I was facing the forest at this point. Before I could look back at the chipmunk, positive that he must have been gone by now, I felt soft velvet rub my open hand.

It was him, the . . . whatever it was and he was running circles slowly in my palm. I got a chance to study him better now. He definitely wasn't a squirrel, or a chipmunk. Much too small, almost mouse-sized. He was covered with black, brown, and grey fur that puffed out on his long cat-like tail.

I lifted my hand up a fraction and he seemed not to take notice, so I brought it further to the front of my face. He let out a few worried chirps at first, but then just stared at me with huge, black eyes. They had to be the most irresistibly adorable eyes I had ever seen.

I rubbed the top of his head gently with my free finger. "Hello, there."

He just kept looking.

"What are you, little guy?"

He chirped at me once.

"Oh, is that so?" I continued to pet him. "You caused me a lot of trouble, you know."

I froze as he suddenly reached out with one of his thin-nailed paws and climbed onto my face. I twitched a bit as he skittered fast as lightning down into the outside pocket of my coat.

I smiled. "Just trying to get warm?" I hugged my arms around me tightly, against the frosty air. "I don't blame you."

For the first time I looked out ahead. The trees rustled loudly, their tops almost directly level with me. The sky above was full of a flat landscape of clouds. They looked dark enough to hold rain, but the air felt sufficiently dry. A slit of the yellow glow from sun showered through the trees on the horizon.

I glanced down at the large-eyed creature as he stuck his head out of my pocket and squeaked.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" This is why I love the rain, much better than an empty blue sky. I looked back up as the crisp wind blew my hair softly.

After a few seconds like this I couldn't help but let my eyes wander to the path below.

When are Ikovos and Jaden going to be back? They promised they'd be home yesterday. Should I tell Cornelius the direction they went in? Will they be in danger if I don't? Were they hurt? Or worse, dead?

A chirp came below me. The large glossy eyes were staring into mine.

"I know, I'm worrying too much, right?"

He chirped again and I had to blink back my surprise.

"You're not a normal animal, are you?"

He began cleaning his face with his hands.

"That's okay," I said, "neither am I." I sighed and sunk down further. "I'm not usually this irrational though."

He kept cleaning.

"But, honestly, how can you blame me? They're practically the only people I know here."

He stopped his washing and looked out at the trees. It would be dark soon. After all my training I should probably attempt to get some sleep.

Before me and my new friend went back inside, I decided to give him a name. After a few tries he seemed satisfied with Tanis Ven, a name I had read in a story a while back.

Once we were both lying down, Tanis on the pillow beside me, I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning I found myself racing down the hall for breakfast. Last night I'd had the same dream as the day before. I woke up around two with a heavy pulse from a nightmare that was bad enough to keep me up for the next few hours. Eventually I got back to sleep. By the time I woke again it was almost time for me to meet Holdan for breakfast. So I changed as quickly as possible and headed out.

I was definitely attracting more attention with the running thing, but I got to the cafeteria quickly enough, and was pleased to see Holdan waving me over.

At least, somewhat pleased.

He was sitting at a table with at least five other boys that were, now, also looking at me. I waved as casually as possible then pointed over to the coffee counter. Holdan nodded his acknowledgment then turned back to the other boys.

I headed for the coffee as promised, trying to figure a way out of eating at a table full of people. I couldn't think of any good ideas, so I took a deep breath, put on my best fake smile, and walked over to sit beside Holdan. It wasn't, after all, the first time in my life that I'd had to feign social aptitude.

"Hi!" said Holdan brightly beside me. He was dressed the same today, olive-green shirt, leather pants, no jacket.

"Hello." I responded, smiling back.

"How was your night?" he asked.

I thought better than to mention the nightmare. "Great . . ." there was a slight pause, "and you?"

He nodded as he turned back to his food. "Good, good."

I looked across the table uncomfortably.

"Oh!" said Holdan. "I should introduce you all." As I tried to keep the breathing thing going, Holdan motioned to the boy on his left. "This is Nathan, Nate for short."

A very young, auburn-haired, boy poked his head out and grinned at me.

Holdan continued. "Derrith." I looked to the next boy who was much older and got a slight nod. Holdan's hand moved across the table. "Then we have Jacob, Trevor, and Vince."

"Vincent," corrected the last boy.

The three across must have been close in age, eleven or twelve maybe?

"And this, everyone else," they all looked at me, "is Evelyn."

I smiled.

"Well, we know that, Holdan," said the auburn-haired boy. A couple of the others laughed.

Derrith, the older one, wrapped his arms around Nathan, covering his mouth. "Why don't you put a sock in it, little man."

Blushing slightly, I started to grab some food.

Holdan turned to me. "So, nice weather we're having, huh?"

I swallowed my bite then looked at him excitedly. "You like the rain?"

He threw out his hands. "Of course, rain is the best." He popped a grape into his mouth. "You?"

I smiled. "Oh, I love it." He looked pleased.

The table was silent for a moment as we all ate.

"So, Evelyn," started one of the boys across the table, his eyes were wide. "I heard you came here with Ikovos and Jaden . . . What was that like?"

The two boys on either side of him and the younger one leaned in and looked at me eagerly.

"It was okay," I said, trying not to reveal my real, emotionally unfounded, answer on the subject. They all seemed rather dissatisfied with the response.

"Just okay?" asked the middle boy again.

"Nothing exciting?" complained Nate.

I couldn't figure out what they were getting at.

The older boy, Derrith, waved them down and looked at me. "You'll have to forgive these guys. They don't see a lot of Ikovos, or Jaden, so they're always imagining they lead these ridiculously adventurous lives." He finished with a half smile.

I responded immediately. "Why aren't they around a lot?" I directed the question to Derrith, but Nathan answered.

"Because they're the best, of course." A piece of muffin flew into his face. It came from one of the boys across the table, Jacob.

"Not better than the masters, you idiot."

Nathan countered back, wide-eyed. "So. I heard that Jaden took on five Meoden all by himself."

Trevor spoke up, directing his claim towards me. "I heard that one time, they got captured and tortured for days." All the boys turned to him as he spoke, his voice lowering to an accentuated gasp. "It's true. Twenty, no, thirty Meoden jumped them while they were sleeping and took them away to a dungeon."

I leaned in as his voice got quieter.

"Then, the Meoden held them there and tried to draw information out of them for three whole days . . . that's why Jaden has that scar on his neck." The younger boys and I all nodded in realization. Trevor continued his story. "People say they had to fight their way out against dozens of Meoden. And once they were free, they swore never to speak of it again."

I heard Holdan scoff next to me and for the first time noticed that he and Derrith did not seem as engrossed in the story.

"If they swore never to speak of it," started Holdan, "then how did you hear the story?" While he grinned, apparently happy for disproving the story, Derrith looked at me.

"Part of what they're saying is true. Jaden and Ikovos are the most powerful artisans here." It was all I could do to keep my eyes from widening at the words. He continued. "To answer your question from before, they're not here often because they do a lot of errands for Master Thoran and Master Cornelius . . . Nothing too exciting though." He eyed the younger boys teasingly as he said the last part.

Holdan looked back to me. "So you probably had a really boring trip, right?"

I cocked my head, the conversation was moving much too fast for me to keep up with.

"The trip here, with Jaden and Ikovos," he clarified.

"Oh," I exclaimed, then cleared my throat. "It was ah . . . yeah, it was pretty boring-" I scratched the back of my head. "You know, walking and . . . well, pretty much just walking."

The young boys sighed disappointedly, but Holdan seemed satisfied. I noticed Derrith had a single eyebrow raised at me. I tried to ignore it. He couldn't be that perceptive.

I went back to eating and, after a little small talk, Holdan informed me that we should get to training.

As we walked through the busy halls, I couldn't keep my mind off of what I'd heard at breakfast. Not the stories the boys had told. Not Holdan's all-too-unsubtle opinions. What Derrith had said. What seemed to all of them to be casual fact.

Jaden and Ikovos. They weren't just two of the regular guys around here, they were special . . . special out of a bunch of other incredibly important people. That made them like . . . really, really important. I didn't think of them like that before. I mean, I thought they were important, but . . . well, I just thought there were more of them.

I rolled my eyes dismissively, but the anxiety was building.

I can't believe I spent the night with them . . . people that important. In fact, I can't even believe I hung out with them . . . or even talked to them for that matter. My heart started racing as the memories of a certain situation poured back. Oh my god, I yelled at him . . . and I cuffed him! The second most powerful, fire-controlling, magic-using, offense artisan . . . person, and I cuffed him!!!

Feeling very light-headed all of a sudden, I grabbed onto the fence post beside me.

"Are you okay?" asked Holdan, resting a hand on my shoulder.

His casual touch brought me quickly back to the present. I straightened up immediately and saw that we were already in the training ring.

"I'm fine," I said after the black spots had cleared. Then, in a move to discourage his handling, reached down to grab a sword.

After a second he did the same. "All right then, let's get to it." I stepped back a few feet as he opened his arms, flipping the hilt around playfully. "Feel like sparring yet?"

My eyes widened, but I quickly covered it with a pleading smile. "Do we have to?" It came out more like: please don't make me.

He grinned back mischievously. "No, but only if you promise to do it tomorrow," he said and quickly added, "without complaining."

I eyed him skeptically. I hardly thought I'd been complaining. "It's a probable deal."

He held his coy smile. "Assuming that's the best deal I'm gonna get, I guess I'll agree."

I smiled happily. I would be killing myself tomorrow, but for now I was free of both sparring and nagging.

We spent the next few hours practicing on the dummy. Every once in a while last night's dream would pop into my head, but for the most part Holdan kept me distracted. He was a very talkative person.

When a few glints of sunlight started to show through the clouds neither of us was very pleased. We decided to take a lunch break, with Holdan promising a shadowed spot. We ended up at one of the tables beneath a nearby tree.

"So where did you live before here?" asked Holdan as he took his last bite of food. I wasn't even half-way through mine.

"Tiver," I said. After I did I wondered if I should have shared the information. . . . Then again, what else would I have said?

He nodded. "Oh, okay, I've been there once."

I cocked my head. "Really? Then maybe we've met each other before."

He crossed his arms in front of him on the table, relaxing a bit. "Well, that depends. How old are you? . . . if you don't mind me asking."

"Ah, seventeen. You?"

"Twenty-three," he replied, holding his gaze on me. "I went there about five years ago, so I guess you would have been pretty young."