The Big Three

Markus stands up at the bank of the river. He looks around while trying to squeeze the water in his clothes out. It seems that he's further down stream than he originally thought. Now, he's completely lost. He turns around and looks into the dark woods that seem to have no end in sight. The darkness just keeps stretching on and on. He takes a big gulp, mostly the river water, before turning back to the giant river. He looks up stream to where he came from.
Though he can't really see the spot, he knows that somewhere far up there the Neko is probably waiting for him. Thought here's a huge Cliffside blocking what would've been an easy walk back.

"God..." He says knowing that he has only two options.

Walk along the river side and climb up a bunch of cliffs, or transverse through the forest to hopefully find his way home. The deadly forest or the deadly river. It's a really hard choice seeing as this is suppose to be his training. A pretty cruel training he'd say if anyone asked him for a comment.

He walks over to the cliff and looks up. It's a sheer drop from the top if his hand slip. Probably some serious injury if he doesn't land right. He rubs his hand along the smooth face of the cliff feeling how wet and smooth the rock is. Of course it would be way to smooth to climb up. Because that's just his luck.

He shakes his head and musters up his power into two short spikes. He hits the rock as hard as he can to only have himself pushed back by sheer magical force. He rolls across the ground as the spikes disappear. He gets up panting and staring angrily at the Cliffside.

"Forest it is..." He says as he limps away from the river bed into the forest.

Upon entering, he already feels as if he's being watched. He keeps his eyes and ears open as he transverse the forest. He heads to his right in hopes to eventually reach wear Fireheart should be, if he is, waiting. He can only hope this is part of his training. Never judge anything based on what a person does? Something along that. He figured that out while rolling across the river bed floor

Something snaps behind him and he spins around and raises up his fists. He keeps them close to his body as he feels a presence all around him. He looks up in the sky as something flies over his head.

"What the-" His statement is cut short as something tackles him to the ground.

He reacts and pushes it up as he flips his body head first. He manages to push it off with a loud thud before it skitters off with a lot of noise. He immediately gets off his hands and knees and starts looking around frantically for another attack. It comes in the form of a sneak attack as something sinks into his back and slides across is faster than he can spin around. Something sticks into his chest making his stumble back a bit. He looks down to see two big round oval shaped balloons with a needle coming out of them.

He grabs them and yank them out to watch liquid drip from the tip. That's when everything goes colorful.

Caleb ducks under a high swipe to only have his legs taken from under him by the other one. The two warriors are going as hard as they can on Caleb and Indie. Indie lays on his back holding a hand to wounds along his chest. Caleb is trying to push through the pain as he tries to fight them on his own. Which proves fruitless as a kick to his gut sends him rolling across the ground and splayed out.

"That was so much fun!" The happy go lucky Neko says jumping up and down in happiness.

"You go that right. There is hardly anyone that can keep up with our teamwork." The calmer one says rubbing the back of his neck, "You two will need some work that's for sure."

Caleb gets up on a knee finding it hard to breathe. He looks at the two with both a look of wonder and anger. He hates losing. A lot. He would rather die than to keep losing.

"But first. You'll need rest. You've both fought hard. I'll take you guys to the healing house." The calm one says, "Meanwhile, Let us introduce ourselves."

"I'm Snowball!" The happy one says pointing a thumb at himself, "And this right here is my partner Strider!"

Caleb nods his head at the both of them, "I... I can't wait to learn from you two. I can tell there's much I can learn... from you two..."

Snowball nods his head excitedly before walking over to Indie and helping him up, "But like Stridey said. You guys need rest. But don't worry! Mrs. Motiff is a really nice woman!"

Strider helps Caleb up. Caleb leans his body against Strider for support. Caleb has been fighting pretty hard up to this point. He would try to walk on his own, but Snowball really took out his legs on that last leg sweep. He wonders how well the ponies would hold up to these two and smiles inwardly. The beginning of the end of their race is almost upon them.

"Hey... do you know where Markus is?"

Strider shrugs, "We've only been assigned to you two. So they probably gave Markus a different tutor."

Caleb nods his head sleepily as he limps along side Strider. Indie is having a hard time as well as Snowball half carries half drags him to the healer's house. When they reach there, Indie is basically knocked out. Snowball and Strider switched who they were helping seeing as Strider has more upper body strength than Snowball.

"Your friend, Indie. He's really heavy." Snowball says watching as Strider lays Indie on the moss bed that's propped up slightly.

"Yea well... You kind of get used to it after a while." Caleb says sitting down while staring at the floor, "You guys sure gave us a beating. Even when fighting against the others, I've never lost like that before. And I hardly lose."

"Welllll~ Let this be your first lesson! Humiliation!" Snowball says sitting down beside him, "Everyone needs to lose once and a while to remind you on how easy it is to be defeated and how easy it is to win"

"But I hate losing! I can't afford to lose! I want to be the stronger!" He says as his flames start rising on his back with his anger.

"You will become stronger. A lot of great warriors are only strong because of how many times they have lost. When you fight someone who is stronger than you, you want to get better. Right?"

Caleb nods his head.

"My point! Now. Rest up strong warrior. You'll need all your strength for when training begins." He says getting up.

Caleb chuckles finding how nice this one is. He's never met a nicer person in his life really. At least not one he felt comfortable near. He lays on his back and lets his eyes shut with the image of Snowball's smile still in his head. It sends a warm comfy feeling all over his body. It's a truly nice feeling.