The weather outside is fairly nice, even if down on the surface it's supposed to be winter where Rephidim is currently passing by. (Weather goes fairly strange in Rephidim, by the standards of those on the surface.) This particular class draws members from a cross-section of the student body, putting less experienced swordsmen in with those who are practiced, as a way of further sharpening skills. The specialty is fencing, practicing in the use of foils rather than the one- or two-edged sabers and swords preferred by most officers.

Even though the traditional cadet uniform incorporates a bit of ornamental armor, for the sake of movement and practice, the students wear white practice coats of padded cloth, to protect the arms, torso and groin. To protect the head, they carry chitin helmets with facemasks that fade from opaque white at the back of the head to transparent at the front, giving the wearer a wide range of vision without the obscuring effect of a screen.

In accordance with the tendency of the students to have muzzles, the helmets are each divided into three segments that clasp and lock together into a shape that is something like a "raindrop" on its side, with a cone to the front to allow room for the muzzle and deflect errant blows. These work fine for practice, but such a design has a tendency to be broken apart in combat by any serious head hit, and the helmets do occasionally pop apart in particularly heated practice as well.

A couple of fencers face off along a line that has been marked in the grass, lightly exchanging attacks with their foils – and with verbal jabs as well. *tack tack tack* "You fight like a milk-maid!" *tock tock tock* "How appropriate! You fight like a Rughrat!" *tack tack tack* "Are you still wearing diapers?" tock tock tock "Why? Do you need to borrow one?"

Eustace stands to one side, fidgeting with his foil, waiting – along with several other students – to be assigned his sparring partner. Unlike usual, he's keeping fairly quiet, not gabbing with a cluster of hangers-on. But then, when news got around that he'd been rescued from the College Esoterica by (gasp!) women (even if one of them was a fellow cadet, and the others were mages), it sort of tarnished his bravado with the female cadets.

Seline von Shanar (a white-furred malamute Gallee) and Jiraud do Nell (a black-furred Doberman Gallee with head-hair cropped as close as his fur) exchange challenging glances now and then. Some other students chatter quietly about the latest rumors and news concerning conflicts with Nagai … and now Babel.

*Tack tack tack* Elise, one of the array of fencers off in a bout at the moment, squares off against her opponent. She steps forward with a series of thrusts intended to push the other cadet back and instill doubt, and thus cause him to be distracted and open up his defense. "I slew a golem, you know!" she reminds him.

Elise's opponent, a freshman poodle by the name of something-or-other from the Tannin family, takes several steps back, his foil darting far from a controlled center. It's … almost too easy. Elise gets a firm plant with the foil square on young Master Tannin's chest. "Touche," he says with a sigh, "again."

"One learns more from losing than winning, or so I have heard. Keep your spirits up. You will not always be so easily defeated if you train hard," the poodle woman tells the freshman with a smile. She takes a step back away from him and allows her foil to drop to her side. She takes a moment to look around at the other fencers while she waits for either her next bout with this cadet or, should they change the line, with someone else.

Tannin groans, "Yeah, I must be learning a lot… " At a nod from the instructor, he heads back to the line of waiting competitors, muttering, "'so easily defeated'… bleah."

Elise gets no such nod from the instructor. It looks like she's going to get another opponent this time.

A white malamute walks up to the line – Seline – fresh from a bout with Jiraud, such that she hasn't even bothered taking her helmet off. "Prepare for a challenge," she says, a smirk visible through the clear visor of her helmet.

"Oh, I suspect as much. So nice to see you again. I was rather concerned our last conversation had upset you." The female poodle smiles politely towards the malamute, taps her foil to her helmet in a salute, and readies herself en garde.

The malamute taps her fencing foil to her visor in a quick salute, then adopts a guard position as well. "You may lead," she says, holding her grip toward the center line, but letting her foil point delicately out and dip slightly down, held in her right hand.

Off to the sidelines, Elise's classmates keep quietly (but perhaps not quietly enough) whispering amongst themselves as they wait their turns.

Elise raises her own foil up and, much like her opponent, holds it delicately out. "Why, thank you," she says before whipping the foil against Seline's to initiate the bout, before dropping back into the defensive. Having witnessed the malamute's battle with Jiraud, she readies herself for the fury of attacks she expects.

For the moment, the malamute doesn't seem to be going out, perhaps just testing Elise's skill – or mettle. She makes a fairly straightforward attack, technically perfectly executed, but easily enough tapped to the side in a reflexive action by Elise's own foil. It's a safe attack, not leaving anything in the way of an obvious opening, but not forcing Elise backward, either.

Having deflected the attack easily enough, the poodle continues to stand on the defensive. She does not initiate an attack of her own just yet, but instead waits to see how the malamute reacts. Beyond the visor, she smiles a little as she keeps her eyes locked on her opponent.

The malamute does not pull back her foil to begin another attack. Rather, in that split instant while Elise's foil is returning to its standard guard position, the tip of Seline's foil orbits that of Elise's foil, then dives as Seline's upper body drops, and moves forward, her forward foot sliding further forward to widen her base of support. Her blade angles outward at a seemingly awkward approach, but comes around and under Elise's sword arm. The tip plants against her chest, and the foil bends with the pressure.

"Very nice," says Elise. "I will certainly have to remember that." She lowers her own foil and takes a step backwards to give Seline some room, still smiling politely.

The malamute steps back, looking smug. "Now that we've established that … shall we start again?" She taps her helmet again in salute, then adopts her initial position once more.

The poodle likewise taps her helmet in a salute and returns to en garde. "At least you are not a giant beast made of mud." Elise smirks and inclines her head a little. "I believe it would only be fair to allow you to lead, now."

Seline says, "I don't believe such a comparison has ever been made of me before." And then she lightly taps Elise's blade-tip … then immediately drops her tip and thrusts inward!

Elise in turn moves to shift her body out of the way of the approaching tip instead of deflecting it. Hoping for the best – namely the blade being dodged – she awaits a miss and perhaps a weakness in Seline's defense due to it.

Elise's maneuver appears to have succeeded … for it appears that the oddly-aimed thrust was in fact a feint. However, since Elise did not go for the bait by trying to tap Seline's foil with her own, she is able to react when Seline's blade darts about and goes for her true target. With a twist of the wrist, Elise manages to block the foil with her own, and Seline at last retracts to a standard guard stance, aborting her attack.

A short, quiet, sigh of relief escapes the poodle as she manages to avoid losing in the first exchange of attacks. Gaining some confidence from this, she goes on the offensive and attempts a feint of her own: a lunge that would seemlike it would strike Seline dead center, but in fact will be aborted half way so that Seline may be left deflecting or dodging a fake blow, and thus vulnerable.

The feint is a little shaky, and just a tiny bit too far out, but Seline taps at Elise's blade with her own in an attempted parry. It would seem the bait is taken, and for an instant, Seline's blade is off to one side.

Elise grins at Seline as the feint is taken, and she goes to make another trust. However, this too is not an attack but another feint performed to connect the two attacks in appearance, so that the malamute may think she is using her technique and take the bait.

This time, Elise's feint is a little more confident … and that seems to actually work in her favor, since Seline seems to take the more decisive thrust as the real thing, and quickly recovers to tap at Elise's blade once more … but leaving herself considerably more open to counter-attack this time.

Seeing her opportunity now, Elise finishes the technique. With a calm and focused lunge she thrusts her foil at the exposed malamute, twisting her foil as she goes so that it will strike at the least defended area of her chest.

Elise still has some work to do on her form … if she hadn't managed to get Seline off guard like this, she probably wouldn't have gotten close to her mark … but what matters is that she does. Elise's attack is rewarded as she feels the backward push of a firm plant against Seline's chest … and then the foil bends slightly from the pressure.

Seline's expression changes from a feral grin in a flash to a surprised frown. She glances down, as if she were not trusting in her sense of touch alone. "Touche," she murmurs.

The pressure of the foil brings a smirk to the poodle's face and she takes a second longer than needed to remove the weapon from Seline's chest. "I do believe, there is a first time for everything," she tells the malamute in response toboth her remark about being compared to a golem, and perhaps as a little jab about her victory. "You have excellent technique, upperclassman von Shanar. I could do to learn from you." She smiles genuinely now in an attempt at no hard feelings.

Seline smiles in return. There's a touch of embarrassment, certainly, but no trace of anger. "Perhaps you are learning already."

The instructor claps his hands, then gestures to the two combatants. "Back to the side. Next pair! Eustace do Varr … and Kar do Tannin!"

Seline taps her helmet in salute again, then steps back, reaching up to undo the clasps holding the sections in place.

Cadet de Bellefeuille taps her own helmet and then reaches up to unclasp her own helmet. "It was indeed very challenging. Under most circumstances, I doubt I could have defeated you." The helmet comes off and the poodle tucks it carefully under her left arm. "You really are quite excellent."

Seline smiles and nods … then walks back over toward her particular clique of upperclassmen. Meanwhile, Eustace squares off against Tannin. Neither of them looks particularly confident, though Eustace seems to have a slight advantage.

Elise returns the smile of the upperclassman before heading back over to the sidelines. Unlike the upperclassman, the poodle woman stands without a group of her own, and thus watches Cadet do Varr by herself.

Beside Elise, a girl poodle whispers to another, "My father says that Gallis has pledged its allegiance to Rephidim first of all the Nordikan nations coming to our side. But … get this … I hear that in exchange, Rephidim won't recognize Sylvania."

Meanwhile, Eustace starts the exchange with a tapping of swords. The two fencers spend turns shuffling forward and back, neither brave enough to put in more than a weak attack and parry just yet.

The smile on Elise's muzzle fades as she overhears the conversation of the poodle beside her. Taking a moment to turn away from Eustace's duel she turns towards the girl and tilts her head slightly. "Pardon, I could not help but hearing you mention Rephidim may no longer recognize Sylvania as a nation. Is this indeed true?"

The girl shrugs. "It's just a rumor right now. But, seriously, do you think the Temple is going to snub Gallis in favor for a bunch of swamps and bandits?"

"No, that as I see it, would be a tactical error. Gallis has a superior force compared to the ailing Sylvania," responds the older poodle. "However, having met the Czar as well as Count Kurai, I can tell you Sylvania is not populated entirely by swamp bandits. Also, despite being somewhat of a rogue, Count Kurai did defeat the Gallisian invasion force single-handedly. He also seems to command a great number of Savanites."

The girl poodle looks at Elise wide-eyed for a moment … then suddenly gives way to a smile with a "Oh, you were pulling my leg!" look and giggle. "You tease!"

Elise tilts her head to the other side and then promptly shakes it. "No, I, am truly not teasing you. I have indeed met the Czar of Sylvania, and I am rather certain Count Kurai has a considerable amount of Savanites to aid him. There was in fact a developing town of … free … Savanites in Sylvania that was pointed out to me, that carries the name 'Kurai'."

"Oh!" says the girl poodle. "So that's how he got so many slaves? He got them for free?"

"Not that I understand or condone this 'free' Savanite movement, but I do not believe they are all slaves. Hence their being 'free' Savanites," replies Elise. The older poodle folds her arms around her helmet and begins tapping it thoughtfully. "Have you heard anything else? I am rather concerned about all this talk of war – more so than I was not long ago, as the war had tried to kill our tour group at the College Esoterica."

The girl says, "Oh! Yes, it's getting quite dangerous. But for the Nagai, too. I heard that there have been some attacks on Nagas by Kavis, who … ," she pauses for effect, looking around, then leans in, whispering, "… eat them alive!"

Elise, after leaning over to listen, rolls her eyes. "Likely a great deal of nonsense. At least one would hope this conflict has not brought some down to such detestable acts as that." She shakes her head again as she resumes standing upright. "What of Babel? I would have thought after their defeat they would not have a great enough force to be much of a threat, though I do believe they still have their magi."

"Well, actually," says the girl, "Babel didn't take that much of a pounding. I mean … right after the Battle of the Plaguebringers, they surrendered before we got a chance to hit back. Guess we should have done it while we had the chance!"

The older cadet nods in a agreement. "Yes, perhaps we should have. Perhaps we will also get another chance." A glance off towards the others gathered, and Elise poses a question of the girl. "Have you heard of any effect this may have on the Academy?"

The girl shrugs. "I don't know, really. Rephidim hasn't officially declared this a war yet. Only if things go really badly for us would it have an effect on us here at the Academy. And things have hardly started … and so far the score is one for Rephidim, zero for Nagai, looks like."

The freshman smiles. "But I'm certainly glad Gallis is sided with us. You know how it goes when Rephidim goes to war. If it's Babel, everyone looks at Eeee funny. If it's Nagai, everyone looks funny at anyone with scales. What would we do if our enemies were Gallee, hmm? We'd go cross-eyed!" The poodle girl beside Elise suddenly breaks into high-pitched, tittering giggles.

"Well then, let us pray to the First Ones this conflict never reaches that point," says Elise with a slight smirk at the girl's comment. "I … had been hoping Gallis would side with us. It would be dreadful if we had to fight our own kind," she says. "Oh, I do not suppose you know anything about upperclassmen do Nell and von Shanar?"

The poodle girl sighs at the mention of do Nell. "Oh! It's a shame he isn't a poodle."

The older poodle smirks faintly and glances off towards Cadet do Nell. "Is he that popular?"

The poodle girl nods. "Oh yes! That's why he's president of the cadet council."

"I had not realized. I really should take more time to look into these student matters. But yes, indeed, I can certainly see why he is president. I rather wonder though, if his not being a poodle hinders him any," mentions Elise to the girl.

"Oh, if he were a poodle," sighs the girl, "he'd … he'd probably have graduated early!"

*tack tock tack tock* *potpot* Eustace and Tannin look down at their foil tips … firmly planted on each other's chests. "Touche!" they call out in unison.

The instructor sighs. At that moment, the campanile bell rings out the top of the hour. An instant before the instructor calls out, "That's it for today's practice!" most of thecadets are already headed for the locker rooms. (Those that had nothing better to do than clock-watch, that is.)

A slight grin crosses Elise's face when she spots the two fencers defeating each other. The tolling of the bell gets her attention however, and she turns to watch the other cadets head off to the locker rooms thoughtfully as she considers Cadet do Nell's situation.

As the cadets file off to the locker rooms, Elise's ears pick up a discussion off to one side that seems a little more heated than the usual chatter. Out of the corner of her eye, she spies Cadet do Nell, still in his gear, berating a young – and quite pretty – girl who just stands there with downcast eyes. She's wearing a cadet uniform, instead of a fencing outfit, though the uniform looks to be of an older cut – quite probably a hand-me-down from a previous generation, though still technically fitting Academy standards by 'grandfather clause'.

Her face isn't familiar – definitely not a fellow student in any of Elise's classes. By her age and demeanor, she certainly must be a freshman.

Snapped out of her quiet consideration by the conversation, Elise turns around to face the two. Her ears twitch slightly when she finds it is indeed Cadet do Nell who is talking, considering that she was just thinking about him. Quietly, she moves a bit closer in an attempt to listen without actually appearing to be eavesdropping.

"Don't you ever do that again," growls do Nell, raising his hand in a gesture that makes the collie girl flinch away as if slapped. "You're mine now. If I catch you looking at a male cadet that way … First Ones so help me … " His hand closes into a fist, which he shakes, clamping his mouth shut as he fumes.

"Please forgive me," whispers the collie. "I did not mean to disobey you. I will not let it happen again."

The rest of the cadets, heedless of this little spat, continue on their way to the locker rooms to change. There's only a short break after that before the next class, and most of them aren't inclined to waste the time dallying around.

"I would not have expected such a fine cadet to be so horrible. Threatening that girl, in such a way as if she were your slave, it is simply intolerable," says Elise suddenly as she walks up to the two cadets. A deep frown crosses her face and she glares daggers at Cadet do Nell. "To think, I was beginning to look up to you."

The collie girl's ears blush, and, while her head is ducked low, she walks up to interpose herself between Elise and Cadet do Nell. "Please, he was not threatening me-YELP!" She is roughly pushed aside by Jiraud, who coolly looks down his muzzle at Elise. Hmm. He's a full head and shoulders taller.

Jiraud says, in a cool rumble, "This is a simple misunderstanding between myself and my girlfriend. It is none of your concern."

Fueled by anger at the display, the poodle woman takes a step forward to show she is unafraid of the taller cadet. "Misunderstanding? I saw how she shrunk from your hand. You, you… monster. Were I her, I would leave you in an instant!" she growls up at the man.

Jiraud smirks. "Well, you aren't. And, as you'll see, she's still here with me. So I'd suggest you take your concerns elsewhere, Miss Bellefeuille."

"I will not simply walk away from this. She will not leave because she is scared of you, you who probably would not let her go anyway. I will not allow you to bully her." The poodle cadet does not move away, or even avert her gaze from the Doberman. "Just because you are the cadet council president does not mean you can do whatever you wish."

Jiraud smirks. "Oh … and is that some sort of challenge, Miss Bellefeuille?"

Cadet de Bellefeuile glances over towards the collie and gives her a worried smile before she turns back to glare at Jiraud more. She stares at him, considering his words, and then nods. "If that is what is needed to stop you, then yes! I challenge you, Jiraud do Nell, to a duel. I know you cannot refuse me."

Jiraud raises an eyebrow. He meets Elise's gaze for a moment … then smiles. Then shows his teeth … then laughs!

The collie, meanwhile, just clasps her hands together, holding them to her heart, staring down at the ground.

Elise eyes widen at the reaction, then narrow. "You cannot decline. You told me the story!"

Jiraud finishes his laughter, then looks Elise directly in the eye. "But of course, I cannot decline. And you cannot win. You lost once to Seline before you got in a lucky stroke, and I am her better. What possible chance do you have to win against me, having never faced me before? This will be too easy."

"Stop your bragging. I do not care how fine a swordsman you happen to be. I will not allow you to continue treating her that way," replies Elise before she looks to the girl again. "I do not normally engage in duels, but this is different. I will not let him hurt you anymore. I promise you that." She then turns back towards the Doberman and glares at him again. "When, and where?"

"I will send a driver to fetch you," growls the Doberman. "I'll let you know when." He glances in the direction of the campanile, but doesn't look at it long enough to really be checking the time. "I'm afraid I have to be going now. Wouldn't do to be late for class."

"And, Sabel, you should be going as well," the Doberman says to the timid collie standing next to him.

"Yes, sir," the collie whispers, then picks up her books, clutching them tightly to her chest, as she turns away.

"I will be waiting," replies the poodle. She glances at the bell only for a moment before turning towards the girl to watch her leave with a saddened expression. She says nothing more to Jiraud.

Jiraud watches Sabel leave, then heads off to the locker rooms without giving Elise another glance.

"I… I will not let him treat you that way. I … I will train every night and during every free moment I have to beat him. I promise," whispers Elise in the direction Sabel went.