I was sitting at my desk in my room trying my best to stay awake. The night before I had been on the run from Ferret until late into the night. She and her friends had taken it as a game and, despite their looks, could easily follow Helnion and I. The only reason I had avoided them was that one instructor had come and scolded them before sending them back to their rooms.

"What happened last night?" Arty asked me hesitantly when she finished her morning meal.

"Two foxes were being chased by some hounds," I replied.

"Really! I have always wanted to watch a hunt. What was it like?"

"Noisy."

It had been noisy. I didn't think it was possible for Ferret and her friends not to talk.

Arty thought for a moment before replying. "It was? I do not remember hearing anything last night."

I didn't reply and then turned to my meal. It would not be long until it was time to go to my morning training, and I didn't want to be hungry on top of my tiredness.

"Was Ferra with you last night," Arty asked when I had finished. "She came by looking for you."

"Yes…”

"I should ask her if I can come next time," Arty said to herself.

I said nothing more to Arty and put my head on my desk. Since there wasn't a clock on Calorin other than the odd sundial I had no idea how much time I had until I had to leave so I got in a quick nap.

"Salis," I heard Arty say just after the chimes had sounded, "Time to go."

I lifted my head from the desk. It had only been a few minutes, and I had been nowhere near falling asleep and felt just as tired as I had before.

I stood up and headed for the door.

"H-have a good day," Arty sounded like she was still uncertain on how to deal with me.

"You too.”

I opened the door to find Ferret standing outside.

"Ferra!" Arty rushed past me.

"Hi Artua. I hope Salis did not wake you up when she got back last night."

Arty looked down for a moment and kicked the floor lightly before answering.

"No."

Ferret laughed lightly, "You do not have to lie."

Arty blushed.

"Can I come next time?" Arty asked after a moment.

This time it was Ferret's turn to show embarrassment.

"I am sorry, Artua. I meant to ask you, but it slipped my mind."

"That is okay."

I looked at each of the girls. If they kept on like this, we would be late. I could be mean and just leave them to their fate but Ferret's Salis Radar would probably go off the moment I moved.

"We should go," I interrupted the awkward atmosphere.

Both the girls looked at me.

"Right!" Ferra said. "I do not want to do extra laps again."

Ferret began to turn to leave but looked back to Arty when she saw that the younger girl had made no move to follow.

"Are you not coming Artua?"

Arty shook her head, "My parents can only afford the knowledge and magic classes."

Ferret shrugged, "I am not taking any magic instructions so I understand." She smiled.

This made me wonder what these two did in their free time. It must have been nice not having to train morning and evening or getting every other day off.

Ferret turned back to me, "I think we should probably run."

She then turned back to Arty long enough to wave a goodbye to her before heading out of the room and taking up a quick walk towards the exit of the building.

I followed behind Ferret. I tried getting ahead of her but since her legs were so much longer than mine, I would have had to run to do so, but with a maid staring at us suspiciously I thought it probably wasn't a good idea.

This all changed when we left the building. No sooner had we exited, Ferret burst into a run. I did as well and to my chagrin; I noticed that she would look back occasionally so not to run faster than I was.

The run itself was almost as bad as what I had gone through in my training yesterday. Not only were my legs still sore from that, my outing last night had taken its toll on them.

"Are you all right?" Ferret said when we came to a stop at the training fields. "You seem slower."

I sat on the ground and didn't reply.

Ferret sat next to me.

"Do not worry it will get better after the first week. My first week I collapsed every day at the end of training and I kept falling asleep during my knowledge instructions," She smiled.

I looked around me. From what I could tell we had had plenty of time left and hadn't needed to run.

"Oh!" Ferret remembered something, "Instructor Benc usually assigns some of us older students to mentor the younger and he let me be your partner when I asked."

I groaned on the inside. The thought of being stuck with this girl every morning…

I noticed Ferret looking around. "I wonder if Helnion will end up coming," she said after a moment.

I had wondered if Helnion would come. She had been waiting for me on the way to my archery practice yesterday. Perhaps she had already gotten bored with me or had forgotten?

Ferret suddenly stood up, "I will be right back." She ran off.

It was then that I saw several of her friends.

I stood up, planning to hide. I could not hide from her for long, but I was determined to not make this easy for her. Hopefully, someday soon she would give up and I would be rid of her.

It did not take long for me to find out she had been keeping track of me because as soon as the bells chimed signaling the start of training she walked straight through the different children to me.

"I need to get with my group for now, but I will see you later," She then walked back to where many of the older children were.

I wondered why she had even bother coming to find me just to tell me she was leaving but I was thankful that she was gone for now so I decided not to think too hard about it.

"Line up!" I heard Bench say not long after Ferret had left.

I turned towards where my group was and got in line.

"I see all of you survived yesterday," He began walking down the line, "Do not think I will go any easier on you today, in fact I will push you even harder."

Bench reached my place in line and glanced at the bandages on my right hand but said nothing about it and moved on.

"I know most of you were expecting to go straight into your sword training," he continued, "but I will make sure you deserve it. I will also expect you to help your fellow trainees for none of you will touch a sword until I deem all of you worthy and if I feel that any of you do not deserve my training I will see you join one of the other groups if at all. I also expect you to be on your best behavior at all times." He paused and then added, "Unless those people are training with the bow."

Bench turned to the opposite side of the field where the morning group of archers were starting their training and then turned back to us and grinned.

Several of the boys laughed.

"Quiet!" Bench yelled. "You will not make any noise in line unless spoken to!"

I noticed those same boys, and some others, jump.

"Now to business. First off, and always first, we will do stretches…"

As Bench had said, the training this morning was harder and from what I could tell all but the two toughest boys collapsed at least once during training, most more than once.

I for one fell five times. I wasn't the worst off, but I was close. I knew I would have done better if I had started my training rested, but I hadn't. If I had known I would do this before running from Porra-Kel, I would have gladly gone with Pali from the beginning.

On a good note I wasn't one that vomited.

"You survived!" Ferret sat next to me as soon as both our groups had finished our training for the day.

I was lying on the grass close to the water barrel, with several of the other children from various groups, and was determined not to move from that spot for at least a few hours. I had not only drank my fill of water but had drenched myself with it too.

“I remember laying close to here my first few days of training. Actually… I think the first day I could not even make it to the water barrel,” Ferret laughed lightly and looked a little embarrassed.

"Do you want me to carry you back to your room?" She asked and stood back up before looking down at me.

I didn't like the way she was looking down at me and also hated her carrying me so I stood up. It was all I could do to push myself up off the ground and my arms and legs shook as I forced myself up, but I did it.

Ferret smiled at me. She also looked a bit disappointed.

"When you start feeling better after training you should join my friends and me in the bathhouse for a quick bath. They do not heat it until night but the cold water helps.”

Honestly, I was extremely tempted by her suggestion. So tempted that I felt that it might be worth the risk.

I heard some girls shout.

Ferret looked to the girls that had shouted and then turned back to me and looked like she wanted to say something but didn't. Instead, I saw a wry smile flash across her face just before she turned away and began jogging for her friends.

I was uncertain, but that smile made me wonder if she was planning something. She probably was. I would have to be on my guard for an ambush tonight.

No sooner had Ferret left, I made my way back to the water barrel. There were a few children ahead of me but I did not have to wait long.

When it was my turn, I looked at the ladle hanging over the side and hesitated. I hadn't paid it much mind before but now that there were dozens of sweaty, tired children lying around or having passed through and added to the fact that my morning with Iguana had done nothing but remind me about disease the ladle looked disgusting to me.

Earlier I had been too tired and thirsty to care but now…

I decided that as soon as I got paid I would buy myself a water flask. I would also boil my water before I used it.

I felt the eyes of a child on my back. A line was already forming behind me so I needed to stop wasting time.

I picked up the ladle. The barrel was getting low on water and I had to lean over the side to reach it, even with the long handle the ladle had.

I took a sip and then dumped the rest of the water on me before moving to the side. I then gave myself a quick rub down to clean myself.

Now that I had done that, I headed to my knowledge class. Sure I still had a few minutes until I needed to be there but I would get a longer nap if I took one in the classroom.

I nearly did just that. Not only did I easily fall asleep in my seat, but if it weren't for Vanilla's repeated scoldings I could have slept through nearly all of her lesson.

Mercifully lunch came. Normally I would have been happy to get up from sitting for so long but my legs felt even more stiff and tired than they had but I forced myself to get up anyway and leave the room.

I was close to the girl's dorm when I saw Ferret's boyfriend Dorito. Once again he was with a large group of others. The two boys they had been pushing around before were also there and were being made to carrying large baskets.

He noticed me and met me near the steps of the girl's dorm.

"Hello there Salis," He gave me a mock smile.

I said nothing. I was hungry and didn't care to trade insults with an idiot.

"She is the one teaching you math?" One boy said.

"Yeah, along with Calren."

"And Helnion," I heard another boy say. It was Caldren.

"Helnion?" The boy to Caldren's right said and poked him in the ribs. "Don't you…"

"Hey!" Caldren said, cutting the boy off and punching him in the ribs lightly.

The boy grinned at Caldren and was joined by the grins of several others.

Caldren blushed.

Dorito turned from the commotion back to me.

"I just want you to know I do not care if you are a Terran or not, there is no way I will accept you as my tutor."

"You tell her!" A boy added, "No way someone as tiny as that knows what she is doing."

Dorito lifted his chin and walked past me. The rest of the boys followed. Several made jeers at me as they passed.

I took one look at the boys carrying the baskets and then did my best to push the encounter out of my mind and once I had my food in front of me it was easy.

Lunchtime passed quietly, and I slept for most of it. Arty was in the room as well, but she followed my example and slept until it was time to go.

It took me a minute wake back up, but when I had I no longer felt as sleepy as I had. My muscles were just as sore as they had been.

Back in class I wished I had still been sleepy because if I was going to sleep through anything, it was etiquette. On the upside, Vanilla didn't yell at me.

"Salis," Vanilla said, waving me over when we finished etiquette.

I stood up from my seat and walked to where Vanilla was waiting for me in the room's front.

"I have been talking with the headmaster and we have come to a decision." Vanilla paused as if giving me a chance to speak. "We have decided that you need not be present during the science, writing and grammar sections of class. You already have a vast knowledge of the sciences, and a firm grasp on writing and grammar."

I hoped this wasn't leading to making me tutor some other less than capable children like I had with math. I also wondered why they hadn't already taken care of it when they had done already with my math.

"I had wanted to have you tutor some other children as we already have you doing with Instructor Pai, but Instructor Benc has requested that you be allowed to take afternoon training. Headmaster Ury has decided to let you choose."

Vanilla looked at me expectantly. I knew she wanted me to choose to tutor but there was no way I would let that happen. My body, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with even more training.

My mind won over my body.

"I will do the training," I said.

I thought I saw a flash of disappointment on Vanilla's face but wasn't sure.

"Very well," She said. "I will inform the Headmaster. As for you, from now on you may leave class and head to the fields as soon as we finish etiquette. Make sure to be on time to Instructor Pai's for your tutoring. Instructor Benc can be lax with his time in the afternoon."

I nodded and left the room.

I then realized something horrifying. There was a good chance Ferret would be there waiting for me.

It turned out I was right. No sooner had I left the Temple of Knowledge was I accosted by Ferret.

"Salis! I knew you would choose right!" Ferret grinned.

I acted as if I hadn't seen her and kept walking.

"Remember when I said we would be partners this morning?" Ferret caught up to me and matched my pace.

I remembered. At the time I had been expecting this to happen was during morning practice, but had she been referring to this afternoon training? Had she also found out before I had that this choice would be offered to me?

"We will not be practicing with swords together for a few weeks, but do not think I will let you sit around until then…" Ferret trailed off. "Well, maybe for the first week. Instructor Benc says if we work you too hard you will get hurt."

"Salis! I knew you would choose right!" Bench said, coming to visit Ferret and me.

The fact that he had said exactly the same thing Ferret had said made me want to snicker. Ferret did it for me.

"That is exactly what I said!" She said through her laughter.

Bench smirked, "As expected of one of my best trainees. You even think smart."

Bench turned to me, "Normally we cannot get children away from the Temple of Knowledge at your age since everything they teach you is so important. Even getting them to get you out of tutoring was a chore, but I believe Headmaster Ury knew that training was better for you than too much tutoring."

"I think too much tutoring would drive her crazy," Ferret nodded to herself.

"For now, Salis," Bench said. "I want you to watch the others train. I know those Terran muscles of yours are probably more well built than us Calorin but I do not want to prove myself wrong and get you hurt."

I nodded. I was perfectly fine sitting around and doing nothing for a few hours.

Ferret grabbed my hand, "I will keep an eye on her.”

"I do not think you will have to worry too much. She may not be good with people, but I do not think she is the type to run off," Bench looked like he believed what he said.

I wasn't too sure about that. The only reason I wouldn't run off was because I didn't have a good enough reason to and yes, Ferret may be annoying but I didn't want to find out what the school did to students that skipped class or training. At least not now.

Ferret pulled on my hand, "I'll get Salis settled in nicely."

She pulled me to the area of the fields with the sparring circles.

"Good," Bench waved us off, "Make sure she doesn't fall asleep either."

He laughed.

And just like that I got two hours of free time and, thankfully, Ferret was usually too busy with her training to come to the side where I was and talk. That didn't mean she didn't talk at all as she seemed to be friends with almost everyone, but even then she didn't let that interrupt her training.

As I watched her, I realized how devoted she and the others with her were. I became engrossed and watched several matches intently. I had come here expecting to see them standing in lines and swinging fake swords at nothing or at most a target, but Ferra's group did nothing of the sort.

"I am glad to see you are enjoying yourself," Bench stood next to where I was sitting, "You ARE enjoying yourself are you not? It is hard to tell with you."

Bench looked at the sparring trainees with a proud smile. "Most of these will apprentice under a master swordsman. I am not sure how much you know about the art of the sword but even as skilled as they are now they have just begun their journey and it will be years more before we consider them masters."

Bench looked at me with a crooked smile. "As for you, Salis Terra. I imagine you will be fought over by those two places," he gestured towards the Temples of Melche and Candrar. "I for one think you should do whatever you want. Just know that I will try my best to have you follow in their path," Bench nodded towards those training in front of us.

“Those poor souls that have lessons behind desks…” He shrugged. “It's time to clean up!” He yelled and gave me a look that meant I was one of those that needed to leave.

I stood up quickly and began a slow jog back towards the Temple of Learning before Ferret met me. Thankfully, she did not follow me far and went back with her group.