[training grounds]

Kalyth watched impassively Hugh's feat at archery.  She noted that he was 
an extremely good shot, and agreed with the training master that Hugh's 
accuracy was better. 

"Kalyth!" 

She sighed.   Unsurprizingly, she never once hit the center.  She was 
quite amazed that she hit the target most of the time.  The training 
master had quite a few words to say.  Kalyth took note of them, as she 
rearranged her schedule to fit in a bit of archery.

As bad as archery was, swordfighting was worse.  The first time the 
practice blade hit her wrist, she yelped.

"What, can't take a little hit like that?" he sneered.

Kalyth ignored him, concentrating instead on taking her daggers out of
their wrist sheaths.

"You own a pair of daggers, and you have aim like that?"

Kalyth looked at him, "Why should I have practice in throwing away my 
weapons?" she asked calmly.

He stared at her incredulously, then smiled.  Throughout the rest of the 
session, he alternated trying to break her composure with covering her 
with bruises.  Kalyth was amazed.  He was actually pulling his strokes.  
She decided learning new weapons wouldn't be too bad if it didn't mean 
accumulating broken bones in the process.

He walked up to her after the session.  Nodding at her quarterstaff, he 
asked, "Can you use that thing?"

"Well enough."

"Let's see.  We don't use quarterstaffs here, often, but as bad as your 
sword work is, you'll probably be better off with ANYTHING else."  He 
walked off and returned with two wooden staves.

Kalyth quickly settled down into the rhythm of the bout, focusing her 
whole attention on her opponent.  THERE! an opening

*KALYTH!!*  The sudden mental shout threw her off balance as she suddenly 
realized that she needed to pull her strokes.

"What happened?" he demanded, "a little trick like that could have killed 
you!"

"Dragon," she replied, as she picked herself off the ground and stood 
again at ready.

"You need to have a talk with your dragon...though, from what I saw, my 
ribs owe her one.  You were about to hit me full strength, weren't you?"

Kalyth shrugged.

"Well...stick with your staff for now.  Your sword work will just you 
killed.  That doesn't mean you're free from practice, though," he warned.

Kalyth nodded. 

"Go on, your next session has started."

*************

[Later that afternoon]

Kalyth sighed as she was oiling Aurum.

*Oh, that feels good!  A little to the right*  The little dragon was 
making sounds of rapture in her mind.  *What's wrong, Kalyum?*

*I REALLY _HATE_ the smell of this oil.*

*Well, why don't you change it?  I'd love to smell mysterious and 
exotic!  You have all the equipment, don't you?*

*I have most of it, but I don't have everything I need*

*Oh.  I'm sure someone around her would know.  Cricket says that there's 
a healer who is really good with herbs and stuff.  He was the healer who 
came in when Hugh saved your life.  His name is Thorin, why don't you go 
talk to him?*

*Anything to get away from this smell!*

Some time late that afternoon, Kalyth finally tracked down Thorin 
between training sessions.

"Hello?"  Kalyth asked a bit uncertainly as she peered into the building 
the orderlies said she would find him in.  The young man jumped at the 
sound, nearly upsetting the bowl he was holding.

"Hello?"  he hurridly put down the bowl, but didn't quite meet her gaze.

[NRPG: Kris, Kalyth wants to change the scent of the oil, I'll leave the 
conversation/negotiation up to you. *CG*]
*****************

[mess hall, that night]

Kalyth found herself acquiring a raging headache as Aurum kept "urging" 
her to talk to the people around her.  She moaned softly, and was aware 
of the noise only when she realized a couple of the trainees were looking 
her way.  She smiled sheepishly, then looked down at her dinner.

[NRPG: If anyone wants to write a conversation with Kalyth, feel free!]

***************
[Next afternoon, near lunch time]

*Kalyth! Korl's hungry!  Don't you think you should do something about it?*

*Why me?*

*His human saved your life?*

*I wasn't dying.  Why doesn't Hugh feed him?*

A long pause followed.  Kalyth went back to catching her breath.  Her 
training, while less painful than she was expecting, was quite thorough.

*Please?*

Kalyth gave in.  The 'Fish could be SO annoying, she thought.  She would 
do ANYTHING just to get her off her back.

[NRPG: Troy, I hope I did that right, I wasn't sure how much Korl would 
want Kalyth to know.]

-june