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badly_knittedTitle: Out Of Shape
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Jonathan Willaway, Varian.
Rating: PG
Setting: Shortly after Beyond the Mountain.
Word Count: 760
Summary: Jonathan laments over how out of shape he is for such a physically demanding journey.
Written For: The prompt ‘Soft’ on my
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1character table.Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
As he followed his new friends on their continuing trek, Jonathan was mortified to realise that he’d grown soft recently, lounging around in the villa he’d stolen from the Arusians. Not that he’d ever been any kind of keep fit fanatic, but at least back in his own time he’d been moderately active, rattling around in his lab, working on several projects at once, on his feet for a good portion of each day. Here on the island, with nothing to do except idly tinker with his inventions, and keep his android ‘family’ and helpers working efficiently at the tasks he’d set them, he’d grown appallingly lazy, ambling about and doing as he pleased, putting very little physical effort into anything.
He’d still been a scientist, of course, but more a man of leisure than he’d ever been before, idling the days and weeks and months away, telling himself he was perfectly content. Why wouldn’t he be when he had everything he could possibly want, and all the time in the world to dabble in whatever ideas took his fancy? Even so, he’d known deep down that he was lying to himself, that he wasn’t enjoying the solitude that had at first seemed such a pleasure anywhere near as much as he pretended to.
But that was over, and now here he was, trekking across the island in the company of a group of people from different times, even in one case a different world, and… He was beginning to seriously regret his former idleness. He was horribly out of shape, if he’d ever been IN shape to start with, which was doubtful. Even at his best, he hadn’t been given to taking long walks over rough terrain, in all weathers, and he found himself wondering if he’d be able to keep up the pace his new friends were setting. They were all younger and fitter than he was, and he didn’t want to make them resent his presence by slowing them down.
Already today he was breathing hard, and his legs were aching… What if he fell so far behind that the others simply carried on without him, not even noticing he wasn’t with them anymore? He’d only just joined them; they weren’t used to him tagging along behind them yet. It would be easy for them to simply forget there was now a fifth person in their party. If he ran out of steam, would they even bother to come back for him, or wait for him to catch up with them?
“We’ll stop here to rest for a while,” Varian said from somewhere ahead, and Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps after ten minutes of sitting down, he’d be capable of walking a bit further. Trudging wearily over to where the others were already putting their bags down, he sank gratefully to the ground. Never would he have imagined being grateful to sit on bare, stony earth, but at this point, he would have willingly sat anywhere just to take the weight off his feet.
Then Varian was crouching in front of him, offering him a water bottle. Jonathan accepted it and drank gratefully. “Thank you.”
“It does get easier, Jonathan. I was rather unfit myself when I first crashed here. In my time, nothing is wasted, not even energy, or effort. Almost everything is mechanised, so people really don’t need to do anything they don’t want to do. But you’ll be surprised how quickly you find yourself getting fitter. We’ll rest for an hour or so, then walk on a few more miles before making camp, but if you get tired, tell one of us, and we’ll stop sooner. This is not a forced march. Alright?”
Jonathan nodded. “Alright. Thank you.”
Varian squeezed his shoulder. “Get some rest. When we set out again, we’ll go at a slower pace, just until you’re more acclimatised to walking long distances. This journey is likely to be a difficult one anyway, and we have no idea how far we’ll have to walk; there’s nothing to gain from making anything harder for ourselves than it needs to be. Whatever happens, we won’t leave you behind. That’s a promise.”
Then Varian was gone, checking on the others, leaving Jonathan with a warm glow inside at the knowledge that he had at least one friend among the group of travellers. He wouldn’t let Varian, or any of them, down; not if he could help it. He had a lot to make up for, and besides, he owed them for their kindness.
The End
He’d still been a scientist, of course, but more a man of leisure than he’d ever been before, idling the days and weeks and months away, telling himself he was perfectly content. Why wouldn’t he be when he had everything he could possibly want, and all the time in the world to dabble in whatever ideas took his fancy? Even so, he’d known deep down that he was lying to himself, that he wasn’t enjoying the solitude that had at first seemed such a pleasure anywhere near as much as he pretended to.
But that was over, and now here he was, trekking across the island in the company of a group of people from different times, even in one case a different world, and… He was beginning to seriously regret his former idleness. He was horribly out of shape, if he’d ever been IN shape to start with, which was doubtful. Even at his best, he hadn’t been given to taking long walks over rough terrain, in all weathers, and he found himself wondering if he’d be able to keep up the pace his new friends were setting. They were all younger and fitter than he was, and he didn’t want to make them resent his presence by slowing them down.
Already today he was breathing hard, and his legs were aching… What if he fell so far behind that the others simply carried on without him, not even noticing he wasn’t with them anymore? He’d only just joined them; they weren’t used to him tagging along behind them yet. It would be easy for them to simply forget there was now a fifth person in their party. If he ran out of steam, would they even bother to come back for him, or wait for him to catch up with them?
“We’ll stop here to rest for a while,” Varian said from somewhere ahead, and Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps after ten minutes of sitting down, he’d be capable of walking a bit further. Trudging wearily over to where the others were already putting their bags down, he sank gratefully to the ground. Never would he have imagined being grateful to sit on bare, stony earth, but at this point, he would have willingly sat anywhere just to take the weight off his feet.
Then Varian was crouching in front of him, offering him a water bottle. Jonathan accepted it and drank gratefully. “Thank you.”
“It does get easier, Jonathan. I was rather unfit myself when I first crashed here. In my time, nothing is wasted, not even energy, or effort. Almost everything is mechanised, so people really don’t need to do anything they don’t want to do. But you’ll be surprised how quickly you find yourself getting fitter. We’ll rest for an hour or so, then walk on a few more miles before making camp, but if you get tired, tell one of us, and we’ll stop sooner. This is not a forced march. Alright?”
Jonathan nodded. “Alright. Thank you.”
Varian squeezed his shoulder. “Get some rest. When we set out again, we’ll go at a slower pace, just until you’re more acclimatised to walking long distances. This journey is likely to be a difficult one anyway, and we have no idea how far we’ll have to walk; there’s nothing to gain from making anything harder for ourselves than it needs to be. Whatever happens, we won’t leave you behind. That’s a promise.”
Then Varian was gone, checking on the others, leaving Jonathan with a warm glow inside at the knowledge that he had at least one friend among the group of travellers. He wouldn’t let Varian, or any of them, down; not if he could help it. He had a lot to make up for, and besides, he owed them for their kindness.
The End
