So...I've been wondering for a while how to make the language shifts clearer? I was debating using BOLD for convenience, but am unsure as to how that'll work.

For the next few chappies, you might see me experimenting. Please give your feedback on it! Thank you.

"Okay. That should be it," I said, rising to my feet as I finished the routine. I was sweating hard even though it was somewhat cold out. Thankfully, a strong breeze swept in to cool me down enough, but it ended up throwing my hair all over the place. Though I had tied it back to keep it out of my face, curly hair needed a lot of maintenance and was literally prone to becoming "under the weather" in a different, almost literal sense.

It was a pain in the ass. Now that we had to live in such conditions, it was more of a pain to deal with. My mother used to braid it and comb it for me whenever possible. Now, she was no longer here to do it for me.

I was starting to find out, piece-by-piece, just what I was missing now that I had lost her. Whenever I get reminded of the little things that I no longer had, I could not help but be reminded of everything I had taken for granted.

Happiness was so fleeting.

"YESSSSS!"

Startled out of my thoughts, I refocused back to reality and found that Eren and Maun had jumped to their feet.

"Mmh! Mmh!" Maun clapped enthusiastically and pumped his fist in the air. It was a little scary though, considering the knife he was holding while he was running around.

As I looked at the two of them, I couldn't help but feel a little sheepish. I must be old. Scratch that. I actually was. My mind was technically around thirty years old already.

"You're doing this on purpose to annoy me, aren't you?" I quirked a brow at Eren's direction. The huge, stupid smile, as usual, was pushing on her cheeks. Her red hair bounced as she did and her hands were clapping in chorus to her laughter.

"We know how much of a frowner you are! So of course, if you can't smile, then we'll do it for you!"

"Why you—" I ran after Erenol with the threat of a fist and she ran away from me screaming—but of laughter.

"Evy! You've got to admit it this time around. You actually do have a stick up your ass!"

"Watch whose ass will have a stick in it when I get you!"

"Ooh. Kinky." She stopped just behind a tree and shot me a knowing glance, lifting her wrist to her lips as she laughed into her sleeve.

I paused, horrified. "What the—Did you learn that from the mistresses?"

Maun watched the two of us with a big smile and continued clapping himself.

It seemed he was finding this whole thing funny.

"You too! Stop it!" I hollered at him.

He merely joined Eren and began running away.

"Now, you two! We're supposed to be training!"

We spent the next few minutes running around and chasing one another down until we finally spent more than half of our energy doing so. When we were all tired, we found ourselves collapsing on the stone pavement, leaning against the bench as we looked at the sky.

"You know, we should sit properly," Eren said, pointing to the open seats by our head.

"I'm too tired to lift myself from here," I muttered, leaning back and heaving deep breaths to fill my lungs.

I found Maun on my right nodding fervently.

"I can't imagine how that elimination round will be," I told them both. "There was this kid from my batch who was eyeing me badly. I think he has some sort of grudge."

"It's alright," Eren whispered. "We got this!" She pumped a fist and faced both Maun and I. "He's probably just jealous of you. You're awesome, Evy. I don't really like the fact that you're too negative at times. It must take a whole lot of energy to be that way every day."

"I can say the same with you happy with everything," I told her. "Being negative comes way easier for me, unlike you two. It's harder to be happy. If you're like me, you don't have to be bothered by everything going wrong—because, most likely, they already are."

"You sound like an old woman," she said.

"Might be because I secretly am," I joked. Actually, I wasn't kidding.

"Ha, that's funny. I don't see any wrinkles," Eren countered. She rolled her eyes and sat herself upright as she was starting to slide down.

Maun's hands moved. I looked over as he signed, "What do you think will happen after we all pass? If we ever do?"

"Well, we have to learn stuff just like the mistresses wanted. It's most likely for our own protection anyway," I said.

"What did he ask?" Erenol inquired.

"He's asking what'll happen after we pass if we even do," I repeated.

"Oh. Actually, for this one, I'm not very confident, so I don't want to think ahead so soon," she told us. "I'm trying hard, but that isn't enough at times. I'll be really surprised if it suffices this time around. I started learning way too late. Maybe if I took up lessons much earlier, I'll be in a better spot, but..." She shook her head. "I just pray to the dragons what I learn now will be enough to defend against those other kids."

I gazed at Eren's somber face and felt saddened.

"Have some hope, Eren," I said. "That's what you're good at, anyway. This is no time to stop. Besides, fate can be very...ridiculous at times. Maybe you end up joining and I don't." I shrugged. "I might have some chance with some areas, but there are spots I'm not confident I can pass. I'm still learning how to control the frost. If I make the wrong move during that battle, everything will fall to ruin. I'm not sure what'll happen if I accidentally..." I shuddered.

"It's been alright so far." Erenol pulled her knees to her chest.

"You never know." I shrugged. "The future is always uncertain. And like I said, fate can be ridiculous."

"Then I wish it's ridiculous enough that all three of us get a spot among the five!" she said.

Maun bobbed his head energetically. "Mm! Mm!"

"If nothing goes wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong! Nothing! I'm calling it! We will pass! We will pass! We will pass!" She continued chanting the same thing repeatedly while I sat there, deadpanning.

"Stop it or you'll jinx it."

"No! If you say it enough and if you believe it, it'll come true!"

"Okay then."

I sat there in silence with Maun while Eren continued the mantra in the background.

I don't know when she'll get tired of doing it. However, the more she did, the more I felt the hope that I needed.

When we sat outside the testing ground on the day of Eren's exam around a couple of days later, I at least had something to negate the negativity with. I sincerely don't remember what happened with all the training I helped her with, but I was hoping it went somewhere.

"AHHHHHHHH!" An ear-piercing scream jolted me out of the sleep I never realized I had fallen into. I sat up on the bench I was dozing off on and saw Eren dashing over to me with the look of utmost delight.

The fourth phase of the test was done already? How long was I asleep?

"Dear dragons above," I muttered, wiping off my drool.

Maun greeted me with a smile. The silver violet eyes twinkled with warmth as my amaranthine ones met them. I heard the peeling of wood and found that he had been busily carving something while we sat waiting. He made a small mess on the ground with the shavings, but he probably could just sweep it into the grasses later.

I shifted away from Maun as Eren came nearer, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I saw a small, wet patch on his shoulder.

Embarrassed, I said, "sorry," and gave an apologetic grin, wiping away the mess I had made of him with my sleeve. At that very moment, Eren stopped before me, belting out another scream.

"God, girl, shut up," I said, standing up from my seat. Maun stood up as well, seeming to be expecting good news from Eren. "Are you happy or angry or sad? Just tell me."

"I-I got in!" she jumped on her feet as she told me. "I did it, Evy! I did it!"

"When we're in public, talk in Lovardi. If we're in there training alone, then it's alright. But we're in public, and the mistresses will scold you again," I told her, pinching her side.

"Ow! Ugh! Fine!" She frowned. "I got in! I did it! Happy now?"

Seeing that stupid smile on Eren's faced bade warmth to flow through me. This girl has been through a lot for the past few days...worrying like that. I grabbed her by the shoulder and pinned her under my arms, messing up the red curls with my knuckles.

"Now the last thing we ought do is actually join the five!" I exclaimed and set her free.

Erenol coughed. "Evy. You promised the strawberries!" she said with a pout. "Can we get strawberries?"

"Yup! All that's left to do is go to the mistresses and ask permission. Hopefully, they can allow us to go. If not, well..." I shrugged. "It's out of my power. We haven't left the temple grounds ever since we set foot in here, so I have my doubts about it."

"Ah. You're right. It'll be...okay if no," Erenol said with a nod. She seemed to feel a little down at the reminder, but yielded. "I'll love strawberries, but it's okay if we can't go. After all, it's not long ago when..." she trailed off.

Maun tapped on my shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Why is she suddenly sad?" he signed.

"Oh. Right. You're not very fluent either..." I whispered in Veneryali. "Wait. So how were you understanding everything till now?"

"Clues..." he said. "And Eren switches sometimes. You make signs too...when you talk to me in Lovardi. You translate it for me."

"I do?" I was confused. I must've done it as a force of habit. "Anyway...Well, we can try asking the mistresses," I said, switching back to Lovardi. Out of consideration from Maun, I started to sign as I spoke. "There's no harm in that. Let's just not protest if they tell us no."

Maun nodded.

Eren did too. "Let's not be stubborn kids. Evy is already stubborn enough."

"Okay, let's—what?" I turned to glare at her.

Eren whistled. "Nothing. I'm getting good at this, aren't I?"

"Since we did learning another language make you bolder?"

"Bolder?" She blinked. She then pulled out a small book from her pocket—a dictionary, by the looks of it. "Ah...bolder. Bolder as in...sueraniolen in Veneryali." She fished out another notebook and wrote down the word with a few notes. "Okay."

No wonder this girl was learning very fast. She was quite studious.

We proceeded to go and look for the mistresses. Finding Mistress Kora and Veronika wasn't hard. They were almost always in the same place everyday—the camps. If it wasn't the meager routine chores, then they were usually off doing their own thing to pass the time. They did nothing to call much attention to themselves, which meant the usual stuff they did in Venerya (other than the entertainment part) was set aside. Mistress Veronika probably hadn't wielded her sword in quite a while. Not in the public eye at least. I, for one, hadn't seen her so far.

We went into the camps and greeted our neighbors as we went. The place was lively, as usual. Though the only familiar face that bothered to acquaint himself with me was nowhere to be found. Mistress Kora, though, was as sociable as ever. He was making friends with everyone.

Eren, Maun, and I stopped short when we saw him dressed in Vertvaldenian garbs—he was even getting a freaking tattoo!

A middle-aged lady was bent over his arm, rhythmically tapping the point of a long and inked needle onto his skin with a stick.

"Mistress Kora?" I intoned softly, flabbergasted.

"Ooh. Oohhhhhhh. That hurt." He breathed in sharply from his mouth, looking over to us with a pained smile for a greeting. He spoke fast in Lovardi, switching, sometimes, to the Vertvaldenian language when talking to the lady beside him. "Hi, kid—ahhhhh. That part felt sensitive. How deep did that go?" he asked.

"This not deep," the woman replied to him, accent heavy. "You scared, ah? This not hurt my child." The woman proceeded to point at the kids watching them laughing. "Look. They laugh. They laugh...you."

The giggling of the children watching spurred him into a fit. "Of course I'm not! Why would you—heyyyyyyyy. Kamal! Kamal! (Wait!) You are doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"For us, more painful, more guts."

"That doesn't make sense."

I eyed the design he was getting for his arm and scratched my head. "Mistress, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm getting my tattoo for a community ritual! Look at this. It's so fas—ahhhh—nating." He paused to register the pain he was getting. "Do you know what kind of ink they use?!"

"What?"

"Soot! From the bonfire! Soot!" he said. "Who knew you can do a tattoo with just a thorn? Like, look at this! And it's coming off really good as well!"

"I kind of forgot what we came here for," Erenol said, whispering to me in Veneryali.

"Strawberries," I said, replying in Lovardi.

"Let's not ask," she told me.

"Why?" I inquired, looking at her quizzically. "We're already here."

"I feel like...we're just uh...bordering them?"

"Do you mean bothering?"

"Yeah. Probably."

He looked at us inquiringly. "What are you here for, girls?" Kora glanced at the quiet Maun. "And boy."

"We wanted to get some dessert for Eren passing."

"Oh. Ok—You passed!?" Mistress Kora's head snapped towards Eren faster than a crack of thunder, eyes large with delight and surprise.

"Yes, mistress!" Eren nodded, returning the happiness.

"Oh! Oh! I'm so proud! My blossom, my sprout, and my bud! You all got in? This is indeed joy! Joy!"

"Hey," the woman tattooing his arm slapped his wrist. "You not move. You move, you ugly."

"Ehehehe..." Mistress Kora tamed his excitement and sat back down.

I felt confusion rising to my face. "Sprout and bud?"

I knew he often referred to me as blossom. It was a nickname from childhood that he often called me. When we got to Lovardi, he just translated it to the language. I would admit, it was adorable though. Nonetheless...sprout and bud? Was that supposed to call on Eren and Maun respectively?

"I understand you'd like to celebrate, my darlings," he began. "But the final decision isn't mine. I have to yield to your Mistress Veronika in these subjects, so please go ask her instead of me. She knows Lovarda better than I do," he told us.

Eren, Maun, and I exchanged glances.

"Let's not ask," Eren said again.

"Yep. Let's not."

Maun nodded. "Mm! Mm!"

"Ask me what?"

We jumped and turned to face the person who talked behind us. My hair had similarly hopped to their ends like a startled cat and I, along with the other two, stiffly turned to face Mistress Veronika.

Eren looked over to me and pushed me forward to my blue-haired mistress.

"We...uh...wanted to go and celebrate us all passing to the final elimination round, mistress," I told her. "Eren wanted some strawberries."

"Strawberries are seasonal," Mistress Veronika said. There was a small quirk on her brow as she eyed all of us, slouching over with our heads down as we listened to her response. "They only grow in cold places like Sarenillia and particularly during winter season. The strawberries of this season most probably aren't ready yet. And whatever stock they have have to go through Venerya. I sincerely doubt there being any."

We all looked at each other and pouted.

"Come with me," she said.

"I told you to no longer say anything!" Eren whispered to me, elbowing my side accusingly..

"Says the one who pushed me to the front!"

I'm sorry if this was late. I had a bad headache last time.