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Lina popped one final piece of lovingly spiced lamb into her mouth, and just like that the second kebab was gone. She looked down at the pair of skewers in her hands, wondering what exactly to do with them before shrugging and jamming them in the side of her belt. As tempting as it  was to just toss them to the ground, the idea of throwing food detritus away in the grounds of the Wardens of the Glade's testing felt a bit  too impolite, even for her. She'd find a fire to chuck 'em into somewhere or another. As much as she wanted to find more to eat--she was still hungry!--she had been standing there for a few minutes yet and hadn't even drawn her blades. She still had things to do, after all. As little as she actually cared about 'bringing glory to the Ariesca name,' the idea of having to creep home, tail between legs, because she couldn't pass? Now [i]that[/i] she did care about. So giving a knuckle crack and a yawn, she pulled her shortswords from their artfully-worked sheaths and stepped up at an open dummy.

[i][color=FFC0CB]I could sever this,[/color][/i] she thought upon first investigation. It wasn't altogether dissimilar from the ones she's trained with at home when she was younger, with a few well-placed swings she could carve it from its base and send it tumbling to the ground. It'd certainly get her noticed. However...there were more people here too. Did she really want to permanently reduce the number that could even participate out of a selfish desire to catch attention?

No, of course not.

So in lieu of breaking the thing, she instead elected to carve it up with as much skill as she could muster on a [i]superficial[/i] level. Pieces flew from it and she sank into the comforting rhythm of swordplay. Slash, slash, slice, chop, thrust; all of them calculated to avoid the wooden support. She couldn't count how many times she'd assaulted a dummy, but there was one more to add to the list now.

At some point, her attention drifted, and she realized two things. One, a small crowd was gathering around her. Many of the applicants here likely hadn't ever seen swordplay, and the distinctly military breed that the Ariesca taught was a far cry from the dueling stances of Atutania.

Two, that despite avoiding the support, she was still shredding the thing nearly to the point of nonfunctionality. She stopped short, then sheathed her swords and stepped back, turning to see the crowd.

...One of whom had [i]candy![/i]

Belying the ferocity with which she'd torn the thing apart, she skipped (again!) up to the fellow young woman, twinkling eyes flickering between the half-full bag of candies and her face. When she spoke her voice came out almost like a chirp: "[color=FFC0CB]Ooh! Are those Hahral date-sugar candies? I've never had one, can I try?[/color]"