Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 7 ==
''Fannara''

Training started as it always did. Several laps around the arena, push-ups, burpees, and leg lifts. The week before, we had been doing slightly random activities for most Training. One day was rock climbing, the next sprinting, and the next jumping over hurdles. Weapons were a completely new subject. 

We gathered around the assortment of weapons and were given permission to select a few at a time and try them out. They had branded the structures holding the weapons with different symbols, similar to those on the uniforms. 

The archery sets were the first things to catch my eye, but the light and force field brand changed my mind. I doubted arrows would be very effective in any matter if I could use my magic through it. Mara snatched a bow and quiver and continued her search. I looked around in growing nervousness. What if I couldn’t find something that worked for me? How different would things be because of being Alithosian?

Ari walked over to where I was standing. “Can’t find anything?” I shook my head. She bit her lip and looked around. “Well, I already have everything I want, so you can either just grab the same things as me or we can find other stuff. What do you wanna do?”

“Um,” I felt ridiculous. “I think that just seeing what you have would work best.” 

“Cool.” She led me first to a rack of swords. I stared at the absurd range of them. Why in the world would a technologically advanced society still use swords? Then I realized Arienna was a metal bender. She didn’t need to be anywhere close to the swords to use them.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to use those ones as well as you.” 

“Oh. You’re right.” She looked at what else was around. “You know how to use a gun?” 

My eyes widened and I shook my head. Owning a gun was a symbol of power and wealth on Alithos, making me less inclined to use one. 

“Uhh, let’s see.” Ari tapped her chin and craned her neck. “Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “I have an idea.” She took my arm and pulled me over to a bucket full of metal staffs, each one with an intricate handle. There weren’t very many of them. “These are Getterian metal bending staffs, but you don’t necessarily need to be a metal bender to use them.”

She selected a staff and handed it to me. “That should be long enough for you. Now just need some guards.” Ari looked around the cluttered area. “We might have to ask for them...oh well. I’ll just show you how this works first and you can decide if you like it.” She grabbed herself one and began. “So these are very...versatile. You can twist the handle thing here and, boom,” Ari twisted her handle and a large spearhead stuck out of one end. “Now it’s a spear. If you twist the handle more, the whole thing comes out and it’s an arrow.”

I looked at the staff she had handed me and copied what she did. Nothing happened. “Um, why isn’t it working?”

“Ohhh, you’re left-handed, you have to twist it the other way.” I did as she said and it worked. “Ok, so next, you can find this little button here on the handle and boop it.” Ari pushed the button on hers and the staff separated into three parts, hanging together by a cord of some type.

“Now you have overgrown nunchucks, but you can put those back in the handle and then- this is where you’d need metal bending- you can take the cord, from one end and connect it to the other ''annnnd'',” her eyes glowed silver as she bent the metal. “Now you have a bow and an arrow.” 

“Woah.” 

“Yeah, Getterian weaponry is pretty great.”

I nodded. “But how am I supposed to use it if I’m not a metal bender?”

Ari grinned. “I’ll show you.” She twisted the bow and it clicked back into shape as a spear. Then she stuck the arrow back in the top, sharp side up. I repeated the action, twisting the handle again to make the arrowhead fully disappear. 

She stuck her staff back in the bucket and gestured for me to follow her. 

“Hey, Valraea?” Our Trainer turned to face Ari.

“Can I help you, Miss Harlen?”

Ari nodded. “Yep, I’m wondering if we have any metal guards in Fannara’s size.” I still had no clue what “guards” were, and was starting to worry about what Ari was getting me into. 

Valraea raised an eyebrow. “Why would she need guards? Are there no other weapons that’ll work for her?”

“Not that we’ve found.” It felt strange to be talked about like I wasn’t there, but I had gotten used to it years ago.

“Alright then, I’ll go check in the back.” She reemerged a few minutes later carrying a pair of arm guards. “These just arrived yesterday with the shipment of weapons.” She handed them to me. “Good luck.” I nodded.

Ari snatched them from me before I had even opened the package. “Before you try these, you should decide if the staff works for you.” 

“Oh, ok.” I adjusted my grip and experimentally swung it. I found myself giggling as the long staff swooped through the air. It was beautifully balanced, making low noises as it danced along. 

I stopped and looked at Ari. “I like it.” I was still feeling giddy from the testing of the weapon.

“Well, I guess that’s what we’re going to do.” Arienna handed me the arm guards. “Now these have been Casted, that means there is metal bending magic in there. You’ll basically have two sets of magic when you use them, but it might not work for you. It’s hard to learn another form of magic.” 

I tucked the staff into my arm and strapped on the arm guards. They were a dusty black color with two buckles near the top which just barely brushed the bottom of my sleeve. They felt surprisingly comfortable. 

Ari nudged me and contorted her hands, making her staff float. I copied her position but nothing happened. I frowned down at my hands. I wasn’t doing anything different. 

Taking a deep breath, I pushed magic into the guards, hoping something- anything- would happen. Something did. My staff shook and wobbled, but steadily raised off the floor. I straightened my fingers, making it stay in place. 

I started giggling again and lost control of the staff, sending it clanging loudly to the floor. Thankfully no one noticed, they were too busy testing out their weapons. 

“Well done!” Ari high-fived me. We spent the rest of Training learning how to use our weapons and doing target practice. I was silently pleased with how easily I had learned to use my weapon and the arm guards. It had been so enjoyable that I nearly forgot about Extended Training. 

Nearly. 

Mel,  Ari, and I had put away the weapons we had decided on and were about to leave the arena when Valraea caught us.

“Where do you three think you’re going?” She had both hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression on her face. “You don’t get out of Extended Training.” I couldn’t stop the groan that came out of me. Valraea turned her glare on me, making me squirm. 

Ari grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the arena, away from Valraea’s glare and into Moren’s. My hair was frizzing out of its braid and sticking to my forehead, making me strangely irritable. 

We lined up, girls in one row, facing our partners. Moren looked past my shoulder like I wasn't even there. I controlled the glare I felt rising up, it wouldn't do me any good.

Once our area was clear of people outside of our squadron, Valraea began. "Well, ladies and boys, today we will be starting self-defense." She waited for a reaction. Bryce gave one.

"Pardon me, but I don't think these ''ladies'' here pose much of a threat to us."

"Don't be so sure, Mr. Anderson, Alamara could slap you into next Friday if she wanted to." He glanced nervously at Mara while our Trainer continued. "No need to worry quite yet, you're just going over the basic moves today, no testing on your partner."

I felt relieved. As much as I hated to admit it, even just to myself, Moren was capable of beating me in a fight. He was bigger and had better training than I had, not to mention he was of a race known to be more physically capable. 

Valraea showed us a few of the basic moves, none of which were explained well. Parrying and defense were focused upon, since Valraea believed that the defensive abilities were more important now than offense.{Names of snazzy self-defense moves that require clear explanations to be understood}

She suddenly clapped her hands together, making me jump at the loud noise. "Now boys, be gentlemen, and ladies," she flashed us a grin, "make me proud." I had my doubts that either would be accomplished. 

The two rows that were our squad dissipated as others searched for suitable practice spaces. Moren did not move. Neither did I.

I stood still and looked him straight in the eyes, not quite glaring. The sapphire irises never met mine. I huffed, getting frustrated with his stubborn silence. 

“Well?” 

His eyes rolled on their way to meet mine. “Are you waiting for something?” 

I was unable to think of a good retort and had to resort to the first response I could think of. “Are you?” The words tumbled out of my mouth uncomfortably, and he was all too aware of it. 

“Nope.” He turned and began going through the moves we had been shown. I could almost feel the smugness radiating off of him. ''The heck is your problem?''

Trying to push down my stubbornness, I began practicing with him. 

“You’re doing that wrong.” Moren didn’t even look at me.

“Excuse you?”

He sighed dramatically and turn to face me. “You are doing that wrong.” He turned again, not specifying what I was doing wrong.

“Ah, extremely helpful, thank you for the clarification,” I muttered under my breath, but by the way he stiffened, I guessed he heard it. 

Now that I was paranoid about what I was doing, I went a bit slower, trying my best to replicate what I had seen Valraea doing. 

“Still wrong.” I bit my tongue and instead glared up at him from the corner of my eye. 

This time, as I was preparing to do the move, I went through a mental checklist, I knew where my arms were going, my knees were bent, what was I doing wrong? Was anything actually wrong, or was this jerk just messing with me?

I tried again, sure that I was doing it right this time. 

“You really don’t learn well, do you?” 

''That’s it.''

“Well, if you weren’t aware, it’s not very effective to just say something’s wrong without clarifying ''what’s wrong.”'' 

He glanced down at me, stating simply, “Your feet are in the wrong position.” 

''I’m going to kill him. I’m going to learn this stupid move and I’m going to kill him.''

A headache was on its way. I spat out a hardly convincing “thank you” and tried again, readjusting my feet to the correct position. This time he kept quiet. 

We kept going through the moves, doing our best to avoid each other. Moren continued to give vague corrections. I wished I could recognize something he was doing as wrong, but I was worried that I’d try to correct something he was doing right. I would not give him a reason to gloat more than he already was. 

Thankfully, the awkwardness was pulled to a close when Valraea yelled from the other side of the arena, letting us know we were free to leave. I didn’t bother saying goodbye. I just booked it out of there. 

Mara was the first to catch up to me. 

“Please tell me your time was better than mine.”

I looked down at Mara. “I highly doubt yours could have been worse.”