Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 5 ==
''Fannara''

The smile I had been struggling to maintain disintegrated as Valraea said his name. I had already been uncomfortable being around so many people I didn't know, but now they were all staring at me. Mara stiffened as Mel groaned. 

Ari let out a long breath. “Of course, of course, the one person we wanted to avoid is on our squad.” She yanked two ends of her ponytail apart, sending the hair tie shooting to her scalp and tightening its hold. 

“This won’t be a problem, right?” Valraea looked slightly concerned, but seemingly more about the hassle of reassigning people than out of sympathy.

I sighed. “We can handle his royal haughtiness.” She nodded and walked off to deliver the news to our brother team. 

“Maybe it will get better as time goes on?” Mara ventured. Mel was the first to reply, surprising us all with her comment.

“Mara, it’s Bryce.” She paused, her expression changing from one of exasperation into a sly grin. “I’m sure Ari and Lindin will have a good time even if Fannara and Mara don't.” Arienna glared at her, smacking her arm, but her cheeks betrayed the truth of Mel’s statement. 

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I haven’t heard about this.” 

“You see, last year aft-,” Melody’s story was cut off as Ari slapped her hand over the betrayer’s mouth. 

          Ari started again. "The point is that you two," she glared down at Mara and then up at me. "Better start some strategizing. The next three years are going to be awful if those guys stay as they are." 

          "Ok, I do have a question, though. What's wrong with Bryce?" Mara just pointed to where a rather short blonde boy was flexing in front of a group of girls who were rolling their eyes or practically drooling. 

          "''That's'' the problem with Bryce," Mel said once Ari released her.

"Ah, makes sense." 

“Look at them.” Mara pointed at a growing cluster of people heading towards the instructors in the room. As each had a brief conversation with an instructor, they opened their telecoms and scanned something off the other com. They then filled out whatever it was and had the instructors scan it. “They didn’t have forms last year. It was just strongly implied that no one talked about a chance of a Shifter attack leading to war. Anything relating to it was just taboo.”

I squinted at the screens, wishing I could tell what the little black dots against the glowing white screen said. “What do you think they have to fill out?”

Ari crossed her arms. “Probably their personal information, giving consent to get fingerprinted, acknowledging that if they spill the beans, the school and government have the authority to lock them up until the end of the war.” I was horrified.

“They can do that?”

Mara shifted uncomfortably. “Well yeah, if word got out that the Eldran are training for a potential war, it could be the excuse the Deraal needs to officially declare one.”

“Then why didn’t they have them last year?”

“Last year we had ‘fitness’, they passed off boot camp as a gym class.” Arienna chuckled at the cover-up. “And it didn’t matter, because no one thought Jana would ever find out. But then earlier this year….” She trailed off like she was regretting saying anything. 

''Great, another important event that was covered up. How is this country still running?'' 

“Oh look, Valraea’s back.” Mara’s cheery voice pulled me from my thoughts. ''And company'', I muttered under my breath''.'' 

“Girls,” Valraea gestured from us to the boys she had in tow. “This is your brother team. When I say your name, state the proper name of your power, and go to your partner, we have squad training after this.” Barely stifled groans sounded from everyone in our squadron. “I know it’s not fun, but if you didn’t want to do this, you should have gone to the front. Now, moving on, Raymond Kasivar,”

“Healing.”

“Melody Harfeld,”

“Force field manipulation.”

“Moren Keleth,”

“Light bending.”

“Fannara Harpson,”

“Healing.”

“Bryce Anderson,”

“Light bending.”

Valraea paused. “Two light benders on one team?”

“Yes ma’am, Moren’s bad at his job.” The boys snickered at the joke, and Moren rolled his eyes in a friendly manner.

“Well, I suppose there’s nothing we can do about that now. Alamara Mulid,”

“Light bending.” Mara’s face contorted as she tried to hold in a laugh at Valraea’s irked look. 

“Not only do you have three light benders in your squad, but two of you are also paired up?” She put a finger on either side of her forehead and groaned something about new administration. “Lindin Garth?”

“Light ben-” Valraea smacked him with her telecom.

“I know that’s a lie, you little jerk. What would your mother say?” She pretended to be upset until Lindin started laughing. His brown eyes practically disappeared when he smiled. 

“Alright, alright, it’s Force field manipulation.”

“Much better. Arienna Harlen?”

“Getterian metal bender.” 

Valraea smiled at Arienna. “It’s nice to know that not all the Getterians went back to the Homeworld.” Ari just nodded. 

Now that we were all lined up awkwardly, we started doing various exercises to assess our ability. We did nothing with our powers, everything was purely physical. 

Melody was the fastest of us girls, but I was close behind her, just a few seconds slower. Mara was the strongest, easily beating us all. I was excited when we got to test climbing and swiftly climbed the rock wall before any of my roommates were even halfway up. Poor Mel was shaking by the time she climbed back down. Even with her extreme height, she was terrified of them. Ari blew everyone away in the flexibility assessment, nearly folding in half before Valraea freaked out and told her to stop. She also had the best balance. 

As Training continued, I noticed something weird. Moren would talk to Mara and Mel, even make some jokes, but he wouldn’t even look at me or Ari. Not that we minded, but it got rather irritating, especially when Ari started talking with Lindin. I wasn’t mad that she was having a good time with him, part of me just wished that I had someone to talk to as well. 

By the end of Training, we were all sweaty and tired. We had literally been stretched to our limits and had probably each pulled something. 

Valraea studied the telecom she had recorded our times in. “You all did well, some more than others, but you all have room for growth.” I cringed. I knew I was one of those who hadn’t done “better than others.” I was from Alithos and it showed. “I’m going to ask that you all start one-on-one training with your partners starting next week. I think you can all learn from each other and you need to trust each other to be an effective squad.” She studied us all. “Alright, that’s all. You’re dismissed.” 

As we walked out of the huge room, we had to fill out a document likely similar to the one those who dropped out of Training filled out.

''Full Name:''

''Age and Date of Birth:''

''Height:''

''Power:''

The list went on. At the end of the form was a block of text. ''By filling out this form and signing at the bottom of this page, you agree to keep up with your Training and classes. In the likely situation that a war start, you agree to serve the army. You agree that you will be able to work with your squadron for the rest of the school year, and possibly the next three years. If you tell anyone outside of students and faculty of Elquar University about Training, you are susceptible to be tried for espionage and/or incarcerated.'' 

While the idea of being put in jail for telling someone about Training seemed a little extreme, it didn’t affect me; I didn’t have anyone to tell. I filled out the form and signed it at the bottom. I had naturally signed my name in Lathyian, and I wondered if I would have to learn how to do it in Lathran. For now, it didn’t matter. 

I handed the com to one of the Trainers at the door. He scanned it and let me leave the arena. 

I waited outside the two double doors as my roommates filled out their forms. Mel finished first and joined me. We stared out the windows in almost awkward silence. I hadn’t been around Melody as much as I had Mara and Ari. I tried to think of something to say, but my stupid brain blanked and I couldn’t think of a single question I didn’t already know the answer to. I came up with one and lost it just as quickly. By the time I remembered, Ari and Mara came out.  

Arienna groaned and stretched her arms above her head. “That was obnoxiously hard.”

Mara let out a slightly crazed laugh. “It really was, why do they think we need to be flexible to be fit? I just,” she paused with a strange look on her face. “Why?” Mel chuckled.

“Just think of it as a placement test, they just need to know what people are good at and build on that.”

“Valraea seems to think we need to be good at everything.” Arienna’s back cracked loudly and she sighed contentedly. “I mean, I get it, we aren’t that great at some things, and we still need to do Training, but one-on-one training with our partners? In ''addition'' to normal training? We’re going to pull things we don’t even know we have yet.” 

I shrugged. “I think she maybe wants us to do it to get to know our partners, not necessarily to actually show any improvements. At least for you guys. You guys did really well. I definitely am one of those with ‘room for growth.’”

Ari looked rather unimpressed. “Just because you don’t have Eldran training doesn’t mean you’re bad at it. We all have room for growth, and we just have a leg up. Anyway,” she bumped my shoulder with hers, “you beat all of us by a landslide in climbing.” I gave her an awkward smile.

“You’re a lot better than you’re giving yourself credit for.” Mara nodded at Mel’s statement. 

“You’re really good, and I’m really hungry, so if we could maybe move this conversation to the dining hall, my stomach would be much obliged.” Mara pushed us towards the elevator, all of us laughing the whole time.