When the medicine was finished being made, the shelves were all stocked with different types of medicine and it had taken them from morning to mid-noon to be done. It was free time for Mara and the group. The camp was reeked with the strong scent of carved trees and onions and berries.

James did promised whenever they get free time, he'd be training Mara. She hoped he forgot because she wanted free time from all the training and games but it wasn't long when James remembered.

"Don't think I forget about training on free times, we'll start once we finish our lunch" he informed.

Mara frowned and hid her expression glancing down at her food.

"Meanwhile, Tootles, Slightly and I will be heading to the falls to take a little swim then afterwards, relax" Curly flashed a smug as if attempting to make James and Mara jealous. He rolled his eyes while she still frowned.

Once lunch was finished, Mara followed James out of the camp carrying couple of weapons. They were on their way to the same place they trained, it was at the meadow. Before leaving the river, they filled up their canteen with water then proceeded to the meadow. They exchanged little conversations on the way.

"It's been a week I've been here and I'm already dying" Mara moaned.

"You'll survive" James chuckled.

"Was it like this for you when you first got here?" She asked, they were almost at the meadow.

"Broke two bones on my first week, oh and I nearly got myself killed by the Natives and Pan punished me by letting me starve for couple of days. You haven't gone through worse, honestly your first week isn't that bad, you're a lucky bastard"

Mara chuckled softly, "So you got used to this place?"

"Precisely, you'll get used to it too, give it another week or a month"

"And if I choose to leave?" Mara watched him slowing down a little, "You did say I'm currently being tested, and in the end, I can either stay or go"

"Right, of course" James walked normally again, "well then, I suppose you can leave. Like you said, it's only been a week you've been here, first weeks are difficult then you'll get used to it eventually"

"So you think I'll stay?"

"I'm not predicting that you'll stay or go, but they all always choose to stay because they believe this place is better than out there. But do you think out there is better than here?"

They arrived the meadow, the question did made Mara speechless and just thought about it for a long moment. Would it be better here than out there? After all, she has no one out there, but here, she made friends like James, Tootles, Slightly and Curly. And Pan, kind of.

"You'll find out in the end" she replied finally.

The training begun, they started with staffs, practiced her swinging and being taught how to do tricks with the staff. She showed no improvement with staff because she kept dropping it while doing tricks, being smack at every inch of her body and tossed around. Later, they played with wooden swords, Mara showed little improvement in fighting with sword, it was probably because of all that month training with Killian Jones. Then after wooden swords, they practiced with wooden daggers and tomahawks then began throwing with real daggers and tomahawks at the targets which Mara was terrible at. Number of times she'd missed the target and only twice she hit it but at the edge of last line. Then again with staffs mainly because her goal was to defeat Thomas in the combat during training, the combat could happened tomorrow or the day after.

Every limb of her body ached and bruised afterwards, it was evening when James called off the training and start again next time. She had a few small cuts, two on her arms and one on her face.

"You know what I deserve?" Mara uttered when they stopped at the river.

"What?" James gave her a funny look.

"A swim at the falls" she put her hand on her hip, "...after that brutal training, I deserve a swim and I think you need one as well"

James raised a brow, "I think I'm good"

"Oh please, you reek like sweat and fish" Mara started walking beside the river, to where it was streaming from because she knew the river comes from the falls. "Feel free to join!"

James was very hesitant that he stood there for a moment before deciding to follow Mara, "Look, I'm only joining because you're not supposed to wander off alone!"

Mara almost laughed.

As they got to the falls, it was unoccupied, not a single person around but the two of them. The sky was still blue but orange and yellow at the side where the sun was heading to. Could be only two hours left until dark.

She sighed, "Well, looks like we got it all to ourselves" she smiled a little. She dropped her stuff on the ground, the wooden weapons and her sword. The clothes that she wore when she swam days ago were still hanging on the branch and there were a bunch of other clothes hanging around on the trees which were from the boys. She went to grab her's and put them on. She didn't mind James because she trusted him he wouldn't look and the place seemed empty without anyone else around.

Once she had her sleeveless shirt and shorts on, she went to the pool while it was James's turn to change. Mara dived into the pool, she swam around under for a moment before going up to the surface. She was facing toward the falls and glanced up. She then laid flat on the water, floated around and watched the sky. When Mara glanced where James was, only he wasn't there, she gazed around before finding him climbing on the wall beside the falls.

"What are you doing?!" Mara said aloud.

"I'm going to jump, what do you think? It's how I start my swim"

She watched him climb until he reached nearly halfway, it was a little far, Mara may have jumped higher than that, that was when they were chased by Shadow the panther. Still, she wouldn't dare to jump from where James was. Mara swam backward a little and giving James some more space.

James then jumped in a diving position and landed into the water. She lost him for a second there as she was waiting for him to swim up the surface. Only to feel something touching her ankle, she yelped and kicked away as she swam away a little. Then his head was out of the surface, smiling and laughing.

She scowled at him before letting out a small laugh. She dived backward into the water then swam around under and James did as well. There was enough light from daylight under the water, they could see each other's faces. They'd take breaths up the surface when they needed it, James would swim around her and she'd swim around him. It surprised her how good swimmer James was, she assumed all the boys were as well.

Then they relaxed on the surface, floating on the water, swimming around slowly and they both watched the sky.

"You were right, I needed this" James admitted.

Mara smiled, "Sometimes, you have to listen to me, I'm right sometimes"

James scoffed then chuckled softly. "I also gotta admit, it's better to swim alone or in that case, with only few of us, it's less noisy"

"Glad you joined" She admitted.

They both got quiet, the falls was the only noise they heard. It hasn't been an hour since they swam, but as the evening was growing, the breezy it got so it was time to get out of the pool and head back to the camp.

It was almost dark when they were back at the camp and everyone were there. The camp was filled with laughter, and chatting. Boys strolling around, they were loud, few boys were making music with sticks and few were dancing to the music.

"I guess it's one of these nights" said James.

"And that is?" She looked at him.

"I don't know what to call it, where the boys do what they want and just have fun for the night" he shrugged.

They walked to their usual spot where Curly, Tootles and Slightly were sitting. "Where've you two been?" Curly uttered as he stood up. "You weren't at the meadow"

Mara dropped the stuff down then sat down beside Tootles. "We were then we went to the falls"

"You two went for a swim?" Curly weakly pointed at the two, he looked different as Mara looked at the boy, like he was trying hard to focus but can't.

"Curly, did you had that funny juice?" James questioned.

"Well...yeah...maybe a little" he looked like he was drunk, "Ace and his group made the juice"

"Of course he did" James sighed.

Tootles stood up quickly and nearly stumbled, "You have to try it, Mara. It's good, really really good...wait there, okay? Just stay there and don't leave" she watched him almost stumbling to the tables.

"They made...rum or something?" Mara was confused.

"It's not rum, it's not even close to rum, it's just something else" Curly was trying to explain, "it kind of makes you feel...good, you wouldn't feel so horrible when you wake up unlike rum that makes you feel awful inside... it all just wears off while you're asleep"

Then Mara was curious. "You don't have to, girl" James said softly.

She shrugged. Moments later, Tootles came back with two cups and all filled up. "One for you, James--" he hand the cup to James, "--and one for you, my queen"

She scoffed before chuckling. She stared at the cup and the juice looked purple and dark. She could smell grapes when she sniffed on it.

"You could just toss it behind you if you don't want it" James whispered.

She stared at the juice and was thinking. It wasn't like rum, James calls it Funny Juice, she wondered what they mixed it with, she was curious. "You know what, its fine, I'll try it a bit"

"Alright," James smiled, raised his cup, she raised her's as well, "cheers"

"Cheers" then together, they drank the juice.

***

Things are about to get interesting, and honestly, I believe this story may have reached halfway into the story 🙊

Stay weird, everyone and have an awesome summer!