"Here you are, Lolo." Fortus opened one of many large guest houses lining a great courtyard.

"This is my room?!" Fortus couldn't help but grin as Lolo looked around the oversized guest house with the wonder of a small child. "Is everyone staying in a room like this?"

He nodded. "You saw Ulana's room. The guest homes here are all like this one."

"This is absurd!" Lolo laughed and walked over to an enormous four poster bed with a giant headboard and richly embroidered drapes hanging around the other three sides. "This bed could comfortably sleep four or five of me. I'm afraid I'll fall in and never be seen again! But I'll bet it's fun to jump on," she added as an afterthought.

Fortus threw his head back in a hearty laugh. "You would."

"Didn't you ever jump on the bed as a kid?"

"Didn't everyone? But we’re hardly kids anymore, Lolo."

She hopped on the edge of the bed to bounce slightly. "Compared to the size of this bed, I kind of feel like one." She laughed and looked up at Fortus, still standing in the doorway. "So, how about that hug? Or are you still on duty?"

Fortus shook his head, amused. "I could probably get away with a hug now."

Lolo didn't have to be told twice. She hopped down from the bed and skipped to the front door. "It's good to see you again, Fortus. I really did miss you this year. You are a lousy pen pal."

"Sorry about that. I've been kind of busy. Lots of training."

"Same here! But I still manage to write," Lolo pouted.

Fortus apologized by pulling Lolo into a bonus hug. "I missed you too, Lolo."

"By the way," Lolo pushed away to ask, "where do you live? Are you going to be staying in the palace guest houses with us, or is your home close enough for you to commute back and forth every day."

"My home is here in the palace, Lolo. It's actually not far from this courtyard."

"I didn't realize that you grew up in the palace."

"Where did you think the Lion General and his family would live?"

"I dunno. I guess I’ve never thought about it that hard. I kind of thought that maybe the military and its leaders had their own space somewhere... else."

"Well, surprise!" Fortus nudged Lolo’s shoulder.

"You should show me where you grew up sometime-- all the places that are important to you. That would be interesting to me."

“There’s not much to see, honestly. You’ll see most of it just from being a part of the exchange anyway.”

“Still. Seeing the Lion Tribe through your eyes would be more meaningful.”

“I mean, if you insist,” Fortus shrugged.

“You are my designated escort,” Lolo teased.

There was a knock at the still open door.

“Come in,” Lolo called.

The oversized doorway seemed small compared to the even more oversized person filling it.

“Standig! Will you ever. Stop. Growing?!” Lolo exclaimed.

Standig stepped into the guest house, ducking under the door frame out of habit. “Well, it’s nice to see you too, Lolo! Fortus,” Standig acknowledged the lion with a nod.

Fortus whistled. “I’m only guessing, but you seem to be, what, a full foot taller than me now?”

“Well, how tall are you?” Standig asked.

“Six-two.”

“Not quite a full foot-- still an inch shy,” Standig grinned. “Give me another year.”

“Now that you’ve sized each other up, literally, Standig, you haven’t hugged me yet,” Lolo complained.

“Should I pick you up or kneel down first?” Standig teased.

The towering bear got jabbed in the side instead of hugged for that comment.

“Hey, I still want my hug,” he chuckled.

Lolo’s nose scrunched up at him. “Fine.” His waist was level with her chest. “I was serious last year, Standig. If you keep growing like this, you really will have to pick me up or kneel down for me to hug you.”

“Like this?” Standig sank to his knees. He was now about her height.

“Show off,” Lolo smirked, but, she had to admit, on his knees, he was much more comfortable to hug.

***

“Hey, Lolo! I have a surprise for you!” Ulana burst into Lolo’s room early the next morning. “I can’t believe I almost forgot!”

“Ulana,” Lolo groaned.

“You’re not out of bed yet?!”

“No! The sun isn’t up, so I’m not either.”

“But we need to do your hair and make-up still!”

“What for? We just have combat training until after lunch.”

“Get out of bed, right now!” Ulana ordered.

“Or what?”

“Or I will jump on the bed and tickle you until you do.”

Lolo sighed. “Fine. You’re as bad as my mother.”

“Up!” Ulana snapped impatiently.

Lolo rolled out of bed, still moaning, and Ulana got to work dragging Lolo to a wash bin to help her shampoo her hair and wash her face.

“Is this really necessary, Ulana? Just put the hair in a ponytail.”

“Um, no! You are leaving your hair down today.” Ulana was adamant.

“Half up?” Lolo tried to negotiate. “Just to keep it out of my face for training?”

“I’ll pull the front sections back, but that’s it.”

Lolo allowed Ulana to drag her around the room. With hair and make-up done to Ulana’s satisfaction, Ulana grabbed a neatly folded package by the front door.

“Surprise!”

“What is it?”

“Open it! It’s for you to wear to practice today.”

“A training outfit?”

“Just open it.”

Huo Lohse untied the package to find a set of tailored clothes. First came a shimmery, silver-colored, button-down, sleeveless bodice, tailored to be form-fitting with a high collar cut in the front into a star shape with a deep V-neck forming a point of the star. Under that was a pair of black capri pants with a slit on the sides of each leg to the knee and buttons at the tops of the slits and three inches above the slits, attaching long, gauzy green ribbons to the pants.

“Ulana, what is this?”

“Keep going!”

Finally, Lolo pulled out a sheer silk chiffon top of some sort. It was a rich green color to match the ribbons on the pants.

“Do you like it? I had it specially made just for you,” Ulana bounced.

“It’s pretty, but I’m not sure what I’m looking at,” Lolo admitted.

“They’re training clothes.”

“I’ve never seen training clothes like this before.”

“That’s because this is the stylized training uniform of a phoenix shield maiden. Well, except that I chose different colors for yours.”

“This is what you wear as a shield maiden?”

“Uh-huh! Here, let me help you put it on!”

The black pants and silver bodice went on first, then Lolo’s sword belt, and then the sheer, green top. The sides of the top wrapped around her waist, one side threading through the other to tie in a bow at the back. The sleeves fell about halfway down her forearms in a loose bell-shape. Additional buttons with long ribbons attached to the sleeves just above the elbows. From her hips down, six panels of fabric, three in front, three in back, fell loose, creating a sort of skirt.

“It fits perfectly!” Ulana practically squealed. “Oh, I knew this style would look good on you! I took that red dress you gave me last summer to the seamstress that made this so she could extrapolate your measurements.”

“Ulana, can you actually fight in these?” Lolo was confused by all of the impractical details of the outfit.

“Just trust me, Lolo.”

Huo Lohse caught a certain impishness in Ulana’s expression, but she decided not to argue.

“I brought my training clothes too. Mind if I change real quick?”

“Go ahead.”

Ulana grabbed a second package by the front door and from it removed a gold-colored bodice, black pants with bright red ribbons, and a red chiffon top constructed in the same way as Lolo’s green top.

“Ulana, what are all the ribbons and the skirt for?” Lolo asked, still confused.

“They represent the feathered tail of a phoenix, but they also make fighting a lot more fun.”

“How so?”

“Trust me, Lolo. Just trust me.”

Lolo followed Ulana into the courtyard where they were told to meet for training. This time in the morning was a busy one at the palace. The Lion Tribe soldiers appeared to be changing shifts.

“What in the world are you wearing, Lolo?” Haowan asked with an excessive amount of cheek.

“Ulana brought them for me. This is what she wears to train as a shield maiden,” Lolo ignored Haowan’s tone.

“You look ridiculous.”

Lolo stuck her tongue out at her brother.

“Just ignore him, Lolo,” Ulana grinned. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. While we wait for everyone to show up, do you want to warm-up with me?”

“Sure! It beats talking to Haowan, and I want to see those new aerials you were telling me about yesterday.”

Ulana drew her sword to square up with Lolo. They were off; Lolo and Ulana crossed blades. It was obvious pretty quickly that Ulana’s flirting had improved her sword play significantly.

Ulana spun to swing her sword at Lolo’s side, her wavy auburn hair and bright red ribbons and skirt whipped around her as she spun. Lolo deflected the attack and spun out, her own silky black hair and green skirt and ribbons swishing around her. Lolo swung her sword at Ulana’s waist. Ulana dodged spectacularly by doing a backwards flip over Lolo’s sword.

“Nice one, Ulana! You’ll have to teach me that,” Lolo grinned.

“You bet!”

Their sparring match continued. Ulana pulled a spin jump attack that brought both her foot and sword down on Lolo. Lolo would either have to accept getting kicked in favor of blocking the sword or dodge. She chose to dodge and somersaulted away to the side. Ulana hadn’t anticipated Lolo's dodge, so Lolo was provided an opportunity to get behind Ulana.

Lolo moved into a back-to-back position with her friend to follow Ulana’s rotation as she tried to turn around to face Lolo. The girls twirled around each other until Lolo spun out and away, bringing her sword up to block Ulana’s attack over her head.

They squared up again, and Ulana took a moment to look around the courtyard. Knocking Lolo’s sword arm to the side, Ulana stepped in close to whisper in Lolo’s ear.

“We’re being watched.”

Ulana wasn’t kidding. Somehow, without her noticing, the courtyard had filled up with passing soldiers and the rest of the trainees to watch the girls spar. While Lolo was distracted by the audience, Ulana grabbed her left hand and spun her around as though they were dancing. Their left hands still locked together, Lolo and Ulana continued their fight, crossing blades around their arms, using each other to twist and spin as they went.

It was a dizzying, impractical match but extremely fun for the girls. By the time they let go of each other, both girls were laughing. Ulana put her sword away to give Lolo a hug.

“Well done, Lolo. That was so much fun!”

“I’m not even sure that we could call that a sparring match,” Lolo grinned as Ulana released her.

“I did say ‘warm-up with me’, not ‘spar’,” Ulana teased gently. “And look!”

Lolo looked around to find that their audience had grown considerably. They were completely surrounded by packs of soldiers enjoying the spectacle. While Ulana seemed to be enjoying the attention, Lolo felt bashful and searched the crowd for familiar faces. Fortunately, Standig’s height made him pretty hard to miss, and he had grouped up with the rest of the trainees. Unfortunately, the entire group of trainees were also gaping at Lolo and Ulana (minus Lolo's brothers). This only served to heighten Lolo's self-consciousness.

“Attention!” someone yelled, and all the soldiers, plus Fortus, turned toward the disembodied male voice to salute. “What are you men doing here in the courtyard? I wasn’t made aware of any social gatherings.”

The crowd parted to allow the man through. This newcomer was clearly some sort of military leader. He walked and spoke with confidence and authority. Lolo recognized his golden-brown eyes, fringed by salty blonde hair.

“Soldiers, you are all dismissed,” the man said.

“Come on, Ulana.” Lolo tugged on Ulana’s hand as their audience disbanded.

The girls joined the rest of the trainees (there were only ten total for this year’s exchange), and, as Lolo had predicted, she and Ulana were the only girls.

The man watched the girls rejoin the cluster and approached them. “At ease,” he told Fortus who was still saluting. “Introduce me to your classmates.”

“Yes, sir.” Fortus stepped forward and turned to face the group. “You are already familiar with Ingenex Felis,” Fortus said, pointing out the second year Lion Tribe trainee. “From the Bear Tribe this year, we have Standig Tragen, Ernkit Starkam, and Begrent Starkam.” The three bears stepped forward to be acknowledged. “From the Phoenix Tribe, we have Ulana Zugeer.” Ulana curtsied. “And from the Wolf Tribe, we have Fengli Daozi, Zhongyan Lang, Haowan Lang, and Huo Lohse Lang.” The four wolves stepped forward, but the man only seemed to notice Huo Lohse. He studied her intensely (but not in a way that made her uncomfortable).

“Thank you, Fortus. You may rejoin the ranks.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I am Torvus Arum, the general of the Lion Tribe military. While I am not one of your instructors, I will be observing your training this summer. You will follow me to the practice field where I will introduce you to your combat instructor.”

As the trainees followed the Lion General, Lolo moved through the group to find Fortus.

“Hey,” she whispered, “that’s your dad, right?”

Fortus nodded.

“Interesting.”

“What is?”

“Well, you’re his son, but you seem more like one of his soldiers.”

“My father thinks of his soldiers as his sons.”

“But you’re his actual son,” Lolo wasn't sure how to get her point across tactfully.

Fortus smiled. “I know our relationship is different from what you’re used to seeing in a family, Lolo, but it works for us. And we do step out of our military roles occasionally in private.”

Lolo’s eyebrows knit together. “If it works for you, that’s great! It just surprised me.”

“Were you worried?”

“Not exactly. Just… I don’t know.” Huo Lohse wasn’t able to form her thoughts into words. “Do you like having a military relationship with your dad?”

“It’s what I grew up with, so I’m used to it. It works for us,” Fortus repeated.

“Yeah, but do you like it?” Lolo pressed.

“I guess so. I don’t know any different, Lolo, so I’m not sure how to answer your question.”

Lolo changed the subject. "Your dad seemed to recognize my name."

Fortus nodded.

"You told him about me?"

"I was thoroughly debriefed after last summer," Fortus told her.

Lolo stopped dead in her tracks, and Fortus turned back to look at her while the rest of the group moved past them. "How thoroughly?"

Some impulse compelled Fortus to grab her hand. "I didn't break my promise, Lolo."

She searched his face. There was an emotion there that she couldn't read, but she could read his sincerity. "Thank you, Fortus. I'm sure that wasn't easy for you."

"We'd better catch up with the others," he smiled at her. Still holding her hand, Fortus pulled her toward the practice field, only letting go once they'd caught up with the group.