I woke up in the morning and tried to roll out of bed to start my day when pain shot through my stomach. Right. I suppose that would be what one would feel upon waking after being hit in the stomach the day prior. It is unfortunate but it is also something that I need to adjust to. I cannot become and adventurer if I cannot take being hit in the stomach with a dungeon weapon.

I slowly raise myself out of the bed and get dressed. Cat told me last night before I went to bed to dress comfortably and that I would be meeting Alice in the same place she holds the Small Sharp Weapons course. It is nice that we would be training in a space that I am familiar with. I am indeed very curious as to what I would be learning today.

"Good morning." I hear a voice nearly purr.

"Good morning Vita. Are you working the morning shift?" I ask her. Either she was working the morning shift, or her night shift was ending soon.

"I am working the morning shift today. Care to have a cup of tea with me before you race out to go learn how to keep yourself alive?" she asks, tail flicking back and forth. "You can say no but it will hurt my feelings."

"Oh my! I was going to say yes anyways, but I suppose it is most certainly good that I would love to have a morning cup of tea with you as I do not wish to hurt your feelings."

I wait to see if she was going to correct me on my manner of speaking this morning, but she seemed rather disinclined to doing so.

"It seems that you have already started making enemies. I am so proud of you! You are going to be the purrrfect members of the Dragon Feather's Guild. I just know it. I mean Kay is also going to be excellent, but he already had enemies."

"Indeed he did. I just did as any good friend does, and I made Kay's enemies mine own. Though, pray tell why is having enemies a good sign for a budding adventurer?" I tell her and she starts laughing.

"Adventuring is about competition and conflict, if you don’t make enemies then you just aren’t doing things right. Mind you, don’t go about making mortal enemies all the time, just your normal run of the mill sort. Are you okay with chai?"

"Yes please. Thank you very much."

"Haha you will have to tell me what you think. Speaking of tea, everyone is loving your teatime. I am almost jealous. Oh! I tried the tea that you blended. It's very tasty. What made you want to blend some?" She gave me a stare that said reveal to me your secrets.

"It's something that I enjoy, that's all. There really isn't any more to it."

"Hmm. Well, I am going to go put the kettle on."

As she walks away I hear feet coming down the stairs. Thud thud thud, I’m pretty sure I know who that is.

"Morning Ami. How are you awake so early? I mean, you are already down here and you don't look half dead. Why don't you look half dead? What is your secret?" Kay asks, staring at me his hair a tumbled mess, as though he is trying to see into my soul. I wonder if he sees anything.

"Good morning to you as well Kay. And what do you mean up early? We were both given leave to sleep an extra hour today, which I did."

"Oh right. Haha. Silly me, I didn’t realize what time it was and had a rather rude awakening. Now I’m not saying that he was attempting to suffocate me but there was an entire fuzzy body covering my face that forced me awake." Kay said and grinned. "What are you doing?"

"Vita is making us tea."

"Me and you tea or you and her tea?"

"Me and her. I can go into the kitchen and see if she can make you a cup as well."

"No worries. I am going in there to grab us food, you can’t just have tea for breakfast. We are adventurers and a hearty meal is a requirement, a requirement I tell you!" He shouts the last part as he takes off down the stairs.

"Alright." I tell him. Why is everyone disappearing so quickly this morning after they begin a conversation with me. If I didn't know them already I would find it rather rude. Instead of continuing to stand there and wait I as well head down the stairs and take a seat in the chair by the fire. I do so enjoy being warm.

"Ami? Where did you go?" I hear Vita a few minutes later.

"Over here!" I call out.

Both Kay and Vita make their way over to the chairs. Vita is somehow carrying three cups full of hot tea, and Kay has his arms full of different food items. They both deposit their items onto the table in front of us.

"Goodness Kay, do you truly believe it a good idea to partake in so much food before we go to our one-on-one training sessions?"

"Huh? This is all just for me… I’m only kidding but for a moment you were all sorts of confused. Thinking how such a tiny body could fit so much food inside of it, heheh. Sure, why not? I am just blasting things with magic. Pew pew, explosions and ice beam to freeze the explosion to make it rain down fiery ice instead of burning balls of blazing deathly death." Kay says and shoves a cinnamon roll into his mouth.

I eye the mound of food. There were various fruits, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, sausages, boiled eggs and was that... Was that a pickle? A single pickle sat atop the fruit mound. I'm not even going to bother asking.

Vita catches me staring at the lone pickle “does it tickle your pickle?” She laughs lightly while sipping her tea.

I decide to take an egg and a small piece of coffee cake. Just because I was going to go throw myself into as much physical activity as I could doesn't mean that I shouldn't eat anything. It just means to eat light.

"Ah I see you have learned the ways of warrior already Ami. Eat light and make sure the food you are eating will taste fine in case you have to puke it up later. So clever you are. Oh! Please enjoy your tea while it is still hot."

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I nod to her in thanks and pick up the drink.

"So. Neither of you will be working on Sunsday or Lunarsday. All I want you to do is focus on your training it is much more important that you learn to survive than get in a few extra hours of work. Alice and Crestin will not be going easy on either of you. And you shouldn't expect them too either. Kay, you will be using your magic until you feel you are tapped out. And then a little bit after as well!

"As for you Ami. You will begin working on your hand-to-hand skills I think. Buuuuut Alice is the one training you so she might have you try running across water for all I know. Rather unpleasant, and you get wet. Not a fun time, and impossible as well! No matter how fast you run! Stupid Alice and her dumb bets. I can't believe I let her trick me into doing a contest of who can run the farthest on water. Newsflash. No one!"

"Vita? You are pulling a Kay. I am not even sure that the last few words you said even were words."

"Ah, sorry sorry. There was another reason that I wished to speak with the two of you this morning. Do not engage Rex. Anything that happens he will try to pin on you. He is well protected and you are not. So just don't engage."

“Engage, like a fiancé? Why would Ami try and marry Rex, wait! Is this a nightmare, am I still asleep? Honestly that would make sense I was never up early on the weekend, so surely I am still sleeping, haha.”

I give Kay a smile but keep the conversation focused on Vita, for at least that way it is less likely to follow numerous rabbit trails. "What if he tries to hurt one of us again?" I query her.

"Tries? Do nothing. Does? Fight back. Punch, bite, kick. Do not injure him. Follow the adventurer's code. It is important. He will look for anything. He is a poor little winy princeling, and I cannot stand him or his ilk. If I could rip off one of his arms and smack him with it, I would."

"A bit violent this morning are we Alice? I was certain you promised to leave that attitude behind in the dungeon, or am I getting forgetful?" Cat asks and leaps over her head and into my lap, nearly causing me to spill tea upon the both of us."

"Are you accompanying me again today Cat?"

"If you see me then just assume I will be coming with you. We are going to drop Kay off at the mage's field first though."

"Ew er ropi mh of?" Kay tries to say with a mouth full of food.

"I do not believe I understood what you were trying to communicate." I tell him.

Kay swallows his food and sips his tea to help it go down. "You are dropping me off?" Kay said. "That's so nice of you. I mean, you had been having me walk by myself so I didn't think that you care but now I am finding out that I was wrong and that you do care and it is making me feel so loved and cared about. Which is nice because growing up no one loved or cared about me. Which is sad. But I had books! And books kept me going as they told me stories of heroes and adventures and magic. MAGIC! And now I am learning how to use magic and isn't that neat, I think that is neat."

I stop Kay from speaking more by shoving a sausage into his mouth. It proved to be rather effective. I take a mental note on this effective method sure that it shall prove to be of use.

"When are we heading out Cat?"

"As soon as you finish your tea. So, hurry up with it. Oh, `but leave me the last little bit where the sugar collects at the bottom of the cup to lick up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jestin. Fowley. I have a task for you." Rex says to his two lackies, err, friends. "I need you to take care of a problem for me. You are very good at taking care of problems." Rex found that if he complimented people even if they didn’t deserve I they would follow his orders with less complaint.

"Oh? What do you need us to do Rex?" Fowley asked. Ever the first one to speak up.

"I need you to hurt Kay and his pet. As much as I would prefer it you shouldn’t kill them, it would be more trouble than it is worth. Just use this, no questions, all you need to know is it will keep them from being adventurers." Rex smiles as he hands over a small inky vial.

"What if we get caught? We will get run out of town."

"Are you stupid, don't get caught. And if you do my father will take care of you one way or another. So don’t fail, this is costing me more than you are worth."

They knew better than to question Rex when he was like this. For better or worse they had to take care of this. Or find someone else who would. Those two already knew their faces after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We make our way to the mage's field and only leave when we see Crestin.

"Hi Crestin. Bye Crestin." Cat says. "Alright Amaya, to your training. And hop too, you are late."

"What?!"

"You won't be late if you run though, and fast. Think of it as a warmup." I can practically feel his feline grin.

Is this his evil way of helping me get in extra training on my way to extra training? I suppose it is helpful though. I have to get stronger much faster than anyone. I have to crush every record and surpass every milestone by a mile. No one has made it even halfway to the bottom of the dungeon, and I had to clear it.

‘Is that a question? Then sadly I will have to decline, as I must focus on my training.’

I pick up the pace and sprint the rest of the way to the Small Sharp Weapons training area. I feel as though I should be panting when I get there, but somehow I am not. How am I not panting? Did I not run hard enough? Fast enough? Long enough?

"Well, hello there Alice. We didn't make you wait too long did we?" Cat asks from my shoulder.

"Not at all. You are in fact three minutes early. Oh I do so love a pupil that doesn't leave me waiting! And you had her run here? You told her she was late, didn't you."

"In my defense she would have been late if we had not run." Cat says and hops off of my shoulder.

"What do you want to learn today?" Alice asks.

"You are my mentor. I had presumed that you would be guiding the lessons?" I asked, confused. Had I missed a memo?

"Haha you are too cute, best pupil ever! I have things in mind that you need to learn. But I wanted to know what you wanted to learn. So, throw them out. Everything that is in your head. And if you don't say at least a few things then all you will be doing is running. For four hours. Straight. No breaks! Wouldn't that be all the fun?"

"I do not believe that I would enjoy that all." I say, a bit confused as to why that would be anyone's idea of fun.

Though it had no rhythm and was perhaps the furthest thing from a song I had heard put to a tune he still forced it into a song.

'Yes. And to do so I do believe that I must pay attention. Also if it is not too much to ask please leave the singing to Rocketta, as she is the rock opera star.'

"Well. Since you asked. I want to learn how to use skills while leaping around the way that you do. Oh, I also wish to develop a style where I learn to use a fan in one hand and a dagger in the other. And drat, I had meant to buy a fan on the way here. I suppose that is beside the point currently. I also wish to learn how to use the skill that I used during my testing. Faux Fire I believe is what I shouted. And I want to know all about skills and traits. What are they? How do I use them? And... Well I suppose those are the things that I currently wish to learn." I say, feeling a touch embarrassed. That was a long bit of talking for me, is that how Kay feels? How does he manage it all the time?

"I am glad to see that you came prepared with ideas. As to the first one, I am already teaching you that during class silly. We can spend some time on it during mentoring, but I'd rather focus on other things. I like your list of ideas. I myself would like to see this Faux Fire skill that you used during your testing." Alice scratches her hair, behind her ears, clearly thinking about something.

"However. Your first lesson will be how to buy weapons and armor. That cloak you are always wearing. Is that armor?"

"It has some elemental resistance." I state simply. Whether that made it armor was up for debate I suppose.

"Do you have any money? And if you do, did you bring any with you?"

"I did bring some coins with me. Momma always said that it was best practice to always keep some on my person as I never know when I am going to be needing them."

"She sounds like a very smart woman. I guess we will have to being our training with a little shopping, and don’t worry if you don’t have enough on you. You will just have to owe me.”

"She really is." I say and smile. I missed her. I wonder if she would be proud of me. I will write her and Nila letters before I go to bed. I should also read some of that book as well.

"No time like the present then. I see that you already have your daggers on you. It is smart that you keep them on you as you never know when you are going to need them."

"I wish that I did not have to believe that. But you are right. I wish that it was only the monsters that I have to fear."

"You are a pretty young lady. You have a great many things to fear. But! I will be flipping everything on its head and I will make you someone that others fear."