Jayna and Cassidy took seats on top of some hay bales, Cassidy ever aware of the diaper she was wearing underneath her dress. Thankfully here it was as useful cushion between her and the scratchy hay she and Jayna were sitting on.

“You’ll see Cas,” Jayna said happily. “Watching the cuccobo’s train always brightens my mood.”

“Yeah maybe,” Cassidy gave a weak smile. Really watching the training was just an excuse for her to be away from everyone, have less people potentially seeing her in diapers.

The two were seated in the viewing area of a large training arena a little distance away from the Callgahorn house. They were on the top of the hill that overlooked a very large circular arena. Inside the arena several walls made of wood were erected a varying heights, and some dummies were scattered about in strategic positions. Gathered near the entrance to the arena was a group of three cuccobos and their three riders, all dressed in armor. The cuccobo’s armor was relatively light, only covering their body and head, leaving plenty of exposed places to allow for flexibility, their riders made up for this with their full suits of armor and long pointed shields that could be used to cover any holes in their mounts defenses. In addition to their long shield the riders also had long sword spears. The armors themselves were inlaid with pretty fancy looking decorative art, and the colors and theming of the riders and cuccobo’s armor matched making them look like one solid unit.

The three riders were looking over a piece of paper by the entrance, their mounts chirping behind them also looking over the paper.

“They’re going over the exercise,” Jayna commented on the proceedings. “They have a lot of different training exercises they go through, and all of those walls and dummies,” she gestured to the structures of the arena. “They can be moved around pretty easily. So every day it’s a new course.”

“Wow,” Cassidy said to the explanation. “What are they doing today?”

“Looks like it’s going to be eliminate the targets,” Jayna explained. “They have to take the dummies out in order and within a certain amount of time, usually they have like 30 seconds to hit them all once they get the first one.” Cassidy looked down into the arena. There were nine dummies, all pretty evenly spaced out, which meant that each pair would have to take out three dummies each. All in order and in the span of thirty seconds. Cassidy wondered how well they would be able to pull it off, it certainly seemed like a challenge. “Oh they’re about to start,” Jayna pointed to another unarmored person who took up position at a tall observation tower on the other side of the arena to the general seating Jayna and Cassidy were at.

There was a brief moment of tension as the riders climbed onto their cuccobos. Once they were on Cassidy could see how well the riders defended their mounts. Their elongated shields could be moved to cover any opening not covered by the cuccobos armor, and since they didn’t have to move as much they could afford to be totally armored. Their sword spears were also perfect weapons for mounted combat. She also noticed that the riders weren’t really as in control of their mounts as one would expect. With their hands occupied with shield and spear they didn’t have a free hand to grab any reins if there were any to grab. The cuccobos were free to go wherever they wanted and it appeared they would be moving independent of their riders. Cuccobos were far more intelligent than their speechless noises might have one think, apparently intelligent enough to understand objectives and movements without needing input from their riders.

With a blow from a whistle of the observer in the tower the gate to the arena opened and the three cuccobos moved quickly and quietly inside. They used the walls for covers, as if the dummies they were after were looking for them. As they moved the cuccobos would quickly open and close their beaks making a distinct clacking sound as they did. Cassidy noticed that this was some kind of communication. One cuccobo would make a series of clicks then the others would make movements and respond in kind with their own clicks.

The clicks themselves, while loud enough to be heard even from Cassidy and Jayna’s position, were pretty innocuous sounds. Cassidy doubted that if she heard this clicking in the woods her first guess would be that she was about to be attacked. It was a stealthy and elegant form of communication, one these cuccobos must have mastered as they moved with a series of fluid motions to their positions.

Then suddenly, with a screech, one cuccobo jumped up on the top of a wall. It screeched at the nearest dummy to it, as its rider readied their shield to block a series of paintballs that started hurling toward the duo from hidden underground launchers that popped up suddenly. The rider successfully maneuvered his shield so that the paint splashed helplessly either against the shield or against the cuccobos armor. Cassidy even noticed that the rider cast a metal altering spell, to widen the shield out to cover more area at once.

As this first cuccobo was distracting all of the paint launchers the other two sprinted past, their riders using their sword spears to take out two dummies behind the first one quickly. As they did more launchers shot up out of the ground to try and hit these new attackers. The cuccobos were too fast though, effortlessly running into cover after their attack. With the pressure off of the first cuccobo it leaned forward on the wall it was standing on, and a lightning bolt shot out from a crystal in the bird’s chest piece, hitting the dummy and charring it. Cassidy was shocked. The firing of magic by a cuccobo caught her off guard. It seems she had once again underestimated the intelligence of these birds.

With their stealth cover blown and their small allotted time ticking down the cuccobos were no longer communicating with their stealthy clicks, but with musical chirping, as they quickly moved through the walls of the arena. Cassidy noted as the dummies were getting destroyed that the lethal blow never came from the pair that was closest to the dummy. Every lethal strike was delivered by an unseen cuccobo rider pair who swooped in to deliver the blow while the target would have been distracted by something else.

It was rather frightening to see as the cuccobos and their riders quickly mopped up all nine of their targets, with seconds to spare even. The cuccobos were ruthless and deadly efficient hunters it seemed. Even with only three of them, their use of team tactics made it seem like there were hundreds of them, coming from every direction at once.

As scary as the display was, it was also fascinating to Cassidy, and Jayna was right. It weirdly did improve her mood.

“Wow that was amazing,” Cassidy called out.

“Isn’t it?” Jayna agreed. “We’re so friendly with the cuccobos it’s easy to forget that they have this side to them. It’s so fun to watch though.”

“It is,” Cassidy looked back down into the arena. In the center the cuccobos and their riders were gathered around as the observer made their way into the arena to go over the results.

“This is just the spear division too, they are some where the riders are mages, and they use magic to fire off spells while the cuccobo runs around,” Jayna explained excitedly.

“You seem to know a lot about this,” Cassidy more asked than stated.

“Well I really wanted to join the rider core, but you know how mom is.”

“How is she?”

“Well she’s just very …” Jayna paused to find the right word. “Traditional minded. Going off to be a warrior isn’t something that I’m supposed to do.”

“Because you’re a girl?” Cassidy wondered.

“Oh no,” Jayna said quickly. “That’s a human thing really. We’ve never really had any problem with girls fighting. No it’s because I'm from the dominant branch in the family. I'm supposed to be collared off to someone."

“Oh,” Cassidy said sympathetically.

“Yeah children from the dominant branch are too valuable to risk their lives fighting, that’s what mom says anyway.”

“Jeez that sucks.”

“It is what it is,” Jayna shrugged. “It’s not like we’re at war with anyone anyway, these guys just mop up cuccobolds that get to adventurous.”

“Cuccobolds?” Cassidy asked.

“Oh sorry I forget you aren’t from here,” Jayna said before explaining. “Cuccobolds are a relative to cuccobos. They’re kind short stubby bird people.” Jayna tried to explain. “They’ve been enemies of cuccobos for as long as anyone can remember and it’s pretty obvious whose side we took. They have a reservation close to the volcano but they try to take over nearby villages all the time.”

“Wow,” Cassidy wasn’t sure what to say. “That sounds kinda complicated.”

“Yeah. It sucks because of the two of them somehow the cuccobolds got away with being able to speak common. Just cuz they can talk doesn’t make em smart though.”

“Interesting,” Cassidy thought out loud, and it was. There was clearly a lot more under the surface of cuccobos than she ever would have thought.

“All that to say, I’m not really missing out on anything by not being able to join the riders.”

“That’s just all the more reason she should let you join them then,” Cassidy countered. “I mean if you’re not really in any danger.”

“Eh some battles you just gotta lose you know,” Jayna shrugged. “I follow this tradition so I don’t have to follow others.”

“Damn I’m sorry,” Cassidy said genuinely.

“What can you do? I do wish I lived over on the mainland some days. You guys don’t seem to be as strict about this kind of stuff. Maybe when I get older.”

“It’s got its own problems,” Cassidy lamented.

“Doesn’t seem like it from this side of the pond. You guys aren’t kept down by all of this family stuff. You can do whatever you want.” Cassidy was silent as she thought to herself for a moment. Jayna did have a point. Things did seem very tightly centered around families here. Cassidy knew for sure that she wouldn’t appreciate it if her future plans were limited just so she could be collared off to someone easier like Jayna’s had been. The grass was always greener from the other side. “Let’s go ahead and head back,” Jayna said abruptly. “Ooooo or you can show me some more magic,” she stared at Cassidy hopefully. Cassidy smiled. It was nice to know that even after she had wet herself in front of her Jayna was still respected her magic.

“Sure,” Cassidy said with a smile. “But I’ll need to go back and get my staff.” Cassidy stood up and wiped some stray pieces of hay from her dress. As she stood she noted that apparently she would also need to go get her diaper changed too. She was a bit concerned. She didn’t even notice she had wet it while they were out here. Though she was pretty distracted watching the cuccobo training exercises.

“I’m not gonna tell mom if that’s what you’re worried about,” Jayna said noting Cassidy’s pause.

“Oh it’s not that,” Cassidy blushed trying to come up with a different reason for her pause getting up. “I was just uhhhh, taking a last look at the arena. It’s super cool."

“It’ll still be here later,” Jayna said slightly childishly. “Come on I wanna see some fireballs, or some lightning.”

“Ok ok,” Cassidy giggled as she followed Jayna back to the Callgahorn house.