# Chapter 1

Alicia scanned across the clearing. The battlefield was a wide open grassy field
without any good spots to take cover. Their team was losing. Badly. Their flag
was solidly in the hands of the enemy and every attempt to wrestle it free had
failed. They saw the possibility of an opening among the chaos and gestured
their squadmates to follow their lead.

They sprinted down the battlefield, the noise of their approach alerted their
teammates of the plan and they joined in, creating a phalanx with their wooden
shields. The other team realized what was going on and attempted to block it.
It almost worked, if only the force of Alicia's impact didn't knock two of the
blue guards on their backs. Alicia ground to a catlike halt and raised their
wooden sword to the flagbearer. The poor person looked terrified but raised his
sword back to fight. Alicia struck the flagbearer in the leg to make him lose
his balance, and Tistus came in from the side to claim the prize, snatching it
and holding on for dear life with his claws.

In the confusion, the blue team turned towards Alicia, thinking some of the
blood they had spilled from an earlier fall was the flag on their hip. This gave
Tistus room to escape with the real flag in his paws. Alicia grit their teeth
and braced for impact as the blue team's swords were raised all around them like
a pack of hungry wolves. Zekas, the blue team leader, reared back to hit
Alicia's weak side.

The horn sound resonated throughout the area. Tistus had made it to the base and
the exercise was over.

Red team had won.

Zekas growled at Alicia, "No fair you get to have the best sprinters and all we
have are these burly hunks that can't run to save their lives."

Alicia smiled back and looked down to their side, there was a red streak down
their left leg that wasn't there earlier. "Some burliness would have helped
here. Can you pass me a bit of cloth? I need to get this leg to an apothecary."

Zekas begrudgingly gave Alicia a bit of cloth as they bandaged themselves. As
Alicia dressed their wound they felt a surge of power to their right hand.

_Nononononono, not around others._

They focused their mind and let the surge subside. Alicia balanced herself with
her tail and looked up at Zekas.

"Thanks, let's go see what we messed up, eh?"

Zekas laughed, "At least you didn't let a witch beat you." and lead the way.

Alicia nervously laughed back and followed suit.