Lapis pressed his lips together and silently pried Manie's clawed hand open. Manie winced in pain, but gritted his teeth. The tendons stretched and pulled, tight and sore from being closed for so long, not to mention the already presant deformations.

"It's bad," Lapis pointed out the obvious after a second of inspection. "But nothing that can't be repaired." Manie's eyebrows rose but Lapis didn't explain. He stretched the deformed fingers a bit more and Manie gave a small cry of pain. Lapis glanced up at him quickly through stray strands of red hair.

"It hurts?" Manie bit his lip silently and nodded, tears welling up in his eyes. His hand just wasn't supposed to bend that way. Lapis frowned a little, his upswept brows knitting together.

All at once Lapis dropped his hand and turned away to the rack of blades behind him. He turned back with a simple short, fat blade with a leather bound handle.

"You'll use this, for now," he said, flipping the blade around and passing it, hilt first, to Manie. The ex-begger took it in his good hand; the blade was weighty but sharp. Even he could tell it was made of a relitively good steel and would hold and edge.

"Now, we begin."

It was almost dark when Lapis finally stopped drilling Manie with the blade. Lapis was a quick trainer and unusually patient; Manie was expecting someone more like Fera: sharp and fiery tempered, especially when a job is not done right. Instead Lapis said very little and rarely frowned, merely silently corrected Manie's many mistakes.

Lapis didn't offer any praise at the end of the day, just put away the rack of blades silently, gave Manie a curt nod, and dissapeared amongst the wagons, rack slung over hid back.

Manie's hands were sore, the back of his robes where soaked with sweat. He completely forgot about his duties to Lily as he stumbled towards the tent he was sharing to fall into a blissful, restful sleep.

.

Rosie.

Before&After