"Before we start," Ara begins, "Observe. I'll go slow so you can see it, then I'll do it fast."

She holds out both gloved hands, one holding the crystal thing. It looks a bit like that dungeon core, but subtly different. A light begins to glow inside the crystal, spreads to the left glove in an intricate pattern of lines and disappears. A second later the right glove has glowing lines spreading on it, moving from the wrist to the fingers. A faintly glowing light starts to form ahead of the fingertips where it remains a moment before flying off in a straight line past my head. It impacts the wall behind me with barely a noise. I whip my head around to look at it.

It was rather unimpressive, really. Something like that I can see coming and get out of the way without any effort. Ara interrupts my thoughts. "Now fast."

I turn back to face her in time to seen the crystal light up. Both gloves show their lines at almost the same time and something impacts the wall behind me before I turn my eyes to the right hand. That, I would not be able to dodge. Then again, I might not have to. This second impact on the wall was not as hard as the first. Depending on how much it actually hurts, maybe I won't have to dodge at all. I get ready once again for her assault, but it seems the show isn't over yet.

"Just so you don't underestimate this," Ara says as she looks right at me. The crystal in her left hand flares and I can almost see a pulse transfer through her body from her left hand to her right hand. There, the same lines appear on the glove and the same barely visible light gathers for a moment before launching at a respectable speed at the wall behind me, where it impacts loudly. Looking back, there is no mark on the wall, but some sand has been thrown up and is slowly settling. "Not everyone has the same level of control, but don't get overconfident." Scratch the plan where I don't dodge at all. It was a bad plan anyway.

We both get ready to face off again. Crouching low, the only warning is the glow from her left hand, but it's all the warning I need. The first quick jump is to the right. As soon as the little light of the attack passes I reverse my momentum and sprint to the left. Something impacts the place I was standing, but I'm long gone. Ara has trouble adjusting her aim for a moment. Keeping a careful eye on her movement, I time my next move just before her next attack to the best of my guessing ability. Instead of reversing, My new path takes me right at her.

I can see her eyes widening in surprise and she launches a hasty spell in my direction. Her aim is entirely off and I don't even need to dodge. Before she recovers her composure I've closed in the distance. A feint to the left makes her swing around to her right to follow my move. Gathering my strength I absorb my speed and jump in the opposite direction towards her left hip. The bag hanging there is my goal and I grab is with all four claws. It's a little more resilient than I thought and doesn't fall to the ground with me, instead I'm left hanging.

Above me a familiar voice addresses me. "You stupid glutton." The emotions from Ara currently swing wildly between irritation, amusement and more irritation. Looking up, I see a hand covered by a glove with glowing lines aimed at my head. Not liking the view, my claws instantly let go, dropping me to the ground. Her aim follows me, so I take the only course of action open to me. Diving through her legs one of my claws hooks just above her knee in passing. Using this to swing myself up I clamber on to her back.

Humans, just like most demons, can't reach all that well on their back and I fully intend to exploit that. In fact, many of the demons I've seen have changes to cover that specific weakness. Ara doesn't, so it's a safe place to hide. Stupid 'I throw things at you and you dodge' idea. The smart thing is to get somewhere where they can't hit you at all. It works too. When I see her arms move I can duck to one side so she can't hit or grab me and her attempt to shake me off is laughably weak. Luckily she doesn't try to slam her back and me into a wall or try to crush me by rolling on the ground. It wouldn't catch me, of course, but I would have had to leave my safe place.

As Ara stops moving I briefly hope she'll reward my great plan with a berry. Maybe two. Those hopes are quickly gone when she begins to speak.

"Get off now, or I'll have to hurt you." She sounds calm, but my internal sense of her is anything but. Most of the earlier amusement is gone and what is left leaves me a little worried. I'll stay right here where it's safe, if you don't mind.

"It's a little unfair to do this, but you started it." Patiently I wait for my pre-existing knowledge to provide the information, but no matter how long it takes, it seems there is no meaning to attach to it. The closest feeling I get for it would be 'a thing to do which gives you an advantage'. It must have been a compliment for my smart plan of getting in close. Briefly I wonder what smart thing Ara will do to counter it.

The wait is short. With a crackle something envelops her body and courses into mine. It's similar to what the fairy Mari used which left me without control of my body, but less strong. Still powerful enough to make me twitch, losing my grasp on Ara. While I'm still falling to the ground, she's already turning around with one leg raised backwards. As I land, her leg swings forwards and the impact launches me almost to the wall at the back. Surprisingly, nothing is broken though I do feel bruised. All in all I'm quite impressed. As I turn towards her to try and show my appreciation I have to duck to avoid one of those spells. It looks much stronger than before too.

From there on it's all I can do to stay ahead of Ara. Instead of shooting to make me move, she's honestly trying to hit me. I can tell by the ball of frustration and anger that is her in the back of my mind. Every time one of her traps fails the frustration grows, while a success makes it less. I'm not sure what Ara had in mind when we started, but this is quite fun. The first time I freely use the wall to escape being cornered surprises her, but she adapts quickly and I learn to avoid it. On the wall, my mobility is simply less than on the ground, so it should only be used as a last resort. If she's ready for it, she punishes me for my mistake. The same with jumping. The first time I catch her by surprise, but it leaves me with no way to avoid the follow-up. After that first one she deliberately tries to make me jump and hit me in the air.

Whenever I can my scrambles, hops, rolls and jumps take me closer to her. While it may be harder to dodge at a closer distance it's easier to stay out of the way of her spell entirely. Wisening up to my tactics Ara starts to circle away from me any time I get closer.

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We're interrupted in our games by a short, sharp knocking on the door. "It's been a bell and a half, miss. The master asked me to tell you so," sounds a male voice behind the door. 

Ara stops her assault on me and I take my chance to climb back on her back, which she ignores. "I'll be right out," she calls out, probably to the man at the door. This probably means the training thing is over so I start to poke her shoulder. It takes a while for her to get the hint and reach for the pouch hanging on her hip. She takes three berries and tosses them on the floor. As I jump after them, Ara gets unbalanced slightly from me pushing off of her, but nothing she can't handle with.

As I pop the first berry in my mouth Ara is fussing with her hair which came loose during our training and doing other human things. By the time the third tingle-berry is finished she's already waiting for me and taps on her shoulder impatiently. As I climb up she murmurs softly, "at least you know how to enjoy your food and don't just shove it inside." She continues in a louder voice. "We both need clean up after this, don't you think?" The only thing I smell is some sweat and I've gotten a bit sandy, which will fall off on its own. It wasn't really a question though, so I don't reply. As we walk out Ara takes a small metal disc from the pouch and puts it in an alcove just outside the door, before walking on.

Once outside, the first thing I notice is how quiet it is. Almost no more shouting men, beasts or animal sounds. It makes me realize how focused I was back in the room. A quick look around confirms there are almost no people, animals or beasts around. Humans are busy with some kind of sticks in the sandy places, others are collecting arrows or just tidying up. Ara walks past all this through the arch and back to the broad pathway with me still half on her back and half on her shoulder.

Once back there it turns out this path is much busier now with small groups of people or people walking alone. They're talking as much as devils do. While I'd love to just try to shut them out, it's supposed to help with learning the language to listen as much as I can. The basics are now easy enough and a lot can be inferred from body language, but that is not good enough. How else am I going to know when someone other than Ara is going to kick me again? Looking around I spot the maid that was following us before. Was she there the whole time? If she was, how did I miss her?

The big doors are now open with two men still standing nearby. Instead of opening and closing the doors they now keep a close eye on everyone going in or out. The only ones actually going in or out have grey robes, are females or both. As we enter they give a short bow to Ara. Paying close attention I'm trying to remember the corridors this time. Past the big doors is a small hall. At the far end turn left of the hall, then the second large corridor to the right. The fourth narrow corridor on the left has, on the right side, an alcove with three doors. The left most is Ara's room and I wonder what is in the others.

Ara opens the door herself this time and part of my question is answered as the maid goes into the door on the right. In her own room Ara shoos me to the top of the closet and strips out of her leather surface layer. It's the first time I see anyone getting out of clothes and it looks complicated. There are lots of straps and buckles and things that need to be taken off in turn. Underneath she's wearing a blue fabric piece of clothing, some kind of long, short sleeved vest. The smell of sweat is stronger now. What wasn't unpleasant before stirs something inside me now. It's the same piece of me which identified and loathed the humans the first time I really saw one.

Against my best efforts, my teeth bare themselves in a snarl and I let out an angry hiss. This draws the attention of Ara and for a while we just stare. I can feel my tension rising. Behind me, my tail is scoring gouges on the wall in its nervous twitching. The moment breaks when the door opens and the maid enters the room. Rising steam from a large bucket of warm water carries some kind of flowery scent with it which makes me sneeze. The maid puts the bucket on the floor and some towels on the bed while I try to shake my head to rid myself of the intruding scent, but it's everywhere by now.

When I look back I see the maid help Ara out of her remaining clothes. The naked human looks very much like Mari the fairy, except she has some hair in the crotch area. The maid wets a towel and starts to rub Ara with it. Meanwhile the two chatter constantly about hair, clothing and scents. I can understand why clothing is important for such weak-skinned creatures, but hair is still a mystery to me and the scents they talk about are useless for when you're hunting! Luckily they don't take long. Ara puts on a new under-shirt, still blue, then her eyes fall on me. "Him as well," she says.

A quickly look around tells me the door is closed, the window is shut and there is no other escape to be seen, so I just stay where I am. The two women below don't seem to consider that an option. Especially the maid-woman looks angry and threatens to wipe me down with .... 'sandpaper' whatever that is. It sounds better than this scented water, but I pretend not to understand her. It's Ara who breaks the stalemate by putting on the magic-causing gloves. A small hint like that is more than enough for me and I jump down, not accidentally almost knocking over the bucket while landing on the floor. Unfortunately the maid Ine catches it before it falls over.

They give me a quick rub-down before letting me retreat back to the closet. I glare down balefully and, sneezing occasionally, am totally ignored. The maid helps Ara put on a blue robe. I'm not sure of their significance, but I would guess blue and grey mean different things. Just like how swarmlings of different swarms are somewhat differently colored, but different. A strange amount of time is spent on putting things in the hair, on fingers and other things. On her hip a different bag is placed. A small satchel which smells of tingle-berries, the scent tickling my senses even over the scented water, is placed from the simple sack it was in first to the new one. The gloves and the crystal are put in there as well. Lastly a more ornate padded harness thing is fastened around her chest, waist and shoulder which I assume is for me.

"Come here and take a look at us." Ara stands in front of the closet and opens the door. Curious, I jump down. Inside are lots of clothes, but on the inside of one door is a reflecting thing, a mirror. With a short jump I reach her waist and catch on to the harness. Standing on her shoulder I get the first real look at myself. Sure, I've turned my head to look at parts before, but that does not give a proper idea of my good looks.

What I see doesn't look that special, for a moment I doubt it's actually me. Unfortunately the tail twitches at the same rhythm as mine, so I think it's me. No hair, at least, that would have been more disappointing. The normal coloration of my swarm was dark red with black stripes down the length. It's a little different on me and I wonder when it happened.

My back is black with dark red stripes down the length. The red stripes are standing out like veins. It's almost the reverse of the normal swarmlings where I hatched. As it goes down my flanks it colors closer to grey with dark red veins, while my belly is just dark red. My hind limbs are a dark grey on the outer side and dark red on the inside while my front limbs are dark red with black veins like they originally were. The lengthening spikes on my back are the light grey color of bone, but there are some reddish-brown ridges on them. I give them an experimental twitch and they move slightly. Not quite what I'd hoped for.

"I believe you are ready for the afternoon classes, my lady." Ine speaks up.

I see Ara smile in the mirror, pleased with what she sees though I can't tell why. Ine moves to pick up a rather bigger bag from the bottom of the closet and takes position next to the door. We're ready to go to lessons, I'm sure of it! I wonder what lessons humans get.