Chapter 11:

“Alright, Willow,” Chelsea said, sitting down on the couch in the library. Willow guessed most of her time would be spent in the library. “Here’s how things are going to work here: We aren’t going to send you to the dragon with absolutely no training; that would be sure death. For around a month, or whenever we find you’re ready, we will train you. Other than not dying, we will give you the most of our knowledge in the short period of time. Breaks will come now and then, but mostly you’ll just be working. Today is your day off as an ‘adaptation to your environment day’.”

                Willow couldn’t help but laugh at the name, it was like she was an animal put into a zoo and expected to “adapt to her environment”. How could one ever adapt to such an environment?

                “Since you’re going to get hopelessly lost in this place and really have nothing to do, I will grant you the privilege of hanging out with us. Nah, I’m just messing with you, it is part of our rules to not let you out of our sites as much as we can.” She got up and wiped her hands on her jeans. Like Chris, she no longer had her black suit on but just regular denim jeans and light yellow spaghetti strap shirt. Which made her look much less deadly. 

                She motioned for Willow to follow her and they both walked out of the library, Willow a few steps behind.

                "Alicia is a very complicated around Willow—she isn’t too fond of them—so I would just not get in her way." She said, not even looking behind her to see if Willow was listening. "Chris is simple; don’t hurt anybody and he won’t hurt you." Willow nodded and doubled her step to catch up to Chelsea.   Chelsea took a sharp turn to the left, "Michael’s pretty simple, too, just don’t cause too much trouble and you’ll be fine. Just don’t worry about him, he seems to like you anyway."

                Willow didn’t respond to that, she felt almost proud that he liked her anyway.

                “And me, well, you don’t have to worry about me. I am the mature one of this group.” Chelsea smiled and then stopped at a massive pair of doors. When she said massive, she meant massive. They towered over Willow’s head, making her dizzy when she looked up at the top.

                Chelsea opened them without any trouble, though, “Welcome to the training room.”

                The training room was very similar to the library in size, although it might’ve been a little bigger. There were weapons there, wooden ones, metal ones, battered ones, new-looking ones. But mostly all there was were dummies, what Willow guessed were punching bags and weights, targets, and anything you would need to train, really.

                Michael was in there, though he wasn’t the only one. There was an adult Ganash there, lifting heavy looking things. Willow had forgotten that it was more than teenagers that inhabited this place.

                Michael was throwing little daggers at one of the targets. He hit the pin-point middle every single time, most of the time hitting the daggers that were already lodged into the middle of the target.

                He was near the door, his back turned to them. But when he heard Chelsea and Willow enter, he turned around to look at them and threw the last dagger in his hand without really looking at the target next to the one he was shooting at because it had no daggers lodged into it. It hit perfect.

                He gave Willow a single glance, then looked Chelsea. "Where's the rest of them?"

                Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and walked over to the bow and arrows hanging on one of the walls, leaving Willow hovering awkwardly in the doorway. "What are we doing anyway?" Chelsea said, grabbing a silver bow and examining it closely. "Is this one new?" She asked Michael, referring to the weapon in her hand.

                Michael walked up to her and looked over her shoulder. "Yup, just came in last week." He plucked it from her hands, took an arrow and faced another empty target. Pulling the bowstring back, he launched the arrow, it hit the red circle in the middle of the target, but didn't hit it pin-point. Michael frowned. "The string seems little tight." He said, pulling at the bowstring.

                Chelsea walked up to him and they started into a conversation about the bowstring. Willow found herself wondering at the walls looking at the weapons.

                There was one that caught her eye. It was an elegant sword, the hilt was gold with rubies encrusted in it. There was also carving of a bird, and wrapping around the sword what looked like a golden vine. It looked so graceful and deadly at the same time. Willow unconsciously lifted her hand, wanting to touch the blade—

                "No you don't." Chelsea said, stepping between her and the blade. Blocking the view of the sword. "Unless you want to burn off your hand.”

                "What?” Willow asked. Burning off your hand?

                “Ganash Blades can only be handled by people with Ganash blood in them,” Michael answered for Chelsea, reaching behind her and grabbing it off the shelf. He twisted it skillfully between his fingers and smiled. “So unless your mom or dad is a Ganash, I wouldn’t touch these nasty things.”

                Willow nodded, but was more concentrating on the fascinating twist of the blade. The sword must be heavy, yet he made it look like it was as light as a feather.

                The door of the training room opened and Chris and Alicia entered. "Sorry we were late." Chris said. "The cooks were giving cookies out. It took forever, but we managed to get some. Want some?" He had a napkin with six cookies on it. Chelsea walked up and grabbed two and Chris one. 

                She nodded at Willow, beckoning her to get some. Willow shyly walked up and took one. Chris gestured at Michael and Michael grinned naughtily, "Already stole a few from the kitchen." He said.

                Chris and Chelsea nodded as if this was normal, but Alicia stomped her foot, "And you didn't give me any?" She said, though Willow could tell she was teasing.

                Michael smiled at her, and Alicia grabbed a cookie. Chris grabbed the last cookie and folded the napkin, shoving it in his back pocket.      

                "What are we doing today?" Chelsea asked.

                "I say we rip some heads off." Alicia replied, smiled mischievously.   

                "That sounds interesting." Michael agreed, he walked up to the target where he had the arrow that he had shot lodged in it and yanked it out, placing on a pile of arrows that were on the ground.

                "Forgetting something," Chelsea said. "I think seeing a head sheared off of its body is a little too much for Willow on her first day."

                They all looked at her, making her feel rather uncomfortable.

                "She's got a point." Chris replied, sighing slightly.

                "Ugh." Alicia groaned. "Willows always ruin the fun."

                "Sorry to put a damper on your murdering schemes." Willow muttered.

                Somebody laughed quietly, "I think she can handle it." Michael said. Willow looked up at him, although she didn’t know why, and their eyes met. They both looked away hastily, Willow blushing slightly.

                "Well, let's do something with less blood involved." Chelsea said, looking at Willow from head to toe, as if inspecting what she could handle.

                "Why don't we go to Mount Devoru? Trick some Mountain Lyres?" Alicia asked.

                Michael perked up, like a dog about to go on a walk, "That sounds interesting."

                "Don't you think it's a little dangerous, with Willow having no training?" Chris inquired.

                "She doesn't need to fight." Alicia said. "She just needs to be a good liar."

                "The fat unicorn has a point." Michael said,

                Alicia laughed, “I always have a point, Goldilocks.” She said, Willow couldn’t help but laugh.

                Michael smirked and was about to reply, but Chelsea interrupted.

                She threw her hands up. "Fine, Mount Devoru it is."

                "Yes!" Alicia said, throwing her hands in the air. "Let me change into fighting gear."