They all followed Tina to Rusl, who they supposed would have the knowledge of any weapons for them to use, and while he presented them with several staffs, a short sword, and a crossbow. Everyone went to pick up their weapon, but Rusl laid a hand on Tina's shoulder once again.

"Not yet. You should take it easy for a little while at least," he explained. She rolled her eyes, but decided not to argue.

Stork gingerly picked up a staff, as did Piper, and Aerrow went for the sword.

"This feels so weird. I mean, I'm used to having two, light blades. This one's heavy," he commented. Radarr tried to pick up one of the wooden rods, but it was many times his height. Aerrow took it from him and broke it over his knee. "There you go Radarr." The little blue thing took the piece of wood and swung it around like a master. Piper tried the same and said with confidence,

"This is so light! Learning this will be easy."

"Piper, you forget that we won't have the help of crystals," Aerrow pointed out, swinging his blade around experimentally. Stork tried to do the same as Radarr and Piper, and sort of succeeded, but he left a huge whole in his defences, unlike the other two, who kept the stick moving and covering all angles. I pointed this out to him, and added,

"I wish I could help you." I longed to pick up a staff. This would be much more difficult, since I couldn't. Or, at least, was told not to. With a secret smile, I thought about taking the training beyond the sight of Rusl and the other villagers. Then, while I knew I might be doing something bad, at least they'd learn something.

Finn looked at the crossbow sceptically, and Rusl had to show him how to use it: Pull back the string, insert crossbow bolt, and then fire. "Oh man," he groaned. "This is so NOT cool." He took easy aim with the loaded bow, and fired at a high branch of a tree that grew behind one of the houses, only to miss by a long shot. "NOT cool," he muttered again. I stifled a giggle.

(Change POV)

Everyone knew that learning to fight without crystals at their back, and protecting them, and as plan B would be difficult, but especially Finn had it hard. Not only would he not have auto-load, but he also wouldn't have the homing-arrows that he was so used to, as had been demonstrated.

Piper looked up to her right, thinking, then dropped her staff and took up Finn's crossbow. "Hm…" she murmured, "I wonder…" She fitted a regular bolt to the upgraded, metal crossbow and tried to fire at the ground. Even the auto load was powered by crystals and the bolt just fell to the grass; no power behind it. Piper dropped the crossbow dejectedly.

"We don't have anything now. No info, no weapons, not even our vehicles."

The same realization dawned on everyone. Except Tina. She shrugged.

"That's what I'm used to," she said. "I just pick things up as I go. Now, Rusl, is there anywhere where we can really train?"


How will their training go? How quickly will they all pick up on the primitive weapons? And will Tina somehow disobey Rusl and Renado?