(bump)

When you get a chance feel free to put more threads up here to increase your WS!

(bump)

Got any more threads to put on here, Arlow?

Oh yeah there was this one, but let's just say this one's an extra, or if I started at WS 1 this one would be WS 6:

Weapon Score EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT: Not a requirement, really

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/59197-at-least-its-not-monitoring-the-potty/

Torvus, along with Arlow, learn sword forms under the ever so patient Guardswoman Edana. Although initially resisting following Edana's instructions, thinking he could do better, Torvus slowly realized that there was some merit in listening and obeying instructions, as he trained better for it. Not counting for any requirements. Thread complete, I think?

Lol I think this is the most rapid advancement ever done. I hope we don't get in trouble X_X

Weapon Score 5 to 6: Complete 1 Requirement

Wilderness Survival

Torvus joins a group of trainees as they are taken out by Guardsman Jasen for a Wilderness Survival Course. Torvus has not so good a time: all of their survival equipment is taken from them by Jasen, leaving Torvus without booze. Then Torvus gets sick from standing watch in the rain at night. And then the crows show up... Meets Wilderness Survival Requirement. Thread incomplete.

Weapon Score 4 to 5: Complete 1 Requirement

Talk of Dreams

Torvus gets to know Taia Sedai of the Green Ajah and answers her questions with unabashed sarcasm. He also invites, or rather bullies, Rekinu to the conversation. Meets elective requirement? Thread incomplete.

Ok next one!

Weapon Score 3 to 4: Complete 1 Requirement

A nice day for healing

Torvus gets injured sparring, and is healed by Amadine. They chat and get to know one another. Meets elective RP. Thread complete.

Ok I'm going to post a few up here in succession!

Weapon Score 2 to 3: Complete 1 Requirement

Sticks and Swords

Torvus and Kate have a spirited spar. Torvus learns the dangers of fighting someone with a staff the hard way. Meets evaluation elective. Thread completed.

Eq, you're back? Awesome!

I might hop in too with Torvus :D

Visar followed the boats' progress as they crawled up the river. It was not too hard to keep up with them along the wall. It was a fierce day, and Visar almost felt sorry for the poor buggers down there. But it would teach them character and teamwork. Besides, if anyone fell into the Erinen, there were plenty of boats around to fish people out.

Thankfully, nobody capsized their boat and they both made it to safety at the other harbor. Visar made sure to arrive ahead of them, and greeted them with a smile.

"Not bad, if you were trying to race against a river turtle. They sort of go with the current anyway," he said with a mischievous grin. Some looked at him with anger, and rightly so: Visar had not been part of the boat crews and so they probably resented him for his relatively peaceful walk along the walls. Well at least they'd be focused on their next task, he hoped.

"What's our next task, you ask? Well, you all are going to help some builders with a construction project. You're going to be doing most of the grunt work, like carting rocks and stones here and there, but it's good for you as long as you keep your back straight and lift with your legs. What do you know, your legs probably aren't even very tired! Come on, let's move out together this time!"

They trotted down the street to the construction location, but halfway there, Visar met a guardsman on horseback who had a sense of urgency to him. He was headed for the Tower like an arrowbolt, but paused when he saw Visar in his cloak.

"What news, Guardsman?" asked Visar, curious. The guardsman glanced to the Tower, glanced back to him, and made up his mind.

"There's been a fire across the bridge! I'm to ask every able bodied man to run over to help stop it spread and put it out, or the entire town there might burn down!"

Visar's eyes widened. A fire! That was not a good thing at all! And it was already too out of control for the garrison there to help out. Well, there was no decision to be made.

"Come on, men, we're going to help put this fire out!" yelled Visar. "We'll head there, but be sure to find more help! And on horseback, too! And if you can find an Aes Sedai, get as many as you can!!!" said Visar to the Guardsman, who saluted and continued his way to the Tower. He mentally willed the urgency through the bond. Perhaps Rasheta Sedai would be available to come help.

"Come on, quickly, quickly!" Visar shouted, trying to egg on more adrenaline in his probably already tired group of trainees. "People's lives and homes are on the line here! We've got to move and protect them!"

They raced to the town outside the bridge, where they could already see thick smoke rising above the other side of the river. That was a big fire, thought Visar. Probably several buildings. The main city would be alright with the length of the bridges, which was a relief, but they still had to do something to isolate the fire and then put it out. The first step was most important.

When they ran over the bridge, Visar took his band of trainees directly to someone who looked like he was waving orders, which meant he was.

"What's the situation, Lieutenant?" Visar asked. While he might get some respect being a Warder, he knew that it would do no good to try to take charge when someone was already leading the show and doing well.

"Thank goodness more of you are here, and before I expected help to arrive!" said the Lieutenant, who looked completely deprived of sleep. "We've evacuated this section of the town already, but all the men and some of the women are helping with buckets of water. We have the entire bridge garrison and the town garrison trying to keep the flames from spreading further south and west, and an Aes Sedai is working miracles with each detachment, but if the wind shifts to from the northwest, the southeast edge will be exposed. We need people to do some preventative demolition and fireproofing. Axes, hammers, buckets of water to drench the roofs, whatever you need to keep it from spreading."

"Alright, we'll be hard at work on that," acknowledged Visar. He turned to his trainees.

"You heard him! You need to go find axes and hammers, and buckets, lots of buckets, and form a bucket line. We'll see if anyone along the way can help us, and then we'll make our stand in case the wind shifts this way."

The wind had been strong today, and unpredictable, so it would only be a matter of time before it shifted, Visar thought. They'd have to get ready soon!

Visar,

time for crisis mode!

I just want to say Myst, that post was fantastic! Why don't you rp more often eh? :D

I guess Kathleen and/or Karas are next up! And I'll jump back in when things look dicey (grin)

have fun!!!

(ooc: I thought I'd throw in a shameless reference to the first book to make things interesting for us)

Torvus had difficulty sleeping, even as he tried to dry his clothes and stay warm under the makeshift shelter. The next day he woke he felt completely sapped of energy, and he had developed a hacking cough. Feeling miserable, he waved off the offer for Daniel and he to go fishing.

He decided to tend to the camp as best as he could, keeping the fire going, making sure the shelter worked well, and attempting to coordinate the efforts of the others to get food and water. There was a good line from the river to get water, and Torvus mentioned a few plants that lived in the area that they could look for in a pinch. Some of the men seemed intent on hunting and fishing their way to an early grave, but they could survive without meat as far as Torvus was concerned.

It was midafternoon, and Torvus was momentarily on his own in the camp. A familiar cawing sound sent a shiver down his spine. Looking up, Torvus saw a crow sitting cockily on a branch above him, looking at him. Torvus knew that most people believed that crows and ravens could be bad news: the Dark Ones Eyes. But surely this was just a harmless crow looking for a free meal.

Still, it unnerved him the way it looked at him with its glassy eye. He mustered the courage to throw a stone at it, and though he missed, that encouraged the crow to fly off and go away.

Later that day, Rekinu came back with the prize of all prizes: a freshly killed boar. How had he managed to kill the thing, let alone trap it and carry it back? Much less with as few scratches as he had! Torvus tried to keep a straight face, but he clearly felt envious of the man's luck. He hadn't exactly been having adventures; he was too sick to walk around much without his cough getting worse.

"I'll be fine," he said to anyone who cared, toughing it out as best he could, even though inwardly he hadn't felt this sick in a long time. He'd pass this stupid survival test, and feel better with civilized medical care. Surely he could wait until then. Boar tasted good by the fire later that evening, though Torvus had a hard time keeping it down in between an unsettled stomach and fits of coughing phlegm.

He managed to keep some down, and also lucked out on not being on watch that night. That allowed him to catch some semblance of rest, though he felt miserable, and not the least that he was probably keeping everyone else up by his bone rattling cough. He saw lightning in his vision every time his chest tightened up and convulsed, and a couple times he tasted blood. That wasn't good, was it?

Morning dawned slowly, and as everyone was preparing, Torvus stood and relieved himself over in the woods. As he was doing so, he heard an ominous sound: dozens of crows were cawing, and there was something unnatural to their voices. They were screaming in some sort of fury. Torvus stared as a small group of forest animals were running his way, as if he didn't frighten them. He heard something high pitched squeel in horrid pain in the distance. Torvus winced; he had only heard that before when killing a rabbit, and having it die slowly. The angry, raucous caws of crows continued, coming closer. Torvus saw a small cloud of black wings burst through a clearing, dive bombing a running weasel. The crows attacked the poor creature in a mad frenzy, and soon drove it to a bloody death. The crows then dashed after the next animal running away, but he saw some of them eyeing him, even though he could hardly be a crow's prey, could he?

Torvus had a sickening feeling that something was wrong. Something was horribly, horribly, wrong. He staggered back to the camp as fast as he could go, doubling over in painful coughs along the way. He waved his arms widly to get their attention, but had difficulty saying anything coherent.

"Crows!" he finally managed to shout. "Killer crows! Headed this way!" they stared at him incredulously, but he tried again to instill in them the level of danger he felt. The crows were not acting normally; they didn't kill animals like that, they usually waited for animals to die first. And the way they cawed, it was vicious and screeching, much harsher than usual crow sounds. Something was wrong with these crows, Torvus felt in his poor, sick, gut. They were mad, like some animals could get sometimes perhaps; but all of these crows were mad.

"We need some sort of shelter," he said. "We need to find a shelter, like a cave or something." If they could find a cave and cover the entrance, or otherwise cover themselves from beaks and claws, they might have a chance. But if they were caught in the open, and these crows attacked them, things might get bloody. Their shelter could bring out the rain, but they had almost no time to build it up to a point where it could protect against crows. What were they going to do?

And I posted in both threads, booyah! Good to be back, fellows.

I was confused in the first training thread as to what we were doing between the trip and the weapons training: was Teal supposed to bring his weapons with him on that? I assumed so, so I just had him bring a spear like koras's,and I guess he's carrying both of them.

And in the other thread, I wasn't sure how to have Teal react other than being upset that his friend is being "punished" to a reason that looks to him to be unfair. But we'll see if Teal can get into some trouble himself, or maybe even be able to harness the anger of the situation in some way. We'll see how that goes?

anyway, good to be back.

(ooc: I suppose that's an invitation for me to join in? Awesome!)

Teal woke groggy and completely exhausted. And yet it was time to wake up with everyone else. Teal barely managed to stumble into his uniform and stagger to eat something for breakfast before it was time for training. He was to report to Asha'man Koras again. Not looking forward to whatever the trainer had in mind, Teal did his best to hustle to the location.

What he found there shocked and angered him. There in the distance was Jureal, in his traditional clothing, hanging upside down by a force that Teal could sort of sense, it was the menace again, but while he had been here, it had started to take some sort of strange shape. It was like invisible ropes held the Aielman, but they couldn't possibly be there! It was as if something was there and not there at the same time, and it confused Teal's senses incredibly.

Perhaps since he did not know how to channel or sense saidin yet, he wasn't sure how to register the newer sensations of being around people who channeled. But that thought was only briefly in his mind. His friend, the sole person in this crazy nest of insanity who actually seemed to care anything about him, was being hung about, and for what?

The Aielman was in as good if not better shape than the Asha'man, he had proved that on their trip that he was equal to the task. Why then was he being punished? Teal glanced at his new uniform (ooc: do we get uniforms yet?) and back to Jureal, who was still clothed in his Aiel garb. What was it he called them? Caddin sore? Something like that. Teal wanted to shout, wanted to say something about what was being done injustly just for someone's choice of clothing, but he was afraid of being punished, too.

"Teal Fletcher, reporting for duty, sir," he said at attention, shooting his friend a worried look, wondering if there was any way to help. However, the aielman seemed to be quite stoic in his handling of the situation. Where hanging by invisible lines might freak Teal out, the Aielman just calmly let it happen.

Teal would feel out the situation and see what kind of mood Koras was in, and then see if there was anything he could do to help his friend.

(OOC: thanks for the wait, guys; Teal's WS is 0; he's a conscientious objector; OP score 28 power, 32 skill)

This was it, his first day of training. Teal did his best to try to suppress his nervousness, which, despite Jureal's efforts to help him get used to living in the barracks, was probably showing through clear as day. What would they do today? Would they learn how to channel?

He stood at attention with Jureal, adjusting his stance as necessary when ordered. He could do that much, at least, though he was not sure if he liked this Koras.

As the tension started to build inside of him again, Teal was completely surprised that their first exercise was something so simple, running laps. He thought he'd have to do something horrible to start with, like blow people up or whatever channeling men did. Considerably relieved, Teal fell into step besides Jureal and Koras, but found with his shorter pace he struggled to keep up. The Aiel just bounded ahead, and Koras had a murderous pace, too; the two seemed content to compete with each other.

Teal just tried to keep them in his sights, as he kept running. He was just a little out of breath after the second lap, and a very annoying ache developed in his ribs at the third, but he managed to finish without embarrassing himself so far. He was sweating and breathing hard, but he thought he might be able to do another lap or two before collapsing. So, that was laps, he thought to himself. Not too hard, as long as he didn't have to do fifty of them or some other such ridiculous number.

They were to go on a journey, one that would take quite a while. Teal felt nervous and fretful; what did he need for the journey? He didn't know. He brought a small hunting knife that he could use for utility, and himself with a good change of clothes, but he didn't really possess anything else such as a saddlebag, or a horse, or any sort of pack to carry supplies. Would Koras provide supplies or were they supposed to live off the land?

Teal arrived for the day of the journey, already sweating. He looked up at Jureal, who actually seemed excited! There seemed to be some rivalry going on between the Aielman and their trainer. Teal just wanted to survive whatever trip ordeal this was. They were to start at a slow run.

"Oh great, more running," muttered Teal. They ran for a ways, and Teal was already starting to get tired and drop behind. He just couldn't run as fast as the other two at their pace! He was used to a lot of exercise, but give him a rowboat over a running course any day!

"Asha'man Koras," Teal asked as he finally managed to catch up at one point. He wanted to ask what in the Light they were doing, just running off into the forest, but he thought that might not be a good question. "What are we doing for umm, supplies and such, sir? Were we supposed to leave with packs?"

Teal hoped he hadn't spoken out of turn, and waited to hear what they were going to do other than run for a long time. He was thirsty, and starving!

-Teal,

confused and starting to suffer

Awesome! I did post last (twice), but the main action is occuring with Kathleen's last post I believe.

So, either you or Myst is up next, and Kathleen and the other will fill things in, maybe one or two exchanges, and then we get to some fun chaos :D

Ok, update should have been sent by pm, though Karas said he won't be available after next week ahh!

So, let's push through that meeting, shall we? Who's up next? Myst I think?

Ok I'm back from LoA, I'll try to get a reply up in the next couple of days for ya! Thank you for your patience.

thanks, devon! I should be able to start returning to operation normalcy within a few days once I've recovered from the carpal tunnel of writing so much X_X

thanks for your patience, those that have been waiting on me

Thanks Lor! I'm doing ok though there have been days I just haven't been able to write. I've had a couple of stressful weeks, but hopefully I'll get out of it.

Hope you do better!

I'm LoA for the month man.

Finally!

Weapon Score 14 to 15: complete two Requirements

Intrigue in Murandy

Visar Falmaien, taking a leave of absence from his Aes Sedai, journeys with Kathleen and Gera Sedai in their efforts to prevent a war between two feuding nobles in Murandy. Frustrated by the way things were going, Visar briefly abandons the cause completely, only to rejoin the party after seeing the threat of assassins. Fighting the assassins to save the envoy and the Lord's son, and aiding the envoy in completing their mission of peace, Visar decides to rededicate himself to the Tower, to Rasheta Sedai, and to his own self confidence and value. This is a Choose Your Own RP, and had help from Freelanders who helped write TTPC bios in the thread.

Heart of the Heron

Visar Falmaien completes the Blademaster ceremony, reuniting with his Aes Sedai after his Murandy trip, and fighting ferociously with Master at Arms Kalan. The two almost kill each other, but the Council decides to award Visar the right to bear the Heron Mark. This is the Blademaster Ceremony Requirement.

Visar Falmaien slowly drifted back into consciousness. People were shouting, and Kalan stormed off, he could see, though he was unsure of what. He was sore, and his limbs felt like dead weight, but his wounds had been healed and he felt like he would be on the mend. The other blademasters in the Council gathered over to him.

Visar winced at the weakness in his body, wishing he could at least stand to face them. He struggled to, but could not rise.

"I am sorry. The Healing and the fight took my strength. I am not worthy, I know."

"You came here for us to judge that, Visar," one of them snapped. Visar felt his face heat up in embarrassment, shamed momentarily into silence.

"You gave Kalan quite a bruising there, though you almost killed yourself doing so," another said with a smile. "I haven't seen entertainment like that in quite a while. Nor have I seen Kalan as angry. Be careful and stay away from him for now. He is one to bear a grudge."

"I will remember that," promised Visar, with no intention to fight with Kalan any time soon. At least not with sharp steel.

"He did not give you his vote of confidence," began the first blademaster. "But considering he can be a sore winner, give it time and perhaps he will come around to respecting your skills. Especially once you revover and improve."

"Yes," Began the second. "Your technique could certainly use improving, but you have shown us your fiery spirit of determination, and you held your own against a very skilled and powerful fighter. Without an Aes Sedai or skilled surgeon, both of you would likely have died from your wounds. Thankfully, the Tower has you alive, to serve your Aes Sedai and keep training your young recruits. You have my blessing, blademaster."

"And mine," pitched in the third.

"I believe you are worthy of the heron mark. But that is no excuse to be idle in your training," said the last one.

"Aye. The four of us agree, you are a blademaster. Can you stand?"

Visar winced, furious at the weakness in his body. He forced himself to rise, though it took an agonizingly long time.

"I can stand," he said, though his legs were shaking. And he was hungry! He thought he could eat an entire sheep. "I don't know what to say, Masters. I feel like I don't deserve this."

"Your humility might serve you in other steads, but we do not need to hear it now. Rise, Master Falmaien, and receive the right to bear the Heron Mark."

Visar bowed his head. "With honor I receive this title. And with honor I shall keep it." he swore to them.

"Then go, Master Visar Falmaien. You may have your sword engraved with the heron mark. Give these instructions to a swordsmith and then burn them once he has finished; the secret of the mark must be kept from those who would conterfeit it."

Visar swore to that.

"Thank you, Masters. I will serve well," he promised, his heart suddenly filled with joy, even though his body felt like collapsing. The blademasters left him in peace, and Rasheta Sedai came over for a moment.

"You did well my warder, i'm proud of you." she said with a small smile. Visar beamed at her, flashing all of his teeth, unable to restrain any feeling from her now. She seemed to hint at things to come, and Visar blushed, but did not stop smiling.

"When you are done celebrating with the rest of the warders I'll see you later." She seemed to relent to the small group of fans, some of them his old buddies in the Guard, or peers in the Warders. And some of them were even his newer trainees come to see the fight.

Visar looked back at a retreating Aes Sedai and smiled softly. Sooner, than later, he thought. As soon as I can bribe these people to leave me alone with you! He sent good thoughts through the bond.

"Come on everyone! Drinks and food on me!" he yelled, and he and the others limped his way to the nearest tavern. Where he would eat and drink the entire establishment's stock if they gave him half a chance.

He felt exhilarated at new possibilities. Life was out there to be won, and he had won something for himself that could never be taken away. A new pride in himself and in his humanity. And that, more than anything else, was the heart of the heron to him.

-Visar Falmaien, blademaster

party time! Who's got some oosquai?

(ooc: I usually don't mix my characters in the same thread, or there will be problems with the time continuum and such :P i guess no one else wanted to join up? do you guys mind if I move things along? apologies for the long wait)

Visar waited for a while for the running groups. What could be keeping them so long? Finally, one of them rolled in, and the other.

"We're going to have to work on your speed," he said to both of them, unimpressed. "And what better way to do that than work against the coursing Erinen? The current is fast, and the water is especially cold today," he said with a grin. "You'd best not fall in your you might drown or freeze! This'll be a perfect workout!"

Visar showed them the rowboats in their docks. A cold northerly wind blew down the river, hinting at winter to come. The sky was gray and the river had choppy waves. "In the same teams you were at, but the odd one out gets to steer the boat! Now, you both are going to row upriver against the current to North Harbor! Get to it! I'll meet you on the other side!"

Always one step ahead of them, Visar dashed off to their next destination, this time taking a jog up the circuit of the walls, which would give him a chance to watch the teams' progress as well as give them a chance to get there not too long after he got there. It took much longer to row upriver than it did downriver, especially close to the city, where the dredged channels to make the river navigable by ships, and the deep-cutting Shining Walls made for a very swift current and undertow near the island. And the bridges were especially bad. But the teams would discover that on their own.

Torvus glared at Jasen as he took off with all of their supplies. The nerve of the man, asking them to bring together supplies, and instead of instructing them to their use, he took them all away and told them to fend for themselves! Meanwhile, Torvus just knew that Jasen had found his hidden stash, and was most likely enjoying it. The whole thing was unfair and enfuriated him.

But since he did not have his crossbow to put a bolt into Jasen's back like he might normally do during such a time, Torvus had to do something to survive in the meantime. He had a simple knife and not much else but his wits, but he hoped that would be enough. Torvus glanced at the sky, remembering Jasen's warning that rain might be eminent.

Food and water could wait, Torvus decided. He went and helped the others to try to erect some sort of shelter. He and a couple other trainees fumbled with some logs and long branches to try to erect a lean-to against a tree. They struggled for some time, but finally managed to get a frame up. But what would cover it? Muttering to each other, they finally decided to take off their cloaks and tie them with stripes of leather cut from their belts or boots. There, they had a tent, though likely it would not fit all of them at once.

Torvus reluctantly gave up his cloak, knowing that keeping warm would be difficult tonight, but having something to keep dry was more important, he reasoned.

A few others went off on their own, but Torvus, for all of his book smarts, did not think he would be incredibly effective hunting alone, especially not with dark approaching. He might just as easily get lost and not find his way back to camp. So he waited with the main group as they continued to improve on the shelter, and tried to get a fire started. Why would they try to start a fire just before rain? Torvus didn't know, but if they managed to keep it going it would make things easier. As long as they had coals hot enough to start another fire, that would be good.

But how could they start a fire without a flint and steel? None of the trainees had been smart enough to hide one from Jasen's evil acquisition, and Torvus didn't think he had even brought one with him. He remembered something in a book, and decided it was worth a shot. Rubbing two sticks together, Torvus tried to set some leaves alight, but found he couldn't even make it go fast enough to smoke. Clearly this was much harder than it looked.

A trainee, the newcomer Rekinu, came up with a bundle of moss, several improvised spears, and a couple of rocks. What did he intend to do with all that? Torvus wondered. The spears, well, it couldn't hurt for hunting, Torvus supposed, but why make a spear when you could make a much more sophisticated weapon? All it took was time and the right pieces of wood, and some animal sinew. He hoped they had some of that or could acquire some.

The newcomer went over to where he had been struggling to make a fire, and banged his rocks together. Torvus smirked, thinking he'd have just a hard time starting it. But sparks flew, and to his surprise a small fire started going! His eyes glowed with envy at the upstart's talent. Beginner's luck!

Another trainee came back with an even more impressive haul, a snared rabbit and six fish! How had he managed to catch six fish in the time it took for them to get the basic camp up?! Well, he could be envious of this one too, but Torvus wanted some of that fish, and had an idea with the rabbit, as well.

"I can cook alright." Torvus volunteered. He had at least practiced skill at that. You couldn't rely on a woman to make a good meal for you all the time, and so Torvus had learned something of it himself. He could at least make the fish not so raw it was unhealthy, and not so well cooked it was burned.

They quickly made small wooden skewers with their knives, and Torvus crafted a rough wooden platform that was made of fresh, sapling wood which wouldn't burn quickly. Placing the fish on the skewers, Torvus started roasting them in the fire, making sure to turn them at intervals so they'd cook evenly.

The rabbit was skinned, but before that was turned into a roast, Torvus stopped the one who had caught it.

"Daniel, let me see that. We can use parts of it. The back, especially. The sinews are invaluable for making thread."

Which in turn could be used to tie various useful things that they would need, and it would stretch better than the leather strips they had cut from their belts.

Torvus carefully took the sinews on the back of the rabbit and a couple of other locations off, and set them aside to be twisted into a line of thread. then he cut the rabbit up into pieces, and put them on the skewers once the fish were done. Each man got a piece of the rabbit, fairly evenly, and also had fish.

"Thank you," Torvus and everyone else said to Daniel for getting them food. Sitting by the fire as night rolled in, Torvus felt relaxed. He was not quite full, but he knew he wouldn't starve. Further trips to the creek gave them fresh water, though they didn't have a perfect way of storing it, as it leaked out of most of their clothes. An improvised cloak was the best they had, but half the water was gone by the time someone came back. They'd have to work on that. Torvus listened to everyone with their survival suggestions, some of which were useful, others not so much. He chimed in with his idea.

"Tomorrow, we should have one person keep watch on the camp, and then everyone else should split into pairs to look around for edible plants, set snares for other animals, as well as try to come up with a bucket or other sort of vessel to hold water. If we get more rabbits like this one, or other animals, we could sew their skins together with sinew and use that to carry water." So far so good. Torvus added, "We'll prove to Jasen that we can survive just fine," he said proudly. "And we'll get him back for stealing all of our stuff!" That met with louder approval. Everyone was angry about the guardsmen for pulling that trick. They would have to find a way to get back at him; show him what it meant to survive with practically nothing!

"Great, so we'll start first thing tomorrow. The shelter should fit all but one of us, so one will stay on watch and we'll go in shifts? I'll serve first watch," began Torvus, since he didn't mind staying up a little into the night. That agreed, everyone turned in for the night and Torvus began his watch as the fire slowly died down.

"Perfect. First day of survival, a success!" said Torvus to himself. Then the rain came down in a torrent.

"Oh blood and bloody wet ashes! I know I spoke too soon. . ." muttered Torvus. Without his cloak, he was soon soaked, and there wasn't room for him in the shelter. There was nothing to do but to huddle miserably by the dead fire and hope the rain wouldn't last too long. Shivering, Torvus focused on being angry to stay sane. He would get Jasen back, the bloody bastard! He would get him back!

It was a very long shift for Torvus.

-Torvus Arathel,

shivering and soaking wet.

Nobody seemed to take Teal seriously, and so slowly he let his despair dig inside him and settle. He sat at the table glumly while Jureal tried to help him make sense of things.

“An Asha’man is a man who can channel the one power. They are the soldiers of the Car’a’carn or as you wetlanders call him The Dragon Reborn. Asha’man means guardian. You wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t channel nor would I. To be honest Teal I’m not even sure I should be here now. I lost great Ji by deciding to come and train as an Ash’a’man rather then head off to the blight. Any man from my people who could channel has run off into the blight to kill as many shadow spawn before they went mad and died. So by deciding to do this I have lost Ji in their eyes.”

Teal thought about that. What was Ji again? It seemed like it was something of a code of honor, from what he knew vaguely of the Aiel. Strange, that people most of his life were portrayed as bloodthirsty savages would be obsessed with honor. So an Asha'man was a channeler, and that was what he was going to become. That seemed to connect with that sense of menace Teal felt. Perhaps that had been the men in black coats channeling? He wasn't sure but he was too curious to at least not find out. If he started to go insane, which men were supposedly going to do if they channeled, well, he would figure out that then. Or would he even notice if he were insane? The thought itself was madness, like this whole bloody places was.

He felt tense, glancing around him. Everyone in this room could channel, and at any moment one of them might go insane and blow them all to pieces. Or was it not that simple? Why had Teal gotten into all of this? He remembered the flame test with a chill. That was a man channeling. He remembered the strange gateways he passed through. That too must be channeling. The hot food that some of the men were eating, too! He had to eat his cold, but food was food and he couldn't really complain too much. Jureal continued,

“As far as the menace you felt between me and those Tree killers. Do not worry I will not do anything to

-endanger you my friend. But no I didn’t feel the menace.Some day ill tell you why i despise these tree killers. Life is but a dream and we all must wake. I too am confused on a lot that is going on here so we shall learn together and we will learn and we will be the best that we can be.”

Teal nodded. With his strange new friend, maybe the two of them would get to the bottom of this place and figure it out. And maybe they could either escape or make the best of it. Koras mentioned that they would pick up their black coats soon, and then left the two of them alone to eat and think.

"Yes, we will learn," said Teal. "I appreciate you standing by me, Jureal. I will do the same, my friend."

They went back to eating, and soon after got their uniforms and were assigned quarters. Training, whatever that entailed, would be the next day.

-Teal Fletcher