"No, you're doing it wrong!" she shouted sternly to the young man. Kassandra was teaching, or trying to, a class on weapons use and care. So far she hadn't seen much progress. With a sigh she jerked the short sword and whet-stone from the man who had been trying to sharpen it. "Go at an angle, see?" She demonstrated and had him do it over, the right way. "Good, now keep it up, you have to polish out what you did before." she said, indicating the fine scratches marring the otherwise perfect surface of the sword. Turning back to what she had been doing before, Kassandra lifted the long bow and stretched it as far as the string would allow and sent a dulled arrow flying across the wide field directly into the center of a target more than one hundred dragonlengths away. "If you can do that by the end of this class, I'll be impressed." she said as the turned to the rag-tag group of men behind her.

One swaggered assuredly up to her and took the bow and an arrow. "Piece of cake, just watch." he stated and raised the bow. Kassandra couldn't help but grin at his ignorance, and arrogance. He was already messing up, with a bad stance and a weak grip. He let the arrow fly, and it got less and half way across before driving into the ground with a dull plunk. "Nice one, didja mean to do that?" she taunted with a grin. The man grimaced and scampered to disappear into the group. "Alright everyone, class is over for the day!" she shouted and the field emptied in a flash, just leaving her to clean up. "How typical.." she murmured under her breath, and began to heave the equipment into her cart.

As she threw the heavy target into the back of her wagon, a soft mewl issued from underneath. Kassandra knelt down and peeked under the wagon and saw a small, shivering kitten. "Aww, you look pitiful." She rose and whipped the runners to move the wagon off of the kitten. It seemed to cold or frightened to even move. "Just stay right there." she reassured the kitten as she dug out a towel to wrap it in. It mewled again when she scooped it up. "It's okay little one, I'm not going to hurt you." She clambered awkwardly into the cart, and with a lurch they were on their way back home. Rubbing gently, Kassandra tried to dry the kitten as best as she could and felt bones sticking out everywhere. "Poor thing, you haven't eaten in days, have you?" The kitten just purred contentedly.

At home, Kassandra found food for her kitten, Etoile as she had begun calling him. It was late evening, and Kassandra was stretching before bed. "Kassie?" her mother called from the hall. "In here mama." "Kassie dear, a messenger arrived with this for you while you were away." Kassandra took the scroll of hide her other offered. "Thanks mama, goodnight." She gently kissed her mother goodnight and settled on her bed to read her letter. "Goodnight dear." Her mother left the room, still with as much grace in her step as there had been when she was younger.

"Aack!" Etoile had found fit to sit right down in the middle of her letter as she was trying to read it. "Scoot, Eto." He let out an indignant meow, rubbed his head against her cheek and left her lap in favor of lying on the pillows. "Silly boy." Kassandra smiled and opened the letter.

"Y'les...." Kassandra hadn't heard from him in ages, they had been childhood friends. She certainly hadn't heard that he had Impressed a bronze! "Mama!" Leaping from the bed, Kassandra knocked on her mothers door. Suddenly, her little green firelizard blinked from between outside the door, scolding Kassandra because Arlin was sleeping. "I'm sorry! Could you take this to Draco's Inferno Weyr for me?" The green tilted her head to one side and Kassandra saw what she was trying to picture. Never had she questioned her ability to hear the firelizard, she thought it just a normal thing. "That's it." she said, and attached the parchment to the green's forearm. It was only a few moments wait before the green returned, chirped her success, and re-joined Arlin. Kassandra slid into bed with a satisfied sigh, Etoile curling against her stomach as she drifted off to sleep.