Time flowed slowly for Avakian. He felt each day as if it were a century, experiences moulding him anew every second.

In some ways he hoped not to change too much, that he could carry some metaphysical sense of self with him through the years, but he wasn't sure. He had already changed so much; who would he be in a year, or a decade, or a century.

He didn't know.

He did know that he was once again late for class.

Aemonsford Central Academy passed by his peripherals as he sprinted over the cobbles.

"Damn Chiros and his stupid damn religion!" He muttered angrily between breaths.

The reason he was late was that Chiros had spent the best part of half an hour explaining that his religion wasn't some 'weird cult' like Ellian insisted, and that it was a 'perfectly respectable cult'. Avakian had made the questionable decision of listening to him instead of getting to his next class; Wilderness Survival I.

This module was probably the one that was most integral to his survival outside in the greater Manifold, so he was actually quite peeved at the prospect of being late.

Naturally the class wasn't actually taking place within the Academy, as it lacked any actual wilderness. Instead students would be boarding a coach that would take them to a suitable forest or mountain, depending on what they were supposed to be learning that day.

He rounded a corner, and sprinted to the lot where his class was supposed to gather. It seemed he had gotten lucky; the coach was still there, surrounded by a hoard of no less than 60 students.

Avakian approached as casually as possible, with the hope that no-one would call him out for being late.

"MIDGIT!" He heard almost immediately.

"Rats!" He thought.

He turned to the source of the voice, to find Starkie, the devil-faced young man from Beginner Weapons Combat. With him was Jun, and another man Avakian did not recognise.

This man was perhaps in his mid-twenties, with stringy orange hair and an incredibly slim build. He wore wire-framed glasses and had on the same ill-fitting tracksuit as Avakian.

Avakian and the man shared a look of sympathy at the school's lack of decent fitting clothes, before Jun introduced them.

"Hello again, Avakian." She nodded at him. "This is Josef, he's an assistant teacher in my physics class."

The two shared a handshake, despite Josef's wiry build he had an immensely strong grip.

"So do you want to join our group Avakian? We're down a member since Jesique left." Starkie asked.

"Sure," He shrugged. "What do I need to be in a group for?"

"Everything in this module is done in groups of four." Jun explained. "And our final exam is a survival game done in those groups."

"Right." He had heard about the survival game from Chiros, who had completed the module in the past. He had described it as "the most fun he had in years" but Avakian suspected Chiros' perspective was slightly askew.

The newly-formed quartet boarded the coach and sat down, Jun next to Avakian and Starkie next to Josef. The bus was obscenely noisy, one student owning some kind of musical talisman which he was now using to its fullest effect.

Jun seemed increasingly awkward sitting next to Avakian, fidgeting and rapidly shifting her eyes left and right. It had gotten to the point where he felt obliged to offer to change seats with another passenger.

"No... I-It's fine." She murmured.

It appeared Avakian had once again misread a situation.

The coach passed through an arch, signifying the end of the territory owned by the Academy. They continued on their journey for around 20 more minutes, trudging through back-roads and country lanes.

Eventually Avakian picked up on a significant shift in the conversations on the bus, looking out the window was a campground surrounded by dense forest. They had arrived.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The campground was a simple grass plain, dotted with a number of pavilions. They alighted the coach and listened as an instructor called a register.

The instructor in question was a woman of at least fifty, with weather-beaten brown skin and graying hair. Despite her age she looked to be in exceptional shape, with muscles taut as iron wires.

"Richard Stark?" She called.

"Yes!" Starkie called out, far too enthusiastically, garnering a few smirks from other students.

"Avakian Gray?"

"Present." His answer was more subdued, but still got a few looks, being a new student.

"Josef, show young Gray the basics please." She directed him, to which Josef nodded. Obviously Josef was seen as more reliable than the slightly-insane Starkie or the awkward Jun.

"Let's go check out a few of the lessons they have available." Josef led them out of the crowd towards one of the pavilions.

Underneath the pavilion was a balding man and a younger boy, both working on various pieces of wood. On a workbench were several finished products; bows, each made from single pieces of wood and tied with either twine, animal gut or plant fibre.

"Mornin Gents.." He started, before properly seeing Jun. "..And uhh, also Lady?"

Jun shrugged. It didn't appear she cared too much about being possibly misgendered.

"Anyway, I'm Max, and this is the bow making station! We have bows in various stages of completion if you want to work on one?" He asked enthusiastically.

---

They stayed under the pavilion with Max for over an hour, carving staves into rough-hewn bows. Avakian felt quite pleased with his finished product, he made up for his lack of practice with patience and steady hands. Looking over he noticed the others had not gotten on quite so well.

Starkie had somehow managed to break his stave in half, and was looking at both halves with a wistful expression.

Jun on the other hand was way too cautious, and had barely gotten started on her stave, every few seconds she would stop and ask Max if she was doing it correctly.

He couldn't see Josef's bow as he was facing the opposite direction to Avakian, but when he turned around he was quite surprised. Josef's bow was a genuinely impressive piece of equipment, with pointed tips and notches for the arrows to be fired from.

After they had finished Max explained the processes necessary to complete the weapon, tillering and bracing it.

"And that's that! If you want you can have a go at shooting a real one." Max offered.

They assented, and Max pointed them towards a wooden target with a pointed bullseye. "Remember to uh.. Y'know.. Don't stand in front of it." He waved them off.

The four tried their hand at archery, sinking countless arrows into the wooden stump. Josef was easily the best, his surprisingly powerful physique combined with his impressive coordination allowing for superb accuracy. Starkie was slightly worse, he was tall and strong, but lacked technique and patience.

Jun was a middling shooter, lacking her honed practice she held with a blade.

Unfortunately Avakian was by far the worst, the bow took a surprising amount of strength to draw, strength he simply didn't possess. Every time he drew the bow back it would shake too much in his grip, and he would miss the target entirely.

Max's son had offered to get him a children's bow but he had refused on principle.

"At least it's good exercise." He rationalized miserably.

---

At last they packed it in, Avakian's arms aching something awful. Their next task was in the forest, Starkie wanted to try building a shelter and no one else cared enough to disagree with him.

They trekked a few kilometers outside of the camp, the trees getting taller and thicker with foliage. Eventually they reached a grove of pines Starkie deemed 'pretty good' and stopped, sitting down to rest among the conifers.

Avakian felt the beginnings of a twinge somewhere within his body, it was a familiar sensation but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

'Am I hungry?' He wondered.

Starkie and Josef started to move large branches over to the tree they had chosen to be their shelter while Jun was chopping up foliage to make a canopy.

Avakian, meanwhile, was simply staring off into the distance.

There was something about one particular direction that resonated with the twinge inside him. It got worse whenever he turned his body that way.

"You three, I think there's something in that direction." Avakian cautioned.

He turned back to look at his group, who took the news a bit too lightly for his taste. Starkie shrugged, and then continued to build his fort, humming a tune under his breath, while Jun looked a little more cautious.

"Why's that?" She asked.

"I just feel something weird whenever I glance over there." He replied softly.

"Well that settles it, if Avakian says so, there's definitely something over there." Starkie laughed teasingly. "It couldn't be that- HOLY SHIT LOOK!"

The whole group's eyes shot towards what Starkie had been looking at, to spot the most horrific creature Avakian had ever laid eyes on.

It looked wrong.

The beast was the size of a large dog, with a chitinous exoskeleton and two pairs of leathery wings in constant vibration. It would have looked like an insect if not for what was under its wings; hundreds of fleshy vestiges writhed and squirmed like maggots devouring a dying carcass.

Its face looked like a cruel mockery of a human's, with two massive compound eyes, and a mouth in a permanent grimace, needle teeth jutting out in seemingly random directions.

No-one moved, fear keeping the students in place, while the beast presumably hadn't decided if it wanted to eat them or not.

"Please not." Prayed Avakian.

Then, one by one, each of the fleshy appendages beneath its wings paused, before pointing in one direction.

Towards Avakian.

"Fuck."