The first day in camp passed fairly quickly. When we went to lunch, there was a large table that was covered from end to end in food. I, having not eaten anything but energy bars for the past few days, dug in quickly, eating as much as I could. Just seeing all the meats made my mouth water.
After lunch, I had headed back to the house and immersed myself in a world of literature. They didn't just have the classics, though. They had some of the more current books, and for a moment, I wondered how they had managed to get their hands on those books. They were out in the middle of nowhere, after all. But I brushed that thought away and selected a book from the shelf.
Lillian and Isabelle returned at around seven, and by then, I was that exhausted with the day and its events - they had all tired me out - that I just collapsed onto the bed and let sleep come. I sunk quietly into it, my muscles starting to lose their ache. When I finally woke up, there was a note at the foot of my bed. I snatched it up, then read it.
'You have training at nine, a break for lunch, then more training until five.
-Christina'
I looked back at Lillian and Isabelle, who hadn't yet woken up. Then, I looked at the time, and cursed under my breath. I only had thirty minutes until I had to be there! I knew that there were some spare clothes in the house, so I snatched up a shirt, a pair of pants, and some socks before stopping. There was the problem of my tail, which meant I couldn't put on the pants well unless I cut some sort of hole. And just let me tell you, that was not happening, because I just knew I was going to screw it up.
"Screw it. Screw it. Screw it!" I muttered loudly before grabbing a new toothbrush and brushing my teeth. Brushing my hair was a task that was difficult with my lion-like ears that rested atop my head, but I did it, cursing Moone's name as I did so. Afterwards, I sighed and walked out the door, heading to the huge training circle that I had seen earlier on.
But Christina wasn't there.
"Hello?" I shouted out. "Christina are you there? You said that you would be here! It's me, Adara. You know, the one that you brought into your clan yesterday? Yeah, that's me."
All of a sudden, I heard a growl, and in a flash, I had been tackled. Christina was there, on top of me, paws resting on my chest.
"Always be prepared for an attack, Adara. That's the first thing you need to learn if you are to survive. Always be ready to defend yourself if need be." She got off of me. "Also, when you shouted out those few sentences, I was cringing. Never shout out like that. Shouting out like that is the move of an idiot, and a dead idiot at that. Do you understand?"
I nodded, looking up at Christina. She was about a foot taller than me, which was... Frustrating, to say the least. Then, I looked away from Christina and to the weapons. My eyes practically gleamed as I imagined stabbing Moone through the heart. Christina must've noticed, because she tried to direct my attention away from the gleaming swords and deadly guns.
"The time for weapons is later. Now is when we focus on building the strength of the body and the strength of the mind. I want you to change to your lion form and try to land a blow on me."
A jolt of fear dashed through me. "But what... What if I can't change back? When I first transformed, I couldn't change back, no matter what I tried to do."
"That must've been the work of the dark ones. They find it fun to trick those who have just recently been turned. But don't worry; they're not here. They're in their lair right now, and we're allied with them, so as long as you're with my clan and I, they won't hurt you."
I sighed. "Then here goes nothing."
I focused on what it felt like to be a lion. I tried to remember the feeling of being on all fours, and the feeling of having paws. I remembered the feeling of just having so much raw, wild energy - so much power - blooming up inside of me. Changes washed over me as I fell to all fours. I could hear and feel my bones crunching and moving and rearranging themselves. I felt the power blossoming up inside of my chest, and I welcomed it as the transformation completed itself.
I had changed from human - well, mostly human - to lion.
"Very good, Adara. Now, let's see if you can land a hit on me."
Gladly, I thought to myself. I knew that Christina was waiting to see if I was going to make the first move, so I stilled myself, going as motionless as possible. It felt easy, and I used that time to think about the power that was flowing through my veins, the true, raw power. How much power could somebody hold, anyway? Was there even a limit, or could somebody just become infinitely more powerful? It wouldn't take much power to kill Moone, though, I knew that much.
I snapped out of my thoughts, and went back to what was happening right in front of me. How long had I been sitting there? It was probably a good time to lunge, though, so I did. Christina swerved out of the way, and I almost hadn't seen her move because she was so fast. Still, I wasn't going to give up just yet. I lunged again, and missed again. That repeated itself many times until I stumbled and fell, skidding against the hard dirt.
"I win." Christina said.
