“How much do you all know about the Beast Sanctuary?”

My eyes move about the carriage. Arthur is smiling to himself as he stares blankly at a wall. I don’t need Bell to tell me that he’s lost in a disgusting delusion, likely involving Geneva. Marthe is as hesitant to engage as always. Doesn’t even bother to look up. Alana pouts and turns away from me. I can guess why she’s upset but she’d beat me if I say it out loud.

I stare at William until he clears his throat. “The Beast Sanctuary is a reserve hosting the largest collection of domesticated manabeasts in the kingdom. They provide a wealth of materials used by many artisans, compile knowledge on manabeasts for hunters, and train the mounts used by many orders.”

“Oh! You did good, a very comprehensive answer.” It’s important to praise the children when they do well.

He clears his throat and turns away with a flushed face, his slightly pursed lips showing he understands my thoughts.

“Has anyone been there?”

I was prepared for another round of silence but Marthe surprises me by looking up. “I’ve been.”

“Oh?”

Her eyes bore into me. I take the attention with slightly raised brows, patient enough for her to make up her clearly troubled mind. After a few moments, she lets out a long breath and sits up.

“My teacher…the one who taught me and told me to go to the Hall. She’s a graduate and has connections to the Sanctuary. I spend the end of the week there, helping around for a little extra money.”

“Tender or roadie?”

“You been?”

“You may remember I quarreled with a prince. My punishment was to spend a few days assisting the Sanctuary.”

“Where’d they throw you?”

“With the Temple.”

She laughs. It’s only a small chuckle but it may be the first time I’ve heard her laugh without a hint of scorn. Praise the saints, miracles do happen. “You must have had fun.”

“Oh, I had a blast.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Alana says bitterly. Bitterly enough to garner Marthe’s attention but I wave for her to focus back on me.

“Ignore her. Hey, seadog!” Bell, wake him up.

With a quick jump and a flick of her tail, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who sees it lengthen as she spins, she slaps Arthur out of his daydream. He sputters before turning to me in anger. “You’re begging to die!”

“I’m terrified, truly. Were you paying attention?”

“Does it matter? We just go in and smack around a few seaslugs.”

“That’s a no. Pay attention. They must have chosen the Sanctuary for a reason so the more we all know, the better.”

“You just like to hear the sound of your own voice.”

“Maybe. Too bad for you that you have to listen to me.”

“I—”

He’s interrupted by Bell’s hiss, the imp showing off some impressive fangs. I can see he wants to lash out but he proves he has some good sense after all by shutting up and sitting back.

“Good. Marthe, catch me if I get anything wrong. The reason why I’m insistent we are prepared is because of how unique the Sanctuary is. Using magic, they have created several different reservations optimized for the raising of monsters. Within its walls are several different environments. Plains, forests, rocky areas, water features, deserts, and beaches. Understand? Good.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“We don’t need to go into the breeders and ranchers. They’re the people in charge of managing the business side of the Sanctuary. The groups most likely to be involved in this test, if anyone, are the tenders and the Temple. The tenders are exactly what they sound like. They tend to the place, doing the menial labor and maintenance needed to keep it running. The Temple…they’re a little special. They’re the group that does the taming the Sanctuary is known for.”

“I’d wager it’s the Temple,” Marthe says. “The test will involve monsters, you can bet on it. Monsters mean the Temple.”

“I agree. In which case, I’m warning everyone right now. Be very careful about slaying the beasts. They have a…thing about them.”

The redhead snorts at my drastic understatement.

“People who want to protect monsters?” Arthur scoffs. “The currents must have washed away their brains.”

“It’s more nuanced than that. I’m not saying don’t kill a monster that’s trying to kill you. Just…read the situation. To help you understand, these people wrestle monsters regularly. Not fight. Wrestle. Killing something is easy. Challenging a creature that wants to eat you to a contest of strength, beating it, and putting it down without killing it is something entirely different.”

“Like I said, crazy,” Marthe adds.

“Just the way Lou likes them,” Alana snipes.

I give her a look. What does that say about you? But this is something else I can’t say without encouraging her to beat me.

“Eh-hem. So, in the event we meet anyone with strange tattoos, you let me do the talking. I speak Temple.”

“They speak another language?” William asks. “I didn’t know.”

“Willie, you don’t have to speak another language to make no sense. Trust me.” His eyes reflect his confusion. Nothing I can do about that. The Temple is something that needs to be experienced.

I wonder if I can make some time in the test to see a friend? If I’m lucky, the location will be close enough for me to dash off for a few minutes. I don’t get nearly enough chances to visit.

After my monologue, it doesn’t take long for the humongous stone wall that encompasses the whole of the Sanctuary to come into view, three times the height of the wall surrounding the king’s palace. Understandable. It’s the last line of defense to contain thousands of monsters. I wouldn’t complain if it was twice its current size.

Alana wanted to leave early, earlier than even yesterday, but I shut her down. Every initiate is thinking the same thing. Better to go leisurely if we’re going to have to be in line no matter what.

Fate is on my side. I look out of the window as the carriage slows. We’re close enough that I can make out the two large wooden doors of the gate. Three carriages are ahead of us, along with a group of people dressed in dark clothes and wide-brimmed hats. “Looks like the tenders,” I tell my team as I lean back. “Ready yourselves. The test can start the moment we reach the gate.”

The air in the carriage is tense as we wait for the carriages ahead of us to move. After a few minutes, there’s a knock. I open the door and step out, motioning the two tenders standing by to make space for the others. “Good morning, gents!”

“Your daddy’s a gent,” one of them says, eyeing me up and down. “Name and number?”

“Lourianne Tome. Thirty-seven.”

I hand out the token I received at registration. The tender waves it off and looks at his partner who’s holding a stack of papers. He flips two pages. “Got a Tome here, thirty-seven confirmed.”

“Are all members of your registered team here?” the first asks.

“All five ready and accounted for.”

He looks past me, his eyes focusing on Geneva who stands at the back of the group. “She here to watch?”

I’m surprised he hasn’t commented on her appearance. Then again, this is the Sanctuary. I’m sure he sees weirder things every day.

“Wait, wait.” His partner flips a few more pages. “I’ve got a note for her here. Says she’s a summoner and may arrive with more bodies than the expected five.”

“Got it. Alright, then. We got to get through this whole spiel so don’t interrupt me.” The tender clears his throat. “Welcome to the Sanctuary. We have been told to warn you that the moment you pass through the gate you will be on one of the reservations, the Rusty Step. No carriages will be allowed past this point. There is a clearly marked road. The beasties have been trained to avoid it but your safety is not guaranteed anywhere in the Sanctuary. Your survival depends entirely on your ability.”

He pauses to meet each of our gazes, nodding to himself in the ensuing silence. “Hey, show them the picture.”

His partner turns his papers around, showing a black and white drawing. The creature looks like a mix between a house cat and a weasel, with a long narrow body and two large, pointed ears atop its head. “This is a mamaroon. Your job is to hunt down as many of the little bastards as you can get your hands on. Five points if you bring a corpse, twenty-five if you bring ‘em alive. Don’t care how you do it. Tomorrow, midnight, you come here and we count bodies.”

A monster hunt, huh. The creatures themselves look fairly weak from the picture but manabeasts should never be underestimated. The challenge of catching them alive makes it interesting. Not to mention as it gets closer to the deadline, we’ll need to watch for other teams looking to bolster their score. I note he didn’t say how many points we need to pass. That’s going to make people anxious.

“You will also be given a guide. The guide is there to answer your questions but will do nothing else to help you, not even if you’re about to die. Trust me, those Temple bastards are crazy. They’re also being paid to evaluate you so watch what you say and do around them. Hey, who’s the guide for thirty-seven?”

“Uh, let me see…”

My head snaps up as I catch a familiar scent, lips turning up in a smile as I see the figure jogging toward us.

“Ah, I got it. Says C—”

“Cloud!” I shout happily.