LordDarthYoda - Tyra was...kind of a jerk to Nara, I agree. It's hard to write conflict where both parties are equally at fault. Tyra's going to enter more back into the story now. Just a bit, but she won't be on the sidelines like she was. As for your Tyra theory - I loved it, and I wish that I had actually wrote it that way, because there's so much potential for interesting storylines. But you'll just have to settle for my inferior imagination! Thanks for the review, as always.

Mr. Insane- Just keep chiming in with reviews when you feel like you have something to say. Your support is always appreciated. Sascha, as you said, is pretty clueless, otherwise he'd probably try to diffuse the situation. What fun would that be though?

SpeechBubbleMe- Thanks! I wanted there to be some conflict between Tyra and Nara, and that Sascha was going to basically stay out of it for the most part, playing the role of nice, but slightly obtuse young man. I'll explain my Tyra/Nara though process later, as this chapter will show you the direction their relationship takes.

A/N - I don't want to spoil this chapter, but I can say that the next chapter will involve a certain Skywalker, Anakin. I'm looking forward to writing that one. This chapter was also a lot of fun to write ;).

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 17: Friends/Enemies

Nara Nalto woke up the next day, her mood unimproved from the day before. Which was fine, because she had a nice anger therapy (sparring) session scheduled later today with Tyra Harker, which seemed like it would be extremely therapeutic. To start the day, she went on a light jog around the gardens of the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Nothing hugely exerting, just about half and hour of good exercise to get her ready for the day.

Her breathing slightly more laboured then usual and a light sheen of sweat covering her skin, she did some light shadowboxing, picturing her invisible opponent as Tyra Harker. A part of herself realized that this wasn't healthy and that she was focusing far too much on this. But the primal side of her relished the opportunity to prove her worth against a fellow female.

Nara grinned after giving her imaginary opponent a nice uppercut to the head and started jogging slowly back to her room. She was going to show Tyra Harker, and her Master that she was better than just good. She was Nara freaking Nalto, hero of Ubrora.

Nara slowed from her jog into a brisk walk as she turned the last corner before she would get to her room. When she looked around the corner, she saw that already waiting outside her door was Tyra Harker. Nara smiled internally, this was perfect. She was warmed up already and in the mood to fight. Kicking Tyra's butt would be a perfect way to start the day.

"Hey! Tyra!"

Tyra Harker turned around to see Nara Nalto walking in her direction. Thank goodness. She thought she was going to have to look all over the Temple to find the Togruta. It was going to be a fun, if a bit easy, to beat just a little bit of respect into Nara. Nothing too outrageous. Just making sure that Nara knew her place. Maybe it would be good to teach Nara some things, because if she was going to be paired with Sascha outside the Temple, she wanted her to be able to protect his back.

She forced a little smile, "Hey Nara. Good time to spar? I like sparring in the morning when I can."

"Yeah, just let me get changed. Give me five minutes?"

"I'll grab a sparring room. Come find me when you are ready?"

Nara smiled slightly and used her shoulder to slightly brush her aside as she entered her room. Tyra shook her head as she turned and walked away. So she hadn't been imagining the hostility from the Togruta from the other day.

This was going to be an interesting sparring session.

Nara had a quick shower and changed into her normal robe before making her way towards the section of the Jedi Temple that housed that sparring rooms. She was looking forward to this upcoming showdown with Tyra. This whole thing felt personal. Tyra had made it personal by trying to subvert her friendship with Sascha. Now she was going to show her that she was not a Togruta to be trifled with.

She found Tyra in an empty sparring chamber, going through a typical kata with her lightsaber held in her hand, but unlit. Nara paused as the door whirred shut behind her. Tyra's excellent speed and technique were evident even in this short demonstration. Which is, of course, why she was doing it. A basic intimidation technique that said 'look how good I am.' Nara wasn't intimidated, but she was cognizant that Tyra was indeed very skilled.

Tyra glanced up at her when her kata was complete, "Hey Nara."

"Tyra."

Tyra bounced lightly on her feet, "Thanks for taking over my duties yesterday. I just wanted to spend some time with Sascha."

"You owe me one," Nara said pointedly.

Tyra grinned slightly, "I'll pay it back right now."

"One sparring session isn't exactly doing me a favour," Nara retorted. "I spent hours at that desk doing your job for you."

Tyra circled her slowly, from a distance, "Well, I thought I'd teach you a few things that I know. I am fairly well known as being a good duelist for my age."

"To teach me, you have to be better than me," Nara responded.

Tyra ignited her lightsaber, "Don't they teach you to respect your elders?"

Nara checked that her lightsaber was set to the burn setting before turning it on. She was pissed at Tyra, but she didn't want to be accidentally lopping off limbs. She wasn't that upset. Not yet anyway.

"Respect is earned, not given," Nara replied. She started circling to her right, so that the two Jedi were now circling in the same direction, sizing each other up, waiting for the other to make the first move. Nara held her lightsaber across her chest in a defensive gesture. She knew from the way that Sascha described her that Tyra liked to be the attacker, so she set herself up for a counterattack.

Tyra lunged in quickly with a couple of probing attacks. Nara batted Tyra's blue blade away with short, chopping moves, but made no move to attack herself. This one was still in the feeling out stage and she had no intention of being caught out.

"How was going on a mission with Sascha?" Tyra asked.

"It was a lot of fun going on a mission with my best friend." Now to draw blood, thought Nara, "How many missions have you been on with Sascha? It must have been a lot since you are such good friends." Nara knew that Sascha and Tyra had never been assigned on a mission together, unlike her and Sascha, who had been a unit often in the past two years. Nara had always been good a verbal sparring, she had toned it down over the past few years, and become more respectful, but the retorts were always on the tip of her tongue. Today, she was letting them out.

Tyra looked hurt for a moment and made a wild, imprecise lunge towards her. Nara took advantage, swatting Tyra's blade away and forcing Tyra backwards with some quality attacking. Eventually, Tyra had to sink to one knee and roll to her left to get the space that she needed. Nara let her have it. There was still lots of things she wanted to teach to Tyra. First thing to teach her? Respect.

"So, how many missions have you been on together?" she asked, breathing slightly harder after her exertions. "Zero, right? Funny, because the our Masters trusted us enough to go on a mission together."

Tyra looked annoyed, and then that look of annoyance faded quickly, "It's not my fault that the troubled apprentice was assigned to be with the Jedi Order's most calm and collected young Padawan as an additional safety measure. The troubled apprentice was you, in case I was being too subtle."

Nara feinted an attack, but she was really annoyed and it took all of her self control not to throw herself at Tyra, consequences be damned. Bringing up the past should have been well off limits, even in...whatever this was. It was certainly not just a sparring situation anymore. "It must kill you that I braided Sascha's Padawan braid for the first time. That's a pretty big landmark in a Jedi's life, and I got to do it with him."

Tyra smiled, "That's funny, because I saw him the day after he got his Padawan braid and he asked me to redo it. Something about you not doing it correctly."

That accusation stung Nara, because that event had been one of the first things that she and Sascha had ever done together. Sascha had been the one that had put on her Padawan braid and that event had meant a lot to her as it had symbolized her ascent from Initiate to Padawan. The fact that Sascha might have gotten his braid redone by his best friend the next day was hurtful.

Nara attacked in a furious barrage, battering Tyra's blade aside and trying to bring it back to bear before Tyra could bring it back. She swiped in wild hacks, trying to batter down Tyra's defences. She didn't have success at first, as Tyra was able to meet her enraged attacks with a sort of cool composure. Nara took one step back and then took a swing not at Tyra's body, but at her lightsaber, almost knocking it form Tyra's hands. But she wasn't done, Nara pivoted on her foot and spun into a kick that landed squarely in Tyra's midsection.

Satisfied that was enough, Nara took a couple of steps back and bounced lightly on her feet, taunting Tyra. Her opponent put a hand where Nara's kick had landed, as if to test the damage that it had done. Tyra shot her a little smile, "Nice."

"Thank you."

"Now I have to repay you in kind."

Nara thrust her chin out as if to say, 'hit me.' "As if you even could, Harker."

And like that it was on. Almost immediately, Nara was put on the back foot by Tyra. The brown haired girl was fast like lightning when she attacked, and she effortlessly slipped in deft feints that threw off her defences. To be honest, Nara was not in the right mental state to be fighting. She was out of balance, arguably they were both out of balance, but Nara felt it keenly.

Nara gave ground and gave ground, until suddenly she felt like the walls of the room were closing in on her. Knowing that something bad was inevitably coming, she forced the lightsabers into a bind and tried to lean on Tyra, trying to force the two interlocked blades towards her. But Tyra was just as strong as she was, and the blades remained at the midway point, with neither Padawan able to gain the advantage.

Then, suddenly, Tyra broke the bind and she spun, letting the lightsabers fall off to the side. As Tyra spun, she brought around a closed fist from an angle that Nara didn't expect and it caught her square on the jaw. Tyra continued to spin and this time spun into a kick that caught Nara cleanly in the midsection.

Knocked a bit silly by the two blows, Nara dropped to one knee. In a normal sparring match, it would have been time to call it quits. This, however, was not a normal sparring match.

So Nara got up and threw a desperate haymaker with her free hand. Her left hand hit a surprised Tyra right on her left eyebrow and it snapped Tyra's head back. Clearly stunned, Tyra stumbled backwards.

With both Padawans a bit hurt, it was no surprise that there was a slight pause in the action. Nara wasn't done with the verbal barbs though, "You like that? I learned that one from Sascha."

Tyra touched her eyebrow where she had been hit, and Nara realized that her punch had opened up a small gash. Blood was slowly seeping down Tyra's face, and it gave her rival a more fearsome look than she already had. Tyra smirked, "Sascha always did fight well when desperate. My skills usually won the day though." The human disengaged and tossed her lightsaber away, "Let's finish this with some hand-to-hand combat."

Nara nodded and threw her lightsaber away casually, "I like that idea."

The two Jedi resumed circling each other. Nara felt slightly lightheaded from absorbing Tyra's spinning backfist and she could tell that she wasn't exactly steady on her feet. Nonetheless, she intended to push through her disadvantage and make Tyra submit to her. Then, and only then would justice be served.

Ignoring the fuzziness in her mind and the little voice in her head that said that she should probably take a step back and stop fighting, Nara stepped towards Tyra and threw three quick jabs towards Tyra's head, then a quick right hook to Tyra's side. Tyra blocked the jabs, but didn't react quick enough as Nara's punch to her body landed true. Tyra backed up a couple steps and then smiled, "That all you got?"

Then Tyra attacked.

Nara considered herself to be pretty good when it came to a straight kickboxing match. As she quickly learned, pretty good was not enough to hang with Tyra Harker. Tyra's kicks and punches came at her from angles she was not expecting and though the power behind them was not overwhelming, she got hit with three blows for every one that she managed to land on Tyra, who would just weave out of the way when she tried to attack.

Before long, Nara's nose was bleeding and she was starting to feel really dizzy. A rational person might have called it quits, but Nara had gone beyond all rationality right now, this was a feral war between two rivals. The Togruta threw a wild right hand out of desperation that managed to catch Tyra on the nose. Tyra's nose started bleeding slightly as Tyra stepped back to wipe it.

Tyra then feinted a kick to the midsection, and Nara dropped her hands to defend it, realizing too late, that Tyra was already spinning to launch a high kick to her head. Tyra's kick caught her square on the jaw, Nara's vision filled with stars and then went black for a moment. Her legs lost strength and she toppled to the floor in a dis-coordinated fashion.

"Get up, Togruta," taunted Tyra.

Nara, even though she was dazed and hurt, wasn't willing to admit defeat, even though she wasn't quite sure that she could stand anymore, so she got on to her stomach and started pushing herself up when a new voice spoke.

"Stay down, Nara," said Sascha Whitestar.

Oh...kriff.

Nara managed to get her eyes to focus, and indeed Sascha Whitestar had joined them. Sascha looked tremendously pissed off, more so than she'd ever seen him before. Furious, even.

Tyra took a step towards her friend, "Sascha, I can..."

"Let me guess, you can explain this? You can explain how you're bleeding from a cut above your eyebrow and how you were just taunting Nara to get up after you clearly hurt her? What the hell are you two doing?"

"Sascha," she said weakly

"Shut up, Nara. You know, I thought it would be fun to see my two best friends spar together. I even thought that the two of you would probably be friends, after all, these are the two people I trust most in the world. Even though you seemed a bit hostile towards each other yesterday, I just assumed you'd act like rational adults and not like starved animals fighting over a carcass." Sascha took a deep breath as silence reigned in the room, "You're fighting over me, aren't you?"

"No, its..." she said.

"Yes," said Tyra.

"Good, honesty from you at least, Tyra." Sascha's eyes raked back and forth between the two women, "But I'm not some sort of prize that can be won. You're fighting over my friendship? Guess what. You both lost it."

Sascha pivoted on his heel and headed towards the door.

"Sascha, wait," said Tyra. "Please."

Sascha paused and bowed his head, not turning to face either Jedi, "There's nothing either of you can say right now. Just be happy I'm not going to go report you for hurting each other intentionally during a sparring match. Which you both deserve, by the way."

"Are we still friends?" asked Nara, a note of desperation in her voice.

"Not today. Maybe tomorrow," he replied. "But I used to think so highly of both of you. I won't make that mistake anymore." Sascha strode out the door without another word, looking both angry and sad at the same time.

Tyra and Nara both stared at the door, staying silent for a few long moments.

"Well," said Tyra. "We really kriffed that up."

Nara sat up and barked a bitter laugh, "Yup. The worst part is that he was right. Let's face it, we don't deserve his friendship. He's too good for both of us."

Tyra walked over to Nara, looking like she was going to offer her a hand to get to her feet, but Nara had no intention of being helped. Her pride had taken a tremendous beating over the last few minutes, and she didn't want to be touched by anyone. She held up a hand, "Don't touch me, Tyra. Just...don't."

Tyra nodded, stood back and watched as she gingerly got to her feet and walked out the door, staggering slightly on unsteady legs. Hopefully she could get back to her room without drawing any unwanted attention. There when she was alone, she might figure out what to do next.

Her best solution so far was inventing a time machine so she could restart this day from the beginning again.

Tyra waited until Nara was gone and the she unleashed her fury on a nearby wall, kicking and punching and letting all the pain and anguish that was currently inside of her. She wasn't mad at Sascha or even at Nara. But she was furious at herself. She knew that it was her stupidity, arrogance and hardheadedness that had put her in this situation.

Once she was done letting out her pain and anger, there was nothing left but tears. So she slunk down, pulled herself into a little ball, and cried over the friendship that she had irrevocably damaged.

Once she was done pouring her tears out, she decided that the only thing she could do was fix this. So she picked herself up, brushed herself off and headed towards her Master's room. The first thing she needed to do was admit to her Master that she had badly, badly, badly screwed up. If he didn't instantly ground her on the spot, or kick her of the Order entirely, then she could move on to the next step. Whatever that happened to be.

Tyra decided against cleaning herself up, even though her nose was still bleeding and the cut above her eyebrow hadn't stopped bleeding either. She had 'won' the fight with Nara, but the Togruta had made her mark as well. "You are a kriffing idiot, Tyra. What the hell were you thinking?" She talked to herself, because that made her feel better. Very slightly better.

She made her way to her Master's room and knocked on the door, feeling blood still dripping down her face. She knew that her Master was still meditating at this hour and that Teff was going to be ornery that she was interrupting his meditation. That was fine, because that was all she deserved at this point.

"Who is it?" the voice of her Master, slightly muffled by the door.

"Tyra," she replied miserably.

"Enter."

She entered her Master's room, which was neatly laid out, as usual. What meager possessions Teff Nal'ma possessed were all in their proper place. The blue-skinned Twi'lek looked up at her and then startled slightly as he realized the shape she was in, "What happened to you?"

Tyra explained what had happened and then blew out a long breath, "It was my fault. My emotions got the best of me. I screwed everything up. Now I need to fix it."

"And how do you intend to do that?"

"I need to speak to Nara," she said.

"Not Sascha?"

"Sascha isn't capable of bearing a grudge, as long as I...we...fix this."

Teff, though looking stern, managed to find a hint of a smile, "What makes you think she won't just try to kill you? She looks like she tried earlier."

Tyra shook her head, "She's Sascha's friend. That must mean that she feels as badly about what happened as I do."

"So what are you going to do? And why tell me?"

"I need you to give me the code to her door. There's no way Nara will talk to me otherwise. And...I'm going to submit. I'm going to go to her room and just lay down and beg for forgiveness."

"That seems most unlike you," Teff observed.

"I'm turning over a new leaf," she replied.

"Good," said Teff. "I'll give you the code to Nara's door, on the condition that you get some bandages for your face first. Generally its considered impolite to bleed all over someone else's room."

"You give me the best advice, Master."

Teff finally uncoiled from his meditative position, "We will have a talk afterwards about this, yes?"

She bowed her head, "Yes, Master. I know there was no defense for what I did."

Teff rose and placed a firm hand on her shoulder, "Go make this right, Padawan. I'll send you the code to Nara's door in a few minutes."

Tyra bowed politely, "Thank you, Master Nal'ma."

Tyra turned quickly and headed back to her room. She would fix this. She had to fix this.

Nara Nalto laid curled in a fetal position on her bed in her room. She felt numb. She had acted like an immature child today. Tyra had pressed her buttons, to be sure, but she had known, deep down, that this whole rivalry that they had developed was amazingly stupid. All she had to do was be the bigger person. But she had failed at that. She had been hurt by Tyra, so she had wanted to hurt Tyra back. It was like something out of Dark Side 101.

Nara didn't know what to do now. She had damaged her friendship with Sascha in a way that she hadn't thought possible. And she had proved that she was still emotionally immature. Stupid. Not worthy of trust, not worthy of friends.

She had tried to call Sascha, to see if she could somehow explain herself to him, but he wasn't answering. She had then tried to call her Master, but she was in hyperspace, no doubt in transit here to Coruscant. So there was no one to talk to, no way to make it better. So she was just going to lock herself in her room until she could come up with some sort of plan to fix what had happened. She had very few ideas at this point though.

There was a quiet knock on her door. "Go away," she said.

Oblivious to her words, the door opened. Nara sat up in her bed. Very few people had the code to her door, though among them was Sascha, so maybe it was him. Of course all the Masters had the codes to all the Padawan's doors – there was no hiding from a senior Jedi if they wanted to see you.

To her surprise, the person that walked through the door was Tyra Harker. Nara bristled and put her hand on her lightsaber.

Tyra smiled weakly at her, before she dramatically flopped on to the floor, letting her arms and legs fall akimbo. Tyra closed her eyes, and tilted her head back, exposing her neck, "I submit," she said.

This day could probably not get any stranger if it tried. Nara shook her head, "Tyra, you don't have to submit, to me or anyone."

Tyra kept her eyes firmly closed, "And yet here I am, showing my trust in you. You could end me, if you want, in fact, I think that might be the easiest way out of this mess. Please, accept my surrender."

Nara got up off her bed and walked slowly over to Tyra. In Togruta culture, when you 'submitted' you exposed your neck, just like Tyra was doing right now. It was a way of showing that you had been beaten and that you were symbolically placing your life in their hands. To see Tyra doing that to her felt...wrong.

"I don't need to accept your surrender, Tyra."

"I'll feel better if you do."

Deciding that no harm could come of it, Nara knelt beside Tyra and gently ran a finger across her neck, symbolically accepting her surrender. Then she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, "Now you do the same for me," she said. "I surrender to you."

Nara could feel Tyra's surprise in the Force, but she also gently ran a finger across Nara's exposed neck, while Nara tried to fight against her natural reaction to fight back. One that was complete, Tyra flopped back onto her back, while she got into a sitting position.

"We screwed up real good today, didn't we?" said Nara.

"Yup."

"How do we fix it?"

Tyra opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, "I was thinking that we should become friends."

Nara laughed. Tyra laughed. Then both young women broke into hysterics, laughing as if the thought of them becoming friends was the most ludicrous thing in the entire galaxy. After what had happened this morning, it might have been.

After the laughing fit ended, Tyra found her voice first, "I suppose we should start with an apology."

"Yeah."

"I'll go first," said Tyra. She her hand through her hair, "Look, you know that Sascha and I have complicated history. So when I saw you come in that day together, I saw myself being replaced. Sascha means a lot to me, as you know. And I thought I had my feelings for him under control. And I do, romantically, at least. But Sascha's my best friend, I grew up with him. And now to see my best friend spending time with someone else...it just set off some part of my brain that said that I needed to eliminate the competition." Tyra held her head in her hands, "Which is so profoundly stupid I can't even believe that I even said it."

"I didn't replace you," she said.

Tyra hesitated, "I mean you kind of did. But I should have realized that as Sascha said, there isn't a quota on how many friends I can have." Tyra shrugged nervously, "I've always been kind of like you, I don't have a lot of friends. There's not a lot of people that can deal with my personality. So I kind of panicked when I saw that I might be losing one of my only good friends. My solution though, is not to rely so heavily on Sascha. That's why we should be friends."

"I'd like to have another friend," Nara admitted. "Can I explain why I was so irrational?"

Tyra nodded for her to continue.

"Sascha's...the person that helped turn my life around. You probably heard rumors of what I was like before. It was like I met Sascha, and then I could just see the right decisions, whereas before I always made the wrong decision. Kind of like how it was today," she joked self-deprecatingly. "So many of the best moments of my life have been with Sascha by my side, I have this bond with him that I have with no one else. And then when he saw you yesterday, I felt like I was pushed aside. I was just a Tyra Harker replacement, soon to be discarded for the original."

"So we both thought that we were going to be replaced by the other," Tyra mused. "How stupid are we?"

"We are idiots."

"Do you think Sascha thought for a second about replacing either of us?" asked Tyra.

"No," she admitted. "And that's why Sascha is better than us."

Tyra laughed, "He's got his flaws, but he's got things more together than the two of us do."

"No argument," she said. Nara felt herself warming up to Tyra. She could tell that this was uncomfortable for Tyra to talk about, but she was doing it. She really did want to be friends with her. And though she was prickly, she thought she could learn to work around it. After all, Sascha trusted Tyra. What bigger endorsement could there be?

Tyra sat back, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you love him? Sascha, I mean."

"Yes," she admitted freely. Tyra looked shocked, so she figured that she had to explain further, "I don't love him in a romantic sense. I slept in the same bed as him and I never once felt the urge to do anything beyond just sleep. But I love him for what he is and what he means to me. He's my brother."

"Word of warning, it's not always easy to see him as just a brother," said Tyra, wincing slightly.

"Noted, but I've got it under control, unless he magically turns into a cute Togruta boy. Do you still have feelings for him?" she asked, guessing at why Tyra might have brought it up.

"A week ago, I would have told you no. After how I acted today...I'm not so sure." Tyra looked away, "I really hate that everything with Sascha got so complicated. It was easier when we were eight years old."

"Boys make everything complicated. First you want to kill them, then you want to kiss them," she said.

Tyra Harker laughed, "It's so true. Idiots, the whole lot of them. But very kissable."

"Even your Master?" Nara teased.

Trya made a face, "Ew... no! I meant cute boys!" Nara laughed, but Tyra continued, "Can you teach me something?"

"I'm not sure I can teach you much, except how to absorb a beating from Tyra Harker. That I might be able to help you with. I got good experience at that today."

Tyra cringed, "Sorry about that. You're okay, right?"

"I'm okay." She puffed herself up exaggeratedly, "I'm a tough Togruta. But please give me 48 hours to recover before hitting me again. At least."

Tyra laughed and then seemed slightly uncomfortable, "Could you teach me how to flirt with boys? I always say the wrong thing. I hear from Sascha that you are a bit of a flirt. He says that you're good at getting boys to notice you."

"Sascha has a selective memory. He forgets all the times I get shot down. So I'm not all that good at flirting, I guess," she said. Nara smiled, wanting to be magnanimous, "But I can teach you what I know."

Tyra nervously ran a finger through her hair, "Can we maybe...go out tonight and try your lesson out? I can get permission from my Master to go out. I think it's even ladies night at Foda's"

Nara felt herself grinning, beneath that tough exterior, Tyra reminded her a lot of herself. Which, she supposed, made sense in a way, "Okay Tyra Harker, I'll teach you how to hunt for boys."

The two Padawans stood in front of each other for a long moment. And then if by mutual consent, they fell into a tentative hug. "From enemies to friends in about two hours flat," remarked Tyra. "It must be some sort of record."

Nara broke the embrace, "Well, it'll be a funny story to talk about ten years from now, I'm sure. But what about Sascha?"

"Let him be," shrugged Tyra. "He's incapable of holding a grudge. We'll apologize tomorrow. And then we'll hang out, just the three of us."

That idea sounded amazing to Nara Nalto. "Okay. I'm going to rest, and try to recover from the shellacking you gave me. I'll see you tonight?"

Tyra bowed slightly, "I will be your willing pupil tonight." The petite young woman headed for the door, but paused just before the entrance, "I think that this is going to work out well. I've never really had a female friend."

"Neither have I."

"We'll learn what it's like together, okay?"

Nara nodded, "See you in a few hours, Tyra."

Tyra tossed her a quick salute before exiting her room.

Nara Nalto couldn't quite wipe the grin off her face. Tyra Harker had gone from someone she despised to a friend in a matter of hours. Maybe it would have been easier to have just talked to her yesterday, or today even, but Nara Nalto didn't always do things the easy way. Why would making friends be any different?