Aeril stood facing his teacher Braka. Each was in fighting stance staring at the other. "Are you ready Aeril?"

"Yes sir." He said.

Braka charged him, attacking with two quick punches. Aeril dodged both punches, before lashing out with a quick punch and kick. Braka dodged the punch and blocked the kick. Braka countered with two more punches and a roundhouse kick.

Aeril managed to avoid the punches but wasn't quick enough to avoid the roundhouse. He took the took directly on the chest knocking him onto his back. The boy jumped right back up and ran back to his teacher delivering two more punches.

The older man wasn't expecting Aeril to stand back up so quickly from the kick and was hit by both punches. But he attacked back with a punch that Aeril avoided.

Aeril pressed his attack. Two more punches a kick followed by a punch, a kick, a punch, and finally a roundhouse of his own. The older man was surprised from the attack. He barely managed to block of his punches and kicks. But was once again helpless to do much as Aeril had begun yet another volley of attacks at him.

With patience he blocked the boys attacks until he saw the boy attempt a roundhouse on him. If he tried to block the boy would easily be able to hit him with a punch. Yet if he dodged he would be safe from another hit, but the boy would just continue to press his attack. So he took the blow but then lashed out with a quick open handed palm strike to the base of his neck.

This broke Aeril's rhythm as he staggered from the blow. Braka took this to his advantage lashing out with the punches. The first connected sending him back making him miss the second shot.

Aeril got his bearing and glanced towards Braka to see the older man advancing at him almost ready to him. His body shifted forms and he narrowly avoided the hit. Braka had put him into a defensive position. While quicker and more agile, his female form made it harder for her to attack. Since she was smaller, she had to get closer if she wanted to hit her opponents. This of course would hinder her ability to dodge attacks, making it more likely to be hit herself. All in all a bad for her offense, making her rely heavily on her defense.

Of course Aeril didn't complain too much since her female body was incredibly skilled defensively. Not only was she smaller, but her inborn Elven grace made her even harder to hit. Many who fought her easily became annoyed at her incredible flexibility. Which allowed her to bend and twist out of the way of just about any attack.

This turned out to be her best offensive tactic. The more she dodged her opponents attacks, the angrier they would become. This of course made get sloppier, leaving many gaps in their defenses. She could then use her incredible agility to get in closer, land her hits, and move back without getting hit herself.

Braka knew this and had to force himself from falling into that trap. As Aeril's trainer, he knew her weakness. All he needed to do was be patient. Aeril had great agility but she paid for it in her endurance. So while she could easily dodge blows coming at her, in a prolonged fight she would wear herself out.

Braka saw Aeril displaying the first few signs of fatigue. He knew she would want to try to end this soon, so he faked an opening in his defenses. As expected seeing the opening started getting into position to take advantage of it. Braka was impressed. If not for the fact that he knew Aeril so well, he was sure he wouldn't have even realized the trap he was being led into.

Aeril bent backwards under one of Braka's kicks, and leaned to the left to avoid the following punch. Each time making small movements putting himself closer to Braka. After avoiding one more punch she was as close as she dared get, and made an attempt for the fake opening Braka at his midsection.

Braka smiled inwardly as she took the bait. Braka quickly turned to the side and made a quick open palm strike at Aeril's back. The smile disappeared as Aeril pivoted on her left foot towards his strike, bending low to avoid the strike. Then nearly seamlessly brought her right foot around for a powerful roundhouse. The kick connected against the back of Braka's head, but not before Braka swung his arm around catching Aeril right in the stomach.

"Five points Braka. Braka wins." Said of their fellow monks who was acting as score keeper.

Braka who was slightly dazed said. "Ok now exactly what just happened there?"

Aeril smiled. "That's easy sir. After I went for the fake opening you made, I twisted around and tried to get you. But you were a bit to fast and got me about a second before I got you."

Braka looked confused. "You knew I was setting you up?"

"Of course!" She said with laughter in her voice. "Why do you think I was pretending to get tired."

Braka looked at the redheaded Elven girl with shock written on his face. "You... you set me up?"

Aeril couldn't help but laugh out loud seeing the confused face on her trainer. "You know me better than just about anyone except Varlon. That means you should know that dodging attacks like that tire me out quicker as a girl. You're also too smart to just rush. So I knew you were just waiting for me to get tired before starting your real attack. So I gave you what you were looking for, and you gave me what I was looking for, a trap. So I just turned your trap against yourself. Only I was the one who fell in their own trap."

Braka looked immensely impressed. Aeril ability seemed to have nearly infinite growth potential. Already he was in a class of his own. Most of the other children his age were just getting ready to begin testing for the white sash. Aeril on the other hand, began training for his yellow sash within months of getting his white. Even those who were two years older with at least two more years experience where no where near the skill Aeril displayed.

He was about to congratulate him on his achievement when he noticed his attention was currently else where. He smiled when he realized what had managed to divert Aeril's attention away from his art, a Half Elven girl. He momentarily thought of calling on him for not paying attention while they were training, but he remembered the strength a girls charm could have on some one as young as Aeril. Besides Aeril had a dedication to the art like no other student he had ever met before, he decided he would let it slide this time.

Braka coughed getting Aeril's attention back to him. "That was very good. You caught me by surprise, your growing adaptability is nothing short of amazing. I think we're ready to step up our training a bit. Go ahead and take the next couple of days off. We need to start preparing to fight against magic users. Now as I see your girlfriend is here, so you may go. I'll see you in three days, as I need to arrange things with the academy."

"Yes sir, but she's not my girlfriend, we're just friends." Aeril said.

Braka smiled as he noticed the faint blush from the half Elf. "If you say so." He said as he walked away smiling.

Aeril just shook her head and ran towards Kryn. "Hey Kryn!"

Kryn smiled back to Aeril. "Nice match there. I thought you were going to win there for a min. I thought you had hit him first."

"I almost did. But Braka holds back a lot when he fights with me. I mean he could probably kill me with one hit."

"Still even that doesn't mean you couldn't win. Its not a real fight. Its like a tournament. You're not out there to really kill each other just be the first to hit the other 5 times."

"Ya I guess your right. So what's up? I thought we were supposed to meet by the gate?"

"Oh ya, your Ogre friend wanted to see you for some reason."

Aeril looked confused. "I wonder what Boomba wants? Varlon should have brought him some food. I doubt he's hungry already."

Kryn shrugged. "No idea, he just told me if I saw you to tell you he was looking for you."

"Ok well lets ask him then."

As they walked the streets of Freeport towards the west gate, many of the people who knew him couldn't help but smile at the site of them together. Those who had seen him grow up, were happy to see the Aeril so happy.

When Boomba saw them he waived at them to come closer. "Boobma have good news for boy. Boy friend kai back with friend. She tell Boomba to tell boy."

"Aeril became really excited. "Kia's back already?"

Boomba nodded yes. Kryn on the other hand looked confused. "Who's Kai?" She asked.

"Kia has been one my best friend ever since Varlon adopted me. She left on a quest a little bit before you came."

"And now I've returned!" Came a new voice.

Aeril turned to the new voice. "Kai! Your back!"

"Sure am! How have you been while I've been gone? Your father tells me that you're already preparing to take the test for the yellow sash. I'm proud of you kid. Keep up that pace you may end up traveling with Yetin and me."

"Nah Varlon must be exaggerating. I'm still training for it."

"That may be, but you weren't even done with your test for your white sash when I left. Now I come back months later and here you are training for your yellow sash and with a girlfriend to boot! You're growing up fast. So are you going to introduce me to your girl?"

"What? Oh you mean Kryn. Kryn's just my best friend. Kai this is Kryn, Kryn this is Kai."

"Its nice to meet you! Any friend of Aeril's is a friend of mine." Kai said warmly.

"Likewise" said Kryn in a neutral yet sincere tone.

"You two might actually have a little in common. Kai was born in High Hold, before she moved out here about 10 years ago. And Kryn was born and raise in Kithicor."

Kai's eyes shot up. "Really? What part of Kithicor? I admit I'm not too familiar with it, but my family used to make a few trade runs into Rivervale."

"My family lived in the north, no where near Rivervale or High Hold I'm afraid."

"Impressive. Your family must not have any fear. Living in the north would put you close to the Dark Elf forest of Nektulos, not to mention the numerous undead invade the forest at night. Why did your parents choose to live there?"

"My father is a tradesmen of sorts. And my mother is a member of the League of Norrathian Teleporters. So my family travels quite a bit and that just were they decided to live I guess."

"So tell me all about your trip." Asked an eager Aeril.

"Well Yetin and I started hunting the wisp's in West Commons. But a lot of the light stones we found were burnt out and not very good. That was when someone told us about Kerra Ridge. Its an island west of Qeynos in Erud's Crossing, were many wisp can be found. So we decided to travel westward to Qeynos. Luckily we found a druid who said he would take us to Qeynos. We took the boot from Qeynos to Kerra Ridge where a strange catman race live called the Kerrans."

Aeril shivered involuntarily for a second. "Cat people?"

"Yes the Kerrans they were an indigenous race that lived on Odus until Erud and his followers settled there and banished them. Most now live in Kerra isle on a small island west of Odus. Later a small group known as the Laahr left for Antonica, but the humans in Qeynos wanted nothing to do with them. So they settled on Kerra Ridge, which they call Talysra's Paw. The island itself was named after their new cat godess Talysra, whom they left Kerra isle to serve." Kryn explained.

"I felt so sorry for them. They said the Erudites had all but killed all of them off." Kai said saddly.

"That was the common belief until just recently. A group of adventures found a hidden mountain village of cat people in the Stoneburnt mountains. But even with these kejekans as they call themselves there is still a big discrepancy between the known size of the Kerran race and what there should have been. Many believe over a third of the Kerrans were destroyed when the Erudites had there civil war and created 'The Hole,' while others believe many more escaped to the barren coast."

"How could they have only just recently found an entire village of people?" Aeril asked.

"Well its on Odus. Erudites are big isolationist, so they don't like strangers poking around in there lands. Besides no ones really cared that much about Kerrans. To many they were just a barbaric cat race that worshiped spirits instead of gods. So there please for help were ignored. Even now most people have all but forgotten them."

"That's very good Kryn. That a good account of what happened to the Kerrans. How did you learn about it?" Said Varlon, surprising the group of kids.

"A lady I knew once told it to me. She used to be a scribe, but now she keeps a bar near where I used to live. She gave me a book when I was younger about the erudite civil war. But in all honesty I can't remember her name. I just remember I used to go to her bar because it had a great view of the lake."

"You may have to let me borrow that book sometime, it sounds very interesting. Anyway Kai, your father is looking for you, he wants to go over some idea's he has about the wedding."

"WEDDING? What wedding?" Aeril said taken completely by surprised.

"Oh I'm sorry I was getting to that. Yetin proposed to me on the way back from Qeynos.

"And you accepted? But your only twenty and you hardly know each other?"

"Only twenty. Do you realize most people in Freeport get married at fifteen or sixteen if not younger? Besides when its just the two of you adventuring out there, you start getting to know your partner. You have to depend on each other, and you have to trust each other. So you tend to get close and learn more of each other."

"Well congratulations Kai. I can't wait to see the wedding."

"Thanks Aeril. I'll see you around bye. Bye Kryn it was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you too."

After she left Kai left with Varlon, Kryn turned Aeril. "Um, I'm afraid we'll have to post pone lunch for a couple a days. Its time for me to go, there's someone my mom want me to meet. So I'll be gone for a couple day maybe a week. So I'll see you when I get back ok?"

Aeril looked sad for a minute. "Sure no prob. You know where to find me. I'll probably be just doing guard duty for the next couple of days anyway."

"I'll see you soon." She waved and took off towards her home.

Aeril stood there watching her leave. After she lost sight of her

she turned to Boomba. "Hey Boomba. Seems like its just you and me." She said somewhat sadly.

Hearing the small girls tone, Boomba put a hand on the girls head to try to comfort her. Boomba was surprised when the little girl looked up to him smiling. Her smile suddenly got even bigger as a very mischievous look suddenly appeared on her face. "I guess that means there's more food for us then!"

The large Ogre near fell over. That was the last thing he was expecting her to say. He gave a small laugh before sitting down next to the girl. "Good. Boomba hungry."

Aeril laughed. "Your always hungry Boomba." They ate and laughed for a while, before Aeril, who had changed to a male excused himself for patrol duty. Aeril headed towards the south gate in East Freeport that led to the Northern Desert of Ro, commonly known as North Ro.

Not long after he had started his patrol, he noticed someone heading towards the underground tunnel entrance. He couldn't` tell much about the person, he was half tempted to run after the person to see if it was Maji. He thought about it for a minute, but decided not to after remembering what happened the last time he did that.

He had a surprisingly calm day. There had been no attacks of any kind on any of the travelers. He was on his last rounds for the day when he saw Maji running out of the tunnels. He called out to her, but she only turned to look at him and kept running. He was happy to note that she didn't scowl at him when she saw him, then again she didn't seem too happy either.

After finishing his patrol he returned to his home. He was happy to note Varlon was back from visiting his former studand and had already made food. He was reading a book when Aeril entered, he looked up when Aeril entered and asked. "So how was your day?"

"It was great! Did I tell you? I almost scored five points on master Braka the other day."

"I know! He told me. Strangely enough he sounded just about as excited as you do about it. He's very proud to have you as a student."

"This whole week has been going good so far. I almost scored 5 on Braka, Then I find out that Kai is back. Then I find out Kai's getting married. Then me and Boomba have fun for a while before I start patrolling. And then to top all that off, I was bored during my patrol."

"How is being bored a good thing?" He said sounding very confused.

"People get bored when they don't have anything to do right? Well if I was patrolling and I didn't have anything to do, that must mean we actually had a peaceful day. Which is a very good things. I didn't even see one Orc or one skelly or anything. All the travelers made it to or from Freeport safely and without incident."

"I see. I can also see you've been spending a lot of time with Kryn." Seeing the confused look on his sons face he said. "That was a very Krynish answer you gave me on why being bored is good. She a very intelligent girl and tends to give elaborate answers. You two should spend even more time together, maybe she'll help get out of speaking in slang."

"Hey my speech ain't that bad!"

Varlon just laughed. "So where is the wizardess now?"

"You mean Kryn? She went somewhere with her mom. Not exactly sure where she's going, she just said she was gonna meet someone. She said she won't be around for a couple of days or so. And by the way, Kryn isn't a wizard."

"Huh? But she wears a wizard pin." Varlon asked confused, since he had seen the pin she wore many times.

"Its her mothers. Her mother gave it to her as a gift. Its very special to her, since it was her mothers first pin. Hey Varlon. Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure of course. What is it?"

"Why don't we wear pins? Kryn told me that the combine created pins for all classes and professions. So we monks should have one too right?"

"Yes in deed we do, anyone can buy an insignia from a blacksmith. I just never picked one up. I never thought it was worth it, after all its such an old tradition. Why do you ask?

Do you want one?"

"Well I was just wondering. How much do they cost? I think they're kinda cool, but if they're to expensive then it's ok."

"No they're not very expensive just a gold coin or two for the pins. If you want I'll pick one up for you tomorrow. Now lets eat I'm starved.