Just like that, the training went on.
Julie was moving around the cooking site like she had done it all her life, though the sweat running down her face and the trembling in her hands told a very different story. She wasn't calm, she was terrified.
But somehow that very terror, that constant pressure pressing on her chest and bones, was making her body move in ways she had never been capable of before.
Her hand held the knife steady without a shake, slicing vegetables into even, neat pieces.
The meat was stripped into thin slices with precision and dropped into the pot at exactly the right time.
She stirred the mixture in slow circles, never letting it stick, and adjusted the flames without second-guessing herself.
Spices that once she would have tossed in randomly were now measured by instinct, each pinch exact, each addition perfect.
Julie herself was stunned.
