ILIAS PAYNE
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When sunrise on the sixth day came, we were extra cautious to make sure we weren’t found. This was the last full day after all and everyone was going to be desperate to get their hands on a peggy.
“We can lay low in this cave for a day and a half,” I said as I placed the dried fish over the fire and began boiling tea. “We have more than enough food and water to last us until then. Our main priority is to not get found.”
“It looks like you’ve already failed at that,” a jestful voice said.
The three of us sprang into positions to fight—Erina pointing my wand, Thaddeus swiping at the earth, and me holding out an open palm.
Roswaal was by the entrance of the cave with his hands raised. “We’re not here for a fight. If we were, you wouldn’t have seen us coming.”
“Then why are you here?” Erina asked.
“It looks as if you three have caught a peggy.” Roswaal urged a frightened Billie in front of him. “We have one as well. And no, we aren’t keeping the girl hostage. It’s a long story but her party is gone and she’s sticking with us for the remainder of the phase.”
“If we team up to protect each other, there’ll be seven of us,” Zwergin said. “No one with a working brain will attempt to attack us.”
“I see your logic, but how did you find us?” I asked.
“It was easy,” Chris said. “I’m a beast person that’s part cat and I have a strong sense of smell. You’ve done a good job hiding, but Thaddeus slipped up last night and I caught his scent near the lake.”
Thaddeus chuckled nervously. “W-what do you mean? I was here last night so the scent down by the lake couldn’t have been me.”
Chris sniffed the air. “I’m sure it was your scent I smelled last night.”
Because the stories weren’t lining up, we interrogated Thaddeus. He confessed to sneaking out in the middle of the night to enact revenge on Jay Geils for beating him in poker.
“You are so reckless!” Erina scorned. “You did all of that because you were petty? What if you had gotten captured, tortured, or killed? And why would you give another team a bird? That’s three more people to compete against.”
“Asher is a nice guy, but he and his party would’ve definitely attacked me if I didn’t give them the peggy. Besides, as long the bird isn’t in Jay Geils’ possession, I don’t care who it belongs to.” Thaddeus pointed at Billie. “And why is she with you?”
We cooked more of our rations and spent the rest of the meal listening to what Bad Attitude had been up to ever since we were separated.
To make sure we were truly safe, Roswaal used his Familiar to trap us inside an indestructible smoky dome with no exits. He called this ability Jailhouse Rock.
Roswaal challenged us to break out, but we were all smart enough to keep our abilities hidden. Except for Thaddeus who went all out trying to punch his way through. He couldn’t break out of Jailhouse Rock, but he was able to escape by turning the ground around the dome into quagmire and swimming to the outside.
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During the day, we heard commotion from outside that we assumed was people trying to break through the cloud dome. They would always give up after an hour or so.
Our plan was to simply stay inside Jailhouse Rock until an hour before noon the next day—which was what we did.
The seven of us made our way back to the rendezvous and found Ivan, Leroy, and other proctors waiting. Before sitting off to the side, Billie thanked us for keeping her safe and handed Roswaal the caged peggy she had been holding onto.
Once the clock struck noon, the first phase was officially over.
Ivan raised himself on a platform. “Out of fifty-two parties and a hundred and six participants, only fourteen parties and forty-two participants have passed. If your team name is not on the list, you have been disqualified.”
Leroy began reading. “Hammer To Fall; Bad Attitude; All Stars; Earth, Wind, And Fire; Looking Glass; Cherry Bomb; Planet Waves; Valley Girls; Suspicious Minds; Words Of Love; Hash Pipe; Fever Dreams; Dire Straits; Hell To Pay.”
As a small celebration, each of the parties that passed simultaneously released our captured peggies and collectively startled them with harmless spells.
Just as the peggies zoomed away, a giant green dragon flew past us, gliding in circles before landing just beside the proctors.
“Don’t worry,” Ivan reassured. “This dragon is my friend and his name is Puff. We fed him earlier this morning so he should be full. Hopefully.”
Puff was a long serpentine dragon that had two short legs at the front and end of its body. He had long whiskers that floated by his snout. And though he had no wings, flying was no problem for him.
Heloise told me that smart dragons can figure out how to use jynx.
“If your party name was called, please climb onto Puff’s back. He and I will be taking you back to Base Zero,” Ivan ordered. “For those of you who have failed, please remain here with the other proctors until the island aligns with the plateau. The proctors will guide you to wagons that’ll take you back to Base Zero. You will be allowed to enter the lobby to procure your belongings. I hope to see you again next year.”
The forty-two of us that passed climbed onto Puff and once we were all secured, the dragon hopped off the island and began flying back to the Capital. Throughout the ride, Thaddeus had his hands in the air screaming. Chris was even more daring, standing up while holding onto Puff’s tail with her tail. Erina, on the other hand, was completely terrified. Thaddeus was in front of her so she spent the entire time clinging onto him.
When we arrived back at Base Zero, Ivan told us that since the next two phases weren’t in teams, we were free to check into separate rooms.
Erina thanked us for helping her pass phase one before packing her things and checking into a different room.
“I have a feeling that I’m mostly the reason why she wanted to leave,” Thaddeus said. “Are you leaving too, Ilias?”
“I’ll stay. I’ve made good friends and we’ll be splitting off once this whole thing is over. I want to spend as much of it as I can together.”
We changed out of our dirty clothes and sent them to the cleaners before sinking into our beds. We had been sleeping on cold dirt and itchy bedding for the better part of a week and a warm bed felt rather angelic. We dozed right into the evening and were only woken up when a staff worker dropped by to give us our clothes back.
“Let’s drop by the lobby before we eat,” Thaddeus said. “I need to tell whoever’s in charge where I buried the bodies. And let’s reward ourselves for passing phase one by getting drunk and hungover.”
“Yeah, let’s celebrate. But not that far.”
“What if the other participants throw a party?”
A party does sound nice.
“Only if they do.”
When we left our room for dinner, we found Erina on the other side of the door about to knock.
“Hey,” Thaddeus said. “What’s up?”
“Did you forget something?” I asked.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that…” She fidgeted anxiously, her face turning beet red. “It feels lonely staying in a room all by myself. I wanted to ask if there’s room for one more.”
The team-related phases of the exam were over, but the bond between Earth, Wind, And Fire was not.