Lillie

As the sun rose high over Stranglethorn Vale, Lillie woke up with a renewed sense of purpose. Yesterday, she had talked with her sisters and they had consulted her on what to do – what to decide. While on a good day she couldn't stand Alyssa, she knew that she could always count on her oldest sister to give her sound advice.

"I don't understand why you're asking us what you should do," Alyssa said smiling at Lillie comfortingly. "You already know what you want to do sweetie. From the sound of it you really want to become a rogue. When we asked you to think of the pros and cons, you could only think of the good things you couldn't think of any negatives. So why are you second guessing yourself?"

Her words took Lillie by surprise, and she realized that Alyssa was right. She already had an answer but she was second guessing herself, and for what reason? She had yet to figure that out.

After getting dressed and brushing through her hair, Lillie headed out of her room making sure that she closed the door softly. Yesterday she had learned that she would have a roommate and her roommate came in the form of a Caeria Nightbloom – the Night Elf hunter with a bad temper. Truthfully, Lillie thought that Caeria seemed nice enough unless you annoyed her. But wasn't that true with everyone? The Academy was large and sprawling, and she had only gotten here yesterday so in her efforts to find Khadgar she ended up getting lost.

Lillie sank down to the floor, a frustrated scowl appearing on her face. She should have been smarter; she shouldn't have just started wandering around without a general idea of where she was going. And now she was lost. Footsteps on the stone floor drew Lillie's attention away from her pity party, and she looked up. Her eyes widened when they locked onto startling blue, staring back at her.

Of course I'd run into Anduin, she thought. But at least he'll know where Khadgar is.

Lillie clambered to her feet, wiping her hands on her pants self-consciously. "I don't suppose that you know where Khadgar is do you?"

"Yes, he just sent me to look for you." Anduin answered staring at her somewhat shyly. "You were very close to finding him. You just had to go down that hallway," he jerked his thumb towards the hallway that he had just came out of.

Lillie's mouth dropped open, "Seriously?"

He nodded. Grumbling obscenities under her breath she followed after Anduin, who led her down the hallway and into a large spacious room. Khadgar was seated at the desk in the center of the room, talking in hushed voices to Jaina and Varian who were huddled around the desk. Vol'jin, the leader of the Horde was noticeably absent but Lillie observed that Sylvanas was there. Her brows furrowed in confusion, but she didn't contemplate the matter further.

She was here to talk to Khadgar, nothing more. Anduin cleared his throat and the three adults stopped talking immediately as they turned to face the teens. Khadgar allowed a small smile to form on his face when he saw Lillie.

"I decided that I want to be a rogue." Lillie said, blushing under the stares from Jaina and Varian.

"Excellent." Khadgar said in reply. "We must get you fitted for armor, and contact a trainer. Classes won't begin for a week or two yet, but of course you'll need to train during that time. Anduin, go take Lillie to get fitted for armor and make sure that you help her find a good set of daggers."

"Of course," Anduin answered smoothly, leading Lillie out of the room.

"Classes?" Lillie asked once they were out of the room. "What kind of classes? I thought that we were brought here to be trained to fight and defend Azeroth."

"We are," Anduin answered a little hesitantly, "but you can't just defend with the sword. You have to defend with words as well."

"So we're being trained to be diplomats as well then," Lillie said a little sharper than she had intended.

Not meeting her eyes Anduin nodded sheepishly. Lillie clenched her jaw, hands clenching into fists. Being a diplomat was not something that she had signed up for. She had nothing against diplomats, but she didn't have the elegance that one would expect from a diplomat and she only knew Common – which wouldn't help since Alliance members would likely be diplomats only to the Horde and vice versa. Training to be a rogue would be difficult enough for her; she couldn't train to be a diplomat too.

Anduin led her to the armor vendor, which was conveniently located near the blacksmith. This was also coincidentally where the weapons vendor was as well. Lillie glanced at Anduin, unsure of what to say or do. She had never had to be fitted for armor before or get weapons – she'd only ever had to learn to repair dresses and sew, and take care of the house. The armor vendor looked at Lillie with a critical eye.

"She's so small – I don't have anything for her on hand. But I can make her armor," The tall woman said. "It will take a while though."

"How long?" Lillie spoke up shyly, causing the woman to look at her.

"A week, maybe two." The woman answered. "That's if I have no other clients."

"Thank you Anshara," Anduin said to her. "We'll come back in a week then to check if you have finished the armor."

Getting weapons was decidedly a much easier task, Lillie thought. The Draenei had given her one look before turning around and digging through his wares for a set of weapons that she could use. What he presented her with took her breath away. She took the daggers reverently, staring at them with wide eyes. The blades appeared very sharp, and the daggers were no longer than her forearm. At the hilt of the dagger was a carefully carved figure of a lion's head – the symbol for the Alliance. The hilt itself was a deep royal blue.

"Thank you," Lillie said as Anduin dropped several gold pieces into the Draenei's hand.

As Anduin led her to the courtyard to meet with a rogue trainer, Lillie had a hard time keeping her energy contained. So much had happened in the last few months, and now she was going to have an opportunity to become great just like her sisters. It was an exciting thought to her and it caused a wide grin to appear on her face, a grin that she couldn't seem to wipe away. The duo stepped into the courtyard and Lillie looked around curiously – where was her trainer?

"Well hello," a youthful sounding voice said from behind them.

The two whirled around. Lillie's eyes grew wide as she stared at the figure before her. This was her trainer? The rogue standing before them was tinier than even Lillie and was younger than Lillie as well, looking to be about fourteen or fifteen maybe sixteen. One could tell that she was a rogue by just looking at her – dark leather armor and the daggers at her waist gave it away.

"Are you to be Lillie's trainer?" Anduin asked, taking charge of the situation.

"Yes," the girl smiled widely. "Pleasure to meet'cha Lillie and Your Highness. I'm Janie."

Lillie nodded still in shock. Anduin looked at her and Lillie snapped out of her stupor. "Pleasure to meet you as well Janie."

"Right, well Your Highness I can take it from here." Janie said.

Anduin looked like he wanted to argue but he didn't. He only nodded and left. Lillie watched him go, and then turned to Janie eyeing the smaller girl warily. Janie grinned and trepidation coiled in her gut.

Lille fell to the ground, panting. Sweat covered her neck and back; her muscles ached, and her heart was beating rapidly within her chest. Janie sank down to the ground beside her, sitting cross-legged a big smile on her face. Lillie tried not to glare at her teacher. She knew that training to be a rogue was going to be hard, but she hadn't quite grasped that it would be extremely hellish. Janie seemed to take enjoyment in Lillie's misery further arousing her temper.

Practice had started off well enough – running and learning how to wield daggers. Once Janie had felt that Lillie knew how to handle the daggers quite well – or at least had a general idea – the sparring had begun. Well, it was supposed to be sparring. Lillie took it more as Janie trying to humiliate her. Frustrated tears blurred her vision and Lillie scrubbed at her eyes angrily.

"Oh don't do that," Janie scolded her. Lillie stared at the girl incredulously. "You did perfectly fine girlie." The look on Lillie's face only intensified and Janie laughed. "I knew that I was going to win – I've been doing this since I was six. You have no reason to be disappointed in yourself; I was assessing what basic skills that you had. Compared to most people I trained you aren't terrible." She smiled, "You aren't great but you aren't the most terrible. I can work with you. Now get up, time to learn."

Groaning, Lillie slowly stumbled to her feet. She was definitely not looking forward to this. But she was pleasantly surprised – Janie's mood seemed to do a complete 180, and she was now acting like a teacher. Someone that was trying to teach and that was willing to help when needed. It was a nice and welcome change. Janie adjusted Lillie's stance and how she was holding her daggers. Lillie leaned forward, swiping at the air with the dagger in her right hand. Janie poked her in the back and she stumbled forward, losing her balance.

"Distribute your weight evenly," Janie told her. "You were leaning too far forward."

Lillie nodded taking her advice.

As the hours passed, Lillie slowly began to show a little improvement. She still messed up – a lot, but she was no longer a complete novice. Anyone watching could see that Lillie had a natural talent for this; it came easier to her than it may have for others. As the sun slowly began its descent towards the horizon, Janie decided that she was done teaching and that Lillie should probably get something to eat from the mess hall since it sounded like she hadn't eaten anything all day. Lillie sheathed her daggers at her waist, swiping her hair away from her sweaty face.

"Thank you," Lillie told Janie sincerely.

"Don't thank me yet girlie. We have training tomorrow." Janie answered with a wide beaming smile.

Elaina

Elaina looked up from where she was reading her book, her eyes falling on Sylene who had just entered the mess hall a scowl on her face. Elaina raised her brows staring at her friend with some concern. She had met Sylene back in Darnassus when she had been under the tutelage of Night Elf priests; Sylene wasn't training to be a priest however, she was training to become a druid. After a skirmish in the forests near Darnassus, Sylene had gotten injured and sent to the priests for healing. That was how the two met, and they instantly became friends.

Elaina was able to read Sylene like a book ever since.

"What's wrong?" Elaina asked immediately once Sylene sat across from her, a ceramic plate clutched tightly in her hands.

"Caeria is incredibly frustrating," Sylene growled. Her eyes flashed dangerously, "She's managed to almost provoke a fight with that damnable Blood Elf paladin nearly seven times already. We've only been here a day, and yet she can't seem to get ahold on her foul temper."

"And I wonder where she gets that from," Elaina quipped. Sylene gave her a scathing look. "Sorry, sorry," she apologized as she bookmarked her page, "but it's true. Do you think maybe it's her special way of trying to get his attention? I've seen that Blood Elf paladin, and he's not exactly bad looking. He's quite cute." Sylene's look grew darker. "For a member of the Horde," Elaina hurriedly added. "What I'm trying to say Syl, is that maybe Caeria is interested him in a romantic way so she is trying to get his attention."

"Caeria is smarter than that; she wouldn't be interested in a Blood Elf." Sylene said confidently. "You can't become romantically interested in someone in only a day particularly when you've never had a conversation with said person."

Elaina shrugged, neither confirming nor denying what Sylene had said. The doors to the mess hall open and Lillie stumbled in. Her eyes grew wide – her younger sister looked terrible. Bruises were blooming on her porcelain skin which was slick with sweat, and she had a small cut running along her cheekbone. Elaina watched her baby sister stumble and grab food, and then begin making her way towards them. Lillie virtually collapsed onto the seat beside Elaina whose hands flared gold with the power of the Light. She rested her hands on Lillie's skin, channeling her healing magic. The cut along her cheekbone closed up, and many of the bruises adorning her skin faded completely.

Once Elaina was satisfied that Lillie was healed up enough, she pulled away cutting off her access to her magic. She ran a hand over Lillie's head smiling sympathetically at her younger sister.

"Was training rough?" She asked compassionately.

Out of the elder two, Lillie had always preferred Elaina. Everyone knew it by watching the interaction between the sisters. Alyssa was brash and uncompromising, whereas Elaina was sweet and soft-spoken. The two older sisters were complete opposites of each other and Lillie was like a mixture of the two although her mannerisms were more similar to Elaina than Alyssa.

"It was awful," Lillie moaned, sitting up and digging into her food. "And my trainer is younger than me."

"It will get better with time," Elaina did her best to reassure her. "Trust me Lillie."

It had with me.