Jia Li had found that rigorous exercise enabled her to stop thinking. It gave her something on which to concentrate other than her emotions, so she had made it a point to set her alarm clock for an early hour for Thursday in order to go for a morning jog.
Her alarm clock buzzed angrily at her. It used to awaken her with music, but on Wednesday, she’d heard a song that hit too close to her emotional distress, and she didn’t want the radio to cause her day to begin with bad feelings.
After smashing her hand against the button to stop the clock’s squealing, she left her bed and changed into yoga pants and a tank top. After eating, she left her dorm. It was cloudy outside, and it looked like it could rain today, but that didn’t deter her.
Jia Li wasn’t usually a jogger, but she did believe in varying her exercise regime to keep her body in peak physical condition to ensure she was a strong dancer. That was why she had decided to run today. Her father had said she was the type to run away from people, away from things, but he’d meant it in a figurative sense. However, she didn’t care if she was making it literal today.
She made her way to a nice park on campus via tree travel before she began to stretch her muscles to prepare for the run. The dryad had a high endurance, so jogging long distances wasn’t really a problem. However, she knew the importance of preparing muscles for even light exercise. If she pulled a muscle, she wouldn’t be able to exercise as much, and dancing would be out of the question for a while.
When she had warmed up properly, Jia Li began to run. She concentrated on her movements which were graceful. She concentrated on the sounds around her, the birds chirping, her sneakers hitting the pavement, and her own breathing. Every now and then, she would give herself a burst of speed before slowing.
It was during one of these bursts of speed that she spotted another jogger. Running hadn’t really been a big part of her life, so she forgot to shout to the woman that she was coming up behind her, to be aware of the dryad’s presence. This was probably what caused her to bump into the woman as she tried to pass, causing her to stumble uncharacteristically clumsily. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Jia Li called out. “Are you okay?”