A couple minutes later, he texts:

No bystanders so far. Come to me. 

And Trys' phone lights up with a position almost a kilometer away.

K

She's tense and trying to be alert. The late evening feels off, and she keeps glancing at shadows. That's probably her anxiety at play more than anything, though.

She fast-jogs in between uses of the Ring Dancer technique, trying to move quickly-ish without completely exhausting herself. It's a lot more intense when you're doing one after another continuously. Then again, she worked through this much strain in workouts the last three days, so why not in real life (as it were).

Though her habit of warm and concealing clothing plus intense workouts is not really going to be a fun combo. Oh well.

She catches up to him three and a half minutes later.

He's sitting against a tree playing a match-three phone game. 

"Great to see you. Another four legs like that. Think you're up to it?"

...She takes off her jacket and bundles it up under one arm.

"Sure. Too bad I can't pause to meditate when we get there, though," she adds sarcastically.

"Nah, you totally can, I'll guard you. It's unlikely the monster would show up right when we did anyway."

"I don't wanna waste your time." (Keep breathing those deep cooldown breaths...) "Either way I guess."

"If I wanted to just do this and get the reward I wouldn't have even mentioned it to you. We're in this together. A little delay for your sake and maybe another thread is just fine with me. I have Bejeweled."

"Right. I guess I'm just like that." Shrug. "I'm ready to move again."

"Alright." Cocoa pockets his phone and zips off into the night.

Here.

More Ring Dancer. Heart's pounding, breath gasping, her legs feeling strained in a different way than they did after the nasty twinging of the kicks on her first day. If she pushes herself too hard she will no longer be paying attention for signs of trouble, though. When she notices her vision narrowing slightly she steps down the pace a bit.

Zips up to Cocoa again with a nod, then scans the surroundings, sweat beading on her forehead.

They're still a couple klicks outside the harbor district, on the edge of the city.

"Good for another one or should I let you use a qi pill?"

"Will I progress faster if I don't or will it just hurt me?"

"You'll progress fastest if you go to your limits, meditate, and then use the qi pill. Are you at your limits?"

Given how hard she worked before and how bad she's feeling now...

"...Maybe another half a leg and I will be. Thanks."

"Alright, I'll give you a half-leg. We're starting to get into the city anyhow, I should be a little more careful about bystanders."

And off he goes again.

There was a gardener about halfway down on the right side, keep an eye out, jog past and then it's safe. 

She's taking more time between activations now anyway. Definitely reaching her limits. Just an ordinary jogger, nothing to see here...

Still tense and on alert when she catches up again. She glances around - then falls into the meditative pose on the ground, breathing hard.

She's worn, yes, but she's excited. Alert. She's on a mission. She's done this before and she'll do it again. Draw all that buzzing energy in like breathing, pull it tight, press it down.

It buzzes, tenses, slides past her -

But she's wise to its tricks now.

She gets it. 

"Well, did it work?"

"Yeah. Close thing, but yeah. I think that's really the last one I'll manage today, though."

She has an Altoids tin with a half dozen of the pills rattling around in her hoodie pocket. One pops into her mouth. She shuts her eyes and lets it seep into her.

Then out again, napkin, back in the tin. "No sign of the cigarette dog-thing yet?"

"Not yet. We've still got half the journey left. It's going to get built up pretty fast though, so we might have to slow down anyway. You should be able to manage a normal jog for a while, right?"

"Oh, I can jog normally for ages. Even have enough left in me to run or try a strike if we get ambushed, I think. I'm just not going to try for a sixth thread."

"Then let's do one more leg with the agility techniques and jog in for the last one. It'll probably be too populated for comfort anyway."

Nodnod.

She follows when he says it's clear, still feeling the strain and tiredness. But it's a good tired. They're really in the city now.

...She's just gone several kilometers in like twenty minutes, on foot. If that doesn't make cultivation sink in properly for her, what will?