Flashback ( PDFDrive )

hold our own against an ogre. They have two hundred pounds of
muscle on us—and claws and fangs. And they train from, like, birth.”
“True. I’m guessing that’s why the Council’s always put so much
focus on our abilities . . . and I think we need to get way better with
those, too. I’m supposed to be this powerful moonlark thing, and
Umber crushed me. And I’m sure if I’d thought to use any of my skills,
the Neverseen would’ve beaten me at those, too. Didn’t you say they
had you train every day?”
“Yeah, an hour on skills and at least an hour on abilities.”
“Then we should be doing the same thing . . . and weapons and
combat training, too, and Grizel could teach us goblin tricks, and Ro
could cover ogre stuff, and . . . hopefully the Exillium Coaches would
be willing to work on our skills . . . and then we could ask our ability
Mentors to push us harder in our sessions, and maybe Dex should
make us stashes . . . but I think we should carry them with us to save
time, so . . . we’ll need pockets. Why do clothes never have enough
pockets? There should always be lots of pockets . . . the more pockets
the better!”
“Easy there, Foster,” Keefe said. “I think you’re sleep-scheming.
Your eyes aren’t even open right now and you keep trailing off. Plus,
you’re talking a lot about pockets.”
“Am I?” She blinked hard, smacking one of her cheeks a few times
to wake herself up. “Okay, but what I said makes sense, right?”
“It does. Especially the part about the pockets.” He winked. “But,
you realize all that stuff takes a long time to make a difference, right?
The Neverseen are years ahead of us.”
“I know. But we’re never going to catch up if we don’t even try.
Plus . . . if they’re doing two hours a day and we do eight, that has to