So, my training started with Galadin and Giramar. Vereesa said when I was in her Silver Covenant the first time she didn't have time to see to my training. Also, Oranio was training me so she left me alone. Now I was going to get her undivided attention.

So, bows are annoying, you have to hold them a certain way and you wouldn't think that the feathers on the back of an arrow could cut through your hand like a blade, but they can. When I could hit a target, I would look at my hand and there would be a fresh cut on my left hand. I could usually heal these small cuts, but not now. If I tried to move my hand out of the way, it knocked the arrow off course. Galadin gave me some bandages and gloves but that made it even harder to get that grip on the wood. Most of the time I over shot my arrows, or they landed on the ground. After about two hours I finally was able to hit the circle and they said, "Okay, let's end it there."

Guns were a new beast all together, the breathing really needs to be concentrated on and a certain calmness needs to be achieved. Then the pull of the trigger, followed by the sound of the blast and the impact on your shoulder. It was easy the first time, but with guns it was the opposite of the bows and arrows, the more I practiced, the worst I got. There was just so much to anticipate all at once, it made it harder to breathe when I knew that that blast and that kick was going to happen, and tear into my shoulder with every shot.

Vereesa placed a crossbow next to me, ``Try this." She said reluctantly.

I held it like I did a rifle. "With one hand." She arranged it in my hand. I stood up straight with my hand out holding the crossbow.

I held it out and saw my target and I felt something oddly familiar. I recalled one of my holy judgment spells, even if I had a two-handed weapon or a sword and shield I needed to put my hand out like so, look at the target, and then blast it with holy fire. I recalled the hundreds of times I blasted things with holy fire as I held on to the crossbow, pulled the trigger, and hit the target dead center. "Yes, I'm not completely useless after all."

Vereesa's eyes went wide as the target hit its mark, "Do that again." She ordered. It took Vereesa about 20 seconds to reload a crossbow and give it back to me.

I took the crossbow and recalled all the impact spells I could remember. The crossbow had a similar jolt to it as most of my paladin spells had. I recalled, looked at the target, and I hit it dead center again.

"Nice!" Giramar shouted.

"Don't get too cocky," Vereesa stated, "these things take forever to reload." She looked at me, "Perfectia, how good are you at throwing things?"

I looked at her inquisitively, "I can 'it tree targets with my shield and it will still come back. So, I would say it pretty well." I said mockingly.

Vereesa was surprised at my confident answer, ``But you had holy power back then." She put a rock in my hand, "Hit the target." I took the somewhat heavy rock and anticipated the impact it would make. I knew I could hit the target, but I was also thinking about how hard I would need to throw it for it to come back to my hand. It wasn't perfectly round, and it certainly wasn't circle or plate shaped, so it wouldn't glide. The rock would need to hit a round point, so it would bounce back. I also had to factor that my target was made of hay, so it was in that range of hitting bouncy flesh and hard armor. "Perfectia?" Vereesa looked at me impatiently, ``Could you hit the target please."

Without much thought I wound up my body and threw it right on the spot. It bounced back a few yards away from me and there was a part of me that wanted to try to catch where it was about to land, but it was off. "Merde." I said out loud.

"What's wrong you hit the target dead center." Vereesa asked.

I shook my head, "No, it was supposed to come back."

Vereesa rolled her eyes and sighed, "I'm going to start calling you Melfina again, if you're serious about joining the Alliance."

I nodded my head. "Oui." I agreed.

Vereesa breathed in deeply, "Melfina, you're not a paladin anymore, you're one of my rangers and I know the accent is going to be hard to break, but you need to stop using Thalassian so much. While Giramar may be able to teach you everything there is to know about archery and Galadin is more sentimental with his pets, I think what will transfer over well is if I teach you how to survive."

I smiled and nodded. "What does zat, I mean 'that' mean?'' I asked.

Vereesa half smiled, "It means that your training is going to be mostly mental from this point out. I know you've always followed the will of your heart and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But, if you want to survive you need to start thinking more logically."

I crossed my arms, "I guess zis is when you're going to tell me I need to stop being so melodramatic?" I asked.

Vereesa looked at me inquisitively, "No, do you hear that a lot?" she asked.

I nodded my head, "It's ze reason I write. " I shrugged. "I can never really control my emotions," I laughed at myself, "Zat's why I'm such a terrible spy. But I'm looking forward to zis mental training, it will be good to be able to see zings a lot more logically."

Vereesa smiled and nodded her head, "Good, take lunch and we hit the books when you come back."

Lunch.

Those kids really liked those marinated chickens and fried dumplings. I was a little worried that if they stayed here too long they would be as fat as one of the Pandarens, but it was their vacation in a sense. They ate so fast, I had been living off arcane energy most of my life and I never actually saw how much teenage boys could actually eat.

Now that I think about it I've always been a light eater but ate heavy snacks. I mean when I was their age I was running around Azeroth almost constantly, so I couldn't really hold a heavy meal when doing a task, but it was still a lot now that I think about it. Sometimes a weeks' worth of food would be gone in about two days from all the snacking I was doing. Also, the Pandaren food was better than most of the travel food I ate. So, I just looked at them both and smiled.

"Are you going to eat your dumplings, Perfectia?" Giramar asked.

I laughed, "You can 'ave zem, and it's Melfina now. I'm good wiz chicken and rice."

He grabbed them off my plate and I took a bite of my rice and it was really good, but I looked around and there was nothing. I felt the food go down my throat and I took another bite holding it on my tongue for a few seconds looking around and nothing.

"Is there something wrong, Melfina?" Giramar asked.

"Zey're gone." I said sadly. "I never zought I'd miss it, but zey're gone."

"What's gone?" Galadin asked.

I looked down and shook my head, "Les colors, I used to see colors when I ate food." I laughed at myself, "Zey were always distracting but now I miss zem."

Galadin held up one of the dumplings with the Pandaren chopsticks they would use and brought it to my face. "Try this."

I took the dumpling out of his chopsticks with my teeth. It had a crunchy, but oily texture to it, and the meat that was inside was almost sweet, but there were no colors. I shook my head as I swallowed.

"But it's still good right?" Galadin asked.

I smiled and nodded my head. "Oui. I mean, yes." I looked over at the waiter that had come to refill our drinks, "Can I get a bottle of sake please."

The waiter looked at me strangely, "Sure, but it's just past noon."

They both shouted, "NO!" at the same time, "Mom said not to let you drink. You may not remember but it was hard to keep you fed and hydrated while you were asleep because of alcohol withdrawal."

I rolled my eyes, "I don't think that was the reason, but I won't drink if you don't want me to."

Galadin had this young, innocent, cuteness to him and if he were a little bit older I think I would give him a kiss he wouldn't forget. It's strange to me how, even though they were identical twins, I could find one so attractive and the other so disgusting. Then again their tones of voice were very different and it was how I told them apart but there were a few times I called out the wrong one.

So, I ate a meal normally with the two boys and I must say it was different because they were looking at me a couple of times as I ate. I was trained by my family about the rules of proper etiquette even though I had just broken one of the rules by eating off Galadin's chopsticks. I thought maybe this kind of thing happened to me a lot, I just didn't notice until now. We talked for a bit about the weather and where their family might be traveling when things were done here, and I told them about the horses or mounts they might want to rent if they were to go in those areas, but I looked at Galadin and said, "You know I took your advice the other day about writing something for myself, it's not my own story, it's poetry. You're both half High Elf so I was thinking you'd like this song about our king."

Galadin rolled his eyes, "You're not going to sing Lament of the Highborne are you? Because that song is so annoying for someone that even knows how to sing, and most people can't." He explained.

I laughed and shook my head, "No, I don't have the lungs to pull that off. But listen."

I took out my book and I sang it the best I could. "

King Anasterian sat upon his throne

His power fierce, was feared and known

He held his might on island shore.

With runes of stone, across the more

The high elves reined, on Silvermoon

Magic thrived, in azure-hued.

Undimmed by clouds or shade of night.

They shined forever, fair and bright.

Their world turns black, the forest cold.

In army came on their stronghold

No alarm was rung, on the dead they fell.

They marched upon Anasterian halls.

The shadow came upon his tomb

The darkness came to Silvermoon.

Still he fought without a fear

His courage failed, when death appeared.

There lay his crown in water deep

King Anasterin in silent sleep.

"

They both look down for a few seconds, "It's really sad and it's in Common." Galadin said.

"I was going to write a little more about our victory against le Lich King." I explained.

Galadin nodded his head, "You should, people shouldn't just know about the tragedy. We did come back from that."

"We?" Giramar asked.

Galadin looked at his brother, "Yes Giramar, we're still elves and we should take some pride in that."

Giramar nodded, "I agree, but maybe we should head back home. Thank you Perf-, I mean Melfina."

The boys were usually more talkative during outings but they were surprisingly quiet on the way back to Vereesa estate. I opened the sliding door sideways and saw Vereesa focused on my diary. Giramar walked in after me and saw her as well, "Mom?"

She was startled and closed the heavy book quickly and loudly, "Melfina, I didn't hear you boys come in." She said wide eyed and smiling.

I looked at her suspiciously, "Why were you reading my diary?" I asked.

Galadin laughed, "More like rereading it…" He paused and sighed, "You told us not to read that chapter, mom."

She shrugged in denial, "You wrote that you needed an editor, I was just proofreading."

I crossed my arms, looked away, and shook my head, "Do you want me to give you ten more minutes, to… 'proofread'?"

She shook her head, "No, I can't do it knowing you and my kids are outside."

I sighed, "Well can you at least go wash your hands?"

She gasped somewhat angrily and put her index finger up, but she looked away and sighed putting her finger down, "Yeah, give me a minute."

We watched her walk toward the river and refill the drinking buckets, "So you guys know about me and Oranio?" I asked the boys.

They nodded, "Yeah, cultural identity has been difficult since we're both half-bred." Galadin explained, "But it hasn't been impossible, so, I'm sorry about your child."

Giramar leaned forward, "I wanted to ask, so, are you and Isirami like,-"

I put out my hand and shook my head, "Please don't ask me about zat. Zat's really personal and I didn't zink you guys would get zat far." I looked at him angry, "Don't bring zat up again."

He crossed his arms and shook his head, "Fine jeeze. I just don't want you having intrusive thoughts about my mom since you seem to be having them about Sylvanas."

"Oh screw you, I've 'eard you beating off before Tiny." I insulted toward Giramar, "Or should I say 'Speedy'? "

Vereesa arrived back and came up the hill before he could make a retort, but I'm not sure if he would have thought of one before, "So, you ready to hit the books?"

I smiled and nodded my head in relief.

So, my training with Vereesa started with talks about chemicals, powders, poisons and I could grasp that, but I felt it would take some levels of memorization. Traps are where things got really tricky. I had done a lot of blacksmithing before, but there were things I couldn't really hold on to. So, we left the room and all the books to walk around Pandaria and she showed me how to set traps. It was easier after that, there was so much mathematics about the size of prey and how strong a spring trap should be. A trap shouldn't take off your preys' leg, it's supposed to hold them in place, but also needs to be strong enough so they don't get away. I did ask the question, shouldn't I be moving to melee weapons sometime soon?

Vereesa's response was, "I don't think I need to teach a former Highlord about how to use a two-hander."

I guess I kind of wanted to show off for a bit.

So, for the past week or two I have taken a lot of notes and I can usually find the right places to put things. How to mix poisons, how to take apart your crossbow and put it back together, how to craft breakable metals for grenades and of course several pages and pictures on how to set traps. Thank the Light I have this book that never seems to run out of pages, I've pretty much memorized where sections of my book are if I need to use a certain tool. So as long as I have my book I should be able to survive anything I face out there without the help of the Light, but I haven't really seen any actual combat though. Vereesa was somewhat impressed that I was able to take notes so well, but also a little disappointed that I couldn't recite most of the things she wanted me to know off the top of my head. She said to me, "What are you going to do if you lose that book?"

I looked at her inquisitively, "I would never lose this book, it was my mothers, and your brother did something to it, so I don't lose pages." I took a water bucket that was in our room and poured it on the book of open pages, the water just slid off without changing a single word or page.

Vereesa shrugged, "Then I guess that's it. I've nothing to teach you."

I was confused, "It's only been two weeks, I haven't even fought a single thing outside with the skills you showed me."

Vereesa nodded, "Yeah, and this would have taken six months for you to learn how to use all the tools you have, but you already have a tool that helps you with all the other ones." She pointed at my book. "With that you shouldn't make too many mistakes, being a ranger is about using the right tool for the right job and if you keep studying you'll catch on, but there's nothing I can really say that you haven't already written down."

I looked down somewhat disappointed, "So what do I do now?" I asked.

Vereesa smiled, "You say goodbye to my sons and we get you ready to join the Alliance." She stated.

I'm a little sad that this was over so quickly, but I feel like I could finally do something good in this world on that side. With the Alliance I may be able to stop the Dark Lady from destroying this world and perverting my beloved Horde.

For the Alliance!

(Poem is from Song of Durin)