Elaina leapt up into the air in pure joy, finally she’d be able to let out some steam! “The Fey have any practice weapon we need at their training grounds. I’ve used the arena before, it’s a bit small but Fey do learn to fight bigger enemies.” Even though Elaina said the arena was small, it was still bigger then a football field. But Elaina was used to open air, large open meadows and blue seas as her training grounds. She knew she’d be grounded on this one, so she tucked in her wings and landed next to Bia who’d asked if she could use magic against her. She looked at the little runt then looked at Nikk, “I didn’t know she had any magic! And why the heck don’t you train with Teva and me? What if your magic ever got cut off? Don’t you want to protect Bia?” Then before she made Nikk to angry she turned to Bia, “I’ll let you fight against me with magic on the condition that it’s blunt and not deadly.” Elaina smiled mischievously, “For example, I can throw ice crystals at people. But I can also,” Forming a blob of water she quickly threw it at Teva, “make a water ball with that same power!” She laughed as the surprised centaur got drenched. “Ok, ready for practice?” She asked innocently with a smile on her elegant face.

Teva rolled her eyes and shook, doglike, showering Elaina with water in return. She flicked more at the angel with her tail, just for good measure. She supposed the sun would dry her out quickly, but the damp would be refreshing during the bout. At least, that's what she told herself.

True to the angel's word, there was an armory at the far end of the field, with training apparatus close by. Most of the field was open for combat, but targets in various shapes and sizes, not to mention a set of quintains for jousting practice, were set up in their own portion of the ground. Teva smiled as she galloped ahead to the area. She'd have to try that, if she had time.

Fairies busily flitted about the armory, keeping the equipment organized and in good repair. One bemused, burly smith of a sprite helped the centaur locate a long, well-balanced, blunted rapier. He'd initially wanted to fix her up with a broadsword, but she'd never had training in that, and besides, this way she could also use a buckler.

By the time the rest of her companions had caught up, she was already practicing on a human-shaped dummy, getting the feel of the weapon, and of always aiming downwards. She was not graceful in this, as most of the exercise consisted of not getting her feet tangled, and not kicking the dummy. That would never do in a real sparring match, not that she'd feel bad about leaving a few bruises on the angel.

Nikk hadn't trained in for what seemed like forever. He probably should test out his offensive magic, but what was with the blunt part? He couldnt train unless he actually used his full potential. "Self training it is." Said Nikk more to himself than anyone.

He would be more occupied with keeping an eye on Bia anyway. She could not get hurt. It was vital that she be okay at all times.

Bia bounced behind the angel as they went to the training feild. "Yay" She said. "Magic!" She couldnt wait to get started. Nikk knew that as an adult she knew lots of very agressive powerful magic, but that was not the case here. She probably couldnt use any of the really good spells anymore. She would have to use the ones that she knows know with lots of strategy.

After Akino was told that her armor would be ready in an hour she thanked the other fairies and managed to follow the commotion to her companions in a practice arena. so they were all going to spar after all? She didn't think it wise to participate until she got her armor though. yet she was highly interested in watching and learning about fighting. she had no experience with it and really only knew how to use her fists which being so tiny, were not likely to be effective. She wondered if there were a tiny weapon she could use though. like...without hurting herself.

Elaina laughed when Teva shook the water off on her and she followed the horse to the arena and flew up into the air. She summoned her magic and threw huge ice crystals and embedded them into the ground in different areas. There were five of them in a circle with space enough between to allow her and the centaur to fight freely. While Teva warmed up on the dummy she flew over to the fairy in charge of the armory. She chose a broadsword, she wanted to practice against the elegance of the rapier with the bulky sword. First, because Teva was still new at this and second, she needed to practice being agile with such a bulky sword. Walking over to Bia she knelt down and looked at the fluffy little ram girl, “Ok pip squeak, I don’t know what powers you have but I’m going toe to hoof with Teva and Nikk will kill me if you get hurt. So I’m going to make an ice crystal stand for you to stand on. Just us your attacks and I’ll try to block them with my barrier. But only use something that’s not going to injure me ok? Us flower attacks or something that shows you hit me with whatever spells you use. I won’t attack you though I’ll just block.” Saying this she started creating the ice crystal stand for Bia that would let her see the arena and the combatants. After constructing the stand she flew over Teva’s head, “Whenever you’re ready I’ll put Bia on the stand and we’ll get started!”

Teva was realizing that she had to relearn every beginner move from scratch, every lunge, every cut, every parry. Everything. She had no idea whether her form was good or bad, either, only that she probably looked ridiculous. She certainly felt ridiculous, a clumsy half-horse creature taking clumsy swipes at a dummy with her sword. Why in the world had she agreed to this?

"Whenever I'm ready?" she asked the angel girl who hovered overhead. "Do I look even close to being ready do you?" The centaur took a frustrated stab at the dummy. If it hadn't been a practice sword, it might have impaled the thing, but as it was, the dummy rocked on its stand. She eyed Elaina, with the ice arena behind her, and gritted her teeth. "You may be waiting a long time."

"Then Bia will start." Bia raised her hand and made some movements. "Adeat!" Her voice was small, but the magic was big. The whole arena filled with pink smoke. It wasnt as dense as is could have been, but you still only able to see ten feet infront of you. Nikk knew this would be bad for long range attacks, but none of the fighters had any long range weapons so it didnt matter as much.

Nikk turned to his own practice dummy. He waved his hand "Adoris" And the smoke with in 50 feet of him dissapeared leaving him space to fight on his own. Nikk was in his own little world now. He was training on his own using potions and magic spells. It was common place for a mage to do so.

It was commonly known that Mages didnt actually like other people. They were loners and mean ones at that.

Elaina swept Bia up and put her on the ice stand gently then swung around and landed in the middle of the ice and fog arena. “Come on Tiva! Find me and fight, an opponent is better than a dummy anyways!” Tucking her wings in as close as she could Elaina drew the practice sword and snuck around each of the five pillars hoping to hear the centaurs hooves hitting the ground. Elaina became focused and her breathing became steady as she waited for the first encounter. Her first on the ground in decades, she had to get used to the feel of her legs as they moved left, right, forward and back. She crouched as she thought she saw a shadow approaching through the thick fog.

"Silly" Said Bia. "The new shoes Teva has make no sound." Bia recognized that Elaina was trying to listen for something. She just guessed that it was the centaurs feet. "And put me down What are you trying to do." Bia figured it might be her ability to sense people that Elaina was trying to tap into. Bia wasnt even really sure if that was at all possile.

akino was in the process of flying to the back of the arena when Bia said some spell and pink smoke filled the air. She stopped flying and glowered down at the floor and the fighters she couldn't see through all this pink...stuff. She flew up higher until she was mostly out of the smoke, but of course now she couldn't see the fight at all which is what she wanted to observe. Pouting, she made her way over the the armory which thankfully was not filled with smoke and decided to look though the weapons rather than fight. she had no idea what kind of weapon she could use.

Teva stopped slashing at the dummy in front of her, and studied Elaina's fighting ring. It was surrounded by icy pillars, and filled with a strange mist, and the angel taunted her from it. The centaur would not really feel ready for months or years, assuming she could find an instructor at all. It took years of patient practice and diligent study to master a weapon, and hers had always been the bow. Her own weapons hung safely back in the armory -- for all she knew the fey were cleaning, or even improving them -- and she missed them.

Then she shrugged, adjusted the quilted practice armor the fey had lent her along with the sword and buckler, and walked cautiously to the ring. The fey had offered her barding as well, but she'd declined. It would have been yet another new thing, and plenty distracting. Hopefully protection for her human torso would be enough.

The fog suited her well. Her hooves were much quieter than she'd expected them to be, so stealth was at least a possibility. Visibility was bad, but her senses of smell and hearing cut through the veil without much trouble. Granted, the angel’s scent was a bit diluted, but the almost clumsy sound of Elaina's feet and soft sound of her breathing gave her away. Teva smiled. Perhaps she could work with this. She was glad she’d declined the helm.

She crept, as well as she could, across the ring toward Elaina. She kept her distance, though, hoping to stay out of sight, at least for a time. Then she kicked up a sizable cloud of dust with one forehoof, and hoped it would drift to the angel. Mindful of the sound the kicking would make, Teva changed her position, and listened.

Teva had kicked up the dirt in front of her and Elaina backed away and went around the pillar, only Teva wasn’t there anymore. Elaina smirked, she’d been tricked by the centaur, maybe this wouldn’t be a waste after all. Assessing her surrounding she found the centaur was no where in the immediate vicinity. Her first instinct was to fly away, but this was a ground battle, and Elaina would see it through.

Teva retreated to a position near what she judged to be the center of the ring, well away from the pillars. Elaina seemed to be keeping to the borders of the area. That seemed like all the more reason to draw her out, somehow. Teva was not confident about fighting and dodging ice at the same time. Better to keep the match in the open, if possible.

"Well," she said softly, just enough for her voice to carry. "Did you want to fight then?"

Elaina laughed at Teva’s light insult, “And so we shall!” Elaina had followed Teva’s voice and found herself face to face with the centaur. Well as face to face as they could get considering Teva’s horse half made her a lot taller. Elaina used her sword and skillfully aimed at the centaurs torso, since this was the greatest area and the hardest for her type to move out of the way quickly. As she attacked the centaur Elaina was concentrating her consciousness to feel any magic coming from Bia.

Bia was tired of her smoke and wanted to change things up a little. She said some words and the magic smoke dissapeared. She wiggled out of Elainas arms using a charm and landed on the ground. She ran over to Nikk who was now sitting on the side lines messing with one of his own charms and a bit of a potion.

At the same time Bruce showed up out of no where. "The armor is done." He said to Nikk. He was looking around for Akino. "Oi come and try it on!" Shouted Bruce when he spotted her. Nikk was releived. As soon as she was fitted they would be able to leave. He didnt want to think about what would happen to them if they overstayed their welcome. Fae were hard to please for long periods of time.

Eli was watching from a distance. His raven was next to him eating a peice of bread that it had aquired somehow. He was a little depressed. He wanted to go with Nikk. Staying with his own kind was so boring and they didnt exactly treat him well in the frist place.

akino was poking around in the armory when she heard Bruce yell that her armor was ready. She quickly stopped swinging around a tiny sword looking toothpick of a weapon and flew over to him. Thankfully the smoke was gone so she could make sure she didn't fly into a pillar or something embarrassing.
"Oh, thank you so much!" she said as she flew up next to Bruce, holding out her hands for the armor.

Bruce handed Akino the armor in a nice pile.
"Good." Smiled Nikk. "As soon as you get it on we can continue on our adventure."
Eli perked up. "Um Nikk." He said trying to get his attention. "May I come too." Nikk looked at Eli and thought for a while.
"Perhaps it would be to your advantage to take me along." Eli puffed up his chest. "It would be wrong to let lady Akino go on her own on this mission. I would like to protect her." Nikk laughed and looked at Akino for an answer. He was obviously okay with it.

Elaina’s ears perked up at Eli’s mention of protecting Akino. She pulled back her attack on Teva and stalked over to Nikk. “Hey, I thought I was going to protect Akino? What? Do you think I’m so weak that I won’t be able to keep a barrier around her to protect her?” Elaina was furious and she crossed her arms in front of her chest and spread her wings. How could they even suggest that Akino would be unprotected?

Teva tried to block with her rapier, but failed, and felt Elaina's broadsword touch her flank. Not a fatal blow, but still frustrating. She leapt back a little, just out of range of the angel, then prepared to lunge, aiming for the girl's shoulder.

And that was when Elaina left the ring. "Oh, come on!" She sheathed her sword and followed the angel girl to Nikk and the faeries. "Elaina, given your attention span, bringing backup is probably a good idea. Don't you think?"

Elaina wheeled around and faced Teva, “Nobody asked you! Besides if it didn’t take you so long to attack I might not of overheard them discussing other options.” Then turning back to Nikk she said, “Do you expect me to put a barrier around this other munchkin too? If so I want a muzzle on Teva, because two barriers requires considerably more concentration.” To demonstrate she put a barrier around Akino and then taking a deep breath and reached with her mind to put a barrier around Eli.

Teva gritted her teeth. A muzzle? Had the angel really said that? "There's something to be said for using your head in battle rather than rushing into it blind," she grumbled, staring down at Elaina. "And you. I will not speak only when spoken to."

She glanced at Nick. "She needs help."

“Well, one on one isn’t exactly that complicated. Find their weak point and attack. For example, you over think and react slowly. That’s why your kind prefers archery to hand to hand combat. You’re too bulky to be successful, not that it’s impossible. But you’d need to do some serious training and use your strength to your advantage rather than trying to be agile because your agility is comparative to an ogre’s.” Elaina grinned at the comparison. Maybe this would bring out Teva’s fighting side and they could really duke it out. She could feel that Teva needed to be in the mood to really fight, not this practice stuff. Elaina wanted to see what Teva had in her, but she hadn’t seen this passion in the arena. Looking Nikk in the eyes she kept her arms crossed and stared him down.
“So what are we gonna do about this? How am I supposed to work with this no talent horse?” Elaina was jumping with glee on the inside, this would get Teva going. She was itching for a good fight and she really wanted to test her skills against Teva. She just hoped her tactics were working and that Teva would want to draw first blood.

"My kind?" Teva wasn't her own kind anymore. That was most of the problem, wasn't it? "Yes, of course I'm over-thinking! I'm still learning to move on four legs, for gods' sakes! Not that you seem all that comfortable on your two, but you've at least had practice." She threw up her hands in frustration. "What do you expect me to do? I have had no training at all. Of course I'm slow. Find me a someone who can teach me combat as a centaur and find yourself a brain, and then maybe we can try this again when you're less likely to walk off the field in the middle of a sparring match."

Her nostrils flared, and she stole another glance at Nikk and the faeries. What was wrong with this girl?

Elaina’s lips curled into an evil grin, “Did you want to try this again than? It seems like you’re a bit more worked up then before, maybe you won’t over think it as much. Come on prove me wrong, or are you too scared?” Elaina moved back into the arena and waited for Teva, she spread her arms wide and tucked her wings into her body. Exposed to an attack Elaina waited for Teva to make a move.

Nikk let them fight it out verbally for a while. Eli was trying to but in, but there was to much arguing going on.

To Nikk it was obvious that he was to solve the problem. "Ok guys stop." Said Nikk "Elaina I will take your powers away." He threatened.

"I can protect myself!" Eli finnaly found a chance to but into the group. "I'm a fairy with the power to hide." Eli decided to demonstrate his power. First he turned into a centaur that was slightly bigger than Tevas because it was male. The only thing that made everyone know that it was Eli was his blind fold he was still wearing. "I can help you Teva." Said Eli. "I went around as a centaur for a few years on a mission once." Eli then turned into an angel like Elaina except his wings were black. "Elaina if we work together we can protect Akino together. Its better to be protected by two more than one is it not."

Nikk smiled. Hopefuly Eli had calmed everyone down. He wanted to get the show on the road, but that wouldnt be possible till everyone cooperated with eachother.