Shade's Sabre

Day 20

(I skipped a few days while working on another project)

The Sunrise barracks were on the eastern side of the palace, hence the name and the square drill yard infront of it was bathed in a soft red glow as the sun rose. There were already a number of people there and Scout automatically dropped from her shoulder to run alongside her as they got closer. There were 3 others she recognised from her school, including Mei (she could pick out the haughty line of her back from miles away) and about a dozen more she didn't remember seeing before. She glanced at her watch. Still time for more though.

As was expected, all the Sabre candidates looked similar, even more than was usual for Spirit Tamers, all within the narrow parameters of 5foot 6 to 5 foot 8 and an atheletic build. Most had jet black hunter types as well, although she did spot one other Infilatrator hiding behind one of the recruits.

The drill yard was covered in a layer of sand, surrounded by yellow rendered walls with a row of terracotta tiles ontop. To the south was a low single storey building built up on a set of steps. It was mostly unadorned asides from red wooden collums either side of the door and terracotta tiles on the roof. On plinths either side of the door was a depiction of a Spirit Beast, the creatures the bondmates had descended from. The one on the right hand side of the door was carved from a coal-black stone with glimmering red stone at the eyes, with more around the muzzle and feet as fire poured from it's mouth and from it's paws. It's one paw balanced on a golden orb as it snarled out at the recruits.

On the other side of the door was it's counterpart in brilliant white marble, with jade-green inset in it's eyes and in the flames rolling from it. Under it's paw was a cub.

Both Spirit Beasts were considerably larger than any of the bondmates, easily the size of a direwolf, and very much similar to a wolf in appearance asides from the unholy flames pouring off it.

Freyia looked down at Scout, who once again had his back paw lodged firmly in one of his ears, then up at the majestic snarling beasts and back down.

"What on earth happened?" She asked him with a grin.

"We did."

She looked up. One of the recruits, the other one with an Infiltrator type, had replied.

"Spirit Tamers, I mean," he responded. "We came along and started breeding them for purpose. The original tribes did used to have full sized Spirit Beasts I hear, but they were nomadic and the Spirit Beasts probably needed to be big to keep up with horses. Now we have houses, giant wolves are more of a drawback."

"So they're smaller because we need them to be?" Freyia asked.

"Maybe," the guy shrugged. "They always say the bigger the bondmate, the stronger the soul, but my Grandam is a fierce old lady and hers is a Pekingese, so I doubt that intensely."

"Or are you just denying it because your bondmate is so small?" One of the other guys snickered.

True enough, his hound was as big as a mastiff.

"It's not about size," Freyia said cheerfully. "It's more about technique."

"You would say that," he observed, looking at Scout with a sneer.

Freyia made a mental note to give this guy no quarter in sparring drills. The other Infiltrator rolled his eyes and she grinned at him.