They say: follow your heart ... but my heart wants so much while my mind wants only one thing.

The choice is clear.

LoG, 65

The twelve door posts opened. Boys and girls marched into the centre of The Arena guided by the older Vigils–monitors.

Squinty frowned at the tuft of the red hair. It's that kid, Odon. She spat into the sand.

Her hand had already hurt her from all that trying to keep contact with Grizzly's fur. They both went down to a lying position. Squinty's head rested at his side.

She noticed they gave armours and weapons to some competitors. Others were determined to use their equipment. How come they are allowing this? That repulsive oaf should get a training axe too. His weapon is better than most, and that's not fair.

As far as Squinty could see, during The First Trial, the monitors split all the candidates into pairs. The goal was to wear out and disarm the opponents and to show the techniques of the fighting you knew. They strictly forbade them to hurt another participant, but few followed that rule. The monitors were walking around them, watching duels, and scribbling something on their parchments. The relatives and friends cheered them on from the stands.

Squinty thought the judges had their favourites. The Chief Weapon Trainer certainly had them. It was evident to Squinty that this was the part he liked most.

"Well, at least 'Wolfgrik' is having a good time," Squinty said to Grizzly, pointing at the hairy man.

Wolfgrik was jumping up and down, slamming his fists on his desk, criticising a manoeuvre he had just noticed. "I'll be damned! Is that how you hold a hammer? Now I'd like to come down to show you!" the giant grumbled, his face drenched in sweat.

He shuffled and spat sideways; then he spoke to Borna with a sweet voice: "I apologise for this, my Prince ... But these fools ... They will never be good Vigils! They don't have legwork; they don't have muscles! They have nothing!"

The Prince raised his hand as a sign he received an apology. Then he covered his mouth with another hand, yawning. He seemed bored although at that moment a beautiful woman was sitting on his lap and stroking his chest.

"Can this man be interested in anything at all?" Squinty whispered out loud. "And why is he here anyway, if he doesn't intend to watch the Trials?"

"Well, a good Vigil must also have a good physical constitution," Wolfgrik continued, addressing no one in specific. "To strike as hard as possible and to endure the blow, not like these wussies!"

"Not everything is in strength," Radan noted with a smile.

Wolfgrik looked at him from above as if he were saying, "What do you want now?"

"There is something in speed, agility. A fast Vigil who has no armour on him, if he moves swiftly enough, can defeat a larger, fully armoured Vigil," the acorn man added.

Wolfgrik tried to exchange a conspiratorial glance with Borna, in which he failed. Then he told the man from Lug off. "What are you babbling on about, old man? Stick to your useless "War Dogs". They don't serve for anything. They eat bread for free."

"The War Dog and The Vigil are one. The will of The Vigil is the commandment for The Dog. He transfers his fellow fighter from one place to another and can fight alongside him while being ridden. He will never abandon his Rider to his fate," Radan recited.

The master of ceremony ran to the loggia. He was carrying the parchment with the ratings of the monitors.

Squinty craned her neck.

After a short discussion, the three judges nodded. Somewhat later, almost half of the applicants left The Arena, crestfallen, followed by whispers and murmurs of the crowd.

The remaining half stood waiting, wiping the sweat from their foreheads. Then the man with the horn announced The Second Trial.

Squinty leaned forward with great interest when The War Puppies entered The Arena.

They were the size of a pony, somewhat shorter than Grizzly. They had a tinier constitution, but they also moved more vigorously. The whelps cantered one after the other and finally spaced correctly opposite the rest of The Apprentices.

They seemed to be puppies that were not more than half of the Big One old, unarmoured. There were brown ones like Grizzly, then others who were reddish and yellow, grey, black or whitish. Squinty almost laughed at one colourful dog, who reminded her of a cow. She liked his two-coloured eyes–one was brown, and the other was bright blue like hers.

Squinty caught Radan's gaze filled with tenderness and pride, when the animals looked at him first, swung their tails, then again directed attention to the young competitors.

Then Squinty witnessed the strangest scene.

One by one, The War Pups would come out of the line, slowly passing along the path of candidates. They would sometimes stop to sniff and choose them. Some dogs visited all The Apprentices, but they didn't choose anyone. Such pups would quietly disappear behind the wooden doorposts.

The dog that Squinty had previously inwardly nicknamed "cow-dog" was among the first to choose its fellow.

It selected a shy girl. She bowed her head, clinging to the sling in her hand. When the dog came to her, he lay underneath her legs, placing his muzzle on her feet. She knelt and embraced him around her neck with a smile. Then, as if she remembered where she was, the girl sat up quickly. The dog sat beside her and continued to wait, watching as the remaining War Puppies picked young Apprentices.

The black red-eyed pup with bared teeth, somewhat larger in size than the rest, chose Odon.

"So, this guy remains here to be The Apprentice. I knew it," Squinty said to Grizzly. She now had to restrain him with an increasing anguish. It was as if he was struggling, wanting to join his species, yet Squinty couldn't let him.

Soon afterwards, the Trial of Choice was completed, and the unchosen Apprentices left the Arena.

Squinty straightened up together with Grizzly, now mounting him. Now to sneak among the selected ones. She could see the age and constitutive difference between her adult dog and the pups. Squinty comforted herself that no one would notice it from that height and distance.

Squinty listened half-heartedly to Wolfgrik's speech, capturing only words like "a great honour for The City of Lagad," "responsibility," "devotedly and honestly."

At the same time, she was slowly approaching the group of the Apprentices on the dog's back. She was trying to determine from which side it was most comfortable to sneak up.

The Arena exploded with the dog howling, and future Vigils cries. They celebrated their Connection.

That was the final straw for her dog. Grizzly wriggled under her arm, galloping towards the pack and howling. He left several strands of brown fur in her palm. Squinty barely maintained the balance, clutching him with her knees. She was so concentrated on not falling down from Grizzly's back she forgot to keep The Camouflage illusion up.

A tiny, thin Squinty's body in an oversized white tunic, with black hair over her eyes, materialised in front of everyone. She was sitting on the back of a colossal battle dog, who was twice as big as the other puppies. The whelps bowed to Grizzly with respect, and he sniffed them all in return.

The silence that dominated the stands was only temporary.

Seconds later, loud screams broke out in which the protests mixed with approvals, wonders and cries: "Who is she?"

Squinty's cheeks were burning, but she didn't shift or move. "We're busted." She addressed Grizzly, and he turned around to lick her nose with love. "So ... We can at least stand proud if nothing else," Squinty added.

As the people were screaming, Wolfgrik demanded an explanation, wide-mouthed and bug-eyed.

Radan was only smiling.

Prince Borna waved a girl to go away and then got up. That act alone was enough to silence a crowd of fifty thousand spectators.

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked, in a deep and calm voice.

Would you look at that? Something piqued his curiosity; Squinty smiled to herself.

Radan also stood up. Although he was now standing on a pillow, his feet dressed in comfortable leather boots, he could hardly reach Borna's armpit. He placed his friendly, gnarly four-fingered hand on his shoulder. The Prince jumped a little.

"The girl passed The Second Trial. The War Dog has chosen," he spoke, then sat down again, self-satisfied, looking nowhere in particular.

Wolfgrik, infuriated, muffled through gritted teeth: "What are you talking about? The Second Trial? What Second Trial? She just appeared, she didn't even go through The First Trial, nor did she apply! This is against the rules!"

"Are we sure she did not apply?" said Borna. He beckoned towards Squinty with his index finger. "Girl, what's your name?" he asked.

"Squinty," she called out to him, and then repeated it a little louder, coughing.

I've spent so much time whispering I don't even know what a normal voice should sound like.

He frowned a little at that unusual name, but he didn't comment on it. Instead, Borna searched for something on the parchment with his finger. After a while, he stood up. "You are not on the list," he concluded, glancing over to soothe Wolfgrik, who finally sat down following Radan's example, but continued to look at her menacingly. "Why?"

Squinty thought the Prince of Lagad was a man of facts. She thought it would be best to respond directly to him. "I am twelve Big Ones old, that's why," she replied calmly.

There was a commotion among observers, and in particular among thirty selected young Vigils. Squinty heard whispers all around. "She is a cheat!" ... "She is not even thirteen Big Ones old," ... "And imagine that, she sneaked into The Arena with the fully grown War Dog," ... Who knows where she found him. Maybe she stole him ..."

"Oh, come on, Prince!" Wolfgrik almost pulled his hair out. "This kid appears out of nowhere, not old enough, a metre and a piston of corn tall! She expects to deceive the entire auditorium and the three judges! You see how she is, all skin and bones! She seems haggard and frail. She probably never saw a weapon in her life, let alone used it," shouted the Weapon Trainer.

"She can learn," Radan said. "And not anyone can inspire The War Dog's loyalty."

"Where did you get this dog ..." Borna paused for a moment, watching the girl through the narrow pupils, "Squinty?"

"He came to me," she answered. "Now he's my friend and fellow fighter."

"Prove it," was the only thing the Prince of Lagad said.

Before she opened her mouth, Radan came to her aid once more. "If a War Dog allows a man to ride it, he or she shows the highest possible loyalty and mutual trust. When such a thing is permitted, after a long time they have been together, The War Dog fully surrenders to The Vigil. The dog then puts his or her life in his Vigil's hands," he explained.

Borna nodded in a sign he understood the explanation. "That's enough. Apprentices ... Mount your dogs," he ordered.

They looked puzzled.

"I would not recommend that," warning tone could be heard in Radan's voice.

"Do it," Borna reiterated.

The new Apprentices obeyed, hesitantly approaching their War Puppies and trying to climb their backs. The animals bared their teeth menacingly. The message was clear.

A triumphant smile arose in the corner of Borna's lips. He creased his forehead as if solving a puzzle with pleasure. "So it's true. You do have a firm connection with this War Dog," Borna concluded.

"Prince, I ... I beg of you ... You will not really take into consideration ... Only based on The Second Trial ... Let me remind you she hasn't even passed it. None of those blasted whelps chose her. She came with an already grown-up War Dog ... Who must have belonged to one of our Vigils. She must have taken it using a scam, what do I know, or stole it. She is not worthy of becoming one of us." Wolfgrik said.

"What is your opinion, Radan?" Borna turned towards the acorn-man.

"With your permission, my Prince," Radan bowed, "I think it might be best to give the girl a chance to prove herself. Some kind of ..."

"Trial period?" Borna thoughtfully completed his sentence, without removing the smile from his lips. "Yes, I think it's for the best. Certainly, we have never had ... Such a specimen among The Vigils."

Wolfgrik got up and left the loggia without a word.

Squinty felt a great deal of relief. Well, it looks like I got in. This Prince looks at me as if were an interesting ongoing experiment. I guess he wants to find out more about me. Keep an eye on me. I have to watch myself.

"This Apprentice Trial Day is over," Borna drawled, looking down at his subjects who watched him mutely. "Let the young Apprentices take their War Puppies to The Kennels. Then they will be directed to their Barracks. Bathe and pick up your armour before The Second Meal. Your practice starts with the next Light. Welcome to The Vigils."

Closing his speech, Borna disappeared leaving the loggia after Wolfgrik.

The last one who left was Radan. He winked at Squinty and gave her the encouraging nod.

She dismounted Grizzly, not wanting to differ from the others on the first Light.

The Apprentices already moved away anyway when she would walk past them, watching her with fear, disdain or indignation. Odon passed her by and elbowed her. Squinty reacted immediately, returning the punch. He yelled, rubbing the painful place, and then showed her the middle finger.

Jerk. Pain for the pain. It will always be like that. I will never suffer again, without returning the blow.

The Kennels were mini houses for The War Dogs with comfortable blankets and wooden bowls filled with meat and water. They found a free one for Grizzly, and he settled down, grinding a raw beefsteak he was offered with powerful teeth.

Squinty continued to follow two dozens of Apprentices towards The Barracks.

A quiet squeal drew her attention, and she paused at the crossroads between The Kennels and The Barracks. In one of the empty Kennels, there was a huge basket filled with colourful puppies. Squinty counted eleven. She smiled at their ball-shaped, chubby, furry bodies. Their eyes were half-closed, and their tiny paws rowed the imaginary boat in a deep sleep.

A boy who couldn't have been more than ten Big Ones Old emerged from behind the corner. He knelt near the basket with a glass bottle full of milk and a wooden dropper, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

That gesture he made caused Squinty's heart to jump. Roko, she thought, and it all came back to her.

It could have been him here. Looking after War Puppies. He would have liked that. I need to go somewhere. Now. I can't be ... Seen when I ...

"Their mom died when she protected her Vigil, on the way to The River Tebesum, you know," the talkative boy began explaining the story to Squinty although she did not ask him for clarification. "You see, I help with War Pups, feed them until they become independent," he added, and then looked around in wonder. The unusual girl whose hair covered her face, and who was standing above him just a while ago, was nowhere to be seen.

At that same time, Squinty was lying on the ground behind the Barracks, swaddling her knees with her hands. She was tightening her teeth so that no one could hear her cry.