Adapting

Ragna forced herself to stand perfectly still while the vexyn, that was supposed to train them, strutted along in front of them, yelling instructions. She only barely contained herself from rolling her eyes at the nonsense he was spouting.  

This was the biggest hurdle for her when becoming a knight: Controlling her emotions, following orders, just being a “good little soldier”. Ragna snorted, nearly silent among the shouting of the instructor. The xyns beside her cast an uneasy glance in her direction, worried they might get dragged down with her in case her disrespect was found out. She grinned widely at them but wiped the expression off her face when the instructor turned around and walked their way, the shouting getting louder. Ragna’s eyes focused ahead, unimpressed, her mind wandering. She managed just fine without some idiot telling her what to do, thank you very much.  

Her gaze searched for Eden, who was somewhere in the crowd in front of her. The pale vexyn had started knight training together with her, but being the smart cookie that they were, and disciplined to boot, they had soared through all the tests and become a knight in record time, despite being rather small for a vexyn. And Ragna, strong and powerful Ragna, who was everything a vexyn strove to be, was still stuck being a trainee.  

She growled a little in frustration but suppressed the sound when the instructor cast a confused look around, searching for the source. She had promised Eden to contain her temper so that she could catch up with them and they could finish their training together. And if it meant she had to deal with some idiot instructor, well, so be it then. Now if she could only get the memo to her temper.

Something white caught her eye and she recognized Eden, doing knightly things on the training ground ahead of her. From the distance and next to the other knights, they looked even smaller than usual, though she would never tell them that. Eden’s small size was as sore spot for the other xyn. Not only did other vexyns, who were known for their large and burly stature, make fun of them, they were even shunned by their own parents. Especially their father made it a point to raise his sickly, small vexlet into an intimidating force of nature. He had only partly succeeded, because Eden’s head barely reached past Ragna’s shoulder. But despite their smaller frame, Eden made for a damn fine knight. Their fellow knights had stopped joking about them long ago. Now if only their father could see it, too. It was a shame, to put it lightly, how their family treated their only child.  

Eden suddenly turned and their gazes met, bright pink and smoldering orange, snapping Ragna out of her thoughts. She felt a prickle run down her fur, hair standing on end. Damn it if that little runt didn’t make her feel stronger than ever with just a glance alone. Eden smiled at her, the expression even visible from a distance and Ragna felt her fur grow warmer.  

She could do it. For Eden, she would get through this, yelling instructors and all, the feeling of humiliation be damned.  

And once she was a knight, she would return to kick all their asses.