Before Sharon could gain any more insights from Ebon, a loud clanging bell rang out from the courtyard outside and the shouts of the guards went up inside the mess tent; they spoke an odd mixture of several languages, but the ones calling out in English weren't really necessary for Sharon to understand the intended command. "RIGHT you sorry lot, haul ass and MOVE!" shouted one of the ones near her who had just finished putting down the fight, "You've fed your guts now it's time to work your keep!"
Tent flaps were thrown open and the crowd of trainees was herded back out into the courtyard en masse, where they assembled in front of the raised wooden dais as before. Glancing around Sharon thought that a few faces were missing compared to earlier this morning, but she couldn't be sure; in any case she caught sight of the back of Ebon's skull rising up a head above the others, a few spots in front of her and to the left.
Most of the remainder of the afternoon was spent on calisthenics and strength training exercises on equipment scattered about the courtyard, with a few more lessons in unarmed combat and wrestling moves as the sun crawled across the sky overhead. Again they were split into smaller groups under the supervision of a trainer, but all the faces were new this time; it didn't seem to be a grouping by skill level so much as the trainers mixing up groups and seeing how they worked with or against each other.
Sun Mar 2 11:56:54 2003