The lake glittered under the cloudless sky as I ran along its edge. Despite the uneven footing, I purposely ran on the red sand. I didn’t doubt that we would face the fish again in the future and it was better to get used to the terrain while I had the chance even if it stole endurance like nothing else I had run on.

After the beach I wove my way through the trees toward a spur of rock I discovered during my first round of solo training here. The trees were more of a loose spun woodland here than a proper forest. The sunlight easily reached between the branches to touch on the riot of color that made up the ground cover now that we were nearly to the last quarter of the warm season. A dozen different shades of red—from crimson to burgundy—with little splashes of yellow and purple to highlight the false fire sprawling into the distance. I recognized a handful of the mosses, grasses, and shrubs making up the colorful display, but the area around Gabbler Shore Lake and the Folds didn’t have as many color changing plants as the varieties around here.

I ignored the part of me that wanted to stop and collect, to inspect the unknown plants. That knowledge wasn’t helpful to me even if I couldn’t help but start to list out the properties of the plants I did recognize in my head.

Instead I drew in the light, fresh air through my shadow black lips and took cold comfort in the knowledge that while she would be leaving on the seasonal run soon, the same as always with nothing to show for another year gone, I was learning new paths she could never follow. Perhaps I would show Fellen or Rawley the shadow paths one day, but not her.

Rough stone pressed against my palm as I reached a large spur of rock that rose above the woodland. It was cracked through on one side where it looked like about a third of the stone had broken away. That piece, sheer and sharp, pointed away from the remaining rock like it was trying to get as far away from it as possible. The broken stone hadn’t made it very far though since the crevice between the two looked just big enough for me to fit sliding sideways if I had any inclination to try fitting in such a small space.

I climbed the larger rock. It was more worn and pitted with far easier hand and footholds than what Rawley had me climb in Gabbler Shore. The spur of stone had nothing on the Seedling Palace, but there was something refreshing about climbing up and getting a good vantage point to see the surrounding area.

From here I could see our camp and the unnatural ring of pines in the distance along with the lake blocking everything to the north. The woodland continued to spread out to the east and got thicker in that direction and the south. A few rivers and streams wound through the trees to feed the lake, but I only had to jump across one slim stream to reach the stone spur. I kept an eye out for anything odd, but nothing disturbed the quiet, peaceful atmosphere.

After awhile I made my way back down the rock and set off back for the camp. If I had timed things rights I should arrive back at the camp just as the others were leaving the fighting training grounds.

My calculations were correct. Prevna gave me one of her knowing smiles as the group walked away toward their next training session. She was saying something to Juniper at the same time and the younger girl glanced to the side to see what had caught her attention. She lifted her chin in acknowledgment when she saw me and I grudgingly acknowledged them back.

Then it was time to continue working on my physical skills. I started with the stretches that Rawley had taught me before moving on to my spearwork. I didn’t know any fancy moves, but Rawley had made sure I knew the basics and I had continued to work on them after arriving at the Seedling Palace. While I hadn’t actually used my spear to fight much during my time on the shore, that little bit had shown me how important it was to have the moves you knew so drilled into you that you didn’t have to think about them. Better reaction time and more room to process what was happening around me.

I didn’t have that instinctual fluidity to my attack and defense yet, but I was determined to get there. I didn’t waste time deluding myself that I could become the level of fighter Breck, Ento, and Nii had the potential to become, but I was determined to at least be competent. That meant repetition upon repetition past the point that my arms shook from the weight of the spear and my legs wanted to sink down onto ground.

After I finished practicing with my spear I took a break to stretch again and drink from my water pouch. Once I felt somewhat recovered I did the entire practice over again with my knife. The spear couldn’t be the only weapon I was competent in. After knife practice came practice with my sling. I liked to finish with it because it was the weapon I was most familiar with, but it was also the one that would do the least good if someone decided to rush me. Better to increase my skills with the others more than have nothing to fall back if I wasn’t able to take my opponent down with the sling.

By the time I finished my weapon training the others had finished their own endurance training and were more than halfway through practicing their writing skills. Prevna had told me that even though the endless lessons continued it was nice to have mentors that actually answered questions even if they hadn’t learned everything themselves yet.

I grabbed my spare clothes from my tent and went to bathe in the lake. As I slipped into the water I made sure to stay near the edge. I wasn’t used to being intimidated by a lake, not with being from a waterhole tribe, but the sheer expanse of First Shore Lake was eerily similar to the ocean. Even if it was calmer and the sand was red instead of yellow.

Still, the cold water did its job and I was running through strategic scenarios with stones, grass, and a few errant twigs when Prevna found me. She had her own bundle of spare clothes under her arm.

I glanced at the sun. It was getting close to setting. “You’re not worried about missing the evening meal?”

She shrugged. “There’ll be some left for us.”

“Who said I’d wait for you?”

She gave me a look that both gave me a threatening reminder of who had brought me my meals when I was trapped on the wrong side of the garden, and that was quietly exasperated. Even without the reminder she knew I would wait, just like I knew that she knew that.

I had waited every other night she decided to bathe before the evening meal, after all.

I might like my solitude, but day after day of training on my own had somehow led me to sticking by Prevna when I had the excuse to. I would never admit it and she never outright mentioned it, but she wasn’t above teasingly alluding to it sometimes.

As she opened her mouth to make some sarcastic comment, I leaned over to the side and splashed water into her face. Well, I aimed for her face but the water only went as high as her belly.

Prevna gasped in exaggerated outrage, dropped her slightly wet change of clothes, and swept both her hands through the water to soak me with a big wave. I retaliated with another splash. She got me again, and by the time we were done, panting on the shore, we were both soaked through in our clothes and my little practice scenario of stick and stones had been washed away.

I might as well have not changed into my new clothes. Not with the way the wet wool scratched and itched. It would take forever to dry even near a fire. There was a reason we treated our cloaks to be water resistant.

I glowered at Prevna and she grinned back. One of her bright, happy smiles that didn’t hold a trace of her teasing wit. I blinked and looked away—never quite sure what to do when she looked at me like that.

Prevna leaned closer and spoke conspiratorially, “Don’t worry, no one else knows that you’re not entirely a wet blanket.”

My glare snapped back into place. “I’m not a wet blanket!”

Prevna snorted. “Tell your tendency to grumble and glower that.”

“It’s not my fault that people tend to be idiotic.”

Her lips twisted into a wry smile. “Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t lower the mood.”

I grumbled, she chuckled, and then I went to change into my old clothes while she took a proper dip in the lake. My old clothes might be slightly sweaty, but at least they were dry and that was nearly always preferable over heavy, itching wet wool when I didn’t have the rush of trying to beat an opponent to distract from the discomfort.

Prevna didn’t take the time to undo her hair and wash it properly; if she did there wouldn’t be anything left of the evening meal for us to get to. I didn’t miss the way she stilled whenever she caught the reflection of her lips in the water though. It always had the air of her catching sight of a stranger out of the corner of her eye, rather than the smug satisfaction I felt whenever I saw my own reflection.

I didn’t press her on it, just like she didn’t truly press me about the fact that I waited for her. If she wanted to talk about it, she would, and until then there was little point in me pressing us both outside our comfort zones. I doubted I had much of anything helpful to say, regardless.

After Prevna was finished and had changed into her very slightly damp clothes rather than her soaking ones we stopped by our tent to drape the wet clothes over top. The tents were small, only half again as big as the tiny huntress tent I had shared with Rawley during the seasonal run. Big enough for two people to sleep in with a hand span or so of space in between and that was all. It wasn’t really surprising that no one else wanted to sleep with me, so Prevna had taken one for the team despite having a couple offers to share a tent elsewhere. If she hadn’t, someone from the cohort would have been sleeping outside or three people would have been claustrophobically crushed into one tent. We had been allotted six tents for twelve people and that was that.

Wren and Dera had ended up together while Ento had secured the spot in Juniper’s tent. Ento and Idra had a surprisingly big fight over it which seemed to have settled down now. Idra had thrown her lot in with an uncaring Breck after that. I think Nii wanted to be in Ulo’s tent, though I couldn’t see the appeal, but she ended up with Loclen. She had also taken one for the team. Loclen and Andhi were even more hostile to each other now than they had been when we first all arrived at the Seedling Palace, and they would have ended up in the same tent if Nii hadn’t switched. I’d never say it out loud but I was mildly grateful that she had stopped the passive aggressive fights before they could begin. We already had enough tension in our little group without adding more and distractions weren’t productive.

Not that I was likely to ever be the one to ease those tensions.

Prevna and I got our food from the fire starter still tending to the fire and settled down to eat. Andhi had been boisterously telling a tale to about half of the group, but she quieted down when she saw me. I hadn’t really spoken to her since our first meeting, but apparently she had taken my insult to heart. I didn’t entirely like seeing how long my words could hurt, but it did mean I had one less person I had to worry about getting too close, so I let it be.

Wren took in our damp hair from where she sat nearby and grinned. “Have a fun time at the lake?”

Prevna smirked. “Would you believe me if I said Gimley started a water fight?”

I gave her the side eye for the small betrayal, but I didn’t protest. That would make it look like I cared, and it didn’t matter if the others knew I could have a bit of fun. It wasn’t like I was planning on doing so with any of them.

Idra butted into the conversation from our other side. “What’d you do to provoke her?”

Prevna gave her a flat look at the obvious provocation. “I don’t know, what’d you do to convince Ento you could use her as a pillow?”

Idra nearly shot up at that from where she was sprawled out with her head on Ento’s lap but Ento pressed her back down with one hand while she rolled her eyes. “She asked nicely.”

“I’d like to think I did the same.” Prevna took another bite of her food and casually turned back to Wren. “What did you end up doing?”

Wren launched into a whole spiel of exploring a bit with Chirp while they tried to see if any other birds wanted to chat. She told us about at least half a dozen different birds that I quickly forgot, but the key bit of information was that the birds seemed more nervous than the ones Wren normally talked to. They weren’t specific about why and she said that the birds she wasn’t bonded to tended to be less aware and smart than Chirp. Chirp preened a bit at that and then it was time for me to practice my shadow walking again. The moon had risen enough to cast decently strong shadows.

Prevna did what she could to coach me through my shadow walking attempts. I didn’t improve much on what I had accomplished earlier that day, but I didn’t bite the grass for once. Not that I expected to suddenly improve. Like with the weapons training, mastering shadow walking seemed to be more about dedicated repetitive practice. As long as I wasn’t practicing wrong.

We also worked on expanding our range to sense shadows. Prevna’s mentor told her that was all about constantly pushing the boundaries of what shadows you could sense, including how strong shadows needed to be for you to sense them within your range and expanding the actual distance you could sense. Some whisper women focused on expanding their range so that they could sense strong shadows at extraordinary distances and travel to them in one go while others had more limited range but could step out of a shadow that barely darkened the ground.

I wanted to be able to do both. I would be able to do both.

Eventually.

The moon was high in the sky before we returned to our tent to sleep and be rested to do the same routine the next day.