Here we go! I really hope you guys will like my take on canon, with the changes caused from Bonding Sickness Who? I'm trying my best with this, both to stay close enough to the original storyline, but also to change it so I'm not truly rewriting it word for word. Please be patient with me as I get the hang of it and how I want to do it. :) I'm posting this today, but I think I will make Saturdays my typical posting days. I have all of Wild Born done, and am about a third of the way through Hunted.
This is starting in chapter 7 of Wild Born, as the first four chapters were covered in BSW, and 5 and 6 didn't need to be changed.
I am going to say it here, I do not own anything in the Spirit Animals franchise. The only things in this that are my own are my OCs (Nicolai and Lucette from BSW).
-owl
Meilin could feel the stares of everyone around her as she made her way to the training room. Whispers accompanied them. Unsurprisingly the Greencloaks were interested in what was going on, and if one of the Four Fallen's summoners was walking past, then that clearly was a free invitation to gawk as much as possible. Never mind that it was quite frankly rude.
She entered a wide, airy room that Rollan had shown them the day they arrived. Conor was already there, Briggan next to him. The room was much larger than what she was used to, training with the masters back home. She supposed the vaulted ceiling was for the winged spirit animals.
Conor smiled at her. "Glad to see you. I was worried I had gotten lost."
Meilin nodded. She wished she could have agreed out loud with the clearly self conscious boy, but she had to be perfect. Truth be told she had needed to take a step back and a deep breath before she was able to remember the shortcut Rollan had shown them in the first place. "I would've thought you would've walked down with Rollan in the first place."
"He wasn't in our room when I woke up." He paused for a second, looking down to Briggan before looking back at Meilin. "I assume Jhi is on your hand?"
Meilin nodded. "She likes it better, it seems. Do you think Abeke is going to get lost?"
Conor didn't get a chance to answer because the girl in question suddenly burst through the door, startling the boy.
Abeke was out of breath as she bent over halfway with her hands on her knees. Uraza followed her into the room a few minutes after her explosive entrance.
"Hey, guys!" Abeke said brightly, in between deep breaths.
Conor raised a hand in acknowledgment, but didn't say anything.
The door opened again, and Rollan walked in, chatting with Lucette. Essix and Bryer were flying and padding along by their sides.
Other than Rollan and Lucette talking quietly, the room was silent. Meilin wasn't willing to speak to the other kids currently, and it seemed that Conor and Abeke were similarly silent.
Nearly ten minutes after Rollan and Lucette had entered the room, Tarik threw the door open and came in, his expression neutral and unreadable.
"We want to take today to figure out what each of your skill levels are." Tarik said in lieu of a greeting. "Rollan, though we already know where his skills are at, will also be participating in this exercise."
Rollan groaned but seemed to accept it.
Lucette then moved to the center of the room, four blindfolds in her hands. "We are going to start by testing how well you can sense your spirit animal. In the event you can't see them during a fight, it's important that you know where they are. Meilin, if you could call Jhi?"
Once Jhi had appeared in a flash of light, Lucette handed everyone one of the blindfolds. As soon as they were on, Meilin could hear the animals moving around the room.
"Now," Lucette said, her voice carrying from what seemed the opposite end of the room, "I want you to point at your spirit animal, to locate them in the room."
Meilin took a deep, calming breath, trying to reach towards her bond with Jhi. Why could she feel the presence while the panda was no more than a tattoo, but not when she was in the same room? Around her she could hear the praise the other three were getting.
"Very good, Conor," Tarik said, approval in his voice. "You're following Briggan well. Abeke, you are also very adept at this, it's almost like you never lost sight of Uraza."
Then Lucette's voice sounded again, a hint of amusement in it. "Rollan, while you're doing much better than the last time we did this, she keeps tricking you with the double, double back." Her voice then took on a more neutral tone. "Meilin, don't be afraid to use your instincts."
Without letting herself think about it, Meilin threw her arm to her right, pointing at Jhi (hopefully).
"No, Meilin." Tarik commented.
With a sigh, she pulled off her blindfold to see Jhi near the corner in front of her and to the left. She then turned around to see both Abeke and Conor following Uraza and Briggan with ease, not getting caught when either doubled back on themselves. Rollan was also doing fairly well, though there were a few times he lost Essix for a moment.
"If you all want to take your blindfolds off now,." Lucette called to the room, "We are going to test your physical skills. If you could all line up at the wall over there" — she pointed to the wall behind Meilin — "you will run across the room, jump and hit the wall as high as you can, then return and hit the punching bag."
Meilin looked at the punching bag, hanging limply near the wall they were supposed to line up on. She had noticed the bag as soon as she had entered the room, though had chosen to ignore it.
All four children lined up at the wall that Lucette had indicated.
"Ready... GO!" Tarik called.
As a group the children pushed off the wall in a sprint. Rollan and Abeke battled for first place, but eventually the Niloan girl was able to pass the Amayan boy and keep the lead. Meilin and Conor were neck and neck almost the entire time. As they came to the wall, Meilin saw Abeke leap, reaching a height that Rollan matched. Conor didn't get as high as the other two, and Meilin was able to do better than him.
Their running positions were the same as they ran full pelt back to their starting place, the last thing to do was hit the bag. There was a sudden, keening, haunting, howl, and Conor shot forwards, past Abeke and Rollan. He launched himself into the punching bag, and it shook. Conor held his hand against the shoulder with which he had rammed the bag, clearly it was heavier than he had expected.
Abeke was the next to reach the bag, and, rather than making it move from her hit, it stopped her dead, absorbing her power. Rollan didn't do any better than Abeke, though he was able to keep his momentum after.
Then it was Meilin's turn to reach the bag. Using her knowledge from home, she was able to make it wiggle more than Conor had, which she counted as a win.
"Well done." Lucette praised, approaching the children. "Conor, did you feel anything when Briggan howled?"
He nodded. "Yes, it suddenly felt like I had the wind at my back, and more power in my body. Ramming the bag seemed like a good idea until I actually did it."
Tarik nodded, echoing Lucette's words. "Well done."
"What does it look like when you do it?" Abeke asked.
Without a word, Tarik released his otter and moved back to the starting point. Then he was off. There was no way someone could gain that much momentum that quickly, but he did. Without even looking like he was trying, Tarik was able to hit the wall at least three feet above where Rollan and Abeke had done so. When he hit the bag, it shuddered violently and for a second seemed like it would fall from its rope.
"Are you going to give it a try, Lucette?" Rollan asked, while everyone — even Meilin so as to not seem a bad sport — gave a round of applause.
Lucette sighed but nodded. After patting Bryer on his head, she took the starting position. She waited for a second before she left the wall. She was slower than Tarik, that was clear, probably only as quick as Meilin or Conor. Her jump wasn't very good either, nor even hitting the bag.
"So." Lucette commented, panting as she turned back to the group. "It's clear I'm not a fast runner, high jumper, or hard hitter. Why was my run still good?"
Meilin thought back, comparing Lucette's run against Tarik's. While Meilin would rather have Tarik on her side in a fight, she didn't want to be opposing Lucette, her skill and offense just wasn't as obvious. The only thing that left was her bond.
"You run like you are trying to imitate a dog." Conor spoke up.
Lucette smiled at him. "Correct. Dogs run quite fast, by focusing on my bond with Bryer, I can channel that skill and use it to help myself."
"So what?" Meilin asked, annoyance on her face. She was tired of this. She was a good fighter without Jhi, why couldn't they see that and let her train on her own. She needed to return to Zhong to fight for her people, standing around here wasn't helping. "Shouldn't we be focusing on learning how to fight to better prepare? Zhong is under attack right now, we don't have time to sit around and do dumb things like this!"
She got no response. Lucette looked at Tarik then she and Bryer left.
"Training is over for today," the tall man announced. "Meet here after breakfast tomorrow."
Everyone filed out of the room, leaving Meilin and Jhi alone. With a deep scowl, Meilin turned to the panda. "You could have helped more. Anything, really, would have been nice. For all your help today, you can walk back to our rooms."