OK you guys. Chap. 25! Sry ive been on vacation and I didn't have internet access until now. I finally found a restaurant that had free internet! So I figured I would take advantage and put out a chapter while I could. Plus I finally got the chance to snag a car for a bit from one of my family members to go to this place. So hope you enjoy!

Oh yea just incase you are having trouble getting to the site I made it my homepage. Just go to my name and click on the link. I have fixed up the picture of ostar to include where they train and where they have classes. Let me know if there is anything else on the site that you think I should put up.

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Tye was woken up the next morning by loud yelling. She groaned as she sat up. That night's sleep had not been very pleasant. Tye had gotten used to the beds at the palace. Here they only had mats laid out on the floor. No one had expected it to get so cold during the night. During the day it had been so hot it was almost unbearable, yet, during the night she couldn't stop shaking. Plus sand seemed to get everywhere. Needless to say, she had, had better nights.

Iban came in smiling. Tye didn't feel the need to muster up the strength to smile back. That didn't seem to phase him though as he clapped his hands loudly waking up the others.

"Alright everyone!" He shouted. "Time to get up for morning exercises. We will be leaving in five minutes. I suggest you get up and put some clothing on as quickly as you can because that is when we are leaving no matter if you are ready or not." He gave one last grin before going to wake up the boys. Tye grabbed some pants and a shirt and quickly threw them on. After pinning up her hair, she stepped out of the tent flap. Leo and Rikash were standing there. Leo still seemed asleep. His eyes were red and they tended to blink a lot. Rikash was perfect looking as usual. Cloths neat without a spec of dirt or sand, Tye wasn't sure how he pulled this off in the desert, Hair tied back with out a strand out of place. He greeted her was a smile and a slight bow.

"Good morning Tye. Did you sleep well?" He asked politely. It was fairly obvious that she hadn't. There were bags under her eyes and her hair was disarrayed even more so then usual. She growled slightly and leaned against a pole that held up the tent. Slowly more and more people started coming out and standing with them. Rikash greeted everyone the same way, receiving similar responses from everyone as Tye, except from Rei who looked genuinely happy, greeting Rikash back with a smile and slap on the back. He said good morning to everyone before saying he had to meet up with some old friends and took off running.

Once everyone else was outside, Iban came out and told them to follow him. He led them directly south. There was a large area dedicated completely towards training. Already pages were lining up. The instructors stood in front with the pages facing towards the direction of the tents. It only took a few more moments until all the pages were lined up in even rows on the training grounds.

Tye couldn't help but look around to find Rei. He had left so quickly that morning, she hadn't gotten a chance to ask where he was going. She finally spotted him on the opposite side standing with the two boys who had come over to their table to night before. He was laughing and talking with them. She had never seen him look so happy. Rei must have really missed being here where he grew up. That may be the reason he always seemed so unhappy and a bit grouchy back in Tortall.

Rei caught her eye after she had been looking at him for a few seconds. His smile never left his face as he gave her a slight nod. She gave a slight smile back before turning to Iban in the front.

Each instructor led their group through the same morning stretches. As the pages started to wake up they would talk amongst themselves as they did the exercises. Tye happened to notice a man circling around the grounds watching them. She leaned forward and tapped Rikash.

"Who's that?" She whispered nodding in the man's direction. He looked up and his eyes widened.

"That's Talen!" He exclaimed. She gave him a confused look. "You've never heard of him?" She shook her head no. "Well you know the third and fourth years go into focused training." Tye nodded. "That means that they focus on a specific fighting style and master it as best as they can in those two years. Talen teaches the dragon fighting style. He only picks the best of the best to train with him. Hardly anyone ever gets chosen to train with him. I heard last year he didn't pick a single page!"

Tye looked back to the man. He wasn't very tall, a little on the short side actually. His hair was dark, almost black with skin the color of copper. She would guess him to be in his forties, but it was a little hard to tell.

By then practice was over and they were given thirty minutes to go to the bath houses and get dressed and be at breakfast. Ronald and his gang split off from their group to walk on their own. The schedule was so tight here, Tye didn't think she would have any trouble from them while they where here in the desert. She just hoped they didn't try to make up for lost time when they got back to the castle.

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They sat in their normal seats at breakfast. Most were still fairly tired, so there wasn't too much talking going on. Now would be around the time they normally got up. As soon as everyone was seated they were allowed to eat. Rei had told them that he wanted to sit with Kalim and Congee that morning to catch up some more.

"Rei's spending a lot of time with those guys." Susan commented to Yani.

"He's just glad to see them. They haven't seen each other in a long time probably." She replied back. "He's lived in Tortall for a few years and the two years he came here as page they weren't here."

"I heard they were inseparable as children." Rikash commented between bites.

"I don't know what he sees in them." Susan said and wrinkled her nose.

"That's not very nice." Camric said.

"Well you remember how they treated us girls; like we weren't even there" Yani stated.

"It's just how they were brought up. We can't judge them for that." Leo said. After receiving several angry glares from the girls at the table, he added in quickly "Of course you girls will prove that kind of thinking one hundred percent wrong." He let out a relieved breath as the girls seemed to accept this and go back to eating. These girls could be a frightening team when they wanted to be. He never wanted to be on their bad side.

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On the opposite side of town from the training grounds several large tents were set up for teaching. The pages were separated by year and were taught different aspects of Bazhir history and culture. There were a lot of things about their customs that Tye found interesting, but their treatment of women was one thing she could never agree with. She shivered slightly when she thought of growing up in that kind of life.

Afterwards the first and second years were brought back to the training grounds. There a large man stood in front waiting for them. His large hands were clasped behind his back. He was a man in his late thirties, completely bald, with dark skin. The eyes that watched them as they lined up before him were black. Something about him made Tye uneasy.

"I am Meston. I will be your instructor for training before lunch and dinner. Before lunch we will focus on different forms of weaponry. Before dinner we will work on hand to hand combat. When I tell you something, I expect you to remember it. When I show you something, I expect you to be able to do it perfectly the next practice. I move quickly so it is your job to keep up. Any questions?" He glared at the crowd. No one raised their hand. "Good now lets begin."

Practice was tough. They were worked constantly without any chance to stop and rest for a moment. By the time it was over everyone was exhausted.

"I must admit I expected a little more from you Tortalians." Meston said after he declared practice over. "Dismissed." He said before leaving the training grounds.

The rest of the pages sat down to rest for a few moments before going to lunch.

"I can't feel my legs." Able panted out.

"Me either." Cala said.

"I am never walking again." Leo told them as he collapsed next to them. Tye sat down next to them and Rikash and Camric made their way over as well. They sat together quietly, resting before they had to get back up again.

"I don't know if I can make it through another practice with him again today." Camric said. The others nodded in agreement.

"We should probably go to lunch. We don't want to be late." Tye said and stood back up. She had to admit she was pretty tired too. Normally she didn't feel this worn out after a practice. At least they had a bit of a break before they had to make it through another one of his practices.

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Rei didn't sit with them at lunch either. Everyone was too tired to comment much on it. They didn't have much time for lunch, so there wasn't much talking at all.

For regular subjects it was pretty much independent study. They had assignments from each class that they were expected to finish by the end of the week. They were given about an hour each day to work on it. Most pages who had to work with Meston took this time to get in some extra sleep before having to go to hand to hand combat with him.

Tye worked a little on her work, but she was also pretty tired still. She knew it would get easier to follow his tough schedule as the days went on, but this first day was hard. Her muscles were still sore and this constant heat kept her sweating constantly. It didn't put anyone in too good of a mood.

Sooner then anyone would have liked, independent study ended and the first and second years had to go back to the training grounds and to Meston.

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The pages had to gather the last of their strength to drag themselves to the dinner table after hand to hand combat training. They had thought weapons' training in the afternoon was going to be hard. Hand to hand hadn't been much better. In fact it was much worse. Not only were they still sore from the afternoon, but they were pushed even harder.

No one spoke as they all sat in their normal seats. Tye was glade to see that Rei had decided to sit with them for dinner. After everyone had been seated they were told they could begin. It had only been a minute before Rei got up and moved to the other table where Kalim and Congee were.

If she was completely honest with herself, she would admit that she was feeling a little left out of this part of his life. It had taken them a while to finally get close and he seemed so distant all day; going out with his two old friends as often as he could. She tried to be understanding, but that didn't mean that she liked it.

She didn't get a single second alone with him. She had wanted to ask him about her training instructor and to talk with him about her uneasy feeling about him. Tye had learned to trust in her bad feelings sometimes. Especially when they didn't know when the next shadow would show up.

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OK everyone I typed this up as quickly as I could. I didn't kno when I would be bale to get back to this place that has internet so I wanted to take advantage of that. Please feel free to review and tell me if I made any mistakes, like I said I was kind of rushed, but I tried to do the best I could in the time I had. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next one will be out soon cuz I already have it all planned out!