I faced a barrage of complaints and inquiries when I had returned to the training room.

“Show me yah progress first, then yah earn the right to answers.” I demanded from the men, who looked nervous and awkward.

“Hey?” I glanced at Edde and Kalia who were staring at the men austerely.

It seems they hadn’t been gentle with the training. A devilish grin twitched the corner of my lips. But, I stifled my reactions. It was ready to see what they had learned.

“Khes!” I said loudly to draw his attention to me.

I frowned when I spread my fingers and turned my opened hands (held in a slight bend) at the same time. Relaxed my expression as my hand shifted to a bent position and with my thumbs sticking out. Then moved them to my chest with my fingertips beneath my collar bone. Pointed a finger at him, then changed my hands’ position again, so my left hand was held flat, and my palm was upright. I moved my right hand to my forehead, pinching my fingers together; like I was making a lazy salute.

He gulped as he signed that he had recapped all the basic greetings and salutes, how to ask for the time, food and what to do next.

I did some more hand gestures, not using my voice to translate them, and made a kill gesture as a friendly remind that I’ll slaughter his manhood if he had failed. Sweat was truly trickling down his neck. He answered and added with some grumbles that I was just as much of a devil trainer as the other two.

“Ha! Good job. I think yah ready.” I clapped my hands with joy and slapped his back, feeding my pride for his progress into the gesture.

He sighed and flashed me a wry expression, poking my forehead with his, “You.”

I turned my attention to Troy, who was fretting on the spot.

“Well? Tell me yah progress with yah hands.”

His hands and fingers trembled with nerves as he fumbled his update on what Kalia had taught him: weather changes, courtesies and respects, how to ask for things and general responses.

“Recite the alphabet to me. Now!” I signed with forceful effects and expressions to match my gestures.

His fingers hastily ran through the alphabet, pausing on when he struggled to remember. But he did and was able to go through all letters without error.

I stepped up to him and gave him a hug, which had the others making noises and awkward shuffles, no doubt they were thinking things about us, they shouldn’t.

“Seriously.” I shook my head as I pulled away, and poked the forehead of each henchman.

“Get yah mind out of the gutter. I hugged the git because he made progress. Although, still bony. Don’t yah have milk privileges?”

Troy huffed and hastily snapped at me with his fingers, ending his words with a rude gesture.

Everyone was doing their best to stifle their chuckles. Our voices were silenced when Chief Randall entered the room with another henchmen who was helmet free. Quicksilver stepped forward and formally bowed before them, prompting the other three to do the same.

“I'll be testing you.” The other henchman signed, with an austere expression to match.

It was hard to tell some of his signing, as his face didn't reflect what his fingers were saying. I gulped down a nervous knot as I stared at the other henchman. He was older and likely nearing a grandpa age, with his graying brown beard and shaved (almost bald) head to highlight his beady brown eyes. There were lots of wrinkles, scars and lines to his face and dark-toned skin. And his neck! It was so thick like a trunk. To think a man could live this long with the kretchin, but with a neck that thick, I imagined it was possible. It was impressive.

Khes was called first to answer his senior’s question, which was naturally signed to him. The man nodded when he gave an answer that seemed satisfying. Zak repeated the process and was given the same head nod. Tensions rose around the room when it was Troy’s turn. We all held bated breaths when he answered his question. The man stepped up to Troy, who was doing his best not to look afraid.

“Nice work, lad! I knew you could do it!” The senior signed with a laugh and gave him a hearty slap to his back.

He turned to the chief and confidently signed. “Randall, you owe me five lein and a steak dinner!”

Chief Randall sighed and nodded. Troy’s body slumped with relief. He gratefully stepped back into his line when he was dismissed.

The old veteran was properly introduced as their captain, named Captain Keem Jones.

“You three girls, you have my thanks for making sure these boys can speak with their hands.”

“Excuse me, sirs, but we’ve only been training them for a short time. Are you sure that will be enough?” Kalia politely said with a curtsy to acknowledge the chief and captain’s status.

Captain Keem Jones laughed and signed. “It’s nice to see well-bred girls here. Even if we’re slaves, manners count in Anwar’s care.”

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His laughter subsided and hands assumed a thankful mannerism. “This proves how good you and these boys are.”

His smiles changed to a stern frown when he signed to his men. “You are good, aren’t you?”

All four of them snapped to attention and signed, “Sir, we are, sir!”

A smile returned to his face.

“Their progress is beyond my expectations. But I still want these men to go through most of the month to learn as much of the language. There’s still advanced signage for the dignitaries.” Chief Randall’s eyes darted to Kalia.

I nodded with understanding as to why she had been included, given her upbringing. However, the thought of visiting dignitaries had me wondering if this was a regular occurrence or for something big. I found it hard to believe that outsiders would purposely make a trip to the place unless by orders from a higher up. There was no point in speculating on the vague, intangible at this point. So, I decided to focus on the task at hand.

The seniors left the room, and we continued with the training. The men’s were flowing easier with conversation, the more proficient the became with the skill. It was as the chief had suspected when it came to complex and formal sentence structures. They struggled with their comprehension in this area. Still, their progress was promising, and soon we were able to have more time to rest.

“Hey, Neven. How did you go?” Troy signed.

Everyone stared at me, expecting an answer.

“The master will help.”

I didn’t go into details to be on the safe side. My mind touched on Chief Randall and the likely purpose for his visit. I hoped Eve would be accommodating.

We continued the training through the evening, with Kalia taking the lead. By which time, the men were more than versed in the skill. And I was wondering if the Chief will decide to recall them back early after all.

Quicksilver drew his attention to him and signed that he wanted to show us some basic self-defense as a token of his appreciation.

“Um, I don't know?” Kalia fretted with glances to Edde.

Edde sighed. “There are times when we may need to defend ourselves from beasts.”

Her eyes narrowed with her warning. If they used this as an excuse to be degenerate, she would ensure they lost more than their voices.

“Sheeze, these women are fierce.” Zak signed as he wiped sweat from his brows.

For most part of the training, he had been quiet and compliant. Quicksilver explained that he had thought our training style to be quite scary.

I laughed. “I’m glad yah see it that way.”

The men let out a heavy sigh. Quicksilver gestured for me to stand at the room’s center. He positioned me into a fighting stance. Kalia gasped with a sudden thought, but kept it to herself. But her expression become one of worry. It’s likely she had remembered my fight with Dyc and Jen, and saw that the squad leader’s training was going to be pretty much pointless. But, hey, I was up to learning new fight skills and I did want to test my strength on someone strong. So…

My lips twitched with a cocky grin. From the corner of my eye, I saw Troy shake his head.

Quicksilver explained on the moves he was going to teach me. He was going to hug me from behind, to which I would stomp on his foot once, snap my head back to give him a headbutt, and move my elbow up to try and hit the underside of his chin. Too easy.

He gave me the ready sign. I nodded and gave a funny look at Edde and Kalia’s shared glances. Kalia whispered into her ear, which had her groaning and smacking her palm to her forehead. I stood firm and unmovable when I felt the man’s arms wrap my waist, and acted as instructed. Stomping on his foot to stir a course yelp from his through, butting his head to have him release another, and sending him flying to the ground with a solid chin jab.

“Do I pass?” I cockily turned and stared down at him.

He groaned, rubbing at his aches and pains. After a short moment of regaining his strength, he frowned and nodded.

“Come on.” I extended my hand to him.

He grabbed it and sent me tumbling to the ground with an over shoulder throw. I cursed and groan at the sharp jolt up my back, but was able to swiftly regained my footing and do a body roll to avoid his foot stomps. He came at me with side-sweeping low kicks, which I jumped over, blocked his chest level punches with my forearm, ducked to avoid his high-kick and skewed my body about to dodge his uppercut jabs.

“Gah! I give up!” I cried out feeling sore and rubbed my arms better.

“I’m impressed.” He signed when he stepped back to stop the fighting.

I flicked the side of my nose with my thumb as I screwed up my face with a cocksure scowl.

He pulled out a small pot from his pant pockets and opened it to apply some cream on my affected skin. It held a familiar coolness. Soon my pain had eased and figured the cream had stopped me from getting bruises.

“I didn't even get a fist in.” I pouted.

He chuckled and signed after he had sealed the pot and pocketed it. “Are you really a girl?”

My hands were balanced on my hips when I regarded him through a cocky stance.

“Naturally. Yah do have eyes, right?”

“I’m glad I do.” He flashed me a cheesy wink, which aggravated my scowl, so my eyes drooped on a ‘gah’.

This response had the other men groaning and shaking their heads.

But Quicksilver’;s laughter became full-blown to just above a coarse whisper, so tears streamed from his eyes.“You, know, I like you, Neven. You’ve got a lot of guts.”

When his laughter subsided, his attention turned to Kalia who gulped nervously.

“Since Neven here knows how to fight, I’ll have her do the actions with you,” he said and nodded at seeing Kalia’s sighs of relief.

I calmly and carefully went through the motions with Kalia and then Edde, following his instructions. We noticed the light began to wane, indicating the training session was over for the day.

“Thank you for your lesson,” Kalia politely said to Quicksilver.

His expression became serious and tone low when he carefully signed for her to be careful with her mannerisms. “Being polite doesn’t always guarantee respect. In fact, some people will see reason to hurt you for it. It would pay to heed this advice, Kalia.”

She nodded.

As we were heading out of the room, I saw skirrat with fiery-red fur dart across the other side of the corridor and disappear through a cloth door. Something about that creature’s aura didn’t give me a good vibe. Unlike Wolf’s, whose aura happened to be the same color as his eyes, with an underlining pure white quality. That creature had a dull-red shade.

“Neven.” Edde called my name.

I nodded and followed everyone out of the isolated section. We parted ways as we headed into the main temple grounds.