|Quest Link|

With the sun beating down hot on her skin, Zaelith found her way leaving the mission board, bored out of her mind. She hadn't had fun like that in what felt like years and to get that rush of adrenaline from such a small mission? It was like paradise to her. Originally, she was going to bypass the mission board for some lovely food, but the idea of partaking on another quest had crossed her mind. The jewels she had possessed from the previous mission was good enough for her to possibly get something small, but what if she wanted to browse around at the stores wares? Would she be able to partake in a blanket that night to cover up in the evenings when it gets really cold. Ideas passed her left and right, up until she found herself standing right before the bulletin board facing the same pretty lady with red hair and dark eyes.

"We meet again!" She smiled. "Good job on taking care of those kids for us. They always seem to be causing us trouble, one way or another." With a soft laugh, she turned to the bulletin board and waved her hand across it, asking Zaelith the same pained question she had before. "Which quest would you like to partake in?"

Zaelith pressed a finger to her chin, curiously looking over each quest till her eyes landed on and interesting quest. "Beach Gym, Client: Jay Holiday".

"Um... what exactly is a gym? I know that may sound... weird, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. Is that part of a guild to allow members to train their magic?" She asked. The woman looked curiously over at Zaelith and replied, "A gym can be used for that purpose but those who choose to work in other fields may use it to loose weight, gain muscle, and other fun activities. Mr. Holiday is a professional in that field, so you're in the right hands with him."

"That's understandable. Well, thank you so much for the explaining this to me. Go ahead and activate the quest for me and I'll get out of your hair." Zaelith flushed embarrassingly. From her spot, Zaelith watched as the mistress pressed a small sigil to the quest and soon, she was waving goodbye to the beaut. "See you later!" She hurried off with a bright, cheerful smile and just as she reached the outskirts of the city towards the beach, she slowed to a stop and stared hard at the ground in confusion.

"See....See you later? Why would I tell her that?" She asked quietly to herself. She supposed with the last mission, it had been fun to do, but not every quest could possibly be fun could it? Absolutely not. She's heard some horror stories about some of the more extreme missions in passing and she didn't know if she could see herself doing those... but then again, she didn't think she would continue working on these quests and here she was. "Let's just get this over with." She huffed out and stomped all the down to the gym location.

Upon reaching the gym, she was shocked to say the least. The entire "building" if you could call it that, was actually outside resting on the beach. She could see that there was a cement section with a lot of different work out machines that could be used and to top it all off, dead set in the center of the makeshift gym, was Jay Holiday himself. He was a large, built man with tannish looking skin and beach blonde hair with dark eyes. Besides the very obvious body structure the man had, the glistening smile caught her off guard causing her to stop in her steps for a moment.

"Uh.... Mr. Holiday?" Zaelith had called out. The brute of a man turned his attention to the petite woman and gave her a big, ol' belly laugh. "You looking to try the gym out?" He asked with no sense of sarcasm laced in his voice. Her eyes widened a bit at his question, mainly out of astonishment that he wouldn't ask why she would be here due to her size, but quickly replied, "I am actually responding to your quest that was out on the billboard. I'm here to be your spotter." She smiled, already feeling comfortable around the man. After her response, he clasped his hands together and said, "Ah yes! I was hopping someone would respond to that quest, it's actually really good that you came today since I won't have that many clients today. Would now be okay for you?"

"Yes, just tell me what I need to do." she smiled.

"Sure, so we are going to be looking over the bench press and basically what it is, is an upper-body weight training exercise in which a trainee would press a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. The exercise uses the pectoralis major, the anterior deltoids, and the triceps, among other stabilizing muscles. What I want you to do is pretty much make sure to help me push past my last set. I'm working out for this very hard competition and this is the area I struggle in the most."

"Sure! Sounds pretty easy."

"Sounding easy and actually doing the work out are two VERY different things," He laughed as he waved her to follow him to the bench press, "Come on, let's get started shall we?"

"yes!"

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Zaelith followed after the man and stared down at him as the large man laid back on the bench. She stood near him, close enough to the man in case he was to hurt himself but he just smiled back at her and said, "Alright... the first few sets should be a peace of cake. For the first two sets, we will practice what I will need you to do exactly.. got it?" Zaelith looked down at him with determination flaming in her eyes. She nodded once and soon the man laid back fully on the bench and wrapped his meaty hands around the bar with the smaller weights. He lifted the bar up and soon requested the smaller woman to come over.

"Alright, so when you see that I'm loosing my breath and I'm struggling to lift the bar over my head, that's when you will come over and push the bar up with me to lift over my head. Go ahead and try it now." Zaelith placed both her hands on the bar and watched as she easily helped the man lift it over his head and perched it back on its spot on the bench.

"That's it?"

"Well no. That was the more physical portion. As a spotter, I need you to make sure your hands are hovering near the bar and to count each push of my lifts to make sure I am on the right number in a set. With the confused look on your face, we will set each "set" at 10. So, I would have to push this bar successfully over my head 10 times in order to complete a single set." He explained. Zaelith looked a little concerned about all these notes, but she was determined to help out as best she could.

"Alright, let's just get to it then!"

After the first four sets, which seemed to have gone by in a breeze with little to no contact needed on her part, she started to notice his enthusiasm start to fall and his face was more set on a stoic look. The gentle giant from before just seemed to have disappeared before her and a new person took hold instead. With five, six, and seven, she noticed that he started to sway and his muscles were more pronounced, but he seemed to have been just fine with the few encouraging words she praised him and a help on lifting the last bar in the last set of seven. She offered him to take a break and get water, but she watched as the the fire in his eyes lit up in determination. He laid back down on the bench, after adding the more tensive weights on, and had beckoned Zaelith over.

"This is my last set. Let's make this a good one!" Without a second's notice, she watched as he sucked in a breathe and he began lifting the heavy bar over his body and began the workout. Zaelith managed to keep her strength the first time he needed help, but she noticed that she was struggling trying to keep it up. Sweat was breaking down her face as fear of completing the job soon came to surface. Not just to completing the job but by hurting someone as kind as this man. Growling under her breath, she pressed both hands beneath the bar and awaited the next time he needed help.

When that time came, she gritted her teeth and pushed with all her might to help him with the last few steps of his final set. She could feel the weight push back on her arms and small tears bedded at the corners of her eyes, but she shifted her feet and managed to push with all her strength at the bar for the man. With a successful heave, Zaelith fell to the ground while the man sat up with a dorkish looking grin plastered onto his face.

"You did great, Zaelith!" He praised as he threw her a thumbs up in her direction. Zaelith flushed a bit at the praise and till a genuine smile bared her lips. "Uh... thank you!"

"Your reward will be given to you after you turn in your quest! Please make sure to stop on by in the future! You were a big help!" With that, he stretched his hand out to her and she found herself pulled to her full height. With a quick bow of her head in thanks, she waved the man off and yelled out, "Good luck with your competition Mr. Holiday!" After that, she bounded off back to the quest board with more determination than before.



word count 1821/1821