When we arrived at the building on the athletic grounds, I noticed a barrel. There were also several children standing near it, talking. When Ferret also saw them she stopped and got an annoyed look on her face. My best guess was that she didn't like someone in the group.

"If that creep over there talks to you," she said, pointing to the tallest member of the group, "Ignore him. He is a Dugin, and it shows."

I could understand why Ferret, being under Vellis, would hate someone under Dugin. Those under Vellis and Dugin had just never gotten along well with each other. While the former were sociable, carefree, and playful, the latter were serious, manipulative, and liked to be in control. To be honest, both of them could be equally annoying.

"Maybe if we hurry, he will not see us," Ferret grabbed my hand and pulled me more quickly to the barrel.

Ferret failed at avoiding him. The boy, and the group he was in, had all turned to look at us when we were within a few meters of the barrel. By the time we had reached the barrel, the group had formed a semi-circle around us. The boy stepped out.

"Hello there Fer." He said, adding a derogatory tone. "I see you found yourself a new pet."

"Leave us be, Dario. We do not want to be in your company."

"We?" He looked at me then back to Ferret. "Have you already told this… special thing a bunch of lies about me?" He looked at me again. "So, what has she told you?"

"That you're a Dugin and to ignore you. That's it," I purposefully ignored Ferret's earlier advice.

"A Dugin?" He looked back to Ferret. "Fer, my dear, again with the hate towards Dugin. Why do you keep making those born under Dugin sound so horrible?" He looked back to me, "You look to be a very intelligent girl. You should know that those of Vellis tend to not see things the way they really are."

It was true. From my experience with those born under Vellis in Porra-Kel saw things the way they wanted. The thing was that those born under Dugin also did this too. It was probably the only thing they would ever have in common.

"Be quiet, Dario. You are just trying to turn her against me and have her join your group of fools and future criminals." Ferret said.

"Fools?!" He laughed, as did his companions, though most of them looked as if they didn't find anything funny. "A Vellis is calling me a fool? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?" He shook his head, " I cannot believe we are having this argument again."

I could see why this guy, let's call him Dorito, had such a big group of "friends." He seemed charismatic and probably be a great gang leader someday.

Since I was getting tired of their argument, I turned to the water barrel. Inside was some mostly clean looking water and a few cups hanging onto the side. Since Terrans were rumored not to get sick easily, and that I avoided all but some of the worst ones, despite loads of sicknesses among the village, I wasn't too concerned about it being contaminated. Sharing a cup with someone else was gross though.

I took a drink anyway.

I heard Ferret laugh. "Salis is ignoring you already, Dario. I knew she was as smart as she is cute."

"Or maybe she is smart enough to realize how stupid you and your lies are," He turned towards his group and after telling them a joke about Ferret they left.

"Of all the people to meet," Ferret huffed to me before getting some water.

I had to agree with her. I had now been exposed to a group that I would normally have easily been able to avoid, but now that a certain boy associated me with Ferret, he would probably try to "win" me from her. Or maybe this would be a good way to pass some time. Since I hated people like Dorito, maybe I could find a way to "create some fireworks" inside his group. Nothing like a good civil war.

I heard Ferret sigh. "Let us move on before that cyst comes back." She motioned for me to follow her.

As I followed her, I found myself inside the building. It was full of weapons. While all the different bows looked to be deadly, most of the melee weapons were wood variants of the real thing.

“Choose two melee weapons and a bow. If you want me to help, I would love to find something that I think fits you the best,” her smile, and that suspicious look, back on her face.

Since she would most likely choose something that made me look the cutest, I declined her offer. Since the closest thing I had used to a weapon was a wood cutting axe, I had no idea what I would be best with. There were also more types of weapons to choose from than I had expected to find.

I first looked at the swords. While none of them were as big as some of those medieval European swords, they were all normal looking. As I looked at the swords I noticed that, despite all being wood, they were all heavy. Since I didn't want to tire myself out too quickly, I decided on a medium-sized, single-edged sword.

Moving on I came to what I would call the miscellaneous weapons. There were many weapons here. There were axes, clubs, spears, pole arms, and even a whip. Passing over the axes, clubs, and spears I decided on a pole arm. Since I already had a sword, I wanted to try something that had a bit of reach to it.

Finally, I went to the bows. Aside from the expected selection of different sizes of bows, there were crossbows. Since I had not expected to find anything like a crossbow, I went right to them. While they looked more simple than I remembered them, they were indeed crossbows. Since I knew they were easier to learn how to use than a bow, I picked a decent-sized one.

Now that I had chosen my weapons, I headed back to the door where Ferret was drinking more water.

"Hmm," she took a good look at my choices, "Are those not a little heavy for you?"

I set down the pole arm and crossbow, then swung the sword with one arm. While I did not doubt that my arm would get tired pretty quickly if I only used one arm, it would probably be fine if I used both.

"Ah!" Ferret said, suddenly excited. "You will look…" she paused and looked at me. "You will look so intimidating with all of those oversized weapons on you." Translation: You will look so cute with all of those oversized weapons on you. What worried me was that she was learning to conceal her fantasies.

"I did not expect you to choose a crossbow," She continued, changing to her serious mode, "Let me get you a bow too since you will train with that more. I will spar with you, so I will get weapons like the ones you chose."

Since I knew where the archery range was, I headed there as soon as she came back with a bow. When she saw where I was heading she followed me.

“I dislike archery," she frowned when she looked at the archery range, “It is not as much fun as a good fight between two equally skilled opponents.”

I didn't see how training how to kill people could be fun. Sure learning self-defense was good and all but enjoying it? Well, I guess it might be fun if you didn't like your opponent…

Since the archery range was not too far from the building, we were there in no time. While a few children were practicing with bows, it was nowhere near as crowded as the fighting circles where that teacher Bench was watching.

"I see you finally made it here, Ferra," said the archery teacher, Medic or whatever she had been called.

"Yes, Instructor Meric."

"So, how well did our Terran child here do?"

"Her results were about average, but I think she was holding back."

Medic looked at me, "Were you holding back?"

I shrugged. I could have made an excuse about my legs being tired but I think the results would have been the same even if they hadn't been.

"No matter. When we start your lessons, we will be able to tell," she looked back at Ferret, "Will you be fine handling her archery evaluation or should I get someone else? I know well your dislike for archery."

"I will be fine Instructor Meric."

"Make sure she does not hold back this time." Medic looked at me before leaving.

"You heard her Salis. No holding back now," Ferret smiled.

Ferret and I headed straight for the nearest open target. Aside from the target, I noticed that there were a few containers a little behind the shooting line. Inside these containers were many arrows for the bows and bolts for the crossbows. Since I had chosen a crossbow, I grabbed a bolt first.

I had never used a crossbow before so I wasn't too sure what I was doing, but somehow figured it out before Ferret had to intervene. The hardest part had been pulling back the firing mechanism, but the impressed look Ferret gave to me when I pulled it back was worth the effort. With that done all I had to do was load the bolt into the crossbow and I was done. It had been easier than I thought.

Next, I walked up to the firing line. The target looked to be about thirty meters away from me. I had no idea how hard they considered this distance and since I had never shot at targets before so I’d have to find out how well I would do. The only way I would find out was to shoot the thing.

Surprisingly, Ferret had been quiet the whole time. From looking at her I think she was more interested in what I would do and probably didn't want to spoil anything. Or maybe I was being too cute, and she was speechless. If it was the latter, then I would be more than happy to be cute for her if it kept her from talking.

With my attention back to the target, I lifted the crossbow to my shoulder. It felt heavier holding it up to my shoulder than when I had just been carrying it. While I was fine at the moment, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it up for too long so I needed to be quick.

I wasn't too sure if I was using the sights on the crossbow or even if they were sights but aimed as best as I could. When I was satisfied, I pulled the trigger and with a thump; the bolt left the crossbow. Soon after, I saw the bolt hit the target. I hadn't gotten a bull's eye, but I had hit about halfway between the edge and center. Hopefully next time I would do better.

"Wow!" Ferret sounded impressed, "Have you used a crossbow before?"

"Nope."

"Take a few more shots and then we can get to the bow. I doubt you will be as good with that."

I shot the crossbow four more times. While my second and third shots weren't much different from the first, my fourth shot was almost a bulls-eye. By the time I tried my fifth shot, my arms had got tired and were shaking so my aim was worse and it ended up missing the target.

"Done?" Ferret said when I set the crossbow down and stretched my arms. "Rest your arms for a minute and we can then try the bows."

For the next five minutes Ferret tried talking with me. At first I had answered a few questions, like where I had been living if I had had a family, and how long I had been in Flaern. When she started asking about things I liked and disliked, I stopped answering her, not wanted her to find ways to get on my good side.

When she saw I wouldn't talk to her, she started to try to play with me. When I sat on the ground and refused to do anything, she started poking my cheek. I promptly bit her finger, gathering a few laughs from the children at nearby targets.

Rubbing her finger, "I think it is time for you to try the bow."

I stood up and grabbed the bow from where I had laid it. Looking at the forms of the children shooting around me, I grabbed an arrow and tried doing what they were doing and holding the bow and arrow like they were.

Satisfied that I was doing everything right, I pulled the bowstring back. While I had been expecting it to be about as hard to pull the bowstring back as it had been arming the crossbow, it was easy even with my arms still tired from holding the crossbow.

Since the bow had nothing like a sight like the crossbow, I tried aiming with the arrow. Since I knew arrows dropped after firing, I aimed a little higher than where I wanted to hit. I fired. The arrow landed just in front of the target.

I grabbed another arrow. This time I aimed higher. This time it hit the very bottom of the target. I fired another arrow aiming even higher, but it landed short of the target.

I looked at Ferret. She had a grin on her face. Had she known this would happen all along? Had she chosen the weakest bow, knowing I was barely strong enough to hit the target?

"I see you gave her "that" bow Ferra," said Medic, coming out of nowhere.

"I could not help myself," Ferret grinned.

"She still hit the target. Few beginners can do that."

"You should see her hits with the crossbow."

"Not the best, especially with a crossbow, but better than most beginners," Medic turned to me, "I think you would do well in my accelerated class."

So I got into an accelerated class? While I guess I should have been happy with someone showing such expectations from me, I knew it would just give me more work to do. Besides, how did you accelerate training with a bow? I hoped it didn't involve too much pain.

"That is great news!" Ferret said excitedly and then, with less vigor, "I barely even made it past the evaluation."

"Yes, I remember," looked like she was remembering something mildly interesting, "You dropped the arrow so many while times while I did not think you would ever shoot one let alone hit the target."

Ferret looked embarrassed, "If it was not for Instructor Fin's advice…"

"Yes, he said it was one of his greatest accomplishments in his last few years here."

"I was not that bad!"

"No, sadly I have seen worse."

Medic soon left for the next child over.

"We should go to the sparring circle. It is getting late." Ferret sighed.

I nodded.