“It’s Caspian, right? So tell me, how’d you do it?” Rich asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah, Cas is fine too,” he answered him. “How’d I do what?”

“God, completing the trial so quickly of course. You were the fastest by ages, a big upset if you know what I mean,” he said winking.

Scratching his head, he let out a nervous laugh. Looking around the room, everyone's eyes were on him, curious to hear the answer as well. “Well you know, I just kind of walked. It wasn’t really anything special trust me.”

“Walked!” Rich said barking with laughter. “You’re a real jokester Cas, I’ll tell you that. Come on tell us what happened. You’d of had to walk all through the night right?”

Taking a deep breath, Caspian felt all of the eyes boring into him without remorse. “I did yeah. Um, it all started when I got dropped off. I realised that travelling would be a hindrance in the heat, so I tried to find shelter quickly,” he said with a distant look in his eyes as he tried to recall the day before.

Percy nodded his head. “Solid reasoning,” he said quietly.

“There was a rock formation that I saw that looked like to perfect location, but when I made a mistake and burnt my hands on the sand,” Caspian said, looking down at his hands that were fine apart from a few red spots. “In the rocks, there was a cave area, so I bunkered down there for a few hours until it cooled off. Unfortunately, some big lizard got into my stuff while I slept and ate all my food. Destroyed one of my water bottles as well,” he said shaking his head at the memory. Stupid mistakes.

Vaguely he could hear soft discussions going on, but he tried to ignore it. Rich was still there listening with rapt attention, urging him to keep going. “Ah is that why you decided to pull an all-nighter?”

“Partly. I was already down to my last bottle of water, I just went through it so quickly. The night seemed the safer time to travel. I didn’t want to run the risk of completely running out of water,” he said, his fists starting to clench. “After that, I just kept walking and walking, I don't even know for how long. Nothing felt real.”

“Keeping track of your water is an important skill,” Percy said, Sofia shushing him.

“I remember the moon coming out, and then the howls. Dingoes. They sounded like banshees, coming at me from all sides. A few of them attacked me, but I managed to fight them off and keep going. I don’t think they were expecting a fight,” he said with a morose chuckle. “Next thing I know I see the city lights in the distance, and the rest is a blur. Waking up in the hospital is my next memory.”

“Well I’ll say, we got ourselves our very own warrior,” Rich said patting him on the back. “I think he deserves a round of applause for his journey everyone. Not only was he the first time finish, but sounds like he had quite the adventure in between.” A splattering of applause sounded, Caspian giving everyone a weak thank you.

“I have to ask, why did you not use the flare?” Sofia asked, tilting her head. “You seemed to be in quiet series peril at times. Why not call for help?”

“It was never an option!” he murmured resolutely. “I was joining this expedition, one way or another.”

A silence hung in the room after he said that, everyone a little surprised at his statement. A few of the new recruits looked a little uncomfortable, glancing at each other. The expedition members all had knowing smiles, however.

“I told you he’d make it,” Valorie said smugly to Rich as she lounged on a couch all to herself.

“Well I congratulate you Caspian,” Percy said, ignoring Rich bickering with Valorie. Standing up, his figure loomed over him. “You may have made a few mistakes in your journey, but you had the willpower to keep going despite that. I can teach a lot, but not that. You will make a fine addition to our little team,” he said smiling.

Caspian couldn’t help but feel his heart warm at the compliment, balancing on his crutches, he gave Percy as solid a handshake as he could manage. “Thank you, Percy, I can’t wait to start.”

Valorie and Rich stalled their conversation, looking over at him. “Oh yeah we should introduce you to your new colleagues,” Valorie said. “Introduce yourself, everyone, you’ll all be working together. No need to be shy.”

“Hi-i,” a voice squeaked. Turning his head towards it, Caspian saw that it was the same woman with glasses he’d been knocked into on the jeep. “I’m Victoria, it’s nice to meet you,” she said, a strand of her chestnut hair falling over her face. “I hope we can get along.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Nice to meet you too Victoria,” he said.

Next to her, an older man gave him a wave. “Names Kurt,” he said simply.

“A man of few words,” Caspian thought, giving him a nod. He seemed rather unassuming, his worn calloused hands telling a story of hard labour. The next voice made him pause momentarily, a barrage of words seeming to explode out of the woman.

“Hey Caspian, I’m Erika. It’s so cool that you fought off wild animals, what was it like? Did you keep any trophies? How many were there?” her excitement-filled voice filled the room, question after question bouncing off of him. She didn’t even give him time to formulate a reply before the next one was sent off. “Why’d you join the expedition?”

Laughing nervously, Caspian didn’t know what to say. Noticing this, Erika clasped her hands over her mouth to stop herself talking. Flashing him her pearly whites, she let loose a crystal clear laugh. “Sorry I get excited easily, sorry to scare ya,” she said, her short black hair shaking as if it were alive.

“Hi Erika, I’m happy to answer any questions you want, maybe a bit later though,” he said trying to smile.

“I’ll hold ya to it, you can count on it,” she said.

The last recruit was staring at him, almost as if he was sizing him up. Caspian felt unnerved under his gaze, feeling like a piece of meat at the butcher. Looking at his crooked nose he remembered him from the other day. He must have been in his 30s or 40s, the scars crisscrossing his forearms giving him an imposing aura.

“I am Ivan. I hope you are not injured too greatly. It would be a shame if you had to drop out because of them, Mr First Place,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. No one else really seemed to notice the cold look that seemed lodged there.

“Good to meet you Ivan,” Caspian nodded, quickly averting his eyes from the man.

“Well that’s everyone,” Valorie said. “We hope you all get along well because you’ll be stuck together for quite a while. Now Duke should be here nearly to give you all some information about the Expedition you’ve all signed on for. Ah, speak of the devil.”

On the second floor, the loud footsteps of what could only have been Duke approached. His large frame looked down from above, his stony face unchanging. Looking over the group, his eyes stayed on Caspian for a moment longer than everyone else. “Looks like we're all here so let's begin,” Duke rumbled in his bassy voice.

Moving so he could better see him, Caspian leaned up against one of the support pillars. “Hell yeah, expedition time,” he thought, a big smile on his face. “Finally.”

“You’ve all signed up to join an expedition, and I know you will have expectations as to what that means. Let me be clear, you are here to work. There is a perception that the life we lead is that of glamour and glitz, of wealth. What most people don't recognise is the gruelling hours, the dangers, and ultimately, the deaths that are involved with our line of work. The rewards are high of course, but make no mistake, you will have to earn them,” Duke said surveying them. None of the recruits were phased by his speech, they weren’t that foolish to not know this.

“Like I said before, this expedition will take as further afield than any other done before. This means that there will be a lot of uncertainty involved, and with it, the danger increases. We will have to take the majority of our provisions with us, and will not be able to rely on waystations and wells. The reason we are going so afield was the discovery of some old world maps, that could contain the locations of significant value. Let’s just say if things go well, you’ll all be finding yourself with a healthy paycheck by the end.

Everyone got fired up at that, whether for the promise of money or for the vast historical treasures to be unearthed. Caspian himself was full of excitement, tapping his foot subconsciously. “We’re going to be seeing things no one ever has before,” his mind shouted.

Silencing the murmurs, Duke continued. “In the coming week, we’ll be showing you the ropes of our organisation. You’ll find out more when we begin, but tonight is for celebrating. All I have left to say is good job to all of you, may we all prosper,” he finished. Everyone gave a small applause, the old expedition members giving each other hi-fives and pats on the back.

“Great speech Duke, you almost brought a tear to my eye,” Rich said grinning.

“Thank you for reminding me,” Duke said, with a rare smile on his face. “I believe that among my expedition members, there was a bet, the loser having to foot the bill of our drinks.” Rich shut his mouth, a slight scowl on his face. “And it is with great pleasure I am to announce that Rich was the loser, so drinks are on him tonight. So let’s give it up to Rich for being so generous.”

“Real funny boss,” Rich said.

“Oh suck it up Rich,” Sofia scoffed at him. “You lost fair and square. And what good fortune, I’m feeling quite swanky, maybe I’ll have Ol‘ Bert to break out his good stuff.”

“Way to twist the knife Sofia,” Rich said with mock dismay. “Screw it, if I gotta pay I might as well go all out and enjoy myself. Percy you’re gonna have a headache tomorrow.”

“Tough talk Rich, but we both know who’s still going to be conscious by the end of it,” Percy said waving him off.

“You're on bastard,” Rich said, waving a fist at both of them.

Duke coughed drawing everyone's attention. “Meet back here at 7:30 sharp folks. Caspian, you can see Percy about getting a room here. That’s all folks.”

Caspian turned to see Percy looking his way, giving him a small wave. “Gotta figure out how to get out of my lease,” he thought, as he strode over. “Hope the room they have for me is good.”

“Ah Caspian, I’m glad to hear you are ok. If you’ll follow me, I will show you to one of the spare rooms,” he said with a warm smile. His large form started down another hallway, further into the building.

“Lead the way,” Caspian said, his crutches clicking on the wooden floorboards as he followed Percy, the sound of Rich’s boisterous laughter echoing behind him.