"You need any help with that?" she asked, after a moment of watching Phil at work.
"Sure," the satyr said, after a brief pause. "Come over here and give me a hand, kid."
Making her way over to where the satyr was standing, Sarah took the posters that he handed to her, and watched as he continued to hang them one at a time. When he stopped for a moment, Sarah narrowed "her" eyes as she studied the hanging poster. Tucking the others more securely under "her" left arm, Sarah reached out to straighten it, nipping at "her" lower-lip as she studied how the thing hung on the wall now.
Phil chuckled. "You got a good eye for detail, kid."
She turned to see the pleased, approving smile – at least as pleased or approving as Phil ever got – on the satyr's face. "Thanks."
The two of them continued on that way until the last of the posters had been hung, always taking those few extra moments to ensure that they had each been properly straightened out before they moved onto the next one.
"All right, looks like we're all done here, kid," Phil said, again looking as pleased as she'd ever seen him.
"That's good to hear, since there was something I wanted to ask you about," she said, readjusting the straps of Sora's backpack as she paced Phil into another room of the Coliseum that she highly doubted had been part of the game in any way, shape, or form. It bore a startling resemblance to a modern office, with the obvious exception of computers, or pens. The furniture had been constructed with Phil's dimensions and stature in mind, so that also made the place a rather interesting one to see.
"Yeah, I know what you'd be lookin' for, kid," the satyr said, his tone gruffly cheerful as he pulled out three slips of stiff paper that were decorated rather simply, though there was still a subdued sort of elegance to them. "Here ya go: three ring-side seats; close as you can get to the action without bein' part of it."
"That's very generous of you," she commented.
"Yeah," he said, looking rather pleased with himself. "Well, that's not all: as a special thanks for your help today, I'm offerin' all three of them to you for just 45 Munny for the whole set," Phil said, with the mien of a professional salesman.
"Is there a fee for using your training grounds?" she asked, even as she dug out 15 Munny to pay for her own ticket; it'd be nice, every once in awhile, to take a break and watch some professionals at the peak of their game.
"Nah, you can head out back and some exercise if you want," Phil said, taking the coins as she, Donald and Goofy handed them over.
"Thanks," she said again, nodding as she took her own ticket and pocketed it. "You said it was right behind this building?"
"That's right," the satyr said, nodding. "If you see Herc down there, which you probably will, you can ask him for some training tips."
"Herc?" she asked, still rather amused by the nickname; she'd read that the people who lived back on Earth-side Greece pretty much hated the movie that these particular characters came from, and she'd often wondered if the nicknames were part of it, or if it was a more general dislike of their culture's mythology being so completely bastardized.
"Hercules," Phil said, and the pleased expression came right back to his face, this time nixed with what looked very much like fond nostalgia.
"One of yours?" she asked, knowing it was true but wanting to be courteous all the same.
"Best student I've had," the satyr said proudly, seeming to stare off into the past for a few moments.
Clapping the satyr's right shoulder as she made her way past him, on her way back to the main room of the building, she looked back as she heard him chuckle softly.
"You go train with your partners, kid," the satyr said, still smiling rather nostalgically. "And, good luck with whatever it is you're going to be doing."
"Thanks; I appreciate the sentiment," she said, smiling and nodding to him as she passed him by.
As she, Donald, and Goofy continued on their way back into the room they'd first entered from, Sarah noticed that Donald had a rather thoughtful look on his face.
"What's on your mind, Donald?"
"Huh? Oh," the drake said, seeming a bit surprised to have been called out on whatever it was that he was thinking about. "I was thinking, maybe we should try to enter into these game's that Phil's hosting," Donald paused for a moment, a determined expression coming over his face. "I mean, we've been fighting the Heartless for longer than we've even been together, and now that we're a team, that ought to count for something."
She swallowed a chuckle, knowing that no one who was actually present would be able to understand the source of her amusement. "Maybe, but how's he supposed to know that? He only just met us today," she said, as the three of them continued to follow Phil out of the Coliseum.
"I guess you're right, but I don't have to like it."
Phil's own amused chuckle drifted back to the three of them as they continued on their way down the short hallway and then back out into the bright sunlight. "He is, you know," the satyr said, sounding pleased for some reason or other. "I wouldn't put guys I didn't know in the Games. Well," he turned a grin back on the three of them. "Unless they were Herc's friends; then he could vouch for 'em."
"Makes sense," she said.
After all, tournament fighting – unlike the real thing – was more for the audience's entertainment than anything else; you'd naturally want people you knew could put on a good show. And, while even the most staged of bouts carried the risk of injury, there would be significantly less if one restricted one's recruiting to a pool of trained, professional fighters whose skill could be verified. With either your own firsthand knowledge, or else the knowledge of someone you knew well enough to trust.
"What d'ya mean, Sora?" Goofy asked.
It was amazing, Sarah reflected briefly, how quickly one could get used to talking to an anthropomorphic dog.
"Well, a tournament's a lot more like a show than it is a real fight," she said, shooting a glance back over "her" left shoulder to let Goofy know that she'd heard him. "So, it's only natural that you'd want people you know would be capable of entertaining a crowd."
"Who told you that a tournament's not real fightin'?"
She couldn't quite stop herself from scoffing at Phil's question; she at least tried to be quiet about it. "Experience. Tournaments have plenty of things you'd never find in a real fight; foremost among them being rules and a time-limit."
No one seemed to have anything to say in response to that, though Sarah did notice Phil giving her a speculative look out of the corner of "her" right eye. And so the four of them continued on their way out of the building where their group had first met up with him, out to an open-air courtyard filled with things that she could recognize as various kinds of pre-modern sports equipment, as well as delineated by a track around its perimeter. There was also a rather familiar someone already there.
"Hey Herc, there guys here say they want to get some training in!" Phil shouted, breaking the silence that had settled over them once more. "Why don't you show 'em the ropes?"
There was a lame joke that she could have easily made about the lack of any actual rope in this particular place, but as she had little need to either amuse herself or mock someone at the moment, Sarah kept it to herself. Hercules himself was a great deal more tolerable than Phil had been in-game; just the way she'd been expecting him to be. About the only one who hadn't measured up to her expectations was Phil himself, and that was all to the good because she could remember numerous occasions in-game where she'd wanted to either slap the satyr in the face, beat him upside the head with the Keyblade, or somehow do both at once.
She always found it kind of funny, if a bit of a bother at times, how it always seemed to be the most annoying characters in any particular game whose presence seemed to stick in her mind the most.
But, now that she was meeting the satyr for herself, she wondered if his and Sora's personalities hadn't just jarred against each other; "hero of the Light" or not, she didn't remember first-game Sora being particularly mature for his age.
Hercules had offered to lead them in some warm-up exercises before they got into anything else, and Sarah had been quick to take him up on his generous offer. Donald, as seemed to come naturally to him, seemed dubious about the whole idea, but after she and Hercules had explained how muscle cramps were both definitely a thing and also not something to take lightly, he'd been a lot more cooperative; if not particularly enthusiastic. Still, feeling the way Sora's body reacted as she put it through its paces helped her get a feel for what she could realistically expect to manage in combat. Sure, she was going to gently pump Merlin for all the information she could get on the subject of magic and what it was ultimately capable of, and then see if she could manage to create some kind of Nasuverse-style reinforcement, but all of that was going to take time. Here and now, she needed to know what she could do with what she had.
Once all of them had limbered themselves up to various degrees, Sarah decided that now was a better time than most to gage the stamina that she currently had in this body. She needed to know what Sora's limits were, before she would be able to start taking the both of them beyond those. She'd just have to remember to be careful how she went about things; a battlefield was no place to be reckless with one's health, and aside from that it was simply bad manners to damage something that didn't belong to you.
Running track had always carried a sense of freedom for her, but since she was making an effort to pay strict attention to how Sora's body reacted to even the mild strain she was putting on it, Sarah couldn't afford to let her attention wander that way. The shortness of both breath and stride came as no surprise to her, considering the smaller body that she'd been so unceremoniously shoved into, but the endurance… It seemed that Sora was far more of a sprinter than a long-distance runner. Something else I have to adapt to, it seems, she mused, slowing to a quick-walk as Sora's body began to falter.
The sound of heavy footsteps coming up from behind her drew Sarah's attention then, and she shot a look over "her" left shoulder to see who it was.
"So, endurance training, huh?" Hercules asked, though there was a knowing smile on his face.
Count on an athlete to know his stuff.
"Yeah; looks like I'm going to need a lot more of it now, though," she said, easing herself from a power-walk to a more normal stride in preparation for stopping entirely.
"Oh?"
"Yeah." She smiled wryly up at him, as the two of them matched speed. "Things are going to be getting a lot more active in my life from now on," she said, making her way off the track so that she could make a quick stop at her supply-pack, before she met back up with Donald and Goofy so that the three of them could discus what they were going to do next.
When she made it there, Sarah watched in amusement as Kuromaru unzipped the bag from the inside.
"Thanks, boy," she said, as the Shadow handed her one of the bottles of water that she'd packed for this trip.
Popping the top off, Sarah took a long, healthy swallow, and then took a second after she had paused for breath.
"Good planning," she heard Hercules say from somewhere off to her left.
She turned a smile on the demi-god. "Well, they always say it pays to be prepared."
Hercules laughed. "Well, they're right," he said, clapping "her" left shoulder as he did so.
She was pleased to note that he was in complete control of his strength, so the only thing she felt was the lingering sensation of impact and not any actual pain. Smiling for the consideration that the demi-god had shown her, Sarah turned and made her way back to where Donald and Goofy were standing. She'd seen them more than a few times out of the corner of "her" eyes, but she'd never paid attention long enough to figure out what they were actually doing. Now, however, it seemed that the point was rather moot.
"Oh, good, you're back," Donald said, looking relieved. "Can we have some water?"
There were some issues with that, Sarah reflected, as she moved to check the water-level of the bottle she was currently holding. Sure, she'd packed enough for this trip in particular – as she intended to every time she went somewhere that required either long-duration combat or strenuous exercise of another sort – but she'd only brought a single extra bottle this time.
"I don't know," she said, not wanting to get anyone's hopes up. "I only have the two bottles I brought with me." She raised the bottle to check how much she actually had rather than just guessing, and then frowned slightly at what she was seeing. "I could swear I'd taken more outta this thing when I was drinking."
"Don't worry, Sora," Goofy said, with his usual happy chuckle. "We had Merlin cast a special spell, so not you'll never run outta what's in any of your bottles!"
"Decent of you; thanks," she said, with a light, underhanded toss that landed the bottle she'd been carrying in Donald's feathered grip.
The two of them took turns drinking from the bottle, Donald first and then Goofy, and the latter was even polite enough to clean off the rim with his sleeve before tossing it back to her. Of course, Donald had just poured the water into his open beak, so that kind of thing hadn't mattered so much in his case.
"So, did you guys have any plans for what we're going to do next, or should we start discussing that now?"
"I think that you and I should practice our magic, Sora," Donald said, stepping forward so that the two of them stood as close to face-to-face as they could, considering their respective heights.
"All right, that sounds good to me," she said, falling into step with Donald as the drake led the two of them to another part of the training grounds.
There were the barrels that Phil seemed so enamored of in the first game, and possibly the second though she couldn't say that for certain, and Sarah bit back a wry grin at their presence. It seemed that more than a few things could still be counted on to remain the same between this new universe and the game that she had played so long ago.
Goofy and Hercules sat on the sidelines, as Donald took a few moments to instruct her on what the two of them were going to be doing. She would have been a bit more curious about how one was to channel their personal stores of Mana for the initial cast, if she hadn't so clearly remembered drawing on them during the demonstration that Merlin had given them all not so very long ago. She still wasn't quite sure how to draw on the ambient Mana all around her, but she was going to continue working away at that.
Just because something was hard, that was no reason to give up.
The first few barrels she struck with the lightning that seemed to come so naturally to her didn't seem to be affected much at all, which she found fairly amusing considering the kind of hellacious damage that lightning could do to trees during a storm. Of course, the fact that that was natural lightning generated by the buildup of electrical imbalances within the storm-system itself – as opposed to what could easily be thought of as artificial lightning – might have had something to do with that. The fact that the next barrel she hit exploded as violently as any lightning-struck tree was a bit strange, but even that could be potentially explained by the fact that she'd been thinking of storms back in the world when she'd cast that particular bolt.
She was starting to fully understand just how much of magic's power was ultimately rooted in intent.
Casting another few normal bolts to gauge their effectiveness against these particular targets, Sarah took note of the fact that the standard style of lightning bolts seemed to be splitting the barrel like some kind of cleaver, rather than doing the kind of damage that she'd seen in the aftermath of storms back home. Concentrating for a long moment, Sarah drew on her Mana and cast another of what she was starting to think of as her storm bolts.
Come to think of it, that's a good name for them, she mused, as the barrel she'd just hit with that particular variant of the spell exploded just as violently as the first one.
Pausing to gauge her stores of Mana, something that the in-game gauges for both HP and MP had made easy enough to take pretty much for granted, Sarah noted that her stores were a bit lower than she was entirely comfortable with. Contemplating for a few moments on just why that might be, Sarah found that the only explanation that came readily to mind were the two "storm bolts" that she'd cast at the exploded remains of the barrels on the ground in front of her. She supposed that that kind of thing would drain her a bit faster than the other bolts she'd been using; they weren't exactly standard-issue, after all.
"Sora, do you want to quit now?" Donald asked.
There was something in the drake's tone that Sarah couldn't quite place, but she smiled anyway. "Yeah, I think that'd be best; that took more Mana than I was planning on. And besides, I'm really looking forward to getting back to the hotel so I can take a shower."
"We have baths here," said Hercules, who had apparently just arrived some odd moments ago.
"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to impose on your hospitality any more than we already have been," she said graciously.
That, and she didn't know if the baths he was talking about would be Roman-style public baths, given the fact that both historical Greece and the animated movie that this particular world had been based on had had more than a few Roman influences. Dealing with Sora naked was awkward and troublesome enough, without adding even more nudity on top of that. Sarah paused for a moment to dismiss the Keyblade to wherever it went when no one was using it – might be an interesting thing to find out, that – before turning back to Hercules. There was a smile on the man's face that seemed both cheerful and inviting, and Sarah tilted "her" head slightly in contemplation.
There were none of the undertones that would have led her to distrust such an expression back home.
Still, best to be sure all the same. "Really? I mean, it's no trouble to head back to the hotel and clean up there."
"Really; the least I can so, after letting you guys get all dirty and sweaty out here is offer you some hospitality."
"All right, thank you," she said, reaching out to take the demi-god's hand as it was offered to her. "That's very generous of you."
Falling into step behind Hercules, Sarah paused for a moment to grab her supply-pack. Out of sheer reflex, she settled it on "her" back as the four of them – or five, as Kuromaru swiftly reminded her by gently butting the center of "her" back with what felt like its head – made their way out of the training grounds. They quickly passed out of sight of any of the landmarks that had been visible in the level itself, and up to the side of a low, long, almost squat-looking building. The building itself was decorated in the same style as everything else she'd seen around here, and as the four of them who were actually walking came around to the front of the building and made their way inside, she found out why this particular building didn't have many windows.
The air was heavy with the smells of herbs, oils, and already filling with steam from the baths that had clearly just then been filled with fresh, hot water. Smiling in nostalgic relief, since she hadn't really been looking forward to getting back into the ship with sweat still drying on Sora's clothes, but after everything else she'd been doing today, Sarah found that she couldn't quite remember if she'd brought along extra clothes this time or not.
"What's wrong, Sora?"
"It's been so long since I packed, I can't quite remember if I brought extra clothes or not," she said, with a nonchalant shrug. "It's not like there's any king of problem with that, since I have my pack right here and can check it for whatever I might need while I'm here. But it's just kind of annoying, you know?"
Donald and Goofy both shared an expression of mild confusion as they turned to look at each other.
"I guess," was Donald's contribution to their short exchange.
The five of them – or at least the four who were actually walking – made their way deeper into the bathhouse, and Sarah briefly closed "her" eyes in pleasure as she inhaled. Whatever kind of herbal bath oils they used in here, they smelled almost as good as the ones Sarah would use on occasion back home. Smiling contentedly as she, Donald, and Goofy were led into another part of the building, this one sectioned off from the bathing area by a wall of the same terracotta color as the rest of the building; Sarah took note of where they stood. She knew a changing area when she saw one, and so she graciously thanked Hercules for his generous hospitality.
She didn't care if she'd already said something to that effect; some things deserved to be said more than once.
Hercules seemed both pleased and somehow amused by her repeated declaration of gratitude, but since he wasn't being rude or overbearing about it, Sarah merely smiled along with him as he pointed out the curtained booths that the people who used this place could change in. Something else she found herself grateful for was the fact that, without even any prompting on her part, Hercules offered to have all of their clothes sent out to the laundry so that all of them could have clean clothes when they left the bathhouse. She didn't know just how that was possible, considering the level of technology that she had seen – or rather not seen – in evidence all around them. But then, gods and magic were definitely A Thing here, so it might have easily been explained by either one or both of those things.
At this point, however, that wasn't something that Sarah was particularly inclined to think about. If she remembered her curiosity later, then she'd ask Hercules how he'd done that, or else where he'd sent their clothes to that could do that, but Sarah honestly kind of doubted that she'd remember such an idle musing after the good, long soak that she intended to take.
Pulling the curtain closed, Sarah began to divest herself of the clothes that she'd borrowed from Sora. Dropping them into the basket that Hercules had indicated was for just that kind of thing, after being sure to store her journal safely out of the way on one of the lower shelves so that she could reach it easily with Sora's body, Sarah pulled on the robe that had clearly been hung out for her own use, considering the size of the thing. Meeting up with Donald and Goofy, both of them wearing the same type of robes that she currently was, the three of them shared smiles before beginning to make their way back to the front of the bathhouse so they could meet up with Hercules again. When they did, he kindly directed them to the bathing area itself so that they could get cleaned up after this rather eventful day; personally, Sarah couldn't have been happier.
Under the circumstances, at least.
The baths themselves were set up inside their own private cubicles, and for a few moments Sarah wondered if the Greek baths back on Earth had had the same setup, or if this kind of thing was unique to this world. A product of their influence from Disney, perhaps. However, since she truly, honestly doubted that she was ever going to be able to get any kind of answers to that particular question, Sarah put the idle musing aside, hung up her robe on a hook near the door she'd just come in through, and finally submerged "herself" in the gloriously hot water with a deep, pleased sigh.
As she let "her" head rest against the rim of the bath, feeling the perfectly warmed water settling back down around her, Sarah smiled just that little bit wider once she realized that the shape of the tub was at that perfect angle to allow the person inside it to relax as they soaked.
And so, resting "her" arms on the rim of the tub – just like she'd done back at home on those occasions when she chose to indulge herself with a bath, Sarah closed "her" eyes and gratefully relaxed.
It didn't feel like that much later when she opened them at the soft sound of another presence inside the cubicle with her, but as she hadn't had any real method of keeping track of time since she'd started this whole trip, Sarah had no way of telling if that was really true or not. Opening "her" eyes, though she kinda suspected she knew just who it was who'd taken it into their round little head to pay her a visit here of all places, Sarah turned her gaze to meet the yellow eyes of a very familiar Shadow.
"Hey, Kuromaru," she greeted cordially. It took her only a moment to take note of the thermos and cooler-pack that the Shadow had brought with it, but when she did she smiled and chuckled softly. "You are learning."
Taking the thermos as Kuromaru handed it to her, she quickly removed the top and had a long, slow, deep swallow. Savoring the contrast of cold milk down "her" throat with the hot water all around her, Sarah sighed in pleasure as Kuromaru handed over one of the bagged sandwiches that she'd made for herself before this particular bit of madness had begun. She bit into it: turkey.
Scruffling Kuromaru's antennae in thanks for the Shadow's consideration, Sarah wiggled "her" feet in the water as she continued eating. Her gaze settled somewhat below the top edge of the cubicle, and she chuckled softly as Kuromaru nuzzled the right side of "her" neck.
The sound of the door being pushed open slightly drew Sarah's attention then, and she turned to look that way as best as she could manage from her current position. "What is it?"
"Can I come in?" Hercules asked, sounding rather resigned for reasons that Sarah was just about willing to hazard a guess at. "The others both insisted that I talk to them through the door, and I'd like to at least talk to someone face-to-face."
I love being right. "Different nudity taboos, I suspect," she mused aloud. "As long as you don't stare, you're welcome to come in."
"Why would I stare?" Hercules asked, sounding confused rather than condescending the way someone else might have.
Sarah chuckled deep in "her" throat as the door swung open, turning her attention back to the not-quite-half-eaten remains of her sandwich as she heard the heavy, steady tread of the demi-god who'd invited them all here entering the cubicle where she was enjoying her bath for those few minutes more before she started washing up in earnest.
"What I wanted to ask you is- is that one of those monsters?"
Turning over onto "her" stomach, after carefully setting her sandwich down atop the cooler-pack that Kuromaru had brought for her, Sarah faced Hercules more squarely.
"Hercules: Kuromaru," she said, gesturing to the indicated Heartless as it turned to look her way. "Kuromaru, behave yourself," she said, staring into the yellow eyes of the Shadow until Kuromaru had nodded, then nodding back with a small smile.
"Wow. I never thought anyone would actually manage to tame one of those monsters," Hercules said, sounding more than a little bewildered.
"Honestly, I don't really know how I managed it, myself," she mused, scruffing Kuromaru's antennae as the Shadow leaned into "her" right hand. "But Kuromaru's been with me for awhile now, and he's been a good companion for all that time."
For a few moments there was nothing but silence, as Hercules clearly searched for something to say. "Well, I think it's nice that your friends have a monster-tamer in training on their side," he managed at last.
She chuckled softly as Kuromaru settled down next to the rim of the tub she was still lounging in, looking so much like her second-oldest brother's cat that Sarah couldn't quite help herself.
"Have a nice bath," Hercules said, seeming to have run out of words.
"Thanks," she said, smiling at him as he turned to leave. "You have a nice day."
"I will," Hercules said over his shoulder, opening and closing the door once again as he left.
Turning back to Kuromaru once more as the Shadow nudged her, she chuckled again as she realized just what it wanted. Taking a few minutes to sing Hearts Grow's "Yura Yura", and then to finish her sandwich, Sarah dove under the still gloriously warm water to better wet down every last part of Sora's body, and then came up right beside the pair of large, terracotta jars that she had taken note of when she'd first come into this particular cubicle. Happily enough, both of them were marked with simple drawings, in addition to what she figured to be Greek lettering.
Opening up the jar with the picture of what was pretty much your standard "nondescript figure", Sarah set about thoroughly washing Sora's body – since it'd be beyond rude not to take proper care of the body when she was getting so much use out of it – and then went back to the other jar so that she could wash his hair. Once she was finished with the last of what she'd needed to do, she climbed up out of the bath, tapping "her" feet against the rim of the tub to remove the excess water that would otherwise be dripping from them. Making her way over to the towel that she'd briefly taken note of when she'd hung up her robe, she took it down and vigorously dried off, once again making sure to be as thorough as she had ever been at home.
Slipping the robe back on, Sarah made her way back out into the main area of the bathhouse. Meeting up with Donald and Goofy once more.
"Aww, did Kuromaru there bring you a snack?" Goofy asked, somewhat rhetorically considering that Kuromaru had slung the cooler-pack over its back once again, and also had the thermos of milk tucked under its right arm.
"Yes, he's very attentive," she said, smiling down at Kuromaru as the Shadow looked back up at "her".
"You're both crazy," Donald declared firmly, glaring at the three of them, though Kuromaru seemed to be a particular focus of his ire.
Sarah didn't have to guess why.
She laughed, amused and rather mocking. "Sanity is for the weak."
Donald huffed in clear aggravation, but he didn't say anything more.
The four of them made their way back to the changing rooms that they'd each used in the first place, and Sarah was pleased to see the pile of neatly-folded clothes that had been left there for her to put back on. Touching the top of the stack, she noted with some interest that the clothes themselves were as soft and warm as if they'd just come out of a clothes dryer. She wondered what kind of magic would be capable of that, or if this place was simple more technologically advance than they chose to display.
Removing the robe that she'd been given to use, Sarah tossed the thing into the basket where she'd originally thrown Sora's clothes, and then quickly dressed up once more.
Yawning deeply as she tucked "her" arms behind "her" head and stretched, Sarah made her way back out of the changing room and quickly met up with Donald and Goofy again. The three of them didn't have much to say, though Donald seemed resignedly annoyed when Kuromaru joined them, but that was getting to be a pretty common thing lately. Sarah reminded herself that it would be rude to laugh at the expression on the drake's face, even if it was fairly hilarious.
The four of arrived back in the main room of the Coliseum to a rather larger crowd than Sarah had been expecting: not just Phil and Hercules, but two others that Sarah couldn't identify from either of the games that she had actually played.
On the one hand it was kind of interesting, and definitely made the world that she was now standing on feel a great deal more expansive than just the few people – and rooms – that she had encountered during the course of the games. On the other of course, it was weird not being able to recognize the people she was seeing after a bit of thought. Interesting, but strange all the same.
"Wow. You weren't kiddin' when you said the kid was a monster tamer in the making," Phil said, with a chuckle that suggested he didn't know quite whether to be surprised or amused by the prospect.
However, Phil and Hercules were both known quantities, so Sarah only devoted a smaller than usual amount of attention to them; the red-haired woman in dark-blue, and the tall, slender man in light green with golden-yellow striping on the sleeves were entirely new as far as she was concerned. Sure, judging by the way Hercules was acting around them they seemed to be at least non-threatening, but only time would tell if they had any kind of relationship with the man beyond just paying a visit to the Coliseum.
Aside from all that, however, Sarah preferred to take her own measure of people rather than rely on second-hand accounts that could so easily be biased.
"So, that's one of the monsters you've been fighting for so long?" the man in green asked, sounding frankly incredulous. "I thought you said they were scary," he chuckled, sounding merely amused rather than taunting. "That little guy looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Kuromaru here is different than any of the other Heartless that keep popping up all over the place," she was able to say, before Phil piped up again.
"Course he is, he's yours," the satyr said, grinning. "I thought monster tamers started young, but I gotta admit, I never met one your age with their first monster already tamed the way you have yours right there." Phil tilted his head, hands on his hips like he was trying to commit her and Kuromaru's forms to memory; Sarah idly wondered how he'd have reacted if he knew that this wasn't remotely how she looked. "What'd you say his name was again?"
"Kuromaru," she said, wondering briefly if there was a translation effect on her words, or if they were all speaking modern English somehow.
"Kuromaru," Phil repeated thoughtfully, nodding slightly as he stoked his beard.