I woke up at the usual time and found myself snuggled in Teival’s arms. Staring at my master’s sleeping face, I had the urge to lick him awake but held it back so I could admire his silver hair. Of course, throughout the entire time we had been in this place, my master had taken every possible effort to not reveal his lovely locks. I mean, it was a crime to hide such beautiful hair! “At least my fur is turning a silvery colour.” Just ignore the fact it’s more a dull grey than a shimmering silver.

 

Teival’s body clock must have been activated, since he opened his eyes a second before the crystal alarm device he’d received from Liesel a few weeks ago to ensure he wasn’t tardy for anything. I say that, but I can’t ever recall a moment where my master was late to any occasion. Though, I wonder if that was due to me constantly waking him up at the same time every day because I was hungry and wanted food. “Impossible!”

 

Since Teival was roused from his slumber, I crawled off him and languidly dropped onto the floor before licking my dark brown paws. Eventually, my master finished getting dressed in his loose training clothes before dishing out a light breakfast for the both of us. After consuming our calories for the morning exercise, we left the room and jogged towards the training grounds – meeting Armin and some of the other classmates along the way.

 

Of course, everyone was too bleary-eyed and focussed on their own morning activities to bother interacting with their peers, which suited me fine since it allowed me to monopolise Teival’s attention! Without further ado, I nipped at my master’s legs while weaving through them as we approached the training grounds. Once we were there, we found our own quiet spot and ran a few laps. Of course, I took it upon myself to encourage Teival to push himself more than usual by nipping at his rear every time I lapped him – which resulted in me hearing the frustrated shouts of: “KIA!”

 

After our morning exercise reached its conclusion, we went to the communal washroom in the dormitory where Teival lovingly washed the sweat and sandy soil out of my fur. “Ah, I knew master cared about me! Ooh, make sure to do behind my ears! Ahhh, so lovely!” With my fur pristine and shiny, we headed back to our room so Teival could wash his hair – undisturbed – and change into his day clothes.

 

Once we were suitably attired, we energetically descended the numerous black stone stairs as we aimed for the communal eating room known as a ‘canteen’. With our breakfast before us, we gobbled it with gusto to fill our famished selves. I mean, doing exercise after just waking up is bound to make you suffer a voracious appetite!

 

As I was happily nomming on my crushed crystal termites, my superior senses tingled in warning of an annoying adversary approaching. Growling in the direction of the man who blatantly sat beside my master and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, none other than Anders entered my unfortunate vision. “You! Why are you here?! Why aren’t you bald yet?! Why are you getting so close to my master?! Get off! Off, I say!”

 

“Hahaha, nice to see the princess recognises her adoring knight. How’ve you been doing, Teival?”

 

I saw Anders lean back as he began examining my master’s body from head to toe with a smug smirk plastered on his unpleasant, well-trimmed bearded face. Taking this opportunity to deal with him once and for all, I readied to pounce on him with my sharp claws gleaming in the light…only to find my body was suddenly incredibly weightier than I remembered. “You!” My second arch nemesis: the crystal honey badger, had made his debut in this scenario as he lightly dug his claws into my back and climbed on top of me before slumping.

 

“Release me! How underhand of you to ambush me while I wasn’t focussing on you! Release me, I say! Let me make your master go bald once and for all!”

 

“…I’ve been doing okay, Anders. Just finished some morning exercises and now having our breakfast.”

 

“Don’t fraternise with him, Teival! He’ll brainwash you with this Clan’s propaganda!”

 

“Ah, morning training. A good mindset to have during this period.” I saw the man in black glance at my miserable self before laughing, “Hahaha! Always a delight to watch.” He then turned back to my master as his eyes roamed up and down his body, “You seem to have grown taller since I last saw you. You’ve even put on a little muscle.”

 

“...Well, I wanted to get stronger after seeing how my classmates were.”

 

“Good, good! It’s always effective having rivals to contend with. After all, the strong should always strive to be stronger!”

 

I watched as my master got clapped hard on the back – noticing Teival hold back a wince of pain from the spot another classmate had punched him in yesterday. Having had enough of being helpless, I expertly wriggled out of the crystal honey badger’s embrace and leaped onto my master’s lap. As a bonus action, I swivelled around so my fluffy tail would swat Anders in the face as a warning for him to back off from Teival.

 

One thing I failed to calculate when initially planning this precise manoeuvre was the infuriating man grabbing hold of my tail and yanking it! “Ouch! Stop! My beautiful tail! Let go! Get your grubby hands off me!”

 

“Hahaha, such a pretty tail for such a pretty princess. Makes me want to stroke you over and over again.”

 

“You think I look pretty? I know, right? I am the most beautiful crystal aardwolf you’ll ever meet, and quite possibly the most glamourous girl that—hang on! How dare you compliment me with your toxic mouth?! Don’t you dare besmirch my image with your foul and fake language!” I wallowed in self-pity over almost being taken in by the enemy. Drooping my ears and head, I despondently snuggled into Teival’s chest as I reassessed my priorities over my exquisite looks.

 

Of course, my master clearly understood my anguish as he deftly fed me a tasty treat and stroked my fluffy tail. I have to admit, the food and affection proved effective. Wagging my tail in happiness over the extra snack for breakfast, I had completely forgotten about my major mistake as I allowed the two humans to continue their discussion.

 

“How are your induction classes going?”

 

“Hmm…they’re hard, but manageable.”

“Well, as long as you’re keeping up I’m sure you’ll be all right…”

 

Just after ending my consumption, my ears twitched as I noticed Anders lean in close to Teival’s ear and whisper in a low and husky tone: “Make sure to stay alert, since things are going to get a lot tougher in the near future.” He then nonchalantly resumed his upright sitting position, causing myself and Teival to stare at him in curious confusion.

 

Unfortunately, my master couldn’t inquire as to what he had meant by that as another Clan member called for his presence. With a final smirk in my direction, Anders vacated his seat and headed in the direction he’d been summoned to. I followed his figure until it rounded a corner out of the canteen, before tilting my head at Teival for answers.

 

“…I’m sure he has his reasons for saying what he did. Anyway, let’s go to the classroom.”

 

“…Okay…”

 

Having finished our breakfast, we left the canteen and headed for Liesel’s classroom. It seemed that we were one of the last to arrive as Armin and his friends were chatting about something, before we came in. Since our presence was largely ignored by much of the class, Teival and I walked to our place and waited for the instructor to come in.

 

After waiting for quite a while – long past the appointed time instructors were supposed to start lessons – Liesel eventually entered the room with her usual teasing smile. “Sorry I’m late. The meeting ended up lasting longer than intended. Right, since there’s no point teaching a theory lesson let’s head to the training grounds for some physical combat!” We then all headed for the new location in dismay.

 

“Why can’t the lesson be of me and Teival just having fun with each other? Why does it have to be him against the other people? I hate having to sit on the side lines…” With my ears and tail drooped along the way, I felt Teival stroke my head and mutter about he’d rather have a lesson involving the both of us. I wagged my tail in happiness over my master sharing the same wishes as myself before seeing Armin in front of us slow down.

 

“I agree with you, Teival. I’d much rather fight against you with our crystal beasts alongside us! It’s more fun that way!”

 

I witnessed several other children in our group agree and cheer in affirmation before Instructor Liesel gave a response: “You might think it’s fun now, since you’ve never had a proper fight. However, a full-blown battle between Tamers is dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Many casualties have occurred from what should have been ‘fun fights.’”

 

I pondered over her meaning before recalling the ‘fun fight’ Anders had with Teacher – which resulted in Teacher being incapacitated and his crystal eland losing its crystal horns for a very long time after. “Hmm…thinking about it now, its horns still hadn’t fully grown back when we left the village…” With that memory in mind, I realised how dangerous it was to take such a thing lightly.

 

After arriving in the training grounds and performing the necessary warm-up stretches, I lackadaisically watched from the side with the other crystal beasts as our masters practised the stances. Once all the rotations were over, I was in a much better mood than the first close combat class we experienced – with Teival not getting absolutely trounced this time! I mean, his hard work in putting in the hours of training were beginning to show from how he managed to defeat two of his opponents, as opposed to having twenty losses.

 

With the class over, Liesel clapped her hands and praised everyone for their improvements. I somewhat scoffed at that, since it meant two people were clearly falling behind compared to Teival. I realise that is a little bit harsh towards my master, however tough love is sometimes what is needed for them to grow! After finishing her mini-speech of praise, she gave an unexpected announcement:

 

“Everyone, in a few short days the next trial for you inductees will commence. I want you all to prepare for living in the wilderness! That means food, medicine, shelter, tools, you name it! You’ll congregate in the Main Stadium two days from now, where the Schwarzerberg Air Corps will transport you to the trial location. You’d better not be late.”

 

As I was mulling over what the instructor had said, I noticed Armin raise his hand to ask a question: “What will the trial be of, Instructor?”

 

A chill ran down my spine as I saw Liesel’s eyes shine with a cold, malicious glint of excitement as her teasing smile became more prominent upon simply uttering: “Survival of the fittest.”