Tretana Village
The hooded man let out a sly laugh as Akana wished him well in the duel. As he circled around to the right, he spoke again in his slippery voice, "Disturb the forest you did, and now you will pay for your deed foul Ancslá. Our lands do not need the turbulence that you bring..." As soon as he had finished talking, the man jumped backwards, before throwing his weapon towards Akana in a boomerang-like movement. It appeared that the man was not one to toy with... and he seemed to possess certain abilities which a normal human being would not...
As the fight continued, a middle-aged couple appeared from the interior of the village... Their hut was the last one in the row of small dwellings. Noticing the fight between the two warriors, the woman was just about to shout in alarm, when the man gently placed his hand over her mouth, before releasing it again, and saying a few unnoticeable words to the woman. One side of the duelling arena's perimeter extended along the length of the side of their relatively large hut. The two eyed the duelling pair suspiciously for a few moments, before the man caught sight of Kaiden and Jokir sitting a way off conversing... Holding his wife's hand, the couple walked over towards the two young-looking men, before the woman addressed Kaiden, "What is going on here? That hooded figure is errrr ...dangerous... What does your friend hope to achieve by duelling him?" The dark-haired woman seemed agitated by the duel's proximity to her house, and both of the villagers seemed also to show a reverent fear of the hooded man.
Arkadi
After a few hours of running, to circumnavigate the dense section of forest, Mezonas eventually stopped in a small clearing, not five feet across. The older man seemed almost as fresh as he done been before the run. It was clear that Mezonas was built for long-distance running, rather than sprinting. Turning to face Arkadi, he spoke again, "We not get along Arkadi, but I still intend to see how...capable you are... If you are willing, tonight, we will ambush the rest of our group. I have an idea of where they will camp for the night, so we will have the advantage. Now, this might seem a bit aggressive for a training exercise, but it will test both your skills of stealth, and will also tell myself how apt the rest of the group are at defending from an ambush..." Drawing in a deep breath, Mezonas asked, "What do you think?"
Gemina
Gemina groaned as Wallace noted that he'd left his travelling gear in his room. A moment of indecision seemed to flicker inside the woman, before she stood up, and spoke quickly, "I will retrieve your gear for you Wallace. Though, what would have prompted you to leave it in your room I do not know..." Once she had finished, Gemina disappeared once more inside the tree trunk stairwell, reappearing a few minutes later with Wallace's travelling equipment, before handing it to him. "We will be gone for more than a while Wallace. This journey will be a long one..." Now that the group had collected provisions, Gemina picked up her own provision bag, and once again slung it over her right shoulder. With the others following behind her, Gemina walked along the path through the fruit grove, pausing every now and then to pluck a berry from a bush. As she walked, she talked eagerly about their journey ahead, "We're going to have a lot to do on our journey. It's not going to be as simple as just travelling to Cecia Town, and slaying Yeltzoa. No, we will have to train the four of you first, to allow you to develop strength that neither of you currently carry, and when you are each ready, Mezonas will initiate a ceremony that Arínaleca for centuries past in Cecia Town have used to dedicate the lives those who have completed their training, and are ready to become true Arína in themselves. This has a side effect which will make each of you much more powerful than any of your compatriots who abandoned us in search of the army..." Taking in a deep breath, Gemina continued, "The problem is that we lack a key part of the ceremony, that being the flowers of the Onlongá plant that grew outside of the walls of the town... We will need to retrieve that species from another location before we are to dedicate each of you... We have long to go before that day though. Keep in your minds the glowing warmth of the fact that each of you will one day be true Arína. You were all wise to respond to my call." While Gemina talked, they emerged from the path into a more open section of a forest, where the woods were less dense, leaving room to walk between the trees and bushes. Gemina came to an abrupt stop, before addressing the group. "Whisper, Irris, Wallace, what would you all like to do now? We will camp here when the night comes, so that we can rise early tomorrow morn... I'm happy to lead you somewhere for a test of your abilities, or we can sit here, light a fire, and you can ask questions of me and of each other as you so desire..."