How to Be a God [ManXMan]

Chapter Thirteen: Distractions

~Chapter Thirteen: Distractions~

Blurry-eyed and exhausted, I pull myself out of bed Saturday morning. I have nowhere I need to be, but if I allow myself to remain in bed, I doubt I will be leaving it at all today. What I do not understand, though, is why I feel so tired. I would like to blame it on Ullr's visit yesterday, but he left at eight, leaving me ample time to sleep, which is what I did.

Perhaps I have not been sleeping enough?

I have heard many humans complain about not sleeping enough each night. While this has never happened to me before, I have also never had a job outside answering the occasional prayer and infuriating my pantheon with tricks. Maybe I am simply not as used to keeping a strict schedule as I thought and it has finally caught up to me.

Relieved to have a plausible idea of the cause for my exhaustion, I allow my thoughts to turn to some of the things Ullr and I discussed yesterday while I shower. More specifically, the conversation we had about computers. Apparently, he believes it would be a bad idea for me to use a personal computer for the reason of 'computer viruses' and 'no typing skills'. He also mentioned something about government spying equipment, but that was not the primary part of his argument. Ullr believes I will end up with some sort of virus within the first week. I scoffed at him, but since I had no idea computers could catch illnesses, I am inclined to believe him, even if I would not say so out loud.

Deep in thought, I step out of the shower and nearly slip on the stone tiles when I accidentally miss the mat. Grabbing the shower door, I struggle to steady myself, taking a calming deep breath when I do. Stepping back onto the mat, I dry my feet before reaching for the towel.

Breakfast – a simple bowl of oatmeal – comes next. I manage to keep my focus on the food as I make it, but as soon as I am sitting in front of the steaming bowl with the spoon to my mouth, my brain begins to offer up ideas for what to do today. Ullr had suggested that I do some research – the reason we eventually discussed laptops – though I was already planning to do so, as I would like to learn more about this war.

The research Ullr intends for me to do has more to do with looking up people to talk to than simply searching for war-related links, as he does not believe there will be any. Since I do not believe him, I will have to find out for myself. After all, the internet has proven itself to be very vast. I cannot imagine it would not contain some information about this ongoing war.

Which means I shall be visiting the library at some point today.

Perhaps I should wait until a little later, though, as one glance outside reveals heavy rain that could very well turn into a snow storm if the temperature drops. It is for this reason that I end up spending the next thirty minutes completing stretches on the floor next to my bed while casually reading another book. My limbs protest at the sudden pulling, as it has been some time since I last remembered to stretch, but it also feels relieving to remove some of the tension in my body.

It used to be something I would do after sparring or training, but with no weapons or people to train with, stretching has been all but forgotten. With Ullr's visit, though, I feel like a dormant part of my mind has woken up, bringing with it more memories – pleasant ones, thankfully – and the desire to return to some old routines. I have yet to decide whether that is a good thing or not.

By the end of my stretches, the rain has slowed to a light sprinkle and I decide that it is safe enough to start walking now. The weather could change, but even if it does, it will do no harm to my body. The only issue would be that I cannot enter the library while dripping water all over the floor. I suppose I will have to be careful to avoid getting too wet.