“Some people say that children tend to notice things better, probably because of their more innocent outlook on the world, and their less jaded minds, which allowed them to perceive things adults might have written off or glossed over. Combined with their tendency to voice out what they noticed, this is one reason why spies and other undercover agents always learned not to attract the attention of children amongst other lessons.” - Nostra Rulloanse, retiree, rumored to once being associated with intelligence work for the Kingdom of Knallzog.

“What is it, Val?” asked Erycea to Valeria, who she had been sparring with rather often of late. Valeria had also learned on how to fight from her parents - though more as an infantryman, as the girl had shown from early on that she was hopeless when it comes to riding - and being one of the nearer to Erycea in age and overall size, was one of her frequent sparring partners. “Feeling like someone’s been watching over us again?”

“Yeah, it’s been sorta nagging me in the back of my mind,” admitted Valeria even as she thrust the long stick she held one-handed while she blocked one of Erycea’s sticks with the wooden shield held on her left arm. Erycea parried away the thrust with her other stick, and they continued striking at one another viciously in the spar. “I think it’s the same person all the time, but I can’t be too sure. Too many people passing by on their way in or out of the city.”

“A couple of the others said they felt the same way of late,” replied Erycea as she echoed the conversation she had with some of the others in her group recently. The sticks in her hands never ceased moving even while she talked, however, and made loud noises as they clashed with Valeria’s own stick and shield. While the sticks themselves were made of light, flexible wood that would at most leave a bruise if they do strike each other, they were weighted near the handle to simulate the weight of actual weapons, which meant swinging them around was a proper workout for children their age. “That said, if even you noticed, there’s no way the adults wouldn’t. Since they haven’t said a thing about it, either it’s nothing we have to worry about… or it’s something we could handle on our own.”

“Makes some sense, I guess,” said Valeria in acquisition while she glanced to the side, where others in their little group of children who aspired to join their parents in the Company worked out and sparred with each other. Of particular note was the three bear therian cousins, who usually favored training on the other side of the hill where the larger open areas were. Each of them were around Valeria and Erycea’s age, but their size already rivaled adult humans, and then some, due to their breed.

The vast majority of the group of children were either close to Erycea’s age, or younger. Ayrie had been the eldest amongst them, and the first to achieve their mutual goal, while other than her a couple others were at most a couple years older than Erycea herself. Vladislav was currently the eldest of their group, at just a bit over twelve.

He was one of Mischka’s grandchildren, the youngest child of her younger son Ivan, who perished at Fort Ascher years ago. Often together with his were his cousins Tasha and Vera, twin daughters of Varilya who were a couple months younger than Erycea, though already much larger due to their breed and heritage. All three of them easily matched a human adult in height already, while being broader and stockier. Vlad already started to tower over many human adults, even.

The three usually mostly sparred between themselves - or with Gustav, who was probably the only other child in their group that matched them in term of physical prowess despite being much shorter - because they were just much stronger than the others, and were worried that they might accidentally hurt the others if they were not careful during a spar.

Erycea was one of the few who at times joined their spar, though. She was fast enough that she provided some real challenge to the larger trio, and despite how they were vastly superior to her in terms of physical strength - which was no surprise since they were easily over twice her size - she was far more agile and limber, and they had difficulty even touching her at all.

As for the younger kids, some Alycea’s age while others maybe a year or two older than her, most of them still spent more time playing than training seriously, though a few like Alycea had started to hone herself despite her young age. The older kids left them be, and mostly just watched with fondness, as they all knew just how precious it was to have some time to just be kids like the younger ones, and none of them would have deprived that opportunity from the younger ones.

“Still, it’s been like, what, three days that you felt like somebody was watching us?” asked Erycea just as she and Valeria concluded their spar. Throughout the spar, Erycea kept the orbs of glass spinning around her, though far enough away so as not to disturb the spar itself. The orbs unraveled at times when her concentration flagged every now and then, but on the whole she mostly managed to keep them in shape. “I’ll ask grandpa about it just to be sure.”

“Yeah, good idea,” replied Valeria as they walked together towards where the younger children were playing - or training, in a few cases like Alycea - and stashed their training gear in a large chest that Vlad and his cousins would later help bring back to the tent city the mercenaries’ dependents lived in. “Better safe than sorry in matters like these, especially since there’s the young ones around.”

“I know. I doubt anyone watching us in secret like that had any good intention,” replied Erycea with a frown. “It can’t be people from the Duchy, we’ve been camped here for over a year now and had been open with them, so they have no reason to spy on us in secret. So it’s likely someone else.”

“What if they make their move before the adults do?”

“Then let them come. We’ll show them that we haven’t been training for show.”