Minirtha walked the streets of Obstanus for some time, wanting to clear her head of her parting with Lai. She first went towards the palace to see if by chance the Queen had returned earlier than expected and she could see her. The poles that the royal standards hung from remained empty, showing that she was still away. Minirtha would have to wait another day before she could have an audience with the ruler of Hyperal. She wandered for some time before she heard strange but familiar sounds. She heard the sounds of grunting, thuds indicating heavy objects dropping to the ground and even detected an odor of sweat. She followed her senses to the outside of a public fitness house, where she saw men and women working out and training their bodies. In her mind, that was the perfect distraction for all that she had to think about.
The redheaded warrior entered the place and looked around. All around her people were exercising. Some lifted heavy weights of stone and iron, others used bars and ropes to work out other muscles. She saw that one side of the room was only populated by women, mostly working out in a state of full nudity. These women were mainly working on stretches and gymnastics moves with one another. Minirtha believed them to be dancers based upon their build and the elegance of their movements. None had the build of being a bodyguard on the Queen's Personal Guard, a band of women Minirtha heard were symbols of incredible strength. But none of them would be caught working out in a public fitness house anyways, as no doubt there were private accommodations within the barracks at the palace complex.
Not finding the challenge on that side she wanted, she turned to the other. Here was where the men trained their bodies. Minirtha noted them all to be heavily muscled, pushing themselves to their extreme limits. The men were all clad only in loincloths, just like she was, and all had sweat dripping from their powerful bodies. Now this was the side for her. She walked over to an empty set of the stone weights and began to lift them to exercise her arms. It felt good as she pumped her arms under the heavy stones, watching the various muscles in her arm starting to bulge as she curled. She had not had a good training session for her muscular form in some time due to her days spent traveling and the previous night in town. But she went back to thinking solely of her workout, not wanting to dwell on thoughts of her missing Lai and the night of tender love the two had shared.
Feeling her arms sufficiently worked out and a bit of burn in the muscles, Minirtha looked over to a machine a large ebony-skinned man had just vacated. It was a strange device in her eyes; a wooden frame supporting ropes tied to heavy weights. She saw the man tying the ropes to his legs and using them to lift the stone weights. She deduced this was some sort of way to strengthen her leg muscles. She walked over to it, deciding she would give it a try. Finding it hard to get the rope where she wanted it clad in her loincloth, she untied the garment and draped it on the frame of the device. Now clad only in her thong, she attached the rope in the way she remembered the man doing it. She stretched her legs out but only fought with the rope. She could not get the stone weights to move at all. She struggled before suddenly a male voice sounded off from behind her.
"Excuse me, I feel you need help using that device." Minirtha could not help but feel there she had heard the voice before and not too long ago. She turned to see that it was none other than the sailor from the islands that had translated Lai's speech to her. When he saw her face, he was momentarily shocked.
"Oh I did not realize it was you. You were the one with the young island woman who came to our offices."
"Yes. My name is Minirtha and I had rescued her. You were very helpful in translating for us."
"It was no problem. My name is Khue. I can help you use that machine if you need it. I believe you have the weight setting too high for yourself." Minirtha looked down where Khue was pointing. She did in fact have it set too high, as she did not know to adjust from where the man built like a mountain of muscle had it before her. Khue moved a pin around and told Minirtha to give it a try now. The weight much less, she moved her leg back and forth as she lifted the load, feeling her leg muscles getting worked out.
"Thank you very much Khue, now this is more like it." She looked the man up and down as she worked out. From his sailor outfit of earlier, she was unable to tell much about it. Here in the fitness house, however, he was only clad in a loincloth, giving her a good view of his form. She saw the long dark hair flowing down to his shoulders, his olive skin on display and the muscular form that showed the man to be quite powerful. While she was sure working at sea did provide quite a bit of that, she also knew that the men of his islands were quite capable at wrestling and he most likely would be a worthy opponent in a ring. She also looked at him as if he would be a worthy lover, but only time would tell that.
Her legs feeling the burn of a good workout, she unstrapped herself from the machine and tied her loincloth around her waist. Khue stood there as she watched two of the men exercising get up from weight benches. She invited him to take the bench next to her so they could get in a good chest workout. The two added weight to the iron bars and began to press the weight up as they lay there. Minirtha felt her pec muscles burning from underneath her large breasts. The two new friends chatted about life, their best workouts and many of their fights. As she had guessed, Khue had been a very capable wrestler before going to sea. He had been in many battles with pirates on the high seas and sent many a man to his watery grave. Minirtha looked, knowing this was quite a man who she would willingly lay with in intense passion.
As they benched their heavy weights, adding more and more, two of the nude female dancers who had been working their bodies out approached the two. One stood by Khue; the other next to Minirtha. The two muscular weightlifters put the bars up as they rose up from the bench to talk to them.
"May we be of service to you," Minirtha asked her dancer, a dark-skinned, full figured woman with long white hair.
"You may," was the reply from the naked woman. "My friend and I here were wondering if you two think you could lift the two of us the way you lifted those heavy bars."
Khue looked up at the woman standing next to him, a brown-skinned beauty with long hair as black as his own. "Well I only know of one way to find out," he replied as he turned and smiled at Minirtha.
The two laid back on the bench and the naked dancers climbed atop them. The two positioned their hands on the women's bodies and began to lift them up and down with no effort. It was obvious that of the two, however, both dancers favored Minirtha more. The dark-skinned dancer she had been lifting soon found her friend begging to have a turn being lifted by the muscular redhead. Minitha happily complied, lifting the woman as well. Feeling her workout finished, and her barbarian tastes for women coming to the surface, she rose from the bench and threw one of the women over each of her powerful shoulders. She turned to face Khue.