"Sounds like a good idea. Fortunately I had flight, so I was able to escape straight up. Bit of an anticlimactic tale. Lucky I didn't meet that flying giant of yours."

"Wiglaf was terrifying. One of our finest hours, killing him."

She finds someone to give her a tour of the training grounds - an excitable and wiry man named Gosef.

"Another world! Not just the Old World, but another one entirely! Your skalds could probably keep me occupied for the rest of my life about it!"

She grins. "Yes, they could, and with stranger things besides. They have tales you wouldn't believe; some of them are even true!"

He guffaws. "Well, go on! Or not if you're not a skald. Here, let's head out- Want me to run you through things like we were testing you to join up? We're not super formal about it and the hard part of training is all individualized anyway but it's either that or just show you places, I'm not exactly a tour guide."

"I'll tell you about the time a friend of mine got eaten by a dragon, then. But later. Right now there's the training. And I'd say - run me through it, I'd be glad for the practice. I can just tell you if there's something I'm not trained for." 

"Fucking menaces, dragons, eh? Well, it's all meant for fifteen year old Eides to see if they're going to be scouts or hunters or nothing. Nothing too challenging I'm sure."

The first stop is a simple obstacle course and fitness test. Then there are several areas with deliberately maintained terrain: A muddy swamp, a clearing with low scrub, some boulders and crags, a pile of scrap and rusty cars, a wooden watchtower, some very thick woods, some thinner woods, a section of woods that has seen a controlled burn recently. She's asked to negotiate all of this terrain as stealthily as possible. There's a firing range and some basic weapon proficiency tests. A map reading and navigation test. Another bit of "ruins" she's asked to scout out and report on anything of value inside, and any threats inside, with "trolls" that will fall out of the ceiling or walls with pressure plates, basically just low-tech nonlethal traps. (There are plenty of warning signs, it's more about caution than a finely honed danger sense.)

"After that we leave them in the woods for three days with no particular mission and watch them from a distance. See how they go about hunting or gathering, making camp, how they react to spooky noises in the middle of the night..." He snickers. "And once that's done, they're grouped up and given a milk run to do, basically a week's hike in the woods and have to carry a big rock in their pack on the way back, see how they handle teamwork in the field and tasks that feel pointless."

She's no ranger, but she knows enough woodcraft to handle the gauntlet just fine.

"Makes sense to me," she says. "It's a decent program of studies, not much different from some of my own earlier training in my own world. I guess some things don't change. It was fun to try the course, thank you!"

He walks them back to the fortified village.

"I wouldn't call it study exactly. And we train ourselves up more, just - in the field. Once we know you're at least sort of competent the rest can be learned on the job, as it were."

"Physical training can be studying, tomato tomahto. It's a good course, covers the basics. There's a word for sort of competent back where I come from - 'cutter'. Berk, cutter, blood. Mama Ingrid's a blood. You're probably a cutter. The trainees you'd test this on? Berks."

"Nah, studying is Swedish book stuff. Electricity and engines and... Stuff. Heh. Berk. It even sounds like an insult. Might steal that."

"Fine then, it's training. And go ahead."

The Eides continue to be a cheerful and not-very-educated bunch. They find her a captive vermin-beast. There's a feast and some drinking and boasting and sports. Marit catches up with people and learns how boats work.

After a few days Marit suggests going to the Norwegian capital, to see the cat academy there.

Thorn sends the vermin-beast back to the OTC for analysis. She participates in the feast but not the drinking ("can't get buzzed in this body anyway") and declines to boast and plays a little sports, not very well. 

When Marit suggests going to the Norwegian capital she jumps on the chance.

On the next boat ride to Aurland, Marit re-blesses the ship and chats with the captain about what to expect, then volunteers to help with every boat-related task that pops up. She tells Thorn troll-hunting stories, and then says she wants to sign up as a contractor as soon as they're done with the cat academy. "My friend who's going to give me some boat-related notes lives in Aurland, and after that I figure I've done my due diligence to understand how boats work. Ready to see the exciting worlds out there, after that."

"Boat notes." Thorn grins. "Sounds good. I'll accompany you back, I think; my assignment here is pretty much over, I think. And I have a name to get to."

Quarantine measures at the next port are a chemical shower and changing into fresh clothes, not a full isolation.

The cat academy is happy to give them a tour and talk all about their cats! Most of their business is training cats that people bring in, for a variety of roles including guard cat, ship cat, cleanser cat, scout cat, guide cat, and teacher cat, but they also have a breeding program that reliably produces grade-A cats! They certainly think their precious brave little fuzzies are intelligent and skilled and would like assurances that any cats sold are going to someone who can take care of them. Prices are high by local standards but not by OTC ones. The cats do not prove to be people, but grade-A cats are definitely both more biddable and smarter than any cat Thorn may remember seeing in other worlds. They have anecdotes of cats doing useful things from rescuing babies from near-accidents to pestering and tricking beasts in combat and saving lives to alerting owners of expired medication and spoiled food.

She notes down names of trainers and breeders and smiles enthusiastically and pets the cats if she's allowed to and informs them that they ought to be receiving at least a Lily of their own to negotiate their contract with the OTC and that she expects them to get favorable terms because these are the best-trained cats she's ever heard of. Congratulations! All of them are about to be quite wealthy even after allowances for ensuring the cats go to good owners. 

Thorn comes away from her encounter with her smile still lingering. "It's rare I see something that good out on assignment. Sometimes I see things that are more impressive, but cute is in short supply on my job. And it's not only cute it's useful."

"Cats are truly a gift from the gods... Hmm. Do ka work on them? My old cat is almost a decade gone, but if I'm to get a new one..."

"Ka work on them.", she confirms. "Sorry to hear about your old cat."

"Hans was such a dignified thing. Always looking so serious and stern, but a glutton for treats. Ah... Such is life." She shrugs. "It will be better now. Perhaps I'll get a new cat at some point. I'm curious about this naming ceremony you've mentioned."

"It is technically possible to get Hans back, but we generally reserve that kind of expense for people. So... Such is life." She shrugs back. "As for the naming ceremony... Thorn is really more of a job title than a name. Because of there being a lot of us. When we finish our first assignment, we usually take a new name based on something we did or experienced. Usually something we want more of in our lives. I'm not sure what I'll pick, honestly. Any suggestions?"

"You haven't really been here for long, all things considered. And I don't know you that well, all things considered. Hmm... Runes? Something nautical? Something about picking up and moving on."

"Hmmm. True. I like that last thought, though. I wonder what would be like that for me... Nothing comes to mind immediately. Except the cats. The cats were good." 

She fiddles with her pack's strap. "Time for me to get out my portal?"

She pats her messenger bag and smiles. "I fetched my notes while you were playing with kittens. Wrote some letters, settled my business here. As good a time as any."

"Alright then." 

She sets down her beacon, and keys in a different code this time. Agent returning.

A door appears, twining black petals of takkarash climing over it. She opens it by the black iron handle and steps in.