“Welcome to the first day of joint training,” Captain Bargas booms over the field of assembled group of Knights, Bowmen, and Wingless. “The point of these operations is to develop cohesion among the classes, and to provide an opportunity to test and improve your skills among your peers.”

“When do we get to go home?” I sigh to no one in particular, “This is already exhausting.”

“It’s not so bad,” Melodiana says cheerfully from beside me, “and it is an all-day event from my understanding.”

I sigh again as Kira Lasille and Marion step forward. Marion starts first, “We have randomly drawn and assigned partners for your training today, these assignments are non-negotiable. We have tried to pair everyone with a member from the other classes to increase the effectiveness and cooperation overall. You were all given an envelope this morning indicating an area on the field to meet and the groups will be divided once everyone is in their proper places.”

“As today is the first field training that some of you have received since coming here to Common Grounds,” Kira continues, her quiet voice being carried over the field through the use of magik, “We would like to remind all of you that even though we are using training weapons to not aim for areas such as the throat, or head. We don’t want any accidental deaths on the field today.”

“Also as such the use of Magiks outside of designated rings is in direct violation of orders and offenders will be detained until an appropriate punishment has been decided upon,” Captain Bargas says.

“She is the leader of the other half of the Wingless?” Melodiana asks and I nod my head, “She doesn’t seem like the type to lead a group of assassins.”

“All the more reason to suspect her,” I yawn as I open my envelope and on the sheet of paper inside at the top is listed sparring ATCR.

“It seems like you are going to get to hit people this morning,” Shiva sleepily interjects.

“Well good morning,” I say to her sarcastically.

“I need my beauty sleep, just like you.”

“I’m not sure you actually sleep.”

“Please be assembled in your correct starting area in the next fifteen minutes,” Marion commands.

“It seems that I am starting in the obstacle course today,” Melodiana nods as she looks at her own paper, “What is your starting area?”

“Sparring,” I yawn.

“Fight bravely, and honorably,” She says as her eyes practically glow in anticipation. She turns and follows the group heading towards the large wooden structures in the corner of the field.

“Bravely and honorably huh?” I ask as the crowd around me begins to move as well.

“You’re going to be kicking dirt in someone’s eyes, aren’t you?” Shiva mockingly accuses me.

“If I deem it necessary,” I smirk.

As the crowd thins out I get a proper look around the field and it is really quite large. There are multiple rings down the slope on the west side, and in the area we are standing there are more rings with posts and a large group of people are gathering and preparing sigils.

“They must use these rings for training Magiks,” Shiva studies them and provides her speculation, “Those appear to be limiter sigils.”

“Likely to attempt to cut down on injuries,” I agree as I move down the gentle slope while continuing to looking around. The clatter of metal reminds me of the chain armor I was forced into this morning.

“At least it fits decently,” Shiva pityingly offers, and I just sigh again while looking to the south at the obstacle course. It stretches the entire length of the field and I made up of what appears to be multiple towers, holes, swings, and runs. “How long do you suppose it takes to run that?”

“I couldn’t even guess,” I mutter looking across the field, “I would say at a dead sprint just running the normal field from east to west would take several minutes.”

To the east are some simple brick buildings; according to a few conversations I overheard through the crowd that is apparently where the Knights are trained on strategy, and logistics in the morning . In the north there are the barracks, where a decent amount of circular targets sit in front of a wooden wall. There are also smaller buildings where they pulled equipment from, and it appears that quite a few small medical stations have been set up in preparation as well, though aside from the tents everything has a similar gray and bland feeling to it.

“Looks like the Nightingales will get some training today as well,” Shiva murmurs as we continue to observe our surroundings.

As I approach the lower rings I step behind a few people that are headed in the same direction and eventually we step off of the grass and onto the semi-circular dirt path that wraps around the entire length of the field.

“He…hello,” a quiet voice says to my left and I glance over and a Dusk Elf in leather is looking at me with silver eyes, in between throwing quick glances around her, “Is it al…alright if I stand here?” The crowd around us separates from us throwing distrustful gazes at us over their shoulders.

“I won’t stop you,” I shrug slightly, looking out of the corner of my eye she appears to come to about my shoulders.

“Tha…thank you,” She looks relieved, “I’m Aya Naricsa.”

“I’m Lily,” I nod my head to her.

“She seems … concerned,” Shiva says after pausing.

“Look at those rejects over there,” Someone nearby calls out and starts to laugh before i can even respond to Shiva. A few people around join them and laugh nervously as well. I look over and an Elfin man, still in the process of donning his plate, is standing pointing in our direction.

“I’m sorry,” Aya chokes out on the verge of tears, “It seems that I have drawn more attention to you.”

She turns to rush into the crowd, but before she can get away I quickly grab her elbow stop her. “Don’t worry about it,” I tell her, “I draw attention pretty much wherever I go anyway.”

“But,” she begins, and I cut her off.

“If you run off now it will just let him know he won and it will just get worse.”

“You’re being awful nice to a stranger you just met,” Shiva says happily.

“I just think she should stand up for herself is all.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“But won’t it get worse if you don’t get away from the problem,” Aya asks me with her strained voice.

The Elfin man begins to walk over towards us before he finishes, but no one else follows him either. “Seems like he just wants to show off to his friends doesn’t it?” Shiva sighs.

As he continues to walk near us the crowd circles in anticipation of anything happening, and out of the corner of my eye I catch Marion and Captain Bargas watching us with interest. “Apparently they consent to whatever happens,” I say with a smirk as I circulate and gather energy onto the ball of my foot.

“Or they at least don’t intend to stop it.”

As he step with in range, Aya quickly steps behind me trying to hide, and he starts to speak in a haughty voice, “Trash like you two shou-” but before he can continue I kick up at a sharp angle. As my boot connects with his groin I release the energy that i have gathered in a burst. There is an intake of breath from the crowd around us as his face pales and his eyes roll back in his head and he collapses into a limp pile on the ground.

The crowd around us separates as Captain Bargas and Marion step through, followed by a few Nightingales that roll the Elf onto a stretcher before picking him up and carrying him away.

Captain Bargas looks at me out of the corner of his eye but doesn’t actually say anything to me before he address the crowd, “Please refrain from fighting outside of the ring, and gentlemen please make sure to be wearing adequate protection to avoid serious incident.”

“Now if everyone would stand on either side of this line,” Marion says pointing at a long rope strung across the ground, “Wingless and Bowmen on the field side, and Knights on the ring side. We will quickly match you all with your partners and then we will begin the matches.”

I move forward and take a position and Aya looks at me and says “Good luck today,” before she starts to step over the line to stand across from me. She still looks like a frightened rabbit ready to run at the slightest danger though.

“It will be fine,” I tell her, “and it won’t always be that way.”

She looks over at me like she doesn’t entirely believe me, but she bites her lower lip and nods her head.

After a few minutes everyone is on the correct side of the rope, and Marion calls out, “Wonderful, now if you would all get your papers out we can continue,” she pauses and waits for a few moments before speaking again, “Now if you would reach out to your paper with energy it will slightly pull you towards your partner and glow when the two of you are close enough. If you touch the papers together the glow should stop. Now we have tried to pair everyone with a member of the opposite classes but as the numbers don’t quite match up a few of you will be paired with members of the same class so if you are having issues finding your partner don’t ignore that as a possibility… Well go on don’t be shy.”

“They could have had us do that while we were in the crowd,” I sigh as I reach out to the paper like I would a sigil and it begins to tug to my left. I give one last look across the rope and Aya is looking in the other direction, so I begin to walk around the other members of the wingless following the pull of the paper.

After I walk two or so rings down the rope the paper begins to pull towards the other side slightly so I slow my walk and step closer to the rope to wait. After a few moments the paper begins to pull directly across the line and glow faintly pink. I look up and around and a few others are doing the same and after a few moments of awkward silence a Dargoth man steps forward from the Knights and holds up his piece of paper, and an equally big Dargoth steps up and places their paper next to his, and when nothing happens they both shrug, and the rest of the crowd around me begins to move.

I take a step back to let the chaos subside. After a couple of minutes most of the people around me have found their partner and have moved out of the way, leaving four of us on either side. I scan the faces on the other side of the rope as best I can as one of them, wearing studded leather, is looking over her shoulder chatting quietly with someone. Then she turns all the way around and I see a tuft a bound tails.

A young woman on my left quickly steps forward and matches her paper with another. All around people are introducing themselves and chatting lightly. Examining the rest of the group quickly there is a large amount of armor ranging from chain like mine to full plate.

”I suppose I’ll just wait until the others have met up to make this easier,” I yawn.

After a minute the only two left in the area that I am standing are the other Kitsune and myself so I step forward to get started, but she is still talking with whoever is over there.

One of the others taps her on the shoulder to get her attention and whispers to her, and she quickly turns and bow slightly saying, “I’m sorry I was a bit dist…” She stops speaking as she straightens up, blue glowing papers halfway out, and there is a look of surprise on her face that likely matches my own.

Standing before me is Stephanie Rainheart.

…

…

…

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says in disbelief.

I quickly reach out and press our papers together before she flinches away, and the glow from our papers disappears. “Apparently not,” I sigh before muttering, “Maybe they would be willing to make an exception and pair us up with someone else.

A scowl forms on her face before it changes into a smile and she starts to laugh, “Oh no this is perfect, I will pay you back for Mike and Bill the other day.”

I tilt my head to the side, “I can be bad with names but I’m relatively certain that those are not theirs.".

“That doesn’t matter,” She says gleefully,” All that matters is I’m going to teach you a lesson today that your body won’t soon forget.”

“Great, could this day get worse?” I ask.

“Don’t say that because you know it will,” Shiva warns me.