Kayla gasped awake, looking around and seeing that she was in her room. The young teenager took a couple of breaths. She had just had a nightmare which seemed so vividly real, but it wasn’t. Rubbing her forehead, she wiped the sweat off before swinging her legs out of the bed to get up. The young lady walked to her door before putting her sandals on. She quietly walked out of her bedroom and towards the kitchen which was across the corridor. Kayla opened one of the cupboards and grabbed a cup, turning on the filter for water and pouring herself some.

She looked around, hearing voices as she drank her water before putting the cup in the sink. Kayla walked quietly over towards the living room, peeking from over the island counter to see her parents talking while the television played the late night news. She debated whether to leave or listen but couldn’t help but stay when she heard her name.

“So Kayla got a B on her math test?” her father asked.

“Yes. And she studied all week for that test,” her mother answered.

She could hear a sigh from her father as the feeling of disappointment began to settle in her chest.

“So, what, does she need a tutor? Am I going to have to pay for a college student to teach my daughter basic math?” her father said, sounding a bit angry.

Her mother spoke now, “I don’t think she needs a tutor. However, I did find a group to give her supplementary lessons after school.”

“Hmph,” her father huffed.

“It will be a much better alternative to a tutor because they will help her prepare for her university exams,” her mother told him.

“The problem is money. We should have been more strict with her about school, maybe she wouldn’t be bringing home measly B’s,” her father grumbled.

Kayla frowned, slowly retreating to her bedroom after everything she just heard. She laid back down in her bed and stared at the ceiling of her room. The young girl has been bringing home mostly A’s but… it seemed even that wasn’t satisfying enough. What’s worse, math was not her strongest subject but she still managed to receive a B on her calculus test. Yet that warranted a disappointed frown from both her mother and father.

It was usually difficult to get their approval. Then again, while her parents worked Kayla went to school and studied every day to make sure she wouldn’t disappoint them anymore. Yet she couldn’t even keep her end by bringing home a shameful B… Perhaps she would never get the approval she wanted from her parents. Never.

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Kayla slowly opened her eyes, looking around her blank white room. She groaned softly, putting an arm over her eyes as she thought back to her dream. She felt so sad remembering that, but also confused. Was that really her life? Kayla heard her door open before she put her arm away to look over. She looked but didn’t see anyone initially before Lamb jumped up on her bed.

“You have had your rest, it is time to pick back up on your training,” Lamb said.

Her grass green eyes blinked at the little animal before slowly getting up. She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up to begin training once more.

“What’s wrong?” Lamb asked.

Kayla looked at Lamb, “N-Nothing really. I just remembered something.”

Lamb was quiet for a moment before responding, “Have you been remembering something every day now?”

The blonde stopped and thought about it. She has been here for just over a week and does remember having at least one dream per sleep cycle. So Kayla nodded her head. Lamb was quiet, saying nothing before jumping off the bed.

“Come down to the basement when you’re ready,” Lamb said.

The little animal walked out of the bedroom, the door shutting on its own it seems. Kayla found Lamb to be quite strange, but at the same time the little animal had no sort of harmful intentions from what she had seen. Nonetheless, the blonde got out of the bed and began to get changed.

Kayla joined everyone else in the basement as Lamb began to explain the importance of Kayla being familiar with different fighting styles: both offensively and defensively. The blonde looked over at Leah who noticed her looking her way, smiling softly before looking back at Lamb. Christina and Luke were standing on each of Lamb’s sides before the little animal finished.

“Let’s begin with Kayla learning some techniques on how to block aerial attacks efficiently,” Lamb said.

Nathaniel stepped forward as Kayla looked over wondering what he was going to do. The small animal walked back towards where the television set was while Christina and Luke walked over and joined the others in the line-up. After the boys had just returned yesterday, this was the first time Kayla was going to see them in their battle uniforms. Christina stood next to Kayla as she watched Nathaniel grab the headphones hung over his neck. The blonde didn’t remember seeing them before when she first met him, then again there was so much going on when she first met them that it was hard to remember all the little details.

The orange-haired man put the headphones, not near his chest, but near his abdomen as he closed his eyes and whispered, “Activate.”

His royal blue headphones with the gold accents were reduced from what they once were to a gold-trimmed blue pendant stuck in the center of his stomach area where the belly button would have been. Kayla watched in fascination as Christina and Leah looked at each other, smiled then watched Kayla become enthralled.

His pendant burst with a swirl of musical notes, even the sound of music sounding off as he changed into his battle armor. His uniform was pure white, just like the ladies, that had familiar blue trims around the collar and hems. His bottom half was covered in white slacks and canvas-style slip ons with a similar royal blue trim. His top, however, was a long-sleeve collared shirt but the hem opened up just enough to show the blue pendant on his abdomen and while the rest of the fabric ran down to just below his thigh area. It was a formal, yet cool look for Nathaniel.

Nathaniel’s hair, once in a bun, was now running down the side of his face in a ponytail. And the headphones that had disappeared to create the gold-trimmed blue pendant were back on his head, only they were thicker and there was a strange symbol on the outside of the ear cups. His lime green eyes looked at Kayla’s darker green ones before smiling.

“Are you ready?” he asked her.

Kayla looked around, seeing that everyone else was looking at her with a smile (minus Luke of course who was looking away with his arms crossed). She felt a bit embarrassed having everyone look at her before finally nodding her head anxiously. Kayla untied the ribbon that had been lying on her hair and placed it on her chest.

“Activate,” she said.

The warm light and ribbons that surrounded her and created her battle armor began to flow and weave until she was fully armored. Everyone else stood along one wall, Hunter had moved from his original spot in the lineup to be next to Leah of course, while Kayla stood in the middle of the large battlefield that sat underneath the house they resided in. Nathaniel, however, was nowhere to be found as the blonde woman was already familiar with this.

Lamb began to change and mold the basement to look more like the city they occupied in so that Kayla would know what to expect. Even though it was just a copy of it, Kayla couldn’t help but look at her surroundings. She heard something, her ears turning towards the noise before she jumped out of the way. An arrow lay in the wake of where she stood as she held her naginata close to her looking around to try and see where Nathan was.

The blonde supposed this was a good way to find out that Nathaniel was an archer, but it almost worried her that he was trying to hit her. Then again, this was training. She was sure Nathaniel wouldn’t really hit her, but she was supposed to be taking this seriously. Kayla gave a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves before she heard another swish. Another arrow headed straight for her but she dodged it again.

However, what she didn’t expect was more than one arrow. Kayla dodged the arrow but another one had scratched her side. The blonde winced. She needed to pay better attention. There was a reason why she was part fox and why the rest of her teammates also resemble animals. Kayla heard another couple of arrows shoot her way as she stretched her naginata out and swiped a couple of them away. But one still hit in, cutting her face. Kayla touched her face then pulled her hand to see it. Her glove was stained in blue.

She looked surprised. Was blood always this color? Was it even blood that was stained on her fingertips?

Another couple of arrows shot out, but Kayla was too distracted to try and dodge them. Finally, someone slashed the arrows in half watching them fall to the floor.

“Enough!” Luke yelled, in his battle armor with a sword in his hand.

His gray ears were perked up and his tail was stiff as Luke looked back at Kayla who looked at him shocked. How did he get in front of her so fast?

The world began to distort and return to the basement as Chris and Leah walked over to Kayla to inspect the damage.

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“You okay?” Chris asked.

“She’s fine,” Luke answered for her, putting his sword away in its holster, “This was a crazy idea, however.”

Nathaniel flew over, his wings flapping before he landed on the floor wondering what was going on.

“She needs to learn this quickly if she is to ever join the rest of you outside,” Lamb answered, still standing by the television set.

“None of us learned this quickly, none of us were forced to learn this fast, and she is clearly not ready for any of this,” Luke retorted, clearly pissed about this.

The rest were quietly listening, even Kayla was too. She couldn’t help but touch her cheek again and saw that there was no more blue blood. Did her wound heal already?

“Christina did,” Lamb finally said.

Chris flinched slightly when Lamb said her name. But at the same time, she was also upset about the fact that Lamb was forcing this on Kayla so quickly as well.

“Chris had Kamille! So did Samantha! That’s different,” Luke said.

“And you had the three of them at one point, teaching you the basics before becoming more proficient did you not?” Lamb asked, “Kayla has five of you to teach her. And I must continue to remind you that time is running out. She must learn all of this in the short time we have or she will not survive outside.”

Kayla shuddered quietly at what Lamb said. Was there really a chance that she would not make it outside if she didn’t learn any of this properly? Leah put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. Kayla looked at her and nodded softly before looking back at Lamb and Luke.

Luke gave an irritable sigh, “Dammit Lamb.”

He walked away to the other side of the basement for a moment. Lamb looked at the others now.

“Let us continue with the training. Hunter you are next,” Lamb said.

Hunter nodded his head enthusiastically, “Yes sir!”

Lamb looked at Hunter, “Please change into your uniform.”

Kayla began to wonder, was Lamb a male? They never went to that extent to check if Lamb was male or female but the group figured they would find out sooner or later.

Hunter took out a small red trinket and held it in his hand. Kayla tried to see what it was but he had already turned it into a gold-trimmed red gem before she could. Hunter’s uniform was the same as Nathaniel’s, but with a red trim. His shoes were slip-ons similar to Nathaniel’s but with white and red in the front. And around his neck was a black thread with a bullet looped through. Kayla looked at the bullet curiously. Was that his item? What a strange thing compared to the others. Christina’s was a hair clip, Leah’s was a watch, and Nathaniel’s was a pair of flimsy-looking headphones.

A tail poked out from Hunter’s uniform as Kayla couldn’t help but tilt her head slightly when his ears twitched. Was Hunter supposed to represent a monkey?

“Almost ready,” Hunter said with a grin, tapping his gem three times before pulling out a battle axe, “Alright, so what are we doing?”

“Defense training. Kayla needs to be able to defend herself against you,” Lamb said.

Everyone backed away but had some worries when it came to Hunter and ‘holding back’. Nonetheless, they had to trust him for now and see how this would work out. Hunter twirled his axe in his hand while Kayla held up her naginata in front of her. She remembered not to have both of her hands so closely together in the center and instead balance them along both sides of the pole. She stood strong and waited until Hunter gave a grunt before charging at her, jumping up to give him more leverage as he held his axe in both hands and pushed it down into her spear. Kayla held herself against Hunter as he came down on her with his axe, feeling the force of both his attack and jump. She gritted her teeth, hearing both the pole of her weapon and the blade of Hunter’s scratch and screech against each other.

While the noise may have bothered her ears, the woman was certainly holding her own against Hunter. Finally, Lamb said something to stop the fight.

“Enough,” Lamb said.

Hunter looked over and released his attack on Kayla. The woman sighed, feeling like she barely held on that time. There were other times where she had to hold herself against Christina, and that was the most difficult by far. Nonetheless, Hunter put his weapon away.

“Not bad,” he complimented, giving his usual grin as Kayla nodded her head in appreciation.

“Let us begin offense training,” Lamb said, looking over at Luke who seemed unimpressed by everything thus far.

Lamb just stood there looking at Luke who eventually met its eyes, “Please get into position.”

“Why me?” he asked the little creature.

“Because I am asking you to,” Lamb responded immediately.

Christina pressed her lips together into a fine line, getting uncomfortable with the way Luke was acting. He had his decent days, but sometimes he was just too stubborn. Luke gave a sigh before tapping the jewel on his abdomen. Kayla sees that his uniform is the same as the other boys, but with tennis shoes and orange colors. Not to mention, his weapon was a sword.

“About time,” Chris muttered from the side, earning an angry glare from Luke.

“Shut up,” Luke snapped.

Chris just stuck out her tongue which only seemed to irritate the boy more. Kayla couldn’t help but be reminded of two children acting out against each other. It was humorous to say the least.

“Let us get on with the training,” Lamb said.

Luke’s ears were turned towards Lamb before turning back to their original position. Kayla stared over at his tail which swayed occasionally with his movements. For some reason, Luke’s animal characteristics only reminded her of a dog. And it was exactly what she was thinking because when she looked up, Luke was glaring at her.

“Stop it,” he told her.

She nodded her head slowly before saying quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Luke really didn’t like her, but Kayla just didn’t understand why.

“He’s a dog, you can say it. No need to pussyfoot around it,” Christina said, using that word purposely.

This earned a stifling laugh from Hunter who was probably laughing at the word ‘pussyfoot’. Leah rolled her eyes at Hunter and shook her head.

“I’m a fucking wolf, we’ve been over this,” Luke retorted at Chris.

“Mutt,” she mumbled anyway, which earned a scowl from Luke.

Kayla couldn’t help but snicker and then start laughing softly. She could see how Christina was trying to take Luke’s anger out on herself instead of letting him snap at Kayla. But the way she did it only continued to remind her of two children fighting.

“Enough. Let us begin training now,” Lamb said, getting tired of the idle conversations.

Christina looked at Luke with a grin after he was unable to remark on her comment earlier. Luke rolled his eyes before going towards the middle with Kayla. Kayla was holding onto her weapon as Luke unsheathed his katana and held it up in front of her.

“Go on,” Luke said.

Kayla perked up as she looked down at her naginata before sighing quietly. She separated her hands as she did before and took an offensive position.

“Begin,” Lamb announced.

Kayla took in a deep breath before going in with her naginata. She did a direct strike first, getting easily countered by Luke’s katana. The miss threw Kayla off a bit as it took her some time to recover before getting ready for the next strike. This time, she twisted her naginata around her shoulder and underneath her other arm for an upwards attack. Luke held his katana perpendicular to his body as both blades clashed with each other. Kayla tried to push her naginata to hit him but he flipped his katana around her weapon to toss it up. The blonde woman lost her grip and in that moment, Luke pointed his blade to her throat. Kayla stared at him, fear clearly shining in her eyes as the man looked down at her.

“Stop!” Christina yelled, walking up to the two of them.

She had changed into her battle armor and grabbed Luke’s sword, “Lamb, this shouldn’t be the way Kayla learns these things. She is only going to feel disappointment.”

“Kayla needs to learn as quickly as possible, this is the way,” Lamb told her.

“No! This isn’t how Kamille taught me, or Samantha, or even Luke!” Christina said.

Kayla looked over at Christina, wondering who those other two people were. Her eyes eventually glanced over at Luke who had his arms crossed looking the other way.

Lamb was quiet for a moment before saying, “Kamille had time to teach the three of you. Kayla does not.”

“Time for what? What is she running out of time for?” Christina asked Lamb.

Everyone walked over, hearing the commotion but also wanting to know what it was that Kayla did not have time for. That all of them did not have time for.

“War,” Lamb finally answered.

Everyone had strange looks on their faces. Even Luke, who was not even glancing at the conversation previously, turned to look at the white animal.

“War? Against who?” Chris asked.

Lamb blinked its eyes before answering, “Demons. Hordes of them. More than any of you have ever fought before.”

This quieted everyone down. Even Kayla looked at all of them, seeing the same grave expressions on all of their faces.

“So Kayla must learn, even if it is difficult. Or she will not survive the war to come,” Lamb told them.

Kayla felt fear… but not only that, she also felt apprehension. Lamb’s words only made her not want to step foot outside of this house much less go out and fight against the very beings that they were teaching her to fight against. Chris looked at Kayla’s scared expression as the grip on her naginata shook with fear. She walked up to her and put her hand on Kayla’s. The blonde woman looked at Chris who smiled warmly to her.

“We are going to do our best to make sure you do your best. Because we’re a team,” Christina said.

Christina’s words seemed to shake the stunned silence from everyone because they all looked at the two of them. Leah put her hand on Kayla’s shoulder and looked at her. Kayla’s grass green eyes stared back up at Leah, before everyone else crowded her. Even Luke stood nearby, but not close enough to invade her personal space per say.

“So don’t be afraid. I mean, I’m not saying it’s not okay to be scared ‘cause I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared either,” Chris told her.

Nathaniel nodded his head in agreement, “We’re all scared when we fight the demons. The difference is, we got used to it. But out there, we always have each other’s backs.”

“But you know, I’ll definitely be watching your back,” Hunter flirted with a wink.

Leah pushed his face out of Kayla’s in annoyance, “We all watch each other’s backs. Even grumpy over there.”

Luke made a huff which made Kayla glance his way. Despite how he acted, Kayla supposed that Luke wasn’t entirely bad. Perhaps this was simply his personality and Kayla still needed to get used to it. But feeling the confidence that everyone was exuding onto her, the woman felt something that was unfamiliar to her. She didn’t know how to put it into words but she knew it was a good feeling and not a bad one.