Five in the morning was colder than Tavri expected.
She'd been awake since four — she hadn't really slept, if she was honest, lying in the dark running through what she imagined the training would feel like and getting it wrong in a dozen different directions. She arrived at the training ring at four fifty-five.
Sera was already there.
Not stretching, not preparing equipment. Just sitting on the ring's edge with a mug of something, looking at the dark tree line.
"You're early," Sera said, without turning.
"You're earlier," Tavri said.
"I like this hour," Sera said. "The bond is quiet. Five hundred wolves mostly asleep, the ones awake doing quiet things. It's the easiest time to hear individual frequencies because there's less noise to filter out." She patted the ring's edge. "Sit."
