An errant sunbeam stabbed past Tamiel’s eyelids and he groaned at the unexpected pain. When he shifted, it woke up his bruises, so he groaned again as he tried to gather his thoughts. He felt the soft furs of his bed beneath him, and then realised that someone was pressed up against him. Despite the pain, he rolled out from under the blankets and stared at the strange girl while he continued to scoot backwards.

One of the fur pelts sniffed at him and growled in annoyance. The former prince realised that it was no blanket surrounding him, but some sort of mammalian creature.

At Sasha’s growl, the girl finally woke, and blinked owlishly for a moment. Then the girl stretched languidly while neglecting to hold onto the sheets. She exposed a predator-like grin and licked her lips. She peered at the gawking boy from half-lidded eyes. “So, how was your night?” were the first words out of her mouth.

“What?” Panicked, the boy squeaked. His princely dignity reasserted itself and he continued, “What happened?” Tamiel’s eyes narrowed as he tried to fill in the blanks of his memories.

Tackling him onto his back, the girl sat on his stomach and jabbed a finger at him. “I’ll ask the questions here. I mean, you wake up next to a beautiful girl, yet you haven’t even asked her name? Just like a guy. My name is Maiyael Vierral, by the way. But call me Maiya.” ”

Tamiel’s confusion deepened. “Beautiful girl?” He replied.

Maiya’s seductive smirk turned into a scowl. With a practiced motion, she flipped him over and pinned his arm behind his back. “You don’t think I’m beautiful? I guess wurms are more your type, then,” she hissed into his ear.

The boy frantically tried to backpedal. “You’re very pretty! Ah, what are you doing? Ouch, you’re pretty.”

The girl snorted and pulled him up. She wrapped her arm around his neck menacingly. When Tamiel tried to wrest her arm away, she formed a fist out of her free hand and rubbed it harshly across the top of his head. “Calm down, kid. I was just teasing you.” Laughing, she pushed him away.

During this exchange, Sasha had woken up. He was sitting on his hind legs with his head cocked to the side. Maiya introduced him, “That’s Sasha.” At the sound of his voice, he jerked forward and started licking Tamiel’s face. “Shoo, down boy. Go eat something.” With Maiya’s permission, Sasha flowed snakelike out of the hollow and down the side of the tree to hunt something for his breakfast.

While Sasha was leaving, Maiya stood up and wandered towards Tamiel’s stock of fruits. Rooting through them, she grasped a couple juicy looking specimens and rubbed them on her makeshift dress. Biting into one, she asked, “Why are you in my forest?”

Valorous got up slowly while wiping the slobber off of his face with a blanket. “Your forest? Some strange girl owns the whole forest?”

Faster than he could react, Maiya had launched herself across the hollow and kicked him square in the chest. As he fell, she planted her foot on him. “Of course I do. Wasn’t that already clear? Well, you’re obviously addled, so I’ll be taking charge of your life now.” She continued chewing while she thought. “You know, this would go a lot easier for you if you decide to stop being such an ass.” Maiya poked him with her foot a couple times while stating, “I’m used to getting what I want. Don’t make me get rough.”

The beaten prince’s eyes snarled at her, but not liking his odds, he sighed. “I’m an orphan. My name is…” the prince stopped, he had almost said that his name was Valorous. “Tamiel. I had to flee after my mother died. Now, I want to be a mercenary. But I’m too young. I’ve heard that the tribes in this forest take in children and teach them to become the best mercenaries out there.”

Maiya tossed him the other piece of fruit and let him get up. The fruit was slightly squashed from her rough handling. “Was that so hard?”

Valorous sniffed at the bruised fruit, but his hunger got the best of him and he bit deeply into it. He stopped midbite when he heard Maiya say, “But, I don’t think I believe you.” The girl tapped her nose a few times. “At least that's not the whole story. I can smell drama from a mile away. And boy, you are full of it.” She ran a long finger across Tamiel’s chin and licked the juice from it. “I can be patient. You’ll tell me eventually, ....Tamiel.”

Her laughter was interrupted by the return of Sasha. He looked pleased as he preened himself. She tossed the remains of her fruit to the giant squirrel, which he happily snapped out of the air. She picked up her spear and stepped towards the exit. “Come on, Tammy, you can keep telling me lies while we hunt for something fresher.”

“Don’t call me that.” He gestured at her condescendingly. “You plan on wearing that sheet all day? Might get a little drafty.” Sarcasm dripped from the boy’s voice. Maiya looked down at herself, seemingly just remembering that she was wearing nothing but a loosely knotted leather sheet. Tamiel had to spin around and cover his eyes when she just shrugged blankly and started unknotting blanket.

Her boisterous laugh echoed through the hollow. “Aww, you’re so cute when you blush.” She turned to Sasha as she got dressed. “City boys are so much fun to mess with.” Moving on, she expertly cinched up Sasha’s saddle and packed away the few things that had been taken out previously. “Let’s go, Tammy, before you pass out from blood loss.” Smacking Sasha’s rump, Maiya grabbed her weapons and swung out onto the branch. Sasha slithered fluidly after her.

Checking that his own meager gear was accounted for and making sure his sword was loose in its sheath, Tamiel followed. Fumbling on his way down, Tamiel ignored the girl's chuckles as he lamely caught up to her on the ground.

“So. An orphan, huh? What were you before that? And, no innocent little orphan I’ve ever met has been that handy with a sword, or had that kind of control over their magic.” Maiya verbally poked at the boy as they ambled.

Slowly, the former prince replied, “I lived up in one of the sky cities, and learned how to fight while there.”

Raising an eyebrow, Maiya lightly pushed the ragged boy. “Your whole sarcastic and taciturn vibe is probably attractive to some girls, but unless you tell me something juicy, I’ll probably lose interest in helping you and leave.”

Coughing awkwardly into his hand, Tamiel retorted, “I haven't asked for your help you know. I’ve been doing fine on my own, other than almost getting crushed by that wurm.”

Maiya kicked Tamiel’s feet out from under him and then sat on him. “Yeah, I noticed you a while back. If you hadn’t decided to become a wurm sandwich I probably wouldn’t have exposed myself to you.” Maiya winked at the boy trapped underneath her. “Now spill, or I could just kill you and take your stuff.”

After struggling unsuccessfully to free himself for a moment, Tamiel sighed. “I was born in a sky city. I was… falsely accused of terrible crimes. My accuser killed my mother. With my fiance’s help, I managed to escape the city. I’ve been running ever since.” He stared off into the rustling canopy. “In one of the cities I was passing through, there was a recruitment going on for a mercenary group. They wouldn’t take me because I’m too young. But I heard that there were tribes of people living in this forest and that they take in orphans and make skilled fighters out of them.”

“Fiance? A little young to be getting married, aren’t you?” Maiya asked as she offered a hand to help him back to his feet. “Though i guess that’s a sky city for you. Full of weirdos, if you ask me. All stuck up and snooty from what I’ve heard.” She pointed her nose in the air to accentuate her words. “You're better off down here anyways. Probably. Why would you want to be a mercenary, though? Sounds like a lot of hard work, when I can just wander around my forest all day.” She started weaving through the underbrush again.

Barely able to keep up with her, Tamiel responded. “No one but you would think this was easy. And I have to find a way back to my fiance. She’s my best friend. This was the only thing I could think of.”

Maiya spun around and grabbed Tiriel, hugging him as she continued to twist. “So it’s love, huh?” Without stopping, she snatched his hand and twirled him away from her. “Too bad for me then, I might have been falling for you.” she said, while poorly holding in her mirth.

“Are you ever serious? We just met, and you’ve already confessed to me?” The former prince retorted. “Didn’t you just say that I was too young?”

“Just met? Excuse me, I’ve been following you for weeks!” Maiya crossed her arms while pretending to be hurt. “Just because you didn’t notice me. And here I was, pining away for you.”

His expression froze. “So, basically, you saved me, just so you could make fun of me to my face?”

“Now you’re getting it!” she proudly agreed with him.

“This must be karma. Either that, or I’m dead.” He shuddered. “I’m starting to feel for the victims of my own pranks.”

Her eyes danced. “What’s this about pranks?”

As they continued to walk through the forest, Tiriel tried to surreptitiously duplicate her graceful yet swift movements. When she realised he was trying to copy her, she started moving slower and with more telegraphed motions.

Sasha, who had silently padded alongside them, suddenly perked up his ears. He chirped at Maiya.

“What’s that, buddy? Something fun to hunt? Let's show this hopeless orphan how we do things in the forest!” Maiya said as she scratched under Sasha’s long chin. She turned back to the prince. “Watch closely. There will be a test.”

The gorgel and girl turned as one and raced through the undergrowth. Tamiel labored mightily to keep up. Sasha bounded off to the side and pounced into some bushes. From the other side of bushes, four round shapes scurried out, squawking and chittering. They looked like balls of fur with beaks.

Without slowing, Maiya unslung her bow from her shoulder and shot one of the fleeing creatures in the head. She Leapt and kicked off of a tree, fired again and hit a second target through the back of its shoulder. The arrow tore through its heart, killing it instantly.

She let go of her bow with one hand and spun as she pulled a knife from a sheath at her thigh. The blade lodged itself into the third creature just as Sasha landed on top of the last one and tore out its throat in one vicious bite. “See?” she said as she put a hand on her hip. “Easy. Even a babe could do it.”

Impressed despite himself, Tamiel was forced to admit that despite her attitude, her skills were the real deal.

“You have a bow in your shelter, but you barely ever use it.” She handed him her bow and asked, “Can you shoot?” Maiya pointed at the knot on a tree a middling distance away.

Nonplussed, he readied the bow. Knocking an arrow, Tamiel took aim at the proffered target. He loosed the arrow and they watched as it soared towards the tree. It struck the knot exactly in its center.

Maiya whistled, “Not terrible. I can work with that at least.”

Tamiel opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again. He decided to agree with her assessment. “My aim is great against a stationary target. But how often will that happen in the middle of a chaotic battle?”

As Maiya turned away, she looked appraisingly at Tamiel from the corner of her eye. “So, you’re not completely full of yourself.” She waved him away. “Get some dry wood for a fire, Tammy, while I dress these guys. Your cooking is pretty bad, kid. If I have to eat any more of your food, I’ll die of boredom.”

“When have you... Wait. Is that why I’ve been missing leftovers? You dirty thief!” Despite his bluster, he knew she was right, his cooking wasn’t very good. He took a step forward, but the excited look in her eyes boded ill. “You, know what, nevermind. I don’t even care.” As he walked away he swore by his pride as a trickster that he would get the better of her. She just laughed her deep, throaty laugh.

Leaving the fourth furball for Sasha, Maiya efficiently dressed and skinned the other three. There was a lot less meat than it looked like there should be, but it turned out that most of the bulk was from their fur coats. She pulled some seasonings from Sasha’s saddlebags and finished preparing the skewers.

While she waited for the wood, she performed a quick cleaning of the furs and set them off to the side. Presently, Tamiel returned and got a fire going by blowing a tuft of magical flame at his pile of wood.

While they waited for the meat to cook, Maiya asked another question. “What kinds of magic do you know? I saw both fire and water during your battle with the wurms. And then there was that weird black fire you used at the end. Wow, that was crazy.”

He replied proudly, glad that he was better than her in at least one thing. “I’m pretty well versed in the common offensive spells in both the fire and water forms, counter magic, shields, illusions, set enchantments, some physical enhancement, and bindings.”

It was Maiya’s turn to be impressed. The boy was competent in magic, the sword, and could shoot a bow to some degree at such a young age. Not that she’d tell him that. “I guess that’s a start. Let’s eat, and then we’ll start whipping you into shape.”

After lunch, Maiya pulled her spear from its holder on Sasha’s back and gestured for Tamiel to get ready. “As long as you’re in my forest, we’ll practice every day. After all, I can’t have you embarrassing me.” Finished talking, her spear flashed forward as she lunged at him.

His sword arced from its sheath and knocked the spear away. He continued the motion into a ferocious counter. A bit of his frustration at her attitude leaked into the strike. “Still claiming that it’s your forest? If I beat you, does that make it my forest?”

Maiya stepped back out of his reach and spun her spear behind her. The butt curved towards Tamiel’s face. “I don’t see why it would matter, considering you have no chance at beating me. Plus you already owe me months of back rent for living in one of my trees, eating my food, breathing my air. How are you gonna pay me back for all that?”

He twisted to the side and stepped forward to deny her longer range. “Then it’s a bet. If I win, it’s my forest. If you win, I have to pay you rent for living here.”

As the match progressed, their movements continued to speed up. Maiya treated the training as a real fight, and each of her attacks used her full strength. “You don’t even want to know how much I’m going to charge you when this is over,” she mockingly snarled.

Tamiel’s seriousness was apparent by his expression, while Maiya’s excitement was writ in every motion. After a series of furious exchanges, Tamiel had started to gain the upper hand. “Looks like we’ll have to change the name to the Used to Be Maiya’s Woods, huh. Then I’ll start charging you rent.”

Just as he was about to claim victory, Sasha blindsided him. Bounding up behind him, the squirrel-beast brought his foremost legs down in a hammer blow. Only Tamiel’s instincts saved him from being pounded into the ground. He slid between the downward smash and the whistling spear. “Hey! Two-on-one’s not fair!” he cried.

Maiya scoffed as she continued to attack. “So cry about it. I’m sure that all your enemies will politely come at you one at a time. And Sasha’s got skin in this too, now. He doesn’t want to live in a place with that stupid name.”

Tamiel started sweating. They were all using legitimate weapons: sword, spear, claws and teeth; so the danger was very real. One wrong move, and permanent damage would result. Though minor, they were all already sporting scratches and scrapes from their hazardous exercise. “I guess I’ll charge him rent, too. If you don’t like it, you could always leave.”

Tamiel couldn’t tell if Maiya was giving it everything she had, but he was certainly near the end of his own sword skills. At least, without using his intent or various magics. Magic, he believed, would go against the unspoken rules of their duel. But intent was an important part of any warriors repertoire. In a flash he formed his battlewill into a series of stabbing points. Along with his physical blade, there wasn’t anywhere for Maiya to dodge. He simultaneously unleashed a torrent of aggressive intent at Sasha, hoping to overwhelm the animal’s instincts.

Without missing a beat, Maiya fell bonelessly to the dirt. Tamiel’s sharpened intent and his blade whizzed past above her. In one fluid motion, she rolled backwards and back onto her feet. As she stood, she planted her spear’s butt into the dirt and waved lazily with her other hand. “All right, that’s enough for now. We’ve got more to do today.” She glared at him in consideration. “I didn’t realize you had that much experience in using battlewill. But, you’ll have to try harder if you want to pull a fast one on me, kid.” The butt of her spear launched into an attempted glancing blow across the boy’s cheek.

Mockingly, Tamiel sprawled backwards in a mirror of her own earlier evasion, and expressionlessly watched as the strike passed harmlessly overhead. Unsure whether to be annoyed or entertained by the prince’s foolery, Maiya opted to just extend a hand to pull him back up.

On his feet, Tamiel wiped his sword down and sheathed it. He stretched his warmed muscles and reveled in the fact that he felt better than he had for months. His body was finally starting to fill out again, due to the constant exercise and abundance of nourishing food. It also helped that Maiya’s cooking tasted much better than his own, and he had no qualms with devouring everything she made. On top of his training, Tamiel also stumbled into a growth spurt, and his features became even more handsome.

Over the next few weeks, the trio wandered the forest. Everything was a game to Maiya, and she turned every training session into an exercise in patience. One such trial had become a variant of hide and seek, where Tamiel alternately tried to find Maiya, which was extremely difficult, and then to successfully hide from her and Sasha, which was also extremely challenging. Maiya was a harsh teacher, though a good one. She was quite pleased with his progress. She taught him many new ways to find and hunt down prey, and then how to flush it out. How to prepare the meat and what herbs added the most flavor. Which plants were good for medicines, of which they needed a lot from all the cuts and scrapes that they inflicted on each other. How to climb trees quicker and stalk through the underbrush silently.

One day, Maiya had enough and bluntly asked him, “Tammy, you have wings, right? Why don’t you ever use them? Afraid of heights, or something?”

It was enough to mortify him. “Oh, uh. Well, they grew right before I fled my home…”

Maiya cut him off, incredulous. “So, what? You’ve been traumatised and can’t use them?”

The boy rubbed his neck, “No. I tried using them for a bit, but I wasn’t good at it. And then I barely had anything to eat, and flying took too much out of me.”

Unable to keep in her delighted laughter. “Let me guess. You forgot.” She doubled over. “Huge wings on your back, and you forgot they were there? No wonder you smell so bad, if you haven’t been washing them this whole time.” She slapped his shoulder a couple times as she cried.

Tamiel sniffed himself, worried that he did smell. When he didn’t notice any terrible odors, he growled mockingly.

Bent over as she was, she wasn’t able to brace against his sudden attack. He hooked her legs out from underneath her and sat on her back. Grabbing her feet, he started to mercilessly tickle them as she squirmed and pleaded for him to stop. Finally she begged Sasha for help, and the six-legged beast jumped on top of both of them. “Not fair,” she panted after it ended with all three of them stretched out on the ground. She turned onto her elbow. “But, seriously, flight is a huge advantage and you should learn how to capitalize on it.”

So flight practice was added to their daily routine. At first, it was mostly about learning how to properly take off and then land again. Without wings of her own, Maiya got to relax, make snide comments, and laugh at his pitiful attempts. Really, nothing had changed, Tamiel thought. Slowly, his artificially-red scaled wings grew stronger.

During this time, the weather continued to grow colder and snow started to flutter constantly from between the branches of the giant trees. Tamiel longed for the constant warmth of his city, even though he knew how to circulate his aura and regulate his body temperature magically. Despite his constant refusals, Maiya snuggled up next to him and stole his body heat during the frigid nights.

As his wings became stronger, the difficulty of his training intensified. He figured out how to dodge incoming attacks, strike at earthbound foes from above, shoot arrows while airborne, and eventually, they found a nest of batlike creatures for him to fight against during his flights. Sasha, amazingly, kept up with him as he flew. The beast bound from tree to tree with Maiya on his back, while Tamiel dodged and dove through the woods.

Months passed in this manner, as Tamiel learned from Maiya. One day, after the weather had warmed considerably, Maiya abruptly stated, “I think you’ve been sufficiently housetrained, and it’s time I took you home.” She scratched under his chin affectionately. “Yes, who’s a good boy? You're not too embarrassing for me to show to my friends anymore.”

Tamiel smacked her hand away, retorting, “I’m not a pet, you know.” Maiya remained unconvinced.