Parkour!

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura; open
WHAT: Climbing lesson 1: falling without breaking your neck
WHEN: After the wake; lessons can be picked up whenever
WHERE: Stables and that crumbling chunk of the battlements next to them
NOTES: lessons offered

prepwork;
A distinct advantage to her home is that when she taught herself, she had plenty of deep water to land in.  Skyhold has snow but until she has to, she's not going to go prowling the mountains in a hurry.  Skyhold does have plenty of straw from the stables and after a few tests, it's entirely sufficient to her needs and so armed with a rake, she gathers it into piles because whatever, her needs are greater and the horses can get it back later.  Anyone showing up early will have their attire inspected and be told to do a few stretches.  If demonstrations are truly needed, this is the time to ask.

falling!  (with style);
The roof of the stables themselves are low enough that it would take an exceptionally bad fall to cause an injury so that's where she bases the lesson, a ladder handily placed to help less confident climbers up and she talks them through it, the importance of breathing, of relaxing stressed several times.  The instructions are usually to stand on the edge of the roof, take a deep breath and allow her to give them a quick shove as they spread their arms and go as limp as possible to land in the straw but for those a little more confident and with at least some skill in climbing, there's the stables and hayloft to climb then up to the battlements, ropes helpfully attached because she has absolutely no desire to see someone injured in her first few days here.  Her instructions are clear, emphasis on not rushing, on looking for where your hand has to go next, to use the legs.

Everyday is leg day if it's parkour day.

warm down;
The lesson might be over but she won't let people leave without some cursory stretching at least.  They're cautioned about some stiffness the next day or so before she starts tidying up the straw into the proper place, happy enough to chat away or answer questions; if someone is willing to help clear up then she'll be in their debt because who enjoys dealing with straw, no one that's who.

Comments

[savethecat]

"I was plenty small then, at least it seemed like to me. But around a bunch of adults my height now I suppose anyone would feel small." Gorse said agreeably, flicking the last bits of straw off his jacket and back into the pile. "I was pretty young, yeah. Didn't have any brothers or sisters 'til I was 'round thirteen, had to have fun somehow."

[foxsays]

"At least you grew. I've been this height for close to ten years, it's very odd for everyone else to sprout up while you stay short." Especially when both your parents are of a pretty decent height although she can fit herself into tiny spaces to hide and it's been to her advantage many times so her complaint is more teasing than anything else. "You mentioned your sister before, do you have many more?"

[savethecat]

"Ten years? But you don't look older than me!" But she IS very tiny. It's hard to imagine stopping growing right as a pre-teen, when Gorse's own growth spurt hit with a vengeance and was only now finally stopping. "OH! Yeah, I got two sisters and a brother - and about a dozen cousins."

[foxsays]

Harder still to imagine that for a while people thought she’d be taller than her mother who only stands a head or so shorter than Araceli’s father. Such is life and she shrugs, rising up as high as she can on her tiptoes before sinking down again, not so much taller after all. “I was twelve when I stopped growing, no matter how much I ate or how much I stretched and climbed and that was long before I ever broke a bone and I didn’t ever break the ones in my legs. You need little fish as well as big fish and the little ones move faster than a person can blink. Now I’m twenty and until I meet the others you mention, you get to remain the tallest person I’ve ever seen.” She might have spied one in the tavern but you can’t judge height from sitting, not really, it’s all in how far she has to crane her neck and if there are folk taller than Gorse then she’ll be climbing up something to do her talking in case her head snaps back and off. “So many! I only know one place with such big families but it’s more half-siblings and step-siblings, what was it like, growing up with so many in a family? All of you growing must have eaten your poor parents out of house and home!”

If one small girl and a fox can do that, she shudders to think of the bills for so many large folk.

[savethecat]

Gorse has to laugh at that.

"I don't eat as much as people seem to think, actually!" Mind, it was still quite a bit, just not quite THAT much. "We got our own farm an everything so we just take care of our own mostly. Makes bein' so far from home feel a little lonely, but I'm getting used to it."

In truth he wasn't blood-related to any of the other kids except his direct siblings, nor any of the adults besides his parents. When everyone helps raise you, though, you start to think off everyone as an aunt or uncle and all their kids your cousins just the same. Family by the heart if not the blood.

"...you know, I got a twelve year old little sister, I think she's taller than you."

[foxsays]

“But there’s that point when you’re growing - and don’t laugh, there was a point I was growing - where you can never seem to get full. Or I had that. Between Lux and I my poor mother must have wanted to drown us both and be rid of two ravenous animals raiding all the cupboards.” A good thing about thieving was that she could go to the markets and buy her own food, hot soups and stews served in bowls made of thick hard bread, meats and vegetables on skewers or whatever smelled particularly good in the taverns that didn’t care about your age. “A farm! I’ve never seen one before, well unless you count salt but we don’t really have the land to have many farm animals, pigs and goats are fine but not much else really. The wild animals aren’t really the sort you could turn into big fat things. It must be good to live off the land like that, we rely on trade for anything more than fish, salt and fruit, all the other meats and vegetables and different fruit we have to have sent to us.”

Look, farms are magical when you’ve never interacted with a real live horse until arriving in Thedas so she only has books and Nerissa to go off.

“Twelve and taller than me, I cannot go on!” With a cry of dismay, she flops back into one of the piles, hand across her eyes as if in horror.

[savethecat]

Gorse is really doing his best not to laugh, though the covering his mouth and stifled snort probably give it away. His face is too honest, he can't hide anything even if he wanted to.

"Well, I ain't never seen a real city before I came out here, heck or a building bigger'n two floors. I swear this is more people in one place than I've ever seen in my whole life up 'til I showed up here!"

[foxsays]

Laughter is good. She'd always rather laugh and right now, keeping her spirits high means she has less time to think about the faces she's missing and how they'll be combing the streets for her, thinking the very worst, that she's at the bottom of a waterway, stabbed or shot.

"Oh if I could show you my home, the whole place is a port, waterways where the markets float, always bustling. If you hear Zevran talk, it's very much like Antiva," she smiles as she says it because that definitely helps, having somewhere so alike if more dangerous and less romantic with their stories. "Even the building I lived in when I moved out was about six stories up then the lower floor that was all special glass so we could see the sea."