It had only been two days since she left her home with Aura, and Darora officially hated training with the Greencloaks.

Sure, there were good things about it, such as eating food EVERY DAY, not being beaten senseless every time she tried to speak and... well, not being beaten senseless was a massive improvement on its own.

But training, especially in a group, always left Darora feeling more miserable and sick than it had before. She was forced to watch as the other girls in her group learned to work with their spirit animals as a team. It made her feel like a failure, even more than usual.

Aura had vanished the moment she had eaten her food. No one could tell the snow leopard what to do, and no one wanted to either. Darora had deep wounds in her arms for trying to touch her spirit animal, and they didn't seem to be healing. It didn't seem fair. None of the other girls were abused by their spirit animal every day. She sighed and hugged her legs as she watched her group train in her lonely corner.

Ember was perhaps the most annoying of them all. She had summoned a tiger, a beautiful orange tigress with amber eyes, named accordingly Amber. They trained loudly and fiercely, running across the room, attempting massive leaps, and even singing. At first, Amber had ignored or even growled at the singing, which had given Darora hope, but then she had started to enjoy it and even purr along.

Jasmine had summoned a much less impressive animal, a striped brown ferret named Tiger Lily, but she didn't seem to care. Tiger gave her bonder speed and agility, whenever she felt like it, though the ferret could be quite lazy. Jasmine quite liked to pause her own training to boss around and yell at everyone else. Darora found that rather annoying.

Esmeralda was the quietest of them all. She had summoned a rabbit called Jack, quite pathetic compared to Darora's snow leopard or Ember's tiger, but she had bonded with him perhaps the most. Jack obeyed the majority of her orders and lent her speed, and very good leaping abilities. The two understood each other in a way Darora just couldn't get, especially since Esmeralda barely spoke to them.

"LET'S DO THIS!" Ember screamed and barrelled at a bag filled with sand. She was determined to move it and had been trying to since she'd bonded with Amber. The tiger watched her bonder from the sidelines. Darora found it very difficult to read her expressions. Sometimes she would allow her bonder to fail and sometimes she would help her.

This time she let her fail. Ember smacked into the bag and yelped in pain and shock as she fell backwards. "HOW IS SAND SO HARD?" She wailed, clutching her face. The bag had barely budged.

"It's not really, there's just a lot of it and it's really heavy," Jasmine said in a know-it-all voice. She was leaping and dodging around some sort of obstacle course. Tiger was curled around her neck, seemingly asleep, but aiding her bonder. "I thought that was pretty obvious."

"I didn't," Ember replied in a wounded voice. "I thought my SPIRIT ANIMAL would help me." She shot a reproachful look at Amber. Darora could have sworn the tiger was smirking.

"You have to bond more with her," Jasmine instructed. She didn't notice Tiger Lily open her pale orange eyes. "Like I have with Tiger. See how she helps me-" Jasmine missed a leap and tripped, falling face first into some sand. Now Tiger was smirking. "Ok, I deserved that."

"I've been bonding with her for three days!"

"I thought you were bonded to her much longer than that?" Jasmine sounded surprised. She was back to leaping and ducking the objects on the course. She grabbed a rope and twirled around it with much more grace a normal person could accomplish.

"The Greencloaks found me three days ago," Ember shrugged. She was backing up, ready to run at the bag again. "I spent most of my time terrorising the streets with Amber before that. I earned quite a reputation, let me tell you!"

"My father wouldn't let me join the Greencloaks." Esmeralda spoke so rarely, every head turned to her at once. She blushed and hid her face behind her hair before continuing. "My fr-friend let me run away with him to join them." Jack bounced on his haunches and Esmeralda looked away again, studying a bow.

"My mother thought spirit animals were Tapu, ever since the second Devourer War." Jasmine paused to stroke Tiger Lily's head. The ferret closed her eyes and tilted her head in pleasure, sending a stab of jealousy through Darora. Aura never let her get near her, let alone pet her. "She said 'we should kill it instantly.' I've never seen a ferret attack anyone so quickly."

"Wow. I would have thrown a spear at her!"

"Ember, have you ever used a spear in your life?"

"There's always time to learn!"

"Girls, it's time for weapon practise." Lupita, an older Greencloak trainer stuck her head into the room. She had a small grey owl on her shoulder, her spirit animal, Stelmaria. Darora shuddered at the sight of her. There was something odd about her, she just felt wrong. The way Lupita's eyes shifted from blue to purple and sometimes a terrifying black confirmed that, but none of the other girls seemed to have an issue with her. Maybe it was just Darora. "In pairs."

Darora had to work to keep her face an expressionless mask. It was hard to resist the urge to wince. Pairs, great. Lupita hated her, then. The older woman left, but not before Darora saw her sneer at her.

Ember and Jasmine instantly paired up, glancing at each other. Esmeralda walked slowly over to Darora, her face still completely hidden.

Darora didn't appreciate the pitying looks Ember and Jasmine sent in Esmeralda's direction.

Suddenly, Aura passed into the room. She didn't freeze under the combined stare of eight eyes at once. She lifted her head and ignored all of them.

"There she is!" Ember said brightly. "You can train now." Jasmine stomped on her foot.

Darora slowly stood up and glared at the array of weapons before her. She wasn't going to be able to use any of them. Darora was more likely to wound herself than Esmeralda. Lupita knew that, but she had insisted to Olvan that all of the group was ready to do it on their own. She sighed and slowly selected a staff she knew would be utterly useless to her.

Esmeralda also took a staff, perhaps taking pity on her. Ember and Jasmine were already stabbing at each other with spears, laughing and talking loudly.

And then Esmeralda darted in quickly and smacked at Darora's legs, taking her by surprise. It really hurt, and Darora knew it would bruise later. She yelped and tried to hit her back, but she was already gone. Esmeralda was quiet, but surprisingly quick at fighting. Jack was watching, no doubt aiding her.

"Sorry," Esmeralda said softly from behind her and hit her with the staff on her back. Darora tried to spin around but her back protested painfully.

She swung the staff around and got herself in the legs. She masked her face quickly and climbed up, managing to hit Esmeralda in the side. The Niloan girl leaped to the side and swiped Darora's legs out from beneath her. She fell and scrambled backwards, flinching, almost expecting a beating from her mother.

When she opened her eyes, Esmeralda had put the staff down. "Are you ok?"

No, she wasn't ok. She was absolutely useless. It wasn't the staff, or any of the weapons, it was her.

"Just fine," she said coldly, her voice just as masked as her face.

"Oh, we-ell-" Esmeralda cut herself off with a gasp. She slowly pulled the sleeve of her sarong up. Jack was gone, and there was the tattoo of a rabbit on her arm.

"Well done!" Ember and Jasmine stopped fighting and walked over to congratulate her. "Passive state!"

"I can't believe you got it first," Jasmine sighed. "How awesome! Great job."

"Maybe now Amber will consider it," Ember said hopefully. The tiger shot her a look that obviously mean 'not a chance.'

"It's not that great," Darora snapped bitterly, finally letting her emotions spill into her voice. Esmeralda looked hurt. "It's just a stupid tattoo."

She got three looks; one upset, one pitying and one angry and accusing.

"You don't have to be mean," Ember said. She looked sympathetic. Darora didn't want or need her sympathy. She had had enough.

"I'm telling the truth."

"Just because Aura will never trust you, you don't need to ruin all of our bonds," Jasmine told her sternly. "You never join in with us and now you want to be rude?"

Darora scowled.

"Come on Esmeralda, you don't have to listen to her. Let's go." Jasmine left the room, Tiger Lily asleep around her neck. Esmeralda followed her, her head down. Ember gave her another sympathetic look.

"If you ever want to-"

"No," Darora snarled. "I don't. Leave me alone."

Ember looked hurt, then irritated. She left the room. Amber followed her and kicked the door closed, leaving her alone with Aura, who was pacing.

Darora dropped her act and slid down the wall, letting out a sigh that seemed to echo through the now empty room. She felt like she could cry. Tears were certainly threatening to spill from her eyes. She clenched her fists and took deep breaths.

Aura continued her pacing, every now and then letting out a slight growl. She didn't once look at her summoner. Darora wished she would. The minutes ticked by, Darora trying not to cry and Aura pacing.

Eventually, Darora found her voice. "Aura?" She hated how small and desperate her voice sounded, but she couldn't help it, she had to know. "Why don't you want me?"

The snow leopard paused, her paw still in the air. Darora had thought she might turn around and look at her. Maybe they would share a moment, and at least she would understand. She wouldn't hate her spirit animal. Maybe it wasn't her fault.

But she didn't turn around. She only paused, for one second and then continued to pace. This time, Darora couldn't stop the tears from spilling down her face. Her own spirit animal didn't want her and she would never know why.

Or would she?

Take a look at yourself, Darora. Why would anyone want you?

"It's ok, Aura," she said softly, utterly defeated. "I wouldn't want me either."

I wrote this a while back and posted it on amino. All of these OCs belong to me.