Almost every time there was something like this, Tostum had volunteered to be one of the riding Knights. He had a bad reputation for staying up all night in order to ensure that he had a space on the riding team. This time, however, the school had actually ordered him not to be.<br/><br/>Apparently he had reached his limit and they figured that he had needed ground training this time. The reason that he had always signed up for it, though, was probably rather obvious. Tostum considered himself to be an animal much more than he considered himself to be a human being. As a result, he figured that he would respond better to animals than to people.<br/><br/>Fortunately, though, there was one thing that would have made him distracted from all of this. Micky was someone that he had essentially developed a rivalry with.<br/><br/>Since Tostum came from a long line of werewolves who were transformed after being scratched and bitten as opposed to his purebred line, there existed some animosity in his mind in regards to the other individual. He had something of a small inferiority complex.<br/><br/>In the past they had their moments, but this was certainly looking like it was an opportunity for Tostum to get challenged by the other.<br/><br/>In fact, it would have certainly seemed like he was waiting for it or something of the sort.<br/><br/>Nevertheless, he was going to be better about things this time because he knew this was sort of a dress rehearsal of what might very well have ultimately been actual combat. He knew that being here made him someone who needed to be ready for the distinct possibility that he'd be marching off to war.<br/><br/>"Hey Micky?"<br/><br/>If they were going to treat this like it was for real, then he had wanted to make sure that there wasn't any animosity between the two of them for the time being. He would never have wanted to die with that sort of thing on his mind in a real battle, so he figured that it would be better to treat this just like that.<br/><br/>Exhaling deeply, he looked toward the other and sighed as he reached out his gauntleted hand with a somewhat predatory smile.<br/><br/>"I wanted to make sure that everything is behind us. I want everything to be okay no matter what."<br/><br/>Getting all of this off his mind would surely have helped him when the time came to perform in the coming battle. He trusted that it wouldn't have hurt to get this out in the open anyway.<br/><br/>Not to mention the fact, of course, that due to this situation he had an opportunity to wear his bone armor once again, which always made him feel pretty confident considering the story that went along with his entire adoption of it.