I viciously slashed my long sword at my instructor, he blocked it with his shield, I immediately whirled and smashed the blade into his sword, sending it flying from his hand. I proceeded to kick him in the stomach flooring him, and held my sword at his throat. My breathing was fast and ragged, sweat dripping off my brow.
"Excellent, Blizz it is important to be able to fight without the aid of your spirit animal." I clasped his outstretched hand and pulled my mentor to his feet. For fourteen years of age, I was taller and stronger then many older Greencloaks.
"Now we fight with the aid of are Spirit Animals"
I summoned forth Japheth, my massive Akbash dog, from the northern Amaya, while my teacher brought out his iguana. We dueled until the breakfast bell rang, we had been training since before dawn.
"Get some breakfast, Blizz, you deserve it. We'll meet at midday at the stables."
I walked out of the training area, and down the twisting, winding halls of Greenhaven, I had walked these halls for more then a year. My feet guided me automatically towards the eating hall. My friend Plat waved me over to his table, their friends were seated their as well. A small smile cracked my usually serious expression. I sat inbetween Lotus and the before mentioned Plat, they were my two best friends, and the only ones I trusted. Plat was the shorter, with sandy hair and chameleon eyes, while Lotus was tall, olive skinned, dark haired and absolutely beautiful . Three others sat at the table.
"How'd training go?" Lotus asked, grabbing a roll of bread, while Jade, her owl, gulped down meat on her shoulder. Plat's mischievous otter climbed onto the top of my head, nibbling on a piece of shrimp.
"Good," I said briskly, putting several pieces of meat and bread onto my plate and tossing several to Japheth all the while wearing Dastan like a furry bobbing hat . Wrapping them efficiently into the bread I took a bit, and closed my eyes, as the taste of the smoky juicy meat, mixed in with the fine bread soaked into my mouth. I noticed a short girl with pale skin being escorted by Rabbit coming to are table. Removing Dastan from his perch and handing him to Plat, I finished off my small meal. I only ate until I wasn't hungry anymore, it kept me sharp and lean. I watched the girl intensely, assessing her, reading her.
She had a demeanor of wanting to protect people, and there was hints of grief in the way her eyes darted around the room -nervousness- and in the way she clenched her hands, faint stress lines were visible on her face. Her wanting to protect someone stemmed from not being able to protect... Who? Her parents? Her siblings? Her friends? But there was courage in her face, and she stood straight and had a purposeful stride, she wasn't broken? She had pride.
I continued turning the pages of her revealing layer after layer, learning surprises, everyone was a book to me. But she was interesting one. She noticed me staring at her, and I could tell that she was slightly curious and nervous to why I was. She ate very little food during the meal.
Plat and I stood up as soon as the bell rang and headed to the Stables, meeting up with Edge, a short boy that was my age, a humming bird perched on his shoulder.
We practiced shooting off horse back,(I always rode bareback) and fighting on it. Then after training was done we rode out into the middle of the forest, Lenori wanted us to bond with are spirit animals. So we had to sleep overnight in the forest.
There is a fragrance in the forest. It does not come from a single plant. It does not come from the rich aroma of dark earth or the sweetness of fruit that has passed from merely ripe to mellow and rich. The scent was a combination of all these things, and of sunlight touching and awakening their essences and of a very slight wind that blended them all perfectly. That is what a forest smell liked to him. And that was one of many reasons why the Forest was his true home; not Greenhaven.
There was little conversation among them as they set up tent, I sat upon the crumbly banks of a river, watching the crystal water pour over the smooth river bed. The sound of it was comforting to me. I stroked the fur of Japheth, who sat next to me, his head in his paws. I felt my eyes slowly start to close; and I didn't fight it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up from where I was, the forest was quiet, I propped myself up on my elbows looking around. Slowly, I stood up, my hand on my sword. I heard a rustling of fabric behind and I spun, ready to unsheathe my sword.
I slowly lowered my hand from my sword and stared, almost mesmerized by the absolutely beautiful woman, swathed in a faint white glow.
"Hello little one, my name is Athon." She smiled kindly. "What is your name?"
The words almost sprang unbidden from my lips as if something was compelling me to obey this beautiful woman, I restrained myself at the last second.
"That is my own to share when I want to." For the briefest of moments anger seemed to flare in her slanted eyes. But her kind expression resumed, it must have been a figment of my imagination.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to warn you. The Greencloaks don't trust you. You are too dangerous and skilled and willful for them to control you like they do the others. They want to kill you to remove the threat of you. Don't trust them..." I had never trusted the Greencloaks and this information only fueled it.
"But why have you come to warn me?" I asked.
"Because you are someone who has great importance in the world, and the coming events..."
A bright mist wafted through, obscuring her. When it cleared, she was gone...

I snapped awake, breathing deeply. I looked around wildly.
"Was that dream real?" I muttered to myself.
The forest was alive with sound, and there was no footprints where the woman had stood.
Do the Greencloaks really want to kill me?