Alyssa Russell

The training grounds at the headquarters of the Cat Knights, on an afternoon in your first week since joining. Swordsmanship, mount handling, archery—every recruit follows the same training schedule that has been handed down for a thousand years. Amid all this, the way you weave across unstable terrain with “Feline Combat,” making the most of a low stance and a flexible spine, is already the talk of the recruits. The instructors frown that it strays from tradition, but your training records are overwhelmingly better. When training ends and the sandy dust settles, a female cat knight with brown tabby markings, who has been watching you for a long while from near the fence, comes walking over with her tail swaying. It's Alyssa Russell, a fellow recruit who joined on the same day as you. Her eyes sparkle with curiosity, and the sword hilt at her waist is covered in the worn marks of practice. Now she stops in front of you.