sandspire

Sam's Forest Exile - Submerged Carry [Commission]

Added 2025-11-30 02:12:45 +0000 UTC

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One of Sam's more risky training sessions involves the cold, murky depths of a lake on her regular running and training trail. Her endurance, breath capacity, strength and cold tolerance all put to the test in one fell swoop as she takes a path step by agonising step directly from one end of the lake to the other. She has to move as quickly as possible even as she's trained herself to hold her breath for minutes at a time. Despite being submerged, the rock she carries - bigger with each crossing - is brutally heavy, not to mention slippery.

As her lungs burn it exacerbates her every struggle, her efforts making her muscles beg for more oxygen, breath that she denies them. Sam never gives herself relief, even when she's on the edge of drowning.

After one particularly brutal day of training her resolve is put to the test. Her shaking, pained legs get caught up in reeds on the ponds surface. A gasp as she notices the snag only loses more precious air. Her body flexes and twitches in instinctive desperation and her racing mind knows that this time, every single second is going to count.

But she knows that she'll need to get used to this. Improve her breath control, her holding time and her reaction to these risky situations. Winter is coming again and as the pond risks freezing over, she knows there will be even more danger to come.