We reached the lake before 3:00 and I opened the map again, “the bridge over should be in the Northeast.” I pointed and they looked over, sure enough, a bridge spanned the length of the lake.
“It can’t be that easy,” Sam said as we walked to it. I agreed with him but didn’t say anything.
“We could have gotten lucky.” Noah suggested and we glared at him, “what?”
“Don’t use the L-word!” we hissed.
“What lucky?” he said as an arrow whistled out of the trees. I had half a mind to let it hit him. But against my better judgment, I tackled him to the ground.
“What th-” he yelped as we hit the sand. Sam ran in front of us and a shield popped out from his arm. Alex ran behind him and helped the two of us up. Then he slapped Noah.
“What was that for?” Noah asked, we glared at him.
“You used the L-word!” Alex yelled.
“Oh come on!” Noah began but I cut him off.
“Shut up and shoot back!” Noah gave me the finger and unslung his rifle taking a quick peek over the shield. I did the same and saw four Satyrs shooting arrows at us. My eyes widened as an arrow screamed towards my face, I turned my head and caught it just before it hit me.
“Switch!” Noah yelled and we swapped places, as we did so he stood up and fired off a shot. A massive plume of smoke billowed out in front of us and a fireball roared. He immediately ducked under the shield and handed me the rifle. “Load this.”
“What am I, your servant?” I grumbled, he glared at me and I complied. The process was exactly the same as with a pistol and thirty seconds later I had it loaded.
“Alex make a copy and have it sprint out of cover, I need to bait them into taking a shot.”
A copy appeared behind Alex and it swore and flicked Noah off before sprinting out from behind cover. He leaped over the first arrow and was struck in the leg by the second. Alex winced but kept on running. Noah switched with me again and fired off another round.
At the same time, the copy took an arrow through the side of the head and disappeared. “God damn that hurts!”
The arrows stopped and I cautiously peeked over Sam’s shoulder, three satyrs ran off with their weird limping gait. Sam’s helmet glowed a harsh blue, then twin lines of ethereal blue heat lanced from it. The light touched one of the Satyr’s and it bleated out in pain, the laser burned for a few moments longer before it passed straight through it and the beast dropped to the ground. The remaining two ran even faster, one was clearly missing an arm and the fourth was leaning against a tree with a massive hole in its chest.
“That was brutal,” Sam said and pulled a dozen arrows out of his shield. I had to agree, I was used to seeing death but usually, that came in the form of arrows and melee weapons that left clean cuts. Not gaping ragged holes that spewed guts and blood everywhere.
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have happened if someone hadn’t used the L-word.” Alex glared at Noah.
“Are you serious, you want me to believe that me saying luc-” he was cut off again by the sound of screaming. We glared at him again and turned around to see several dozen goblins run screaming out of the woods. I sighed and readied my sword. The goblins ignored us and kept on running until they got to the water. Then they jumped in and started swimming.
“That was interesting,” Sam said and we relaxed, then turned to face Noah again. “That is why you don’t say the L-word.”
“We didn’t even get attacked.” he protested, “I guess we did get lu-”
Sam used one of his baseball mitt-sized hands to cover his face and muffled him but it was too late. We heard the sound of trees falling down and an incredible roar emitted from the jungle.
“We are going to have a serious talk once this is done,” I said and swished my sword in a circle in front of me. An ogre charged out of the trees with a goblin in each of its three hands. It swallowed one of them whole and bit off the head of the other. Then it noticed us and dropped the remaining one.
“That’s got to be the shortest ogre I’ve ever seen,” Noah announced and raised his rifle. I agreed with him, it was barely twenty feet tall and seemed rather scrawny. It turned around and headed back towards the treeline. Then it pulled one of the trees out of the ground and threw it at us. We hit the deck as the tree sailed over our heads and the ogre came charging at us, crushing the goblin. Bits of goo coated the area around it and I wiped away bits of 'salsa' from my chest plate. Alex gave one look at the charging monster, “nope” and jumped into the water. Noah pulled the trigger on his rifle but nothing came out, “are you serious?”
I groaned and ran at it, I slid onto my knees under one of its swings and time slowed. I leaped up and ran behind it and raised my sword to its Achilles tendon. I swung at it as time sped up and blood splashed all over me. It squirted out and the ogre collapsed right on top of me. I tried to slow time again but it refused to happen and I felt a crunch as I slammed into the ground. It let out a high-pitched squeal and flailed around on the ground. I had managed to stick my sword in its back and was twisting it as much as I could hoping it would roll off me. Suddenly its screams stopped and a few moments later it stopped moving entirely.
“I think it’s dead.” I heard a muffled Sam say, “we should get Ryze out of there.”
“First we really got to talk about using the L-word.” Alex piped up, “Ryze can wait a few moments longer.”
I shouted out, “Alex you cowardly bastard! I’m going to kill you!” but they couldn’t hear me. I swore and pulled the pistol out and jammed it into the ogre flesh and pulled the trigger. That was a mistake, I felt a flash of incredible heat right next to my groin, and the loudest sound I had ever heard come.
“Unity almighty! What the hell was that?” Alex jumped as he was covered head to toe in a mixture of blood, guts, and other unidentifiable things. He looked at the ogre and saw a hole the size of a man’s chest in the middle of the ogre. It smoked and smelled like burnt flesh.
“We should probably get him out from under there.” Noah noted, “Before he kills us.”
Sam sighed and they pulled me out from under the monster, I glared at them. “Why the fuck did you guys not do that earlier?”
“Alex wanted to talk to me about sayi-”
“Don’t say it!” we roared and Sam helped me up.
“Fine I won’t say it,” Noah said, “but apparently he thought that you could wait a few minutes while we sorted it out.”
I glared at him, he shrugged and wiped his face, “listen Ryze, I know you’re mad but hear me out.”
“This is going to be good.” Sam added in as we started walking, “All I’m saying is that if Noah said the word again then who knows what might come charging out of those trees.” he said and pointed.
“Or out of the water, think about it like this, if something got the rest of us, then you would have been stuck under that ogre until you starved or ran out of water. So I was making sure that didn’t happen because I’m a good friend,” he said with complete confidence.
I started loading my pistol, “You have five seconds to run.”
We reached the bridge without further incident and almost made it to the other side before we were stopped. The bridge was missing the last ten feet, “This is a problem.” Sam said and Alex scoffed, “Maybe for you.”
He created two copies and used them to leap across the gap, Noah shrugged and casually walked across the air. I grunted and took a few steps back and jumped over it.
“Hey what the hell?” Sam protested, “how am I supposed to get over?”
“If I can make the jump, you should be able to as well.” I said, he shook his head, “I weigh several hundred pounds in this, there is no way I’d make a leap that far, plus the bridge wouldn’t hold my weight even if I could.
“You could swim?” Noah asked hopefully.
“Nope same thing.” I said and thought for a moment, “actually, you could just leap into the sand right?”
We looked down at the sand under our side of the bridge. It was only twenty feet down and we had seen Sam take a bigger landing than that. He nodded and jumped down. The bridge shook and a few pieces came off. We scrambled off it and onto solid ground.
We walked to the center of the island and came upon the portal. It looked like someone had taken a knife and cut it into the fabric of reality. It was a black void that sucked in the world around it.
“I guess that’s it,” Alex said and we walked through it.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We sat in the auditorium as teams were announced. A little over half of the teams had made it back in time, the rest had been sent home.
“Cassandra Bright, Vivian Valentine, Arya Arcturus, and Illia, led by Cassandra Bright,” Lancaster said as the four girls stood on the stage. People clapped respectfully as they walked off the stage.
“William Tourel, Miles Luna, Olivia Luna, Ava Lockheart, led by William Tourel.” I frowned, this did not bode well for me. House Luna and House Lockheart were both close allies of the Tourel’s and they all held a grudge against Varus. They left the stage and we walked on.
“Ryze Varus, Alexander Taylor, Samuel Bright, Noah Nixen, led by Ryze Varus.” I blinked in surprise, well that was not something I had expected. But then again I had been the one with the map. Sam slapped me on the back and we walked off the stage and took our seats.
“Congrats,” Alex said, “you deserve it.”
I shook my head, “I don’t, I haven’t done anything to deserve it. If anything the title belongs to Noah. He’s the most responsible.”
Noah’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously, “Me? No way, it wouldn’t look good for the royal prince being subordinate to a commoner.”
“Nah that doesn’t really matter at this place.” Sam said with a wave of his hand, “we’re all supposed to be equals right?”
I had my doubts about everyone being equals, the room was split 40/60 between nobles that I recognized and those that I assumed were commoners.
“That’s yet to be seen,” I said, “Seems most teams are either all nobility or all common folk.”
“Hush you cretins.” Cassie whispered harshly, “you’re supposed to be paying attention.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I was about to object when the last team was announced and my pad buzzed and I got a new notification.
“Directions to your dorms have been sent via Pad, if there are any questions please contact Ms. Mallory,” Lancaster said and walked off the stage.
I looked down and read the directions, “Right, Gatewatch Peak third floor, that what you guys got?”
“Yep, that’s what I have,” Noah said and we stood up and walked out of the room
Gatewatch Peak appeared to have once been a military outpost. It was a thick circular tower made completely out of greystone with covered-up murder holes everywhere. The entrance looked like it had taken a beating and was slightly melted. Sam pulled open the door and we walked inside. The first level looked to be a mix between a locker room and an armory. Strangely, the entire place seemed empty and not a single one of the lockers was in use.
“I guess this is where we’re supposed to stow our weapons,” Noah said with hesitation, he really didn’t enjoy the thought of not having his rifle within eyesight. It seemed that the rest of the team didn’t either.
“Let’s take a look at the other floors and see if we got any neighbors,” I said and we walked up the stairs. The second floor was what I assumed to be a common room. There were several shelves lined with books and games. On one side was a kitchen and some couches sat on the other side with a large round table in the middle.
“This looks cozy.” Alex said and plopped his ass on the couch, “This is a really good coach.” he noted and laid down on it. Noah’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. He had never seen a place this luxurious, sure his family hadn’t been poor but this was what he had assumed kings lived like.
I walked over to inspect the kitchen, it was clean and quite modern. It even had one of those fancy northern ovens with the enchanted stovetop. I turned the knobs and put my hands over one of the heating units. Beside it was a fridge, I pulled it open and was disappointed to find it completely empty.
“We should check out our floor,” Noah said with barely contained excitement. He walked up the stairs and we followed. It was split in two but a hallway, I opened the door to one and was greeted by four beds and a window. Alex opened the other and it was exactly the same. I opened the door inside of our room and peered inside. It was a bathroom with running water.
“Well, I assume this is where we’re going to be staying for the next three years of our lives,” Sam said and took the bed closest to the window. I placed my bag on the bed furthest away from the bathroom.
“There should be one more floor above us,” I said. I marched up the last flight of stairs and into an empty room. I heard footsteps behind me and I called down, “there’s nothing up here.”
I sighed and returned down to the bedrooms and began unpacking. I put all my stuff in one of the four large closets and laid down on the bed.
I cleared my throat to get their attention, “know that we’re a team, we need to get some ground rules laid out.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said and sat on his bed.
“First, we make decisions as a team.” they nodded, “second, don’t touch other people’s shit without permission, and third if you bring a girl over, talking to you Alex. For the love of God do not do it in this room.”
“Hey fuck you too, you’re just jealous I got some.”
“Also we need a roster for cleaning and the like.” Noah added and I sighed, “everyone cleans a different room each week?”
“I’m ok with that.” Alex said and Sam nodded, “sounds fair.”
I heard someone walking up the stairs and everyone stopped moving, I pulled out my sword.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” asked a feminine voice.
“I’m quite sure, it even says it right here.” said another. The footsteps got closer and we readied our weapons.
“Well then why isn’t there anyone here?” the door opened and the Arya blinked. She was staring down the muzzle of Noah’s rifle.
“Nevermind, we do have company,” she said and closed the door.
“Hell yes!” Alex yelled and fist-pumped, “jackpot.”
“Arya, what was that?” asked a high-pitched voice, “that sounded like the simpleton on Noah’s team.”
The grin on Alex’s face faded, “simpleton?”
“Oh nothing, just met the neighbors.” Arya said, “Val, you’re going to be real happy about who our roommates are.”
“Am I now?” Val asked and opened the door. She looked at us and squeaked when she saw Noah.
“Hi,” she said shyly and closed the door. We all turned to Noah and I gave him a thumbs up. “Good for you,” Sam said and patted him on the back.
“It appears our roommates are my sister’s team,” Sam said and opened the door. He yelped and quickly closed it again, his face was pale and he had a terrified expression. “What is she doing here?”
“Who?” we asked in unison.
“You know!” he hissed.
“No, we don’t.”
“Me!” Illia said happily as she phased through the wall. I jumped onto the bed, Alex made a copy, Sam screamed, and Noah passed out.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, trying to keep a calm voice as I stepped off the bed and sheathed my sword.
“I am officially the fourth member of CIVA,” she said happily and struck a pose. Sam gulped and squeezed his eyes shut.
“You don’t seem very happy to see her.” Alex noted, “isn’t she like your girlfriend or something?”
“What! No, she isn’t.” Sam said emphatically, a little too emphatically if I was to judge. Illia looked up and gave him puppy eyes.
“Why would you lie to them?” she asked innocently.
He shook his head, “I’m not lying!”
“Uh-huh,” Noah said, none of us were convinced but we didn’t press further.
“So Illia, is Cassie here with you?” I asked, she turned to me and studied me. More like she analyzed me, she scanned my body and then glanced at my eyes.
“Yes, the princess is here and she is quite excited to see you,” she said and opened the door. Outside Cassie looked like she was hyping herself up and stopped when she noticed that the door was open.
“Oh!” she said and started blushing, her eyes turned lime green. Sam’s brows almost shot off his head. That was a color he hadn’t seen in a long while.
“Hey there Ryze,” She said then quickly corrected herself, she curtsied and said, “Alex, Noah, Ryze, Brother, it is a pleasure to see you again.”
“Ah come on, drop the polite bullshit.” I said with a wave of the hand, “looks like you’re going to be our roommates for some time.”
“It appears so.” She said, “do you know of anyone else that is going to be living here?”
“We didn’t even know you guys were going to be with us but there are only eight beds so I guess we’re it.”
“Seems like a waste of space to me,” Alex said and collapsed onto his bed, “But I’m not complaining.”
I looked at my Pad, it was 7:30 and I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch. “Is anyone else hungry, I’m going to the market for some dinner,” I said. Sam’s eyes glowed and he turned towards me, “Dinner?” he said in a next to demonic voice.
“I’m feeling a tad bit peckish.”
“I could go for a bite.”
“Alright then, let’s go. I’m also going to buy some stuff to stock the fridge.” I said and grabbed my wallet, it was much lighter than normal. “Oh, yeah.”
“What’s up?”
“I sort of put most of my cash in the bank when I first got to Byrum. So I’m going to need to go to a bank again.”
Cassie sighed, “Ryze, you have got to start learning how to use your Pad. While you are in the city, you can use your Pad to pay.”
“How do you know that?” I challenged, she shook her head.
“It says so in the settings you dolt!” I pulled my pad out and opened one of the apps labeled “wallet.” I was greeted by three sets of numbers, gold, silver, bronze-colored each.
“Well, would you look at that,” I said and put my pad away. I started down the stairs, “see you later.”
“Hm?” I said and looked over, Alex and Arya were waving at us, “You guys aren't coming?”
“Oh we’ll be coming,” Arya said and winked at Alex. “just not with you guys.” My eyes widened, “I see,”
The market wasn’t anything special, it had all the expected shops selling meats and fruits to exotic spices and even one that sold hard drugs. They called out prices at us as we passed.
“So what do you guys want to eat?” I asked. Sam was already tearing through a bag of jerky he had bought and Noah was quietly sharing another with Val. She walked with a book in her hands and didn’t say a word or even acknowledge the outside world.
We passed a barbeque place and my mouth started watering, “Here.” I said and walked up to the man running the stall. “Hello there, what could I get you?”
I looked at the menu above his head, “I want four racks of ribs and,” I turned to Sam, “a whole brisket.”
He glanced over at Sam and back at me, “that will be one coin and eight chips.”
“Here,” Cassie said and pushed me aside, “I’ll pay.” I tried to object but she snapped, “quite.”
My mouth clamped shut and refused to open. She handed the man her pad and he tapped it to hers.
“Your food will be out shortly,” he said and we went to sit down. I furrowed my brow in concentration and thought really hard about moving my mouth. Slowly I felt the feeling return and I opened it.
“What the hell!” I yelled, Cassie looked over at me, “what was that for?”
“What was what for?” She asked sweetly, “that is no way to thank me for a meal Ryze.”
I glared at her for a moment, but she continued to smile at me and I quickly gave up.
“I think I might be having a stroke,” I muttered and rubbed my jaw.
We returned back to Gatewatch with full stomachs and bags full of various meats, vegetables, and spices. I had them place everything on the big table on the second floor.
“So do we have the schedules for tomorrow?” I asked and started putting things in cabinets.
“We do, Breakfast at 6:00 to 7:00 and class starts at 8:00, we go tell 2:30.” Cassie said, “Not sure why breakfast doesn’t end at 8:00 though.”
“Eh, doesn’t really matter to me,” I said, “I’ll be making my own anyways.”
“Oh? You can cook?” she asked with surprise.
“Come on, don’t ask so surprised, you make me sound like a barbarian,” I said, acting hurt. “I learned the basics from Hood and the rest from Chubb.”
“Hood, as in the great Robin Hood, leader of the resistance party of the west?” she asked with awe, “Hero at Harvest, the Ghostblood Knight?”
“Uhhhh,” I said, not knowing how to respond as she continued.
“The Iron Ranger, best bowmen in the empire?” she finished. “That Hood?”
“I mean, I always just called him Uncle Hood, but I guess he was all those things as well.”
“That is splendid!” she said, “what was he like, is he like the stories? Tall as an orc, strong as a troll. Moves faster than the elves, such a man that girls fall at his feet just at the sight of him?”
I didn’t know how to tell her that Hood in reality was a short grumpy man with a beard that made me mop the ground with a toothbrush, “not exactly…”
Above us, someone screamed and we both sprinted up the stairs. Immediately I started laughing. Alex stood frozen, butt naked in the middle of the hallway, Val had one hand at her face and the other pointed at him, a book lying at her feet.
“Val?” Noah asked, “did you do that?”
She nodded and picked up her book, “Hey, Val could you undo that, I really don’t need to be staring at it.”
Val waved her hand and Alex sprinted back into our room. I was on the ground laughing and Sam scowled.
“What was he doing naked in our room?” Cassie wondered and walked in, she quickly turned around and walked back out. “I know what he was doing.”
“Lucky bastard,” Sam muttered and stomped downstairs, Illia followed closely behind. Noah led Val back down as well. Cassie kicked me in the side.
“Get up you dunce,” she said and kicked me again, “you have the mental maturity of a twelve-year-old boy I swear.”
“Ahh, that’s great! I can’t believe she froze him.” I wheezed and got to my knees.
“He’s fortunate that Vivian didn’t freeze off his member,” she said coldly and dragged me downstairs as well.
Sam sat on one of the couches with a dark expression. Illia sat on his lap making runes float in the air. Noah was once again fiddling with his brass and Val read her book beside him.
“I’m going to take a shower.” I declared, “Tomorrow is going to be the first day in a new chapter of our lives, so I suggest you all get some sleep.”
I walked back up the stairs and quickly grabbed some clothes, then I went to the first floor and took a shower. This time I didn’t nearly drown myself. Feeling proud I went to bed and fell asleep.