Disclaimer: Not mine.


The next day dawned crisp and clear, and in Halim ibn Mirhaz's opinion, far too early. His short blond bunk mate, of course, was up and about before the first fingers of dawn starting prying into Halim's eyes. The disgruntled Bazhir rolled out of bed and bumped to the floor, his sheets still wrapped around him. Some of the other boy's snorted.

Halim cracked an eyelid. "Ma always said I took things too literally," he said dryly. That brought a snort from a few of the other boys. He stumbled over after throwing his sheets back onto his bed in a wrinkly, lumpy mess. He walked over to the row of washbasins to clean his teeth.

Tobe was already sitting down and eating breakfast when Halim stumbled into the hall. Yasha was in line for her food.

Yasha sat down on her sore derriere, wincing. "And they say childbirth is a woman's greatest pain," she muttered.

"That's why I'm glad I'm not a woman," Tobe replied.

"Actually, think about it," Halim added. "Men have to do all the really painful stuff. Mental pain, young Tobe, it's all mental pain for us."

Yasha gave him a Look. "What kind of mental pain is worse than squeezing a live person out of yourself?"

"Well, we have to do all the first moves, so to speak. The shy maidens love that about us," Halim answered, eyes wide and eyebrows down at his friend's last comment.

Yasha raised her brows. "I'm glad I'm not like one of those shy maiden types. How boring."

"Sometimes I wish you would be more shy and maidenly. Save my ears."

Halim's last comment was met with a breakfast bun being forcibly crammed into his mouth.

That morning's training focused half on riding, half on weapons skills. After a round with the horses, they were able to further injure each other with staff practice.

"I thought this was the civilized north," Yasha confided in Tobe. "I thought you people were above whacking each other with sticks."

Tobe snorted. "Never really thought about it that way. Quite fitting."

Tobe was used to the staff, so the drill wasn't too hard for him. However, Yasha wasn't that good, and his fingers were motley of bruises after a few misplaced hits on Yasha's part.

"I'm so sorry, Tobe!" she exclaimed upon seeing his bruises.

"Well, if I were an enemy, I'd be in more pain than if you were perfect with the staff," he remarked.

After obtaining more bruises, Tobe and the others raced off to the bathhouses, all keen to get scrubbed and get food.

"I am so hungry I could eat a horse!" Halim bemoaned to Tobe while putting the staves away in the barrel. The instructors gave him a Look.

"Gods, Halim, you have an impeccable sense of timing," Tobe drawled, rolling his eyes.

Halim looked slightly confused for a second, and then glanced back and saw the instructors. His eyes widened, a grin playing round in his eyes and his mouth.

After lunch was afternoon classes; Halim had a different class from he and Yasha, for he had the Gift. So instead of going to that class, Tobe and Yasha went to a magical studies class, where they learned about the different subtleties of magic, such as how people manipulate your mind with a shiny object.

"Don't know about you, but shiny objects distract me enough without magical powers behind them," Tobe muttered to Yasha.

The days turned into weeks, with training and class work the same as it was before. Halim was now used to rising early, and Yasha had learned to ride her horses Pip and Stodd quite well. The leaves turned color, and the air had a new crisp and clean flavor to it.

Yasha suffered worst from the cold. Whenever they had training outside, she was always so bundled up it didn't matter if she got hit; she couldn't feel it. Halim also wore multiple layers, but he was more resilient to the cold.

The icy cold stone floors of the barracks further added to the recruit's reluctance to be up and about. On particularly cold nights, Tobe could walk into the latrines and see his breath. Very discouraging.

It was common thought among the trainees that their instructors were disgustingly cheerful about these conditions. They seemed to thrive on seeing the red, wind-chapped faces of their trainees as they were made to run through the grounds. Their favorite form of punishment was to make the trainees run the walls, and go up and down every set of stairs they came across.

Needless to say, Tobe's favorite time of training was archery lessons.

"How on earth can you like archery?" demanded Yasha, who was loathe to removing her gloves even inside the castle.

You're sitting down, nothing between you and what you're trying to hit, it all just comes down to how steady you can be. What's not to love?" he replied, grinning.

Sadly, his happy times during archery lessons were to be discontinued.

They were all instructed according to their strengths. Tobe and the other advanced students were given different bow and arrow types to practice with; they tried recurves, long bows, cross bows, and many different types of arrows with them.

"I think they're trying to drive us insane," Halim commented to Tobe, who was also in the advanced archery training. "Do you think you'd be able to instantly remember how to shoot a fire arrow if someone just handed it to you and said 'Fire!'?"

Tobe just grinned. "I've long since decided that I'm already slightly cracked; if they are trying to mentally disable us, I won't really notice a change."

Midwinter came one wintry day; Tobe had given and received gifts. He gave Halim a band made specifically for tying around your head to cover your eyes and keep light out, and he gave Yasha a small box of tea from Carthak. He in kind received small, thoughtful gifts.

"The only advantage of blizzards is the fact that we don't go outside for training anymore," Yasha stated at the Midwinter banquet. In honor of the occasion, they had a wonderful array of foods and sweetmeats for the banquet. The trainees also received a week of holidays, in which they could venture into Corus if they wished. Tobe managed to drag Halim and Yasha away from the hearths and into the streets. They had barely stepped outside when Halim demanded they go to an inn to get a hot drink.

No sooner had he said that when Yasha gave a cry of victory and ran off in the direction of the closest inn: the Dancing Dove. Tobe was amazed at the difference between the inside of the pub as opposed to the blizzard that raged outside. The pub was crowded, dimly lit, stiflingly warm to the point of being stuffy, and, above all, loud.

As they picked their way to the bar to order some cider, Tobe had been elbowed at least three times, Yasha had been pinched rather violently on her bottom, and Halim narrowly escaped a drunken flower girl throwing herself at any man around.

The barman was met with three rather wide-eyed teens that were clearly from the palace. "First time at the 'Dove I take it?" he asked as he poured their cider. Halim grinned.

When they had received their cider they fought their way to a less-crowded section of the pub. Yasha was rubbing her bum, which had been pinched several more times by the time they got there. They sipped their cider in silence, figuring that it was futile to try to speak when the pub was so loud.

After that, they wandered around the frosted city. The blizzard had ended, leaving a fresh layer of crisp, white snow. They had walked a few blocks when they were assailed by unprovoked snowballs fire by some of the other trainees that were out for the day, including Yosiff and a girl Yasha later said was named Talia.

Splot. Tobe shook the snowball remains off his face, shocked into silence. The silence was broken between the shocked three and the assailants who wondered if these people wouldn't take it as a joke when Halim bent down, quick as lightning, and lobbed a snowball straight at Yosiff's face.

After a few minutes of mad snowball-flurry, Tobe suggested a quick break to gather ammo and build a fort. Tobe and his group built a wall of snow in front of a glassblower's shop that was closed for the day, which the others used a convenient alley directly opposite to it. After preparing, they declared an all-out war, which was sadly paused every time a passerby had to make their way to work. Eventually, the other side won, as Tobe's group was so small.

"Good work, men," Tobe said, in a falsely deep voice reminiscent of Sarge's. "We would have had them if--"

He was broken off by a flurry of snowball fire from his own "troops."

"Mutiny…" he muttered, brushing the snow off his coat.


Hope everyone in USA had a good Independence Day…

Sorry that I couldn't post this sooner! I'd written it up, saved it, and then right after had to go to my dad's house! But now that this is posted, on to chapter five…heheheh.

And BlindLove, the bad guy is coming very quickly. Meaning in the next chapter

Yay, fourth chapter! I know I should be focusing more on Tobe, but I do love Halim and Yasha. Don't you?

Tell me how you think it's going!

My reviewers, I love you all dearly. Good health to you!