Tagu fell in the very middle of the room, with a flash, there was the buffalo again, but with a white, shaggier coat. The fox gave a startled sound and ran under the weapon rack. Errol was surprised but un fazed.

'Whose up there?' he said calmly. Nego knew the game wasn't up yet. Tagu racked his head to one side and looked at the younger recruit that was squirming in terror.

They were all scared of Tagu because of his size, they didn't stop to look at his soft brown eyes to see he didn't mean any harm. Nego pulled his hood over his head and soundlessly dropped down. Errol looked at him. 'Your spirit animal?' Nego nodded.

'I've seen you somewhere, Nego? You came here to train with your weapon,' Nodding again. Tagu gave snorted and pawed the ground. The fox had timidly come out from his hiding place.

'I have a larger group coming, so you might as well train here.' Nego wished Errol wouldn't be so ignorant. The way he shuffled his feet and the fact that he was spinning his arrow in an anxious way made it clear he wanted to get out.

'The boy's called Drake, and he was recruited a few weeks ago. Drake, this is Nego, and his buffalo's called Tagu.' The boy looked at him boldly, the look that people gave when they were actually really frightened. 'I summoned Rayon.'

'Isn't that the name of thread or something?' Drake gave him a dirty look. Errol was there to save him. 'Let's get to business while we wait, shall we?' he said.


Nego knew one thing while in Amaya. You learnt fast, or got picked on. He had learnt how to climb like an expert when he was eight, he learnt how to steal, he learnt how to weasel things out of people without the need of being threatening.

He had perfected his skills of walking by people and listening for news instead of asking. Drake was good, Rayon kept an alert eye while Tagu was watching everything with amusement.

Nego hit the dummy everywhere, the Steriolan arrow was good in combat - strong, light and easy to use. He suspected Tagu was helping, he felt light on his feet and his hands felt free. The arrow was like part of him, twisting, twirling and flying like it had a life of it's own. The group came eventually, two boys, one with an ostrich and another with a frog and a girl with a snake.

Errol looked impressed, and Nego had a terrible feeling when Drake asked when action was going to come instead of fighting passive, wooden, things.

The ostrich (Arun, summoner called Travis) had kicked the dummy so hard that the splinters had gone flying into his hand. Nego didn't say anything, he had gotten used to splinters going into his palm, foot, arm ... The frog (Thelma, summoner called Sean) looked at them with glassy eyes while the snake (Mira, summoner called Penelope) wrapped itself around Penelope's arm gently.

'Well, why don't you practise against each other?' Errol said in a voice that didn't know how bad that idea was.