AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I guess he would have done all of that and more, and probably considers it fun. Some of the things he mentioned might be, but hunting or paragliding… yeah, no thank you. Ah, and I’ve done the rock climbing… without safety gear. I can tick that one off the list.
“But what I would personally like to see all of you take up is the mental toughness training we run twice a year. We are all much stronger than we think.” Aiden’s piercing gaze lands on me before it wanders over the rest of the participants. Okayyyy.
“Doing hard things is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. Resilience is a muscle that can be built. From birth, we are pretty resilient until we learn helplessness. I would love nothing more than to show you what you’re actually capable of and how to push through your own glass ceilings. So keep that in mind, ladies and gents.
“On that happy note, let us begin. These lovely people here are your instructors for the next few days…” Aiden points at four men standing behind him. They’re wearing the same gear as Aiden and look buff and super fit.
They probably all do the plank workout routine. I wouldn’t mind seeing that right about now to distract myself from being out in the wild.
We’re split into groups of five with one instructor. Of course I end up in Aiden’s group. I laugh to myself; I can’t escape the man, can I?
On the other hand, I’m relieved, though. Aiden makes me feel safe when I’m in an environment that makes me slightly uncomfortable. I love being in nature, but I’m in a new country with new animals… who knows what I might sit on. Do they have venomous snakes around here?
There is definitely one advantage, though, to being in Aiden’s group. It gives me maximum opportunity to ogle his arms. There, I’m admitting it to myself, I most definitely have an arm fetish.
More often than not, my eyes are glued to those muscles as they stretch and flex and… make my panties wet. I mean, how could anybody look away when they’re on display like that and there’s no pesky shirt material obstructing the view?!
Aiden caught me salivating more than once and by the dozenth time he’s subtly shaking his head, biting his lip to suppress his smirk. One time, when the others were occupied, he leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “Looking at me like that will get you into trouble.” Let’s just say that brought color to my cheeks and didn’t help dry my panties.
It made it hard to focus on the things I was meant to learn, but to my surprise, I seem to have retained some information. So far, we covered emergency first aid, and while I took a class years and years ago, I had forgotten a lot and it was useful to have this refresher with an emphasis on wilderness survival; like what plants you can find to help in first aid.
We are now about to ride quad bikes to a secondary campsite where our little group will learn about setting up a bush camp. We’ll create a shelter and build a fire. And then our little group will be sleeping out there together under the stars. Apparently, this should prepare us for our solo trip tomorrow night.Oh joy.
I wish this secondary campsite had been just around the corner from the barns. Originally, I hoped that’s where we would sleep: ladies to the left, gents to the right. But no. We’re really roughing it survivor style. Thank goodness, there are clear skies. This would be torture in the rain.
Aiden is clearly in his element as he confidently speeds past on his quad bike. I’d much prefer sitting behind him, rather than driving one of these machines myself. It’s fair to say that quad biking won’t become my new hobby.
At least we don’t have to carry our gear on our backs. That’s got to be a plus.
Riding a quad bike looked fun at first, but it’s bloody dangerous. Two of the guys managed to roll theirs in the first half hour, but thankfully no one got injured. So us girls decided to go slow.
It’s actually quite hilarious to watch Aiden; he’s trying so hard to keep our little group together. It must be like herding a flock of stupid sheep… sorry sheep. There is Raymond, who’s always miles ahead even though he has no idea where he’s going. And then there are Ramona and Victoria who like to go at a snail’s pace and Aiden is forever signaling them to go faster. Bob and I make up the middle, so I’d like to think we’re the good students.
We come to a stop when we reach a waterhole. It’s muddy, making it hard to tell where to cross. Aiden investigates on foot and shows us how to determine the safest way across, testing the water depth with a branch. Once he’s content, he’s found the most suitable way, he demonstrates where to cross and how to not get stuck in the mud.
Like everything he does, it looks easy. We drive up to the bank… just that Ramona doesn’t stop and drives into the back of Raymond, who gets pushed forward. Surprised by this, he revs the engine instead of breaking and drives right into the middle of the water. Soon after, he’s bogged.
Aiden watches the whole thing in total disbelief, and I can tell he’s cursing in his head. Raymond and the bike are half under water, and Aiden has no choice but to wade out to him, through the mud, to attach a tow cable.
After pulling the bike from the mud to where the rest of us are waiting, Raymond is a little too keen to show off. Before Aiden can reissue his instructions, Raymond, the cocky bastard, tears away toward the shallow crossing area but not before spraying Aiden from head to toe with mud off the rear tires.
Everybody tries very hard not to break out in laughter, and I hide my face in my shoulder to stifle my own.
Still, Aiden doesn’t lose his cool and calmy instructs the remainder of us what to do. “Right. You know where not to go. One at a time, please. Let’s move.”
It’s nighttime now, and the camp is quiet… well, not exactly quiet. There are so many unknown noises around, I’m not sure if anyone is asleep. I find it hard to settle. Every rustling of the leaves or cracking of a branch has me on high alert.
How I will cope tomorrow night on my own, I really don’t know. I’ll probably forgo sleep, especially if I don’t even have a tent around me to give me the false sense of security.
Yes, there are no tents, because would we have one in a wilderness survival scenario? Most likely not. So we each learned to build a shelter, but only Bob opted to sleep in his. The rest of us, including Aiden, hung the rope hammocks we were granted in between the trees and made ourselves comfortable. Well, as much as that’s possible.
Thankfully we were also given sleeping bags, or we all would have had to spoon together to stay warm and that’s not how anyone wants to get to know their new colleagues better. On second thought, if you were in the middle, there would be less chance of being injured in an animal attack. They’d go for the outside people, wouldn’t they?
Those are the less than comforting thoughts I keep my mind occupied with as I stare up into the star-filled sky through the canopy of the trees. Overall, though, today has been good.
Despite the distractions of Aiden’s arms and ridiculously hot body, I learned many useful things that make me feel more confident in this setting.
And it gave me an opportunity to observe Aiden in work mode. My heart flutters thinking about him. He’s just so capable.
