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Shania's brow twitched as she lept to the left, narrowly missing the stuffed fish's attack after it had been visciously
wacked with the blunt end of a trident. Dead or not, that damned thing had already knocked her over three times, each time
with more force than the next. If the elf was getting her butt handed to her by a fish -- a dead, stuffed thing tied to a
palm tree, no less-- just how many times had the girl died already? Too many times to count, really. After the seventh visit
to the Newbie Fields the black-haired elf had decided to stop counting.
The girl's consistant death was not due to
stupidity nor idiocy. It was simple determination. Or rather, determination, eagerness and brashness. "I can't.", and "I give
up" were not a part of the girl's vocabulary. Whenever Shania was told that something could not be done, she set out to prove
them wrong -- with a smile on her face.
Her sunkissed face was covered with sand and blood from where shed' fallen
over several times. That grin, always present. The laughter that danced in her blue eyes that much brighter. Alright, so she'd
gotten killed by innocent looking bunnies, and even drowned herself half a dozen times (one would think she would've learned
to swim by now), why not give up? Because Naga believed in her. Her adoptive parents supported her. Most important of all,
Shania herself refused to give up all together.
Beating dead, stuffed fish was not the only zany thing she did for
training either. Sometimes, they'd go fishing with their bare hands, save eggs from falling off 'The Contraption' (it was
really a suspended rope bridge with a basket hanging from the middle that held a basket of eggs over a pot of boiling water
as a carefully aimed magnifying glass burned at the rope) and octopus wrestling. The latter was one of Shania's least favorite
feat, and she'd never admit how grossed out she was by it. At the end of the day, she'd go back to the barracks, sore, obviously
exhausted, but if anybody said 'lets go hunting', that elf was the first one to grab a weapon.
Now she was using Naga's
trident. There was a sense of pride and accomplishment that came with it. The first time she saw Naga fight it had been with
the 'Spoon'. Shania had been in awe, not only at her mentor's ability in battle but by the weapon's beauty as well. It was
part of the reason her weapon of choice was the bardiche, and the definate 'why' the elf hoarded every single penny she earned.
Someday, she too would own a trident of her own.
"WooOOooOO!!" Cheered the elf as she successfully beat the snot ouf
that fish, or rather the stuffing. Crumbled paper flew all over the place as the two-toned fish flopped bounced about lifelessly.
"Consider yourself tenderized!!" For a moment the girl bounced about, resembling a rather loony devil with the help of that
trident in her hands. The celebration, however, was short lived. In her happy bouncing, her left foot had somehow managed
to get caught on the carcass's gaping mouth. One minute the elf had been laughing, the other she was sprawled on the floor,
face deep in the sand.
Shania 1, Fish 4
"Dammit..."
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