The sun warms the ground, its heat blazing down on the woman in the sanded-down practice ring. She is the only one outside this early in the morning, when it’s still cold enough to see small puffs of air leave her mouth as she exhales heavily, feeling her lungs pull in the crisp morning air as she inhales immediately after. She hardly notices the sun starting to fully rise, as she’s been out practicing since dawn - since the slightest sliver of light could be seen, just barely above the horizon.

Tessara is in her headspace, nothing but a blur of movement and concentration, as she seems to almost dance around the rim of the sparring ring. She tries to keep the anxiety out of her calm morning, but she knows that she won’t be successful for long, if at all. Her jaw tightens, as though she hadn’t been training - practically raised - for this moment. Before now it always felt unreal, like she might never join the race. In two days though, she’ll be a contender. Alongside her childhood best friend, and neither of them will know what to expect.

Not only are the Trials wildly different every year, but the audience can only see so much; only as much as the Elders allow them to witness. Most of the time, the violence and the distress are dimmed down so as to not terrify the next year’s contenders. Of course, they spend a lot of time practicing in old arenas, but no one arena looks anything or acts anything like another. Tessara wishes that time could slow down for a little while longer. Still, she knows that if anything, time is going to pass right on by, as though taunting her.

Tessara’s fingers comb through her hair, catching just above the slowly forming knots of tangled hair. She had just brushed out from the braid she keeps it in overnight. With a sigh, she glances towards the East, watching the sun briefly, figuring that it had been an hour - perhaps two - since she left her home. Even longer since she had brushed her hair smooth. She might have to take Desirae up on her offer of aiding her with the struggle of her hair. You could just chop it off. Tessara shakes her head at the sudden idea that flits about her head, and quickly brings her hair off of her neck, tying it as best she can so that her long hair can’t bother her while she works.

A few moments later, the sound of a door falling shut somewhere nearby yanks her out of her thoughts, startling her. A shiver runs down her spine, making her roll her shoulders back, finally starting to feel the soft burn of the sun against her warm olive skin. When she glances over her shoulder, she isn’t sure who she is expecting, it could be anyone, Dimitri, Blaze, Desirae, or just another Elder.

Instead, it’s Desirae who is walking across the stretch of land from her home to the training grounds, tucking her hair up with a few assorted hairpins that rest in her palms. Desi holds a pair of the bent metal between her teeth, golden-brown hands deep within her light brown curls, trying in earnest to not drop the hair accessories that are nearly in her mouth. She focuses on slipping the hairpin into the back of her head so that her hair might not fall during training.

“Come to join me, have you?” Tessa asks, settling a hand on her hip, resting her weight on one leg as she leans against the wood bars of the training ring fence. The last hairpin falls out of Desi’s mouth as her head shoots up from staring down at her feet, not realizing she wasn’t the only one out so early in the morning. She presses a hand to her chest, as she bends down to grab the fallen bit of metal.

“You couldn’t wait a few more moments for me to finish my hair before trying to scare me shitless?” Desirae retorts, trying to sound serious, but the inevitable curl of her lips gives her away as Tessa comes over to the section of the fence closer to her friend.

“I didn’t, I was just asking a simple question.” Desi rolls her eyes with a scoff, then reaches her hands up. Tessara backs up, lowering her hands to lift her, but she lightly smacks her palms away from her, causing Tessa to frown, confused. Instead of grabbing her hands, Desirae grabs a hold of the middle rung of the bars of the surrounding enclosure, and quickly swings herself underneath the gap between bars, landing smoothly on her feet.

“Show off,” Tessara mutters to a grinning Desirae, who then walks out of the ring only to go get a pair of staves. “What was the point of that?”

“Just to frustrate you!” Desi calls over her shoulder, struggling to find Tessa’s stave. “Come over here, you know it’s nearly impossible for someone else to find others stave themselves.” With a breathy sigh, Tessara walks out of the ring, her bare feet padding softly against the soft grass just outside the fencing. Tessara gestures for Desirae to show her how her stave looks against her side, being content when it comes to rest at about her inner elbow. She does the same measuring tactic upon finding hers.

Desirae holds her stave with firm hands, the one side of the weapon pushed into the ring mat as if it were a tall walking stick. Tessa follows suit. Desi bows her head first, locking eyes with Tessara the entire time, then pulling the smooth wood pole upwards, holding it at an angle across her body, feet out as wide as her shoulders, ready. Tessa returns the same respectful gesture, stepping her left foot forward in her readying stance, whereas Desirae has stepped forward with her right. Their stances mirror one another, as they watch one another, shifting their staves into a horizontal position across their chests, arms extended, fingers curled tight around the polished weapons.

Given hardly anytime to truly register the sudden blur of movement before her, Tessara barely has time to jump back away from her forward frontal attack. Desi’s eyebrows raise, as if to say, stop playing defense. Tessara takes a shuddering breath and repositions her hands on her weapon, gripping it tighter than before, going back to her prepared stance, across from Desirae. Mere moments later, the sound of quick-paced breathing and the clashing of hardwood against its twin. As time goes on, the amount of time in between strikes shortens, yet no marring is visible on the weaponry, as one might expect to see.

The two women are just about one another’s height and weight, the slight difference being perhaps their hair length, and a half-inch difference. Even then, those two advantages can be used with ease. Yet both women continue to fight fair, neither one falling or surrendering to the other. It doesn’t take much longer for Tessara to fall onto her back, Desirae holding her stave against her chest and pinning her down. Finally, Tessara relaxes, only momentarily. As soon as she’s able, she grabs a hold of the stave across her chest and pushes up while forcing herself into a sitting position - out of breath. One glance to her sides, and it has become quite obvious that the two of them have drawn quite the crowd.

Her jaw clenches as she leans down to grab her fallen weapon, pushing hard against Desi’s just in time, causing her to stumble backward in surprise, balance faltering as her back hits the fence behind her. Tessara tries to hold back her smirk as she prepares for another attack, only to feel a jab to the side, as Desirae teleports to stand right behind her, and drive the flat end of the stave forcibly into her side. Now it’s Tessa’s turn to be surprised and fall to her knees. Within moments, the match has been called, despite her best friend’s cheating tactic.

“You know you won’t be able to do that tomorrow, right?” Tessara calls after Desi, as they walk back over to the weaponry, putting away their weapons.

“Not necessarily, we’ll just all have an even playing field, that’s all. That’s probably why the Elders are wanting to meet one on one with us in private all day today; they’re probably assessing strengths and weakness, specifically within our magic abilities.” Tessa hadn’t even thought about that announcement since the night before, stopping in her tracks as she recalls the conversation around the fire with Elder Maya. It takes Desirae a few more steps towards the mess hall to realize that Tessara has frozen in her tracks behind her.

“Have you already had your meeting?” Tessa asks, voice soft as Desirae walks back over to her. She begins to feel her heartbeat quicken and tries to deepen her breathing to balance out the speed of her heart. Desi doesn’t notice much.

“I did this morning, right before I came out to train with you, why?” She replies - almost innocently, her head cocking to the side in curiosity. Without hesitation, nor much thought, Tessara instinctively threads her fingers through her hair, but instead of just combing through her sweat-slicked curls, she just curls her fingers against her scalp.

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. Have you seen Dimitri yet?” Tessara quickly says when she notices a concerned look cross over Desirae’s eyes for a brief moment, taking her fingers out of her hair.

“Must you always get up with the sun?” The soft, but low rumble of his voice mumbles, his breath touching her shoulder briefly before he kisses the sun-tanned spot, making Tessa lift her head to see his face. A soft, brief, but real smile flits across her lips in turn, as she turns around to face him fully.

“You know, you could always just get up with me instead of sleeping in for so long,” she suggests playfully. “And before you say you’ve tried, every time I’ve woken you up, you just roll back over and fall right back asleep.” Desirae stifles a laugh - but not very successfully, as she stares pointedly at her brother.

“She’s got a point,” Tessa’s brother says, walking over to her, causing Dimitri to look away from his wife. He raises his eyebrows at his best friend.

“You’re siding with her?”

“She’s my baby sis, I always will.” Tessara slaps Blaze’s arms away as he reaches to hug her, causing him to fake a pout at her, in return she simply shakes her head with a soft sigh. Tessara glances around, realizing that the crowd hadn’t been nearly as large as she had thought, her nerves probably exaggerating how it had felt in the heat of the moment.