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The laughing and teasing discussions went on for almost an hour before the be-ringed form of Chris with Grev at his side came strolling up to the group.

"Right, time to get back you sorry excuses! I'd have thought you lot had at least learned something, but here I have Chris telling me that it was him and Snow catching the mages! Chris I can understand, but out of the entire lot of you it was Snow who helped him?!" Grevs' guffaw cut through their chatter and the younglings chastised stared at their feet.

Their arrival at the training fields greeted them with another new development.

Ranks of mages stood waiting, there was gear piled all around before the training masters. Grev quickly split them into their different groups and headed off with Chris in tow.

"I hope that a little taste of going up against magic has made you lot realise that you aren't near invincible!" A voice boomed out, Snow saw that it was Ukon who had stepped forward and was addressing them. "The time has come for you to learn how to go up against magic, the games stop here and now and the real training begins!"

Snow stood in shocked silence with the others, the past months had been filled with harsh training and even harsher punishment for failure or shirking of duties. Now here was a Mage-Guard telling them it had been nothing but games.

"First we have a demonstration for you however." Ukons voice rang out, "Please take up station and observe!" The ranks of mages gathered around one training circle and the younglings were ordered to gather as well.

Ukon had made his way to the centre of the circle. His opponent it seemed was a master mage. It seemed somewhat ridiculous that this frail looking man in his robe banded with the five colours of the elements was to be Ukons' opponent.

"Now heed these lessons well younglings and apprentices!" the voice from the old man was like dried rustling parchment, but it spread through them as if it was right by the ear.

"First, the element of Air, it is an element hard to defend against, by its very nature invisible. The only saving grace for you younglings is that it is impatient and hard to mould and sharpen. Most spells of air are like a hammer, broad and flat but no less deadly than a sharp sword. If you are without shield or cover, your instincts are your life. A shield has been erected for your protection and it will also colour the spell so you may see it. Remember that my opponent cannot and it is doubtful that should you face a mage he will be so kind as to colour his spells for your eyes!"

The old man nodded to Ukon on the opposite side of the ring.

The muscled blond fighter stood his ground for barely a moment before sprinting forward. Snow watched in awe as a hammer shimmered in purple before the mage and darted at the rushing soldier. Ukons muscles tensed and he veered from his straight line, the spell missing him by a good bit. More and more of the hammers were flung out.

Snow tried to keep in his mind the fact that the Mage-Guard was dodging and weaving through spells that he could not see, that were only betrayed to him by his instinct.

A hammer slammed him in the chest. Somehow Ukon seemed to dig in his feet against it, even as the force relentlessly pushed him backwards leaving furrows in the ground.

He seemed to twist and roll away from it and ducked another oncoming blast.

Suddenly he dropped to the ground, his feet again dug deeply into the soil. A seeming solid curved wall of shimmering purple pushed away from the mage. Just before the wall hit him Ukon sprung at it, shoulder first like a man trying to batter down a door. The wall held him in the air a moment and then flung him before it so that he skidded across the training circle.

He stood groggily and came to his feet a hand held up to the mage, before making his way off the field.

"An invisible foe is a dangerous one, but you don't need your eyes to know that harm is about to befall you, as Ukon has demonstrated. Please be mindful that he could not see the spells I was casting, nor did he have any protective enchanted armour or devices to assist him. Yet he almost reached me." The old man's voice dustily declared.

Next Klain stepped onto the field calmly and bowed to the mage when he reached the middle of the circle.

"Water, the vast life blood of our world, without it nothing would grow. It can be a calm gentle temptress or a cruel tyrannical mistress. Waters flowing nature is hard to confine and control, much as air, but if it's heart is turned to ice it will not care when it takes your life. Your armour against it is that unless there is a ready source to hand, it takes time to coax it into being."

The mage nodded at Klain and lifted his hands, the air shimmered hazily. Then a ball of ice grew steadily from the size of a rock to that of a boulder. With a gesture, like flicking a speck of dust the shimmering blue boulder rocketed across the field. A collective gasp arose when it flew over the figure of Klain who had swept himself low under it.

The mage however wasted no time, he hurtled a dozen small stones of ice at his opponent.

Puffs of smashed ice glittering in the air Klain met those he could not escape with fist or foot, it seemed like the man was dancing between a horizontal hailstorm.

Then the stones changed to thin spears barely seen as they glinted in the sun, the shield once again colouring them in a haze of purple. Klain danced through them, knocking some away from him. A sharp cry of yield and the thin spears stopped. It was only with the mad dance stopped that Snow noticed bleeding cuts and drips where the spears had found their mark. Klain again bowed and made his way out of the training circle.

"Earth is strong and hard and all around us. We tread upon its surface daily with little thought. Slow and ponderous, heavy with its stubbornness, yet when angered implacable and single minded in its intent to squash its opposition. Be glad of its stubbornness and its single mindedness for they are your allies as well as enemies. It is a hard and unyielding element to wield."

Grev took his place in the ring and crouched low a good distance from the mage.

Again the colourfully banded scare crow of a man nodded to his awaiting opponent.

The mage stood stock still, like a living statue. Then with menace his foot stamped at the ground. Grev flung himself into a sideways roll before leaping to his feet.

The ground where he had stood now speared upwards to the sky. Even as Snow stared at it the sharp tooth of earth crumbled. Snow watched as Grev moved, never standing still, the teeth rising in his wake with rumbling vengeance. Sudden stillness fell.

Snow moved his attention to the mage. The man had his eyes closed, his arms spread in front of him. It seemed like he was mumbling and a frown crinkled across his forehead, ponderously he brought his hands together before him and then flung them palms down toward the ground.

A slow rumble erupted. Stones and dirt from the crumbled teeth jumped and rattled like a wave of flightless insects striving to reach the sky. Then the ground heaved and buckled.

Grevs feet were torn from under him as the surface he stood on shifted and slid. Snow watched amazed as Grev hopped and bounced across the tortured surface of the training ring. He saw Grev leap and as he was to step down, the earth reared away from his down stretched hind-paw. He grunted heavily as he fell hard on his back. Steadily the rumbling ceased and the grinding and heaving earth of the ring returned to silence and as the mage pressed out his hands it was smoothed like a crumpled page lovingly caressed to a semblance of neat order. Even if the lines were still visible where the folds had been. Grev picked himself up and limped out of the ring.

"Fire!" the old man's voice snapped "It is our source of life as much as water. Without its light there would be nothing but dusty darkness, without its warmth only the icy embrace of death. It's by nature capricious and uninterested in our demands for it to be tame. It burns with a life of its own and it will consume whatever it can to keep its heart burning and alive. Fear it, for its unpredictable nature and its burning desire for anything that will hold it in this world! Your only defence is that as we give it life we must shape it and hold it to that shape lest it turn upon us!"

Snow watched as his own favoured instructor stepped onto the field. Unlike the others he was clad in leather armour. A mighty warhammer was slung across his back, its hilt jutting behind his shoulder. As he stepped he tapped the staff in his hand across the ground. Snow had learned most from Bayle, a large tawny brown Wolven. His arms and legs were twice as large as Snows own thick meaty limbs.

Sudden flame leapt from the mage, a hissing ball of fury scorching the air hungrily with its passing.

Snow watched with held breath as Bayle flung himself out of the path of the raging fireball, which splattered against the edge of the barrier that surrounded the training ground.

Again a ball of fire tore through the air, smaller than its predecessor. Snow realised that mages must spend time to gather their strength to cast larger dangerous spells. He would have to talk with his brother on the matter the next chance he got.

Snow watched as Bayle spun, his staff humming with the force of its passing twin to the hissing of the swiftly oncoming flame. There seemed to be a strange spongy impact and unbelievably the ball of fire changed direction and was flung back toward the scarecrow of a mage, but it dissipated reluctantly before reaching him. Fire licked at the staff in Bayle's hand and he threw it away from him. Placing his hand on the handle jutting over his shoulder, he heaved the mighty warhammer from its bindings. The catches designed to release if done right or tear away if there was no time to be careful about it, as Snow had learned through these past months of weapon training.

Steadily Bayle moved forward at a slow steady pace, battering away the smaller balls of fire conjured and hurled at him. Suddenly a crackling whip of flame sliced the air. Bayle deflected it with the broad head of his hammer. Another whip cracked through the air. Two snakes of fire dancing and slithering before the old man. A whip cracked and was met again by the head of the hammer, but the other wrapped itself around its haft.

Bayle dropped it before the coiling flames got near his paws and held them up in surrender.

The hissing and spitting sound of flames died out with the whips, though it seemed like they tried to flare and hold to life bitterly.

Bayle stepped out of the ring, the mage following him.

An old bald mage in silver robes strode to its centre. It was the same one who had been in his brother's room after the assassination attempt. Snow tried to recall the name the Grandmaster had spoken, but couldn't bring it to mind.

The silver robed man held up his blue veined and dark spotted hands, his sleeves slipping down his arms.

"Lastly there is Spirit. It is the glue of life, the cup that holds the elements together and apart. Trying to describe it is like trying to give words to love. We know of it, what it means, but cannot truly know it until it is experienced. Spirit is in us all and yet not. I ask that you forgive me for the lesson I am going to teach you. For of all the elements learning to defend against it can only be done if you have experienced it." The old man's voice rang out clear and strong. Snow watched as he threw his head back and lifted his arm skywards. Words seemed to sear across the sky.

Then there was pain.

It felt like his blood had turned to ice and his flesh to flame. His head felt like it had been dipped in oil, his ears sung hurtfully as if he had stood in the midst of a bell as it had been rung.

He searched for comfort, for cover, for protection. He felt the bond inside him, Chris's presence and the words spoken ages ago in the pain filled eternity when the change had been brought on him and he had been reborn a Wolven rung in his mind.

"Don't fight it, accept it. Embrace it, embrace life"

He felt the pain pull away from him and become a distant dull ache. He found himself on his knees. All around him the other younglings were writhing on the ground, his eyes sought and found Chris instantly. He saw Chris standing as if unaffected, staring at those on the ground around him.

Snow yelled out the words that had brought him relief. His talisman against the pain, Chris joined him at the second chant, their voices near howling at their pack mates. "Don't fight it, accept it. Embrace it, embrace life!"

Snow reached down and grabbed Tess, she opened her eyes and he could see her ears twitch at his chant, he saw her form the words. Her eyes cleared and glowed with thanks, her voice joined his and Chris. So, one by one more voices took up the cry until it surged through them like waves crashing repeatedly against a cliff, until the last of the Wolven stood again amongst them.

"Well done!" The bald mages voice cut through them, bringing instant silence. "But know this, that was not a strong spell and it was directed at all. The enemy will bring far worse to bear on you and the only defence you have is your own will, your own being. It will not always be enough!

These have been separate instruction and demonstration of the elements. They are even more deadly when combined."

The old man stepped out of the circle of hushed Wolven and mages around the training ground.

Bayle's eclipsing form called their attention in his deep gruff voice, "To your trainers!"

As Snow and his group gathered around Bayle in a hushed awed and fearful silence he watched them stonily.

"Today will be a sort of second choosing. Today you will decide on your weapons and armour of choice. The mages will enchant them for you. They will be what helps' to stand between you and death. I suggest you treat them as treasured artefacts and not toys."