Laying on his bunk in the barracks at the White Tower, Duyran sighed. Being a GiT was a lot more work that he had ever believed it might be. Even as he sighed, he could feel tightened muscles and bruised ribs complain. All of the training did that to you.
He remembered the last time he had felt like this - his first few weeks as a blacksmith's apprentice, up in Saldaea. His body had been still adjusting to the rigors that it dealt with daily. Maybe that's why he didnd't find life as bad as some of the other GiTs did. The blacksmith's forge had been a lot of work. They were out in a smaller village, on the other side of the country from the Border. His family had sent him there after they got worried about him spending so much time in the woods. That would have been when he was, oh...fifteen years or so. It wasn't a bad life. He lived with the blacksmith and his wife. Course he had to do chores and everything, but that wasn't as bad as being a GiT. Once he'd finished growing physically, which didn't take long, he left there. Not sure what to do, but aware that home wasn't the best place for him, and wanting to go to a place where he'd make a different, he headed to the White Tower to become a Gaidin.
Become a Gaidin . . he thought wistfully. I wonder when that's going to happen? Not soon, I bet. A group of Accepteds talking as they walked by changed his chain of thought. He stretched again. Even though the girls training at the White Tower to become Aes Sedai and the GiTs were not supposed to interact, they did catch glimpses of each other quite often. He remembered the time that he had first tried to talk to a girl at home, before he had been shipped off to the blacksmith's. Even though physically he'd been an adult, they'd laughed at his size. After all, nobody wanted to fall in love with a man - no, a boy, as they saw him, shorter than they were. They'd started laughing at him, and walked away, leaving him ashamed and in despair. What was he supposed to do for the rest of his life? Act like a Wolfkin and run with the wolves? The women who were training to be Gaidar weren't a bad sort, but he didn't like the idea of having to talk to the Accepteds and Novices. They'd probably treat him exactly the same way. Why go looking for trouble? In a way, he was glad that the GiTs and women were separated.
Duyran reached up and scrubbed his hand through his hair that looked like a sun in the boring white room with whitewashed walls, feeling damp sweat from his last lesson. Well, thought Duyran. The past is over and done with, while I've still got a life to live. He sighed. At least until the Gaidin either make a Gaidin, and a man out of me, or I get killed trying. With that he went off to take a bath.