Meredith awoke early that morning. For once in her life, she had had trouble sleeping, and she couldn't stand to be in bed any longer. She leaned over the edge of the bed, and looked at Zeke sleeping beneath. It had been a battle the night before, but Zeke ended up winning by sheer force, and he had slept in the same room. "He's starting to get overprotective and paranoid," Meredith thought to herself.

"No, I'm just concerned for your safety." Zeke opened his eyes and the arguement form last night came flaring back.

"You know what, I don't care. I'm tired of hearing it. If you're so concerned about my safety, let's go train me to defend myself. Right after breakfast." She flipped down to the ground and pulled a bowl, cereal and a carton of milk out of her Hammerspace. "Dang it, where's the spoon!" she muttered as she rummaged around some more. Finally finding it, she poured the milk and began eating. Once she finished, she bagan her morning stretches. Zeke watched with interest.

"What are you doing now?" He was rather confused. She had been all rearing to go, and seeemed to be lollygagging.

"I'm not going to disrupt my morning routine just because you decide to sleep in the same room as me. Besides, flexibility will help me in other areas besides Otaku. I do have a life back home..." Meredith stopped the thought because she was afraid of Zeke reading it again, and she didn't want THIS to get out. The last thing she needed was to have him teasing her endlessly about it. "You should get dressed," Meredith calmly observed.

Zeke blushed and went into the bathroom. Meredith used this time to quickly throw on different clothes herself. Training... she decided on her normal running clothes. It was the fastest apparel decision she had ever made, and she was dang proud of herself. Although, there was nobody here she was trying to impress, and she'd just be training all day. So it didn't really count.

Zeke appeared again in shorts and a tee shirt. "Great minds think alike, eh?" He smiled at Meredith who instantly wished she had chosen something else. "Finish your stretching, and we'll get going. I want to get going early so we can get there and get training.

"Where? We're leaving?" Meredith looked disappointed. "We better not take off without telling the others. You go tell them while I finish." Zeke looked at her strangely, but left the room. Meredith looked relieved, and practiced her spins and did the sit ups she didn't want Zeke to be there for. She was almost finished when there was a knock on the door.Meredith sat up. "Come in!" she called, and Kristsi appeared at the door.

"You're going training?

"Mm hmm." Meredith nodded and went back to her sit ups.

"Maybe I ought to come, too. I still don't have a Guardian as yet, well, he hasn't shown up, and I need to get training too." Kristsi was a little bit worried, and it showed in her voice and expression.

"Sure, that'd be awesome. Besides, I could use some company to lighten this whole 'Guardian' load!" The two girls giggled as Zeke walked in.

"What's so funny?"

"You could at least knock." The tone in Meredith's voice was accusatory. "And Kristsi's coming too."

"Bu-"

"Nope. She's coming, and that's final. She doesn't have a guardian to train her yet, and if she doesn't get started, she'll never catch up. We're both behind enough as it is."

The three stood up and the girls followed Zeke. They walked further out of town, and the landscape changed all of a sudden. The girls stopped with a start, and asked in unison, "Where are we?"

"Welcome to Konan country. We start training now."