Every day for the rest of the week felt like a repeat of the first, and they never touched the practice swords. Everyone started to get used to being constantly hungry and tired, but pretty soon, it started affecting their performances. Their running times got progressively slower, and people did start passing out while working under the heat of the summer sun. With each new symptom of the group’s collective physical weakening, Lieutenant Beraham seemed happier.

“Fortus, are you sure this is normal for military training?” Lolo asked during another early morning run. “This seems ethically questionable at best. Three people passed out yesterday afternoon, but they didn’t receive any medical treatment or anything. And now they are here, running again!”

Fortus frowned. “You’re right, Lolo.” He looked around furtively. “There’s something else that’s troubling me more, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Have you listened to any of the soldiers’ conversations since we’ve been here?”

“Not especially, why?

“They talk as though they are planning a war. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been listening. But they aren’t worried about diplomatic faux pas if one of us were to get seriously hurt, and they say things like ‘it’s only a matter of time’ before we’ll be taught a ‘real lesson’ about which tribe is the ‘superior’ one.”

“They said that?”

“Not exactly. I’m only piecing together phrases I’ve heard throughout the week. But I think it’s still worrisome.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

“No. Everyone’s just trying to survive right now.”

“If you can still talk, you’re not running hard enough!” the lieutenant screamed at them.

Fortus and Lolo exchanged a look and stopped talking.

On Saturday, the trainees were woken up and told they had thirty minutes to ‘dress well’ for a surprise visitor. Et’zana asked the soldiers to clarify what that meant. “At least tell us if we should be wearing training clothes or not.” She didn’t get an answer.

“I’d guess you should wear your best training clothes and actually get around to doing your hair and make-up,” Lolo suggested.

The girls helped each other get ready because there weren’t any mirrors in the bunker.

“I wonder who our surprise visitor is supposed to be,” Ulana said.

“No idea,” Lolo responded.

The soldiers reappeared at the door to rush the girls to the mess hall. The tables and chairs of the hall were stacked up against the walls, and the trainees were ordered to stand still and silent in a straight line to welcome the guest.

A man in all black armor entered the mess hall. He had black hair and dark eyes mixed with flecks of a golden-yellow. He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was impossibly large and powerfully built. He oozed a malicious swagger that made Huo Lohse’s blood run cold, like a man that didn’t fear anything and wouldn’t hesitate to kill. Even Lieutenant Beraham’s spiteful nature paled in comparison to this new arrival.

“I am General Yudha,” the man introduced himself in a deep voice as he paced up and down the line of students. “You may have heard of me as the Dragon General. The lieutenant here has been reporting to my captains about your pathetic performances this week, and news of your failures reached me last night. To say that I am disappointed is a gross understatement. You, the trainees of the exchange, are supposed to be the best and the brightest of your tribes. I was looking forward to having you train here, for you to set the bar for our young cadets. Instead, you disgust me,” he spat.

Some of the trainees nearest to him flinched, and the Dragon General narrowed his eyes at them before continuing. “You’re all nothing but a bunch of pretty boys and pampered little princesses! I’ve decided to grant you a choice. Tomorrow, anyone who doesn’t want to stay and play anymore can go home and cry to their mommies and daddies. Stay, and you can try to redeem yourselves.”

General Yudha swept out of the hall, his offer hanging in his wake, and the trainees released their collectively held breath. They all looked around at each other, searching for some kind of reassurance. Lieutenant Beraham entered the hall and ordered the trainees to start the morning run, intentionally ignoring the fact that they hadn’t eaten breakfast.

For the first time all week, the trainees returned to the bunker and met in the dirt courtyard instead of going to bed.

Huo Lohse looked around and saw soldiers posted all around the bunker area. “Hey, guys,” she suggested, “let’s take this inside.” Her classmates followed her into the girls' building and found seats on the beds. Everyone turned to look at Lolo. “Why are you all looking at me?”

“Because you’re the one that called the group to order,” Bellechen said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder.

“Oh. Ok, then. I’m assuming everyone wants to discuss the general’s visit?”

“No, Lolo, we’re here for some other reason,” Haowan teased lamely, and Lolo rolled her eyes.

“Well, I guess we should see what everyone is thinking, then.” Lolo scanned the group for Fortus and bit her lip. “Raise your hand if you are considering staying.”

Lolo and Fortus both raised their hands, and to everyone’s surprise, so did Durfein.

“But why?” Lingdao asked. He observed the connection between Fortus and Lolo and continued. “Do you know something the rest of us don’t?”

“It’s just a hunch,” Fortus said.

“Let’s hear it, then,” Lingdao pressed.

Before Fortus could explain, Lolo interjected. “Lingdao, I don’t think everyone needs to hear this, because I think it would be best for everyone else to go home.”

“And I think that we all want to hear why anyone would even consider staying,” Lingdao argued.

“Fine. Let’s do this, everyone. Group up with your tribe and pick a representative to come talk to Fortus and me. Choose someone that would have the best shot at getting through the summer here, in case they feel the need to stay.”

The group got up to shuffle around, and Lolo pulled Fortus and Durfein to a corner of the room.

“Durfein, why are you thinking of staying?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Durfein appeared to be struggling with his reasoning. “It’s just that I keep getting this feeling that if I don’t finish the armor for the general, something terrible will happen.”

“Were you threatened?”

“Not exactly. Never directly, anyway. There’s just this lingering feeling that if I fail, my tribe will suffer for it.”

Lolo wanted to ask more questions, but they were interrupted by the arrival of Lingdao, Standig, Ulana, Haleit from the small Hawk Tribe, and Et’zana.

Huo Lohse ushered the group deeper into the corner. “Before we explain, I want to make something very clear. I don’t think any of you should stay, those of you from the smaller tribes especially, and Lingdao, please take everyone home and let me represent the Wolf Tribe here.”

“Why not those of us from the smaller tribes?” Haleit asked.

“Two reasons. First, I think it would be better for you to return and report what we are about to tell you. Second, because you come from smaller tribes, the dragons have less incentive to keep you alive.”

Her words were met with a somber silence.

Fortus picked up the torch to explain his hunch. “I’ve been listening to the soldiers talking with each other this week. I haven’t heard anything terribly specific, but I’ve been getting the sense that the Dragon Tribe is preparing to start a war.”

“What’s your evidence?” Lingdao asked.

“Like I said, nothing specific. It’s just a hunch.”

“Why should we risk staying for your hunch?”

Lolo took over. “Because Fortus is the son of the Lion General, Lingdao. He speaks the same language as these soldiers, and he understands the way they think.”

“I’d still like an explanation.”

Fortus tried to put his hunch into words. “It’s the way they talk about us when they think no one is listening. They don’t see us as cadets, juniors, visitors, people-- they are dehumanizing us. We are inferior, disposable to them. It’s the way a soldier views an enemy. Something less than human is easier to kill. And then they seem to be waiting for something. They half expect the status quo to change.”

“Then why would you want to stay if they are already preparing themselves to kill you?”

“Because if they are preparing for war, we need to know about it, and now might be the only opportunity we have to gather information from inside the Dragon Tribe,” Standig summed up.

Fortus nodded.

“Leave this to us and go home, guys,” Huo Lohse pled. “Warn your tribe leaders. I will write up an intelligence report on everything we learn after the summer is over to send to you. I don’t want you to risk staying. There’s no guarantee that we will even find anything. At least take some time to think about it.”

“I don’t need time to think about it, Lolo. I’m staying,” Standig said.

“Standig, please-” Lolo started to protest.

“Me too,” Ulana interrupted her. “I’m staying too. Don’t try to argue with me, Lolo,” she added, seeing the look on her friend’s face. “You’re going to need help.”

“And the rest of you?” Lolo was afraid to ask.

Et’zana was the first to admit that she was still going home. “I don’t think I have the strength to stay, and I know my aunt will want to know about this sooner than later.”

“I’m going to go home and warn all the smaller tribes,” Haleit said. “We are going to need the earlier warning to prepare ourselves.”

“Haleit, could you be sure to warn my parents too?” Durfein requested. “I’m staying to finish my project, and maybe I can get some information from the armorer.”

“Lingdao,” Lolo turned to her brother, “please go home and tell dad and Philige about what’s going on here and start working on a plan to get us out sooner. They will believe you. Maybe, between two tribe leaders, they will have some clever ideas. I don’t know that we will survive an entire summer here.”

Lingdao grudgingly agreed. “I don’t like this, Lolo. Leaving you here by yourself? It doesn’t seem right.”

“I’m not alone, Lingdao. Besides, you know how stubborn I am.”

Lingdao gave his little sister a hug. “It really should be me staying.”

“I disagree. I think I have a better chance of surviving here than you do.”

“Why? Because you’re a girl?”

“Well, you can’t deny that I’m a lot prettier to look at,” she grinned at him. “But, seriously, at least I’m not as hungry as you.”

As usual, the trainees were woken up by soldiers banging on the door. Everyone was packed and ready to go.

“Get your things and report to the registration room to retrieve your swords,” the lieutenant ordered. Standig, Fortus, and Durfein met Huo Lohse and Ulana outside the bunkers. “What are you five doing over there? Get your things!”

“We aren’t leaving, sir,” Lolo spoke up.

“What?”

“I said, we want to continue our training.”

Clearly the lieutenant hadn’t expected this, because for the first time, he didn’t have orders or insults to issue. “You’re staying?”

“That’s what I said,” Lolo suppressed a laugh.

Lieutenant Beraham seemed lost in thought and left without a word to check-out the rest of the trainees. The five friends looked at each other.

“What should we do now?” Ulana asked.

“I guess, go look for some breakfast?” Lolo suggested.

Without any better ideas, the group went to the mess hall. The hall cook looked like he was preparing to lock up the kitchen for the foreseeable future and startled when they walked in.

“What are you doing here?” he glared at them.

“Coming for breakfast,” Lolo stated.

The two of them just stood looking at each other for a minute before the cook returned to the kitchen, grumbling something to himself. The trainees found some seats to wait in. The cook made the usual pot of plain oatmeal, but rather than serving it, he brought the whole pot out for the trainees to help themselves. They were delighted to find that he’d made the same amount for them that he usually made to spread between the previous eighteen trainees.

“I forgot what it felt like to be full!” Durfein remarked when they had polished off the pot.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Lolo collected the empty dishes to return to the kitchen. The cook was cleaning up, still grumbling to himself and Huo Lohse had an idea.

“Sir, where can I wash these?”

The cook stopped grumbling to look at her. “Do what?”

“Wash these. Where’s the wash bin?”

Surprised, the cook pointed to the corner, and Lolo sat down to do the dishes. When she had finished, she found a towel to wipe them dry.

“Where do these go?”

“Uh, I’ll take them.”

Huo Lohse smiled cheerily at him. “Thanks for breakfast,” she said, and returned to the mess hall.

Captain Tamkhee Yudha was staring her friends down when she returned. She hadn’t seen him since their first day at camp. “Where were you?!”

“In the kitchen, captain.”

“Doing what?”

“Washing dishes.”

Not sure where to go with that, Tamkhee ordered her to join the group. “You will collect your practice swords and meet me for your morning run. Now!”

They left quickly to tuck the wood swords from their bunkers into their belts, knowing that they would be in trouble if Tamkhee had to wait more than a few seconds for them to reach the field. When they did arrive at the field, they didn’t wait for instructions and immediately started their run. It was amazing how much easier the run was when they weren’t passing out from hunger. The trainees finished their fifty plus laps, and Durfein left for the armory while the others lined up for more orders.

Tamkhee was holding a wooden sword of his own when he walked up to them. “Prepare yourselves.”

It happened so quickly, Lolo almost didn’t see it. Tamkhee launched himself at the trainees before they even had time to draw, hitting Fortus hard across the chest and kicking Ulana violently to the ground. Lolo managed to avoid the attack on reflex and adrenaline and got her sword up in time to block Standig from getting stabbed in the gut, but she had to compromise her footing to do it. Tamkhee’s smile was unsettling as he directed another attack at her that upset her balance and knocked her to the ground, his sword at her throat. He lowered his weapon.

Pointing at each of the trainees in turn, Tamkhee declared the results. “Fortus, dead. Ulana, injured. I’d kill you after dealing with the others. Huo Lohse, dead. Standig, you’re lucky to have such a faithful guard dog,” he sneered. “I even gave you a warning. From now on, there will be no more warnings. You must be prepared to fight for your lives at all times. There are no second chances on the battlefield.”

Huo Lohse got up to check on Ulana who had hit her head pretty hard when she fell. “Hey, are you ok? Can you get up?”

Ulana was rubbing a bump on the side of her head but was otherwise alright. “I’ll be ok. Just a little dizzy.”

Tamkhee’s shadow settled over them. “Get up,” he ordered.

Lolo got to her feet quickly and offered her hand to Ulana. While she managed to get Ulana upright, it proved difficult to keep her that way. Ulana was having a hard time staying conscious and kept swaying to the left, bracing herself against Lolo to steady herself.

Tamkhee elected to ignore Ulana’s injury and ordered the cadets to follow him to the obstacle course.

“Excuse me, captain,” Lolo stopped him. “Ulana is hurt and needs to rest.”

Something Lolo couldn’t identify flickered across his face. “Your comrade is down. Get her back yourself. You have thirty minutes.”

This time frame seemed awfully generous for a ten minute round trip, eight if she ran back, but Lolo didn’t question him. Pulling Ulana’s arm over her shoulders, Lolo started the walk back to the bunkers.

Once the girls were gone, Tamkhee raised his arm in some kind of signal, and four soldiers appeared from out of the woods on the side of the field. “Men, I have just received intelligence that there are two spies leaving to report critical information. See to it that they don’t make it out alive.”

Standig moved to start a fight, but Fortus stopped him. “Easy. They are only armed with practice swords,” he whispered.

“What?”

“This is part of the training. Lolo’s scrappy. They’ll be ok.”

About halfway to the bunker, Lolo felt that something was off and her hand moved instinctively to her sword. It was too quiet. Not even the birds were chirping anymore. So this was the reason for the thirty minutes.

“Lolo, why did we stop?” Ulana asked, disoriented.

“Shh.” Lolo shifted Ulana’s arm to hold it at the elbow for support. As they continued their walk, Lolo kept a close eye on the trees around them.

She heard them before she saw them. Two soldiers emerged from behind the trees they’d just passed brandishing their swords. With her hand already on her own sword, Lolo was prepared to meet them.

The first soldier opened with a powerful swing directed at Lolo’s head. She dodged and jabbed him hard in the ribs with her sword, removing him from the fight before his companion could join in. The second soldier was more calculating and chose to feel out Lolo’s sword style before making a big move. They crossed blades, hitting back and forth a few times before the soldier dropped to sweep her legs with his. She landed hard, but rolled out of harm’s way before the soldier could land a blow. Rising to her feet, two more soldiers emerged from the trees moving straight for Ulana. Lolo jumped back to help Ulana drop to a sitting position to make it easier to guard her and grabbed Ulana’s sword.

Three on one, and Lolo couldn’t move away without exposing Ulana to danger. The soldiers got cocky. The two new arrivals both brought their swords down over Lolo’s head. She wasn’t strong enough to directly block both hits, but she managed to deflect them to her right side, throwing the man on her left off balance into the one on the right. It was too easy. While they were both recovering from crashing into each other, Lolo used Ulana’s sword to hit the man on the left in the back and whacked her own sword on the shoulder of the man on the right. They were down.

She was back to one-on-one with the more calculating soldier. Lolo pushed him back so she could move away from Ulana by slicing her swords through the air level with his chest. They exchanged blows for a couple of minutes. The soldier liked using more complex maneuvers involving lots of aerials and spins, but Lolo didn’t have time to play games. As the soldier executed another spin-jump attack, Lolo followed his rotation so that when he stopped spinning, she was on his left instead of in front of him as he expected. One hard hit to his left ribs, and he was down.

Still holding both swords, Lolo collected Ulana and walked the rest of the way to the bunker.

Back at the training field, Tamkhee had the boys doing push-ups while they waited for someone to report back. Standig was especially relieved to see Lolo return unscathed, while Fortus took immense pleasure watching her drag one of her disarmed, failed attackers along by the collar with her sword prodding him in the ribs in an act of defiant bravado.

“One of yours, I believe,” she said to Tamkhee as she forced the soldier forward and released him. “He was still bellyaching after I returned from dropping Ulana off.” Lolo walked around Tamkhee to join the boys doing push-ups, and Fortus nearly choked on his suppressed laughter.

Captain Yudha dismissed the cowering soldier. “I’ll deal with you all later,” he said, his voice venomous. He turned to find all three cadets obediently doing their push-ups. “Get up!” They complied. “Let’s see how well you like playing in the dirt.”

For the rest of the day, Fortus, Standig, and Huo Lohse worked on a trench six feet deep and six feet wide with Fortus serving as a near perfect measuring stick. At dinner time, Lolo ran back to the bunker to collect Ulana. Ulana really wasn’t doing well. While the dizziness had faded, her headache was bad enough to make her nauseous.

“Are you hungry?”

“No, just go without me. I feel sick to my stomach.”

“Show me where you hit your head.”

Ulana pointed to the area behind her right ear, and Lolo parted the hair there to inspect the goose egg. Last year, Shanti had taught her that cold temperatures could reduce bruising and swelling.

“I’ll be right back.”

Lolo grabbed a sheet off one of the recently abandoned beds and ripped it into long, thin rags. She then ran to the river bank to soak the rags in the cold water. When she returned to the bunker, Lolo pressed the cold onto Ulana’s injury and wrapped a second cloth around her head to keep the compress on.

“Lie down. Hopefully that helps. I’ll bring something back from the mess hall for you.”

“Lolo, I’m sorry to be such a burden.” Ulana was on the brink of tears.

“You’re not a burden, Ulana. Tamkhee could have kicked any one of us like that. You just got unlucky today.”

“It’s more than that. You and I both know that out of the four of us, I’m the weakest.”

“Maybe for now, but that’s only because the rest of us have had a lot more practice. I grew up sparring with my brothers and training as a spirit host from the time I was five. Standig grew up sparring with his brother and received similar early training. Fortus grew up with the Lion General as his personal teacher. He’s been fighting since he was big enough to swing a stick around. When was the first time you picked up a sword?”

“My dad sent me to a youth academy when I turned fourteen. Swordsmanship was a unit in our exercise class. The instructor told me I had some talent and gave me and a few others the opportunity to learn more after classes. Then my dad let me train as a shield maiden with the palace guards. My sisters did something similar, though they only made it through the training by flirting with the instructors.”

“So you started learning how to use a sword, what, four years ago?”

“Give or take.”

“Dang, girl! For only four years, you’re amazing! You hold your own with a group of lifelong swordsmen your age.”

“Maybe. But in a situation like this, it’s important to do more than just hold my own. I need to be able to contribute to the team, or we’re not going to survive this summer. I shouldn’t have insisted on staying.”

“Well, not with an attitude like that. Ulana, I see two options for you. Give up and take this abuse lying down, or work hard and leave here stronger than ever. I doubt that you’ll get much actual training from the dragons, but if you want, I will train you in the evenings. Short lessons, so we can sleep.”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course! If you’re this good after only four years, with some proper training, you’ll be better than us all in no time.”

Ulana smiled. “Thanks Lolo. I’d love to train with you.”

Lolo returned Ulana's smile and sank onto the bed to give her a hug. "We'll get through this, Ulana."