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Trials of the Heart Part Two: Memories and Lies

#otome #fanfiction #ikemen sengoku #oc

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