“As a friendly reminder, don’t forget that the dueling tournament will begin in four days which is much earlier than last year’s tournament. Prepare yourselves so that we have as great of a tournament as we had last year.” Master Sora seemed to be in cheerier spirits than he had lately. Parker wondered what could have changed and he wondered when these secret quests were going to start.

As if reading his mind, a voice whispered in their ears to meet him after lunch at his office instead of the classroom like usual.

“Not gonna lie. I’m not upset that we’re not having class,” Alexis said. Everyone looked at her with strange expressions etched on their faces.

“Why…?” Hailee asked. “You love going to class. I mean let’s face it, Parker’s the only one here who really doesn’t enjoy it.” Everyone laughed at Hailee’s joke before Parker could defend himself.

“Hey now. Ever since we switched to physical classes I have no issues with going to class, the homework on the other hand... but it is nice to get a little break.” Parker sent the small ball of air into the hole next to Master Sora’s door and the door swung open. They made their way to his desk and waited for him to turn around in his chair.

After several moments he spun the chair around and looked each of the kids in the eyes. “Is everything okay?” Parker asked. It felt like something was off, but he couldn’t place his finger on what it was that was off.

“Everything is great. I’m glad you asked.” Master Sora stood up and walked around his desk and gestured, excitedly, for everyone to huddle in like he was going to divulge some classified information that only they could hear. Parker thought it was ridiculous since they were the only ones in the chambers. “Your quests are going to begin soon!”

“They are?” Hailee asked excited. “What will we be doing?”

“Can’t tell you that yet but you’ll find out soon enough. I’ve talked to the other masters and they like my idea of trying off campus quests or missions for training practice. We’re going to make a sort of contest out of it.”

Parker knew that was exactly why the master was so excited. “I thought it was just going to be between the six of us.” Master Sora shook his head. “So, each house will have a team that goes out?”

“Exactly. You will race to whatever end goal we decide on.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little unfair to have us as your team then?” Alexis asked.

Parker gave her an exasperated look. “We’re in his house, so it’s perfectly fair to use us.”

“Alexis, I know what you mean and because of your status, I will actually be sending two teams out. One with you lot and another with regular Air Imperials.” He turned to Ana. “I would like you to be a part of that team.” Ana gladly accepted the request from the master. Master Sora smiled at her reaction and started to talk again. “I will let you know soon when you will begin. For now, practice hard for the tournament.”

They left his chambers and made their way to their Air Imperial class. Parker moved them to his separate space so they could talk out loud. “Who do you think they’ll put on the other Erion team?” Parker asked.

“I’m guessing they’ll put Emma on it. But it’s hard to say who else because we don’t know how big the teams they’re sending will be.” Hailee had a good point, but Parker was determined to figure out who else would go.

“Maybe they’d send Oliver and Dexter with her. The trio of trios. You couldn’t find another group that would be more in sync with each other than a group of triplets.”

They walked into room 23-D and sat down in the grassy clearing in the middle of the room. Even though they’d been forced to sleep in there for a while, Parker couldn’t get himself to not love laying down in the grass and feeling the breeze roll across his face. He needed moments like this to keep himself from stressing out about classes, exams, Aether, the tournament, their new quests and everything that Lara had told him. If it weren’t for moments like this, Parker figured that he’d probably be curled up in a dark cellar somewhere in the fetal position, crying.

Everyone slowly made their way in and joined them in the grass. It had been peaceful getting to class early and enjoying the solitude of just listening to the leaves rustle in the breeze.

Emma sat down with April right next them. Parker could hear them chatting about stuff he couldn’t care less about but then they brought up the exam. He knew the peace couldn’t last forever.

“Let’s not talk about the exam,” Parker suggested to them.

“Why not? It’s tomorrow. Are you ready for it?” April asked. Parker didn’t respond for a moment thinking back to how snooty she’d seemed when he first met her. Now, he couldn’t even imagine her being like that. She’d turned into a completely different person once she got here.

“I guess I’m ready, but we don’t even know what the exam will be this time. Plus, I have to think about the Aether match tomorrow as well.”

“Don’t remind me,” Emma groaned. “I don’t think I’m ready to be goalie against another team. They shoot so differently than you guys.”

“You’re going to do great!” April said in a cheering voice.

Master Sora walked into the room and everyone’s attention turned to him. Parker wished that he could command that level of respect someday; to simply walk into a room and immediately have everyone stop their conversations and turn their attention to him. He didn’t know what it would take to get to that level though.

“You’re going to love what I have in store for you today,” Master Sora said with a big grin on his face.

“Oh great…” Oliver mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear. Everyone snickered under their breath.

“I’m sorry. Oliver did you say something?” Master Sora said raising his eyebrows. “My hearing isn’t exactly what it used to be.”

“Nothing sir,” Oliver said with rosy cheeks.

“All right then,” Master Sora continued with a smirk on his face. “Anyone else care to add something on to what Mr. Blackwell said?” Everyone shook their heads quickly. “I was going to give you the day off… but I really don’t know if I want to now…” Everyone turned and glared at Oliver. Master Sora waited a moment before continuing, “Actually, this just gave me a great idea for a lesson that will prepare you even better for tomorrow’s exam. I need everyone to meet out on the bridge in ten minutes. I will see you then.”

The master disappeared in an instant and everyone started talking.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What are we going to do?”

“Why’d you have to go and ruin everything Oliver?”

“We almost had the day off!”

Slowly everyone began to disperse and find their way to the bridge. No one knew what Master Sora was thinking for them to do but many of them were worried that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Is everyone ready?” Master Sora asked, appearing out of nowhere. No one really gave him an answer, so he simply continued talking. “Somewhere down the side of the mountain there are several flags. First team to bring one back is the winner.”

“Piece of cake!” Oliver shouted out.

“Let me finish Mr. Blackwell. Protecting the flags are several groups of upperclassmen. Groups no bigger than three please, and begin!”

Everyone started to scramble, trying to find their groups of three to get started as soon as possible. Parker, Alexis, Caleb and Ana all looked at each other awkwardly.

“How do we want to do this?” Parker asked. He knew he wanted it to be their original trio but it definitely wasn’t fair for them to leave Ana out.

“I call Ana!” Alexis said. She ran to her, grabbed her by the arm and took off across the bridge.

Caleb started laughing out loud. “I guess they’re going just the two of them.”

“Is it you and me then?”

“How about we split up and see who can win?”

Parker thought about it for a moment and agreed with him so he set out quickly to find his new partner. There weren’t very many people left, but the one that really surprised him was Emma. She was standing near the edge of the bridge with her arms crossed in front of her body.

Walking up to her, Parker’s heart started to race. There was no reason to be nervous but that didn’t stop his heart from pounding in his chest. “Uh… do you partner?” He wanted to slap himself.

“What?” she asked in a sheepish voice which was very unlike Emma.

“Sorry. Do you have a partner? Or want to partner with me?”

She slowly nodded her head and the two of them walked across the bridge. Parker hadn’t seen where Caleb disappeared to or who he’d found for a partner. Once they’d made it across the bridge, Parker saw the beautiful scenery that lay below. Trees reached all the way down the mountain from what he could tell and it looked like there was a path they could take. Emma grabbed Parker by the elbow and pulled him behind a tree.

“What the—” Parker started when the bark blew off of the tree like shattered glass.

Parker had his back pinned to the tree and Emma stood directly in front of him with her arms pressed against the tree on either side of him. More bark exploded off of their tree and a branch fell from above.

“What’s happening?” Parker asked, blind to what was happening.

Emma peaked her head to the side of the tree to see if she could see anything. “Hailee’s over there,” Emma said. “Looks like she’s one of the upperclassmen.”

“Come out, come out Parker!” Hailee’s voice almost sounded maniacal.

“What are you doing?” Parker shouted out.

“I’m doing what I was told to!” Her voice cheerfully rang out. The tree lurched toward Parker like it’d just been hit by a truck.

Parker grabbed Emma’s arm and focused hard on pulling her into his Space Imperial so that they could get away. He pulled her behind him as they made their break for a different grouping of trees, hoping dearly that no one was there. When he turned to look at Emma he almost started laughing.

Her eyes were practically bulging out of her face and her mouth was gaping open. “What’s happening? Where’d everyone go?”

“This is what our Space Imperial looks like from our side,” Parker explained.

“What if we come out of it on top of someone?”

Parker laughed a little thinking about how many discussions they’d had worrying about the exact same thing. “Well, in the castle we have certain spots that are safe but out here it’s definitely a risk, but I think this is a good spot.”

They appeared out of the Space Imperial right in front of an upperclassman. He looked at them, blinking rapidly and quickly started hitting them with whips of air. Parker stepped up and took the hits so that Emma didn’t get hurt. He quickly slammed his foot on the ground, sending a chunk of ground up from under the attacker.

Flailing through the air for a moment, the upperclassman regained his balanced and quickly landed safely on the ground. He sent burst after burst at them but Parker deflected each one.

“Quick! Look around and see if you see a flag hanging anywhere.” Parker sent back blasts of air at the attacker, none finding the mark. He pulled water from the stream they were by and shot icicles at him. Parker could see the panic on his face but he quickly recovered and shattered the projectiles with a few more whips of air.

“I don’t see anything that looks like a flag,” Emma said in his ear as he continued to defend them.

“Grab my hand,” Parker commanded as he sent one more blast of air. When her hand met his, they quickly vanished into his Space Imperial. He’d improved so much on it that he smiled. It even seemed like he had an easier time of doing it when he was in a situation that demanded he do it well.

They walked a ways in silence. He could see Emma looking around at all of the scenery as they tried to find another place that would be safe to appear.

“Why is everything so gray looking?” she asked.

“Not really sure to be honest,” Parker shrugged his shoulders. “To be really honest, there’s not a ton that we know about besides that there’s more you can do with it than we originally thought.”

“Really?”

Parker nodded and then pointed to a small tree nearby. “I think that’ll be a good place to appear. Chances are there’s no one standing around a small tree like that. The bigger ones are better for protection, so we should be relatively in the clear.”

He pulled them out of his Space Imperial behind the tree. Emma looked baffled again. They looked around and saw that they were standing behind two or three different groups of upperclassmen. Parker quickly raised his finger to his mouth gesturing to stay quiet. He looked around them more to see why there were so many of them in one spot and noticed perched in the tree was a small flag on a pole that was about eight inches long.

The groups of upperclassmen looked around, clearly on guard for anyone approaching from the woods around them. Parker figured Master Sora would’ve told them to be prepared for the Omnis in the group but clearly he didn’t, or at least they didn’t think it was a serious threat.

Parker tapped Emma on the shoulder and pointed up the tree, drawing her attention to the flag above them. Gesturing to stay quiet he then moved his hands in a rhythmic motion and the flag started to move in the breeze he was creating. After a second the flag started to wind itself around the pole and then he lifted the pole from the branch.

When it came free, Emma let out an excited squeal drawing the attention of everyone around them. Immediately bursts of wind started coming from every direction, but before they could cause any harm Parker grabbed the flag from the air and Emma’s hand and they vanished into his Space Imperial.

They moved quickly back to the top of the mountain. While they were running, Emma asked why they couldn’t see anyone else in the Space Imperial. Parker couldn’t give her an answer because he still didn’t quite understand why they weren’t able to himself. The real question was how Lara could see others. Was it simply a power thing? She could do it only because she was stronger and had more practice?

When they arrived on the bridge, Parker pulled them back from his Space Imperial and they were standing in front of Master Sora. Emma practically jumped out of her socks, not ready for him to be standing right in front of them. Parker then held the flag out to him with a big smile on his face.

“We did it Master.”

“Yes, you did!” Master Sora sounded excited for them. “It seems like you did a phenomenal job as well!”

“Thanks—”

“However,” the master started, holding up another flag in his left hand. “Alexis and Ana arrived two minutes ago with their flag.”

Parker’s face dropped. “They what?!”

Emma started to laugh out loud. “Of course, they did.”

“You all did a fantastic job! Be proud of yourselves.”

Caleb showed up with Oliver by his side and a flag in his hand. “Dang it!” Caleb shouted. “I really thought we had you guys this time!”

“I had a feeling the lot of you would finish first, now I wonder how long it will take for the rest of the class to bring back their flags.”

Over the next hour, groups slowly made their way back to the bridge. Most of the groups looked like they’d been put through quite the ringer out on the mountain. Once the last group made it back, Master Sora pulled them all together.

“All right, you all did a good job out there today. As some of you found out today, you still have a lot to learn, a lot of room to grow. Now, go get some rest before your next classes and be ready for the exam tomorrow!”

The rest of their classes flew by and before Parker knew it, he was falling asleep on the couch in the common room. Everyone else was studying away and finishing homework.

“Why don’t you head to bed?” Alexis asked him while gently shaking his shoulder.

“What? No, I’m okay. No worries.” Then, with two blinks, he was out again.