The walk over to the sparring circles was quick and thankfully quiet. Ferret still looked embarrassed from her talk with Medic. I was more than happy to let her stay that way if it meant quiet.

"Is something wrong?" Asked Bench when we arrived at the sparring circles.

"Nothing." Ferret said a bit too quickly.

"How has your new friend been performing?" He said, ignoring Ferret's suspicious denial.

"She did well with her running and Instructor Meric put her in the accelerated archery training."

Bench looked at me. He had a sad look on his face. "That is quite unfortunate. Meric's idea of accelerated training is making the victims stay for an hour or so longer than normal. You have my condolences." He then laughed.

"Yes, that is not something I would wish on anyone," Ferret added, though she did not laugh.

"Well, let us see what we have here," Bench said, changing the subject when he noticed Ferret, "A sword, as expected, and a pole ax. Interesting choice."

Ferret and I walked to the nearest open sparring circle. We each set our poleaxes to the side and readied our swords.

"For the first while I want you to attack me. I will only block and not fight back. After that, I will see how good you are at defense and countering," Ferret smiled, "I do not want to put a mark on your cute face or skin so I will not be too hard on you."

Since I had been watching the other children that had been sparring as much as possible, I had an idea about how I should hold the sword. I had also gotten a few ideas on ways to attack Ferret. My only problem was that I had already tired my arms a little from holding the crossbow. My arms had had a few minutes to rest since then and the fact that the bow had required little strength would hopefully have been enough to let my strength go back to normal.

When I took my first swing with the sword, it wasn't at Ferret. I wanted to get used to the weight of the sword before I went after her. For the next minute or two I tried swinging the sword in different ways. When I felt a little tired, I stopped for a few moments before turning back to Ferret.

When Ferret saw I was getting serious, she took up a defensive stance. For once she looked serious and focused. When I saw this, I knew that my chances of hitting her were low. I wanted to prove that thought wrong.

I swung at her. She didn't even block and just stepped out of the way. I tried a different approach, and then another and another. Each time she either easily moved out of the way or pushed it to the side with her sword.

"That should be enough," she smiled at me, "Do not hate me in the next part."

Ferret took up a more aggressive-looking stance. I imitated her defensive stance, watching her closely. When she attacked, she came in more quickly than I thought she ever could have moved. I did my best to block her, but I was never fast enough and got hit each time, though I could tell she was holding back a lot of her strength.

A few long minutes later Ferret stopped. "Good job Salis! I noticed you improving even as we fought. If you keep that up you will be excellent with the sword in a few years."

Ferret walked to the edge of the sparring circle and sat down, motioning for me to do the same. "Let us rest for a few minutes before we use the poleaxes."

I was not as tired as I had been after doing the sprints, but I welcomed the opportunity to rest. Unfortunately for Ferret, I sat a few meters away from her. She looked noticeably unhappy about it but stood up and sat down next to me.

"Your blue eyes are so pretty," she said after a moment, "It is like there is a small sky looking back at me."

This had not been the first time someone had made that kind of remark about my eyes. Since I had yet to see another set of blue eyes other than mine, I understood why they would think that.

"Do you mind me asking why you dislike talking so much? I have the feeling that you are not shy."

The reason I don't like talking? I didn't want to get attached to any one person. I wanted no attachments of any kind.

"No matter what the reason," she continued, "I want to try to get you to enjoy speaking with other people as much as I do. I also want you to know that I really want to be your friend, even if you choose not to talk much."

Ferret stood up and picked up the pole ax. "Are you ready?" I followed suit and readied myself for another round like the one with the swords.

Since none of the other children were using pole axes, I had no clues on how to go about using one. Looking at the thing, I realized how much trouble I would probably be in for. Not only was it twice my height, it was also balanced differently than the sword. When I swung it around a few times, I also realized how much trouble I would be in if I let someone get close to me.

I had wanted to test the weapon just as long as I had with the sword, but because I was much more awkward with the poleaxe, I tired myself more quickly. When I turned to Ferret, I knew that I would have a much harder time. I just hoped that she wasn't as good with a poleaxe than she had been with the sword

I attacked her from the longest distance I could. She jumped to the side looking a little scared. My best guess was that she knew that the extra length added that much more force than a sword would have of the same weight. Sadly, as I attacked, I never got the reaction out of her again.

When Ferret began attacking me, I learned firsthand how painful it was to get hit by the poleax. I could even see her straining to slow her weapon down before she hit me with it, failing to make the blows nearly as soft as she had made them with the sword. Thankfully, she had never once tried to hit me in the head.

"Forgive me, Salis." She said as soon as we had finished. "I have never focused much on the pole ax as much as I have the sword so I could not control it like I wanted to."

I only rubbed my shoulder in reply. It still hurt from when she had hit me there a few times.

"Well done, you two!" Came from an approaching Bench. "You did very well for a beginner, Salis. Watching the other students was smart and gave you a better chance, not that you had any with Ferra."

Ferret's face flushed a little at his praise.

"You know I still have much to learn." She replied.

"Of course you do, but someone fighting against one with years of experience while having none themselves is pretty hopeless no matter."

"It is so."

Bench knelt next to me. "I want to thank you. I have not seen Ferra jump like that since she was as new as you are." He laughed. Ferret's face went red again.

Bench stood back up and turned back to Ferret. "So, how do you think Salis did, Ferra?"

"She definitely has never used a sword or pole ax before, but despite choosing weapons that were too heavy for her she is fairly quick and has good reflexes for someone so unskilled. She is also very strong for someone her age and size."

"I thought as much myself." Bench said. "Salis, I want to put you in my version of accelerated training. I will not be making your stay any longer than normal but will instead push you harder and faster than I normally would."

"As for what times you will be expected at the field I have talked with Meric and we have decided that you will train with me in the mornings for an hour just after the morning meal. In the afternoon after you meet with your Magic or Knowledge instructor, you will spend two hours with Meric." Ferret shivered when Bench mentioned the two hours of archery. "With that you are now ready to start your life at this school."

Medic then dismissed Ferret and I.

Before I left the field, Ferret told me what to expect for meals since no one had told me yet. She explained that one of the dormitory maids would go through the hallway every morning ringing a handbell to wake everyone up. Following her would be several other maids that would place our morning meals in front of our door, knocking to let us know it was there. For the noon meal and evening meal the maids would take our meals directly into our rooms if no one was there to receive them.

When she had explained that she told me to wait for her while she put our weapons away and did a few other things. As soon as she went into the shed, I made my way quickly towards the girls' dormitory, hoping she couldn’t find me there.

At the building I found that it had become much more lively than it had been when I had left. There were now many girls, and some boys gathered in groups in various places around the building chatting. Ignoring them, I went inside and saw even more activity. Aside from more groups of chatting girls, I saw others carrying belongings. Some girls were even being followed by maids, all of which were by the stairs or going up the stairs.

Even with these people none of them approached me. While many were too absorbed with what they were doing to notice, the ones that noticed me either stared or said things to other people. I was happy about this. I also counted myself lucky that there wasn't anyone else like Ferret that wanted to make friends with everybody, aside from the Dugin born.

As I reached my room, my stomach rumbled. I didn't know what time they would bring the evening meal, but I hoped it was already here. When I opened my door and entered, I saw there was no food. Instead, a black-haired girl was sitting at the desk opposite of the one I had chosen. She was looking out the single window in the room, opposite the door. I also noticed a light on the ceiling above the door, lighting up the room fairly well.

The girl looked from the window to me. She didn't give me a surprised look as I would have expected but looked at me curiously instead. I also looked at her curiously. She was obviously not from Flaern. Instead of the usual medium to dark brown hair, hers was black. Instead of brown eyes hers were grey. Her skin was also darker in a way that didn't make me think she just had a dark tan. Aside from that, her build and shoulder-length hair were normal. She looked to be about ten years old.

"Hello." She said, her voice a little uncertain. "Are you a Terran? They told me I would share a room with one. That you would look different. That you would have white hair and blue eyes."

Since I would have to be sharing a room with this girl and her being too awkward around me would be distracting I talked to her.

"Yes, I'm a Terran."

"What country are you from? My parents travel and they never told me about a country with people like you."

"Terra isn't a country, it's a different place. Somewhere not of Calorin."

She looked confused. "Are you from one of the lands where the Deity are from."

"No. I don't really know where Terra is or how to get back there." Believe me, I would be there if I knew.

"Do all Terrans speak funny like you?"

She was probably talking about my lazy use of Flaern, or rather my addition of contractions to a language that had nothing like that.

"Don't think so. I just speak this way because it's faster.

"What foods do Terrans like to eat?"

"Uh, I guess it depends on the Terran."

"Are all Terrans as tough looking as you?"

"I'm actually about average…"

As we continued talking, I found out her name was Artua Usui Kein, though unbeknownst to her she was now Arty in my mind, and that while she had been born in Kein her parents were merchants from a country far to the north where it was much warmer. During the summer harvest break for school she would help her parents until they left to sea and traded all winter until they came back to sell during the summer. I also found out she had an older brother that was also attending this school.

When the knock on the door for the evening meal came the sun had gone down and Artua had long run out of questions to ask.

She was now drawing a picture of me while I read.

As I was the first to get up, I opened the door.

Standing there was an older woman holding two plates of food. When I reached out to get them, I heard a shout.

"Salis!" I heard an unfortunately familiar voice.

It was Ferret. She must have been watching the maids go to each door, hoping to see if she could find me.

Even though she was close, I took the two plates from the woman and closed the door with my foot. I knew it wouldn't stop her, but I hoped I was wrong.

As expected, I soon heard a knock on the door. I ignored it and set a plate of food down in front of Arty and then placed my plate on my desk and sat down.

When Ferret knocked again, Arty looked a little confused but stood up and opened the door.

"Thank you," she said to Arty, "Salis… why did you leave, and why did you just do that?"

It was because I didn't want someone knowing which room I was staying in.

"Has she been treating you well?" Ferret said to Arty.

"Salis is nice. She even let me ask her lots of questions and draw her."

Ferrets jaw dropped. "She would barely even talk to me…" she then changed modes. "I am sorry. I should probably introduce myself." The two exchanged names. "So, what did you do to make her talk?"

"What did I do?" Arty looked unsure of how to answer. "I just asked."

Ferret turned to me. "How come you will talk to her but not me?"

I started eating.

"Teach me your secrets master," Ferret turned to Arty.

And for the rest of the night, Ferret and Arty became friends. Poor Arty barely kept up with Ferret when she got going. Most of it was Arty telling Ferret what I had told her. They even started drawing me at one point. Strangely, they left me alone to my reading.

Finally, I heard a bell ringing outside. It was the lights out bell.

"Thank you for the wonderful time, Artua." Ferret said, getting up.

"Goodbye Ferra."

Ferret left the room.

"I am tired," Arty said, pulling off her clothes and climbing into her bed.

"I think she steals your energy. That's why she has so much of it."

Arty gave a fearful look. "Is it true?"

"I couldn't say."

A few minutes later the light in our room went out, marking the end of an annoying day.

At least Arty was a nice room mate.