The prison trip continued to gnaw on Alin’s thoughts over the next several weeks.

“Kat to Boy… are you there? Helloooo?”

“Huh? What? Sorry?” His eyes focused on what was in front of him or rather above him instead of the disturbing sights in his memories. “I can see up your nose.”

“Eww, gross.” She brought her head down closer to his.

It was a nice feeling, laying his head in her lap, her strong, calloused fingers running through his short hair.

Okay, maybe not the latter part.

Those katana fighter fingers of hers were like sandpaper.

Yup… she got the upgrade, but was hugely disappointed that it hadn’t gone straight to samurai like her personal hero, Tomoe Gozen.

Technically there were no women samurai, historically speaking.

Not that she cared when someone mentioned that.

What he found really weird was that Kat didn’t seem to like Hanna Gozen, his teacher and a real life sword-wielding hero. She even had the same last name. Shoot. What if she was Tomoe’s descendant?

Ms. Gozen had no idea if that was true or not and the surname wasn’t exactly rare.

Anyways, Kat tended to get all tense and surly whenever he talked about Ms. Gozen and her awesome sword-ness.

He figured it was cause Ms. Gozen was all about the longsword, while Kat was about the katana, though she was starting to branch out a bit, experimenting with the nodachi and a two-handed style with the katana and the wakizashi.

“What?”

She leaned all the way down for a kiss.

Time was an interesting thing.

A minute could last for hours when you were standing at the front of the classroom with a partially-completed report.

An hour could last a minute when you were making out with your girlfriend under the shade of huge tree with birds singing and the breeze cooling the rising heat in your—

“Wow!”

A smug voice pulled them back into real time.

“That’s a win for me!” Victor crowed. “Pay up, losers!”

Alin blushed, thankful that his brown skin tone hid it better than Kat’s fairer one.

Their friends’ eyes glazed over a bit. The tell tale sign that they were sending universal points over to Victor.

“Terrible situational awareness guys.” Lake tsked.

“Yeah, if we were monsters or bad guys you’d be already dead or worse.” Luzi pointed finger guns. “Pew, pew.”

“Honestly, we weren’t even trying to be all sneaky, at least after the first two minutes.” Steph shook his head. “I am disappoint, Boy.”

“You owe me ten points, dude,” Gob said.

“How long were you pervs watching?” Kat scowled.

“Five minutes,” Victor shrugged. “I was the only one that took a number over that. Although, from the lip wrestling you guys were doing I could’ve probably taken the over on ten minutes.”

Kat placed her hand on the hilt of her Threnium katana, eyes narrowing.

“I think today is the day. The day when my inner rage crystallizes, making my will manifest. To become one with the blade. To become the blade. I feel it at the tips of my fingers. The Skill that’ll let me cut you from here.”

“Whoa!” Chill, girl!” Victor raised his hands and backed up behind Steph.

“We get it though.” Steph nodded. “This place is very romantic. Got tree shade. A breeze. Chirping birds and bugs. Pretty isolated too. Perfect make out spot.” He made a show of counting the random people enjoying the park. “Just you two and fifty-ish people that have clear lines of sight. Remember, kids, if you can see them, they can probably see you too.”

“All technically correct.” Alin sat up from Kat’s lap.

“Which is the superior version,” Steph agreed.

“Sure, but the crucial thing is that you guys sat there watching us make out for five minutes. By any metric that makes you creepy pervs.” he punctuated his point by imperiously thrusting his finger at them like an attorney springing the final trap on the true culprit testifying on the stand.

“What are you guys doing here anyways? We’re not supposed to be meeting up until later,” Kat said.

“I got bored waiting at home,” Victor shrugged.

Chrome raised a hand.

“My parents were going to ask me to babysit my sisters while they went to the concert. I,” she thrust her chest out proudly, “saw through their plan and stole a march.”

The phone in her pocket buzzed.

“Just tell them you’re going to the concert and you can’t babysit.” Lake rolled her eyes. “You know they’ll just end up bringing your sisters with them.”

“Nope. Not going to risk it. My plan is simple. No replying until just before the concert starts. By then it’ll be too late.”

“What if they think something happened to you?” Gob said. “Remember that one time they went to Ms. Rayna when they couldn’t get a hold of any of us.”

Alin chuckled.

“Yeah, we got in so much trouble that time.”

“Nah, it’s fine, see?” Chrome held up her wrist. A thin silver bracelet glittered in the sun. The small gem glowed with inner light. “They’ll know if something bad happens.”

Chrome’s dad was an enchantment mage that had learned a few things studying under quite possibly the top enchanter on the continent if not the world, ‘Sexchanter69’, Heddy.

Alin’s dad bought enchanted gear from her huge business. Only the best possible for his dad’s teams. He even got a discount. When his dad needed something really good, she’d drop everything to get it done. No discount on those jobs though.

“And what bad thing could happen here in the heart of ranger territory?” Steph threw his arms out wide and looked to the sky.

“Stop doing that!” Luzi punched him in the liver.

“Urrgghhh!” Steph doubled over, gasping.

“You’re just asking for it, moron!” she snapped.

Alin raised a brow.

Victor sighed.

“You haven’t been around. He started about two weeks ago. The absolute moron wants a sudden random wandering monster attack for the purpose of us being thrown into a desperate fight for survival. The challenge of which will propel him to multiple levels in one go and perhaps an upgraded class.”

“That’s…” he searched for the right words, “grossly irresponsible.”

“So say we all,” several of his friends echoed.

Another inside thing he didn’t get.

He felt a little sad about that.

Not being in J.R.R.P. with his friends on a nearly daily basis for so many months made him feel like he wasn’t part of the group anymore. At least not like it used to be.

As if sensing his melancholy, Kat rubbed his back.

“Liver shot… why?” Steph groaned.

“C’mon guys!” Luzi started to skip away. “Eda, Songbird and Bluewolf said they’re going to try to save us a spot close to the stage. Let’s go back them up. The rabid kids and adults won’t give us trouble if you’re there, Boy.”

“Wait? What? Why?”

“Pffttt! You know why.” Gob reached down to help him and Kat up.

“No, seriously, I don’t.”

“Pffttt!”

He looked to Kat.

“I’ll tell you later,” she sighed.

They made their way to the other side of the park, stopping at assorted food booths and food trucks.

Most were just setting up, but a few enterprising sorts had started early hoping to get a jump on their competitors.

A giant-sized map had been erected conveniently at the entrance to the so-called ‘Food Alley’.

“That’s dumb name,” Kat said. “They should’ve called it ‘Food Park’.”

“Obviously,” he agreed.

“Are we splitting up like usual?” Victor said.

“Eda wanted something vegan, so we’re heading…” Luzi traced the list with her finger, “to the vegan section.”

“I think I’ll go with you guys,” Steph said.

“Fuck no!” Luzi laughed mirthlessly. “You’re just going to ‘accidentally’ slip meat chunks into Eda’s food like last time.”

“No, I’m not! That was a legit accident… that time… c’mon, guys, please? I already apologized and she’s still mad at me. Let me bring her food as, like, a peace treaty thing.”

“You can’t be trusted with this, Steph,” Chrome said flatly. “These are the consequences of being a turd.”

Victor patted Steph on the shoulder.

“C’mon, turd. I’m feeling like some fancy sausages.”

“You would.”

The lifeless reply came quickly, but mechanically, without Steph’s usual enthusiasm at joking around with his gay platonic life partner.

Victor led Steph and the other boys into Food Alley, while Luzi and Chrome followed shortly after.

Alin leaned down and whispered into Kat’s ear.

“I missed that too.”

“Awww,” she rubbed his arm, “poor Boy. Feeling left out?”

He shrugged.

“A little…”

“It’s whatever.”

“I mean, I didn’t even know Eda went vegan.”

“She started, like, a month ago. You know how Steph is. Always trying to get a laugh. He might be at the top of all the physical and intellectual stuff at J.R.R.P., but he’s kind of a dumbass with people stuff.”

Alin laughed.

“Yeah, my dad calls that having high Int and low Wis.”

Kat quirked her head to one side.

“It’s from games.”

He explained briefly.

“Hmm… that totally makes sense for Steph. Anyways, Eda’s still mad. Most of us aren’t that mad at him anymore, but we’re making sure that he doesn’t double down and dig himself a deeper hole. It’s, like, a solidarity thing for Eda. We’ve got her back and we also don’t want her cursing Steph cause that’s just a bad escalation thing.”

“Wait… curse?”

“Oh… yeah! You haven’t seen her in a while. Eda finally got a witch class. She’s been really working hard since last year doing extra lessons with the witch that stayed. It’s sucked for her cause the classes are, like, after midnight. Cause, like, the witching hour is the best time to learn apparently. I don’t know if I buy that, but I guess if it works.” She shrugged.

One of Lera’s witch nannies had stayed to teach the class to those interested and as a recruiting effort.

He was a bit ashamed to admit that he had totally forgotten that Eda was all about that stuff.

Thinking back, he remembered that Eda had been always yawning and falling asleep during J.R.R.P. classes.

He had missed so much over the past year.

How much had he fallen behind his friends?

Kat punched his arm.

“Hey? What do you feel like?”

“A little sad and anxious. It’s like I’m not living in the same world as you guys anymore.”

“I meant to eat… not that existential dread stuff, cause you should stop. Just cause we aren’t together everyday doesn’t mean anything changed. Right?” she hugged him.

“Get a room!”

A laughing voice echoed over the rapidly growing din.

He frowned, searching to no avail for the speaker.

“Ah! Young love!”

“Rangers! Sir! Ma’am!” Kat jumped straight into a stiff backed salute. Several of them actually. A knife hand to her brow, followed by a clasped fist to her chest, then clasped fist to open palm in front of her.

The joke was that the rangers didn’t care about saluting, so everyone sort did whatever they learned from their seniors when they had first started.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Of course, they hadn’t made that explicitly clear to the J.R.R.P. participants.

“At ease recruit,” Ranger Ophrys said.

Alin didn’t miss the singular.

“Ah! Young love!” Ranger Curious twirled a ringed knife around her finger. “I remember mine… was crushed for months when we broke up. But, I’m sure you guys are gonna last.” She shrugged as a second knife joined the first.

He hadn’t noticed when that happened.

The third ranger was a woman he didn’t recognize because of the black cloth covering her head and face so that only her eyes remained visible.

The rangers were in full gear.

“So, what’s good?” Ranger Ophrys gazed at the food map.

Kat, flustered, looked to Alin.

He was more interested in rangers being in full gear while apparently here to enjoy the festivities like everyone else.

The other rangers that he had noticed walking and milling around weren’t in full gear. Sure, they were all armed, but that was normal.

Even non-combatants went about their everyday business with at least a pistol and some kind of melee weapon.

It was actually a law.

Any person over a certain age had to train up to a minimum proficiency level with their weapons of choice.

It was just prudent when random monster attacks were a possibility.

Just because Southern California was the safest place in the world didn’t mean one should be complacent.

He turned his attention back to the large food map and pointed.

“We’re going there.”

Ramon’s Smoked Butchery.

“Oh yeah, he’s good,” Ranger Ophrys said.

His dad knew Ramon.

The man’s BBQ and smoked meats were the objective best in the entire region.

“Um… goodbye… sirs, ma’ams!” Kat saluted.

The rangers stayed at the map for a short time until heading in the same direction.

“Something’s up,” he whispered.

Kat glanced over her shoulder.

“They’re dressed for duty, but they aren’t acting like it. They might just be on a break early for dinner?”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

Ramon wasn’t at the food truck, neither were his wife and kids.

He must’ve been doing pretty good for himself if he had people working for him.

People didn’t really work anymore, at least not in the sense that they used to do back in the old days.

According to all the stories from his elders the system back then sucked. Most people had to do jobs they didn’t care about at best or at worst, hated. They even had to do more than one job just to barely have enough food to eat and a place to live. Even that wasn’t guaranteed.

He had never understood why people back then were houseless.

The fact that people could be working one, two, even three jobs and still go hungry or have to live outside just wasn’t logical.

Nowadays, things were different.

People could do whatever they wanted.

It didn’t take much to have the necessities of survival.

Just doing things related to your class got you points and small quests which led to more points.

Everyone cooking and selling probably had quests to sell a certain number of items, to satisfy the hunger and tastes of a certain number of people. There was probably a larger, overarching quest that placed them all into competition. Perhaps, the truck or booth to satisfy the most number of people gets a larger points payout along with additional rewards like a free Skill.

People were rewarded for chasing their passions.

And no one lived outside, unless they had wanted to. Some people had survivalist-type classes to level, after all. And even then, they all had homes to go back to whenever they wanted to take a break.

Like the people working in Ramon’s food truck.

They were learning from a higher level butcher and some type of cooking class. From the quality of the meat, Ramon had probably consolidated into something good.

The line was short.

The rangers were a few people behind them.

They waved at each other as they crossed paths once again.

Alin and Kat walked hand in hand. Each carried a bag laden with a variety of smoked meats and tasty sides.

They had purchased extra to share.

The concert area consisted of a large stage at one end of a grassy field with temporary bleachers and seats arranged around it in a horseshoe shape.

The center was left open for anyone that wanted to lay down blankets or simply sit in the grass.

People hustled on and around the stage, setting up microphones and speakers, testing the lights and other show elements, like smoke machines and pyrotechnics.

Alin kept glancing back and sure enough the trio of rangers was still following them.

They didn’t seem to be on break.

He was starting to get concerned.

The light weight of the slim, sleek pack on his back gave him comfort. Just like the small bag of holding at his waist.

They located their friends near the front of the stage.

They were having some kind of argument with a group of older young men and women.

“C’mon, kids.” One of the young men smirked. “There’s plenty of room for everyone. That’s why we all came early, right?”

Eda blinked up at him from behind her perfectly round glasses.

“Then move to one of those open spaces. We were here first.”

“Huh? She’s gotten not shy,” he whispered.

“I know, but we have to stop her before she curses him,” Kat hissed.

“I don’t know…”

The young man had that smug look that seemed to be made for eating curses. As long as it wasn’t bad.

He pictured something like extra pimples for a week or an itchy rash.

But then he remembered Uncle Eron’s and Lera’s stories about serious witch curses and hexes.

Eda was creative. she’d know the worst places to put an itchy rash.

Kat pushed him forward.

“Wha—”

“Just make eye contact.”

She pushed him right up to the standoff between the athletic young man and the much shorter, bookish teenage girl.

The young men and women sized the new arrivals up as was traditional going back to the beginning of human existence and tribal conflict.

The young man was a little taller than Alin and a lot bigger.

Both were athletic, but it was the difference between a man and a boy.

“Hey guys!” Kat beamed at Eda and their friends. “Alin and I got BBQ!”

“Sup, Cruces!” Bluewolf sauntered over to exchange their intricate hand greeting.

Oh…

Alin got it a second later.

He was wondering why Bluewolf had used his last name. None of his friends did that.

Sure enough, recognition spread over enough of the older group that they moved over to a nearby open space.

Alin didn’t understand their deal.

Eda was right.

There were plenty of open spots.

It’s not like his friends had taken the exact center.

The other group was just as close to the stage as he and his friends were.

“They just wanted to be dicks,” Bluewolf explained. “They only came over when they heard us talking about J.R.R.P.”

“I think it was a mating display,” Eda said as she removed her glasses to wipe them. “Males wanting to impress females with a show of strength.”

“Sure, everyone knows there’s nothing stronger than a grown man that can bully teenagers.” Songbird snorted.

“Thanks, Boy!” Eda beamed.

“Um… sure, no problem. Not that I did anything. It was just my name.”

He didn’t like using his connection to his aunt, but if it helped his friends avoid conflict then he was mostly okay with it.

His friends exchanged significant looks before breaking out into laughter.

“What?”

Bluewolf turned to Kat.

“He doesn’t know?”

“Nope.”

Songbird flicked her twin’s ear.

“Why would he? He barely comes down here anymore.”

Which was the reason for his anxiety and feeling of being left behind.

He only came down a few times a month and he didn’t always get to hang out with all of his friends together.

Kat was the only one he had never missed spending time with.

It had depended on availability with the others.

“Bro, there’s been rumors about you. It started when you… uh… went on break from J.R.R.P.”

Alin appreciated Bluewolf being diplomatic about his expulsion.

“Basically, people think you’re a secret badass.”

“… okay…”

“We have no idea how it started,” Songbird said.

“We had nothing to do with it, we promise,” Eda said.

“I… believe you…”

They seemed sincere.

“So… what is it exactly?”

“Basically, you got headhunted out of J.R.R.P. for those super secret quests that only the most badass people go on. You know?”

Where they talking about his dad’s teams?

Sometimes top level rangers were included in them, but that was pretty rare since his dad didn’t want to step on ranger command’s toes and rangers tended to work best in their squads rather than thrown into a mixed team on short notice. Plus there was the issue of opsec. The less that they knew about his dad’s teams the better. At least, that was what his dad said all the time.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about? Why would anyone even think that? There’s no way my parents would let me go on super secret dangerous quests.”

“Yeah, but people have been talking about that night. Remember? The whole faerie protocols thing,” Bluewolf said.

Alin had been strongly told not to talk about the fight with the Fae.

His friends had been ushered to safety quickly and they didn’t see it. Only heard it from a distance and maybe saw some of the aftermath. Naturally, when rangers got killed or injured in action word spread and speculation ran rampant.

“You never told us what really happened,” Eda said.

Kat stepped in front him protectively.

“Guys—”

Which wasn’t necessary.

“Yeah, sorry, but like I said before I was ordered to keep quiet.”

“Right, and we get that, but then rumors went crazy cause no one knew what really happened. At least everyone that didn’t have enough clearance,” Songbird said.

“We may have overheard our parents talking about it awhile back. It seems that the events of that night were sealed. Only, like, the rangers that were there and command know the full story,” Bluewolf said.

“That sounds about right. So, I still don’t get how that turned into me being a secret warrior agent guy.”

“It’s pretty obvious, I mean… you got that,” Bluewolf pointed at his sleek backpack, “super tech armor and you got busted up that night. Rangers died and got hurt. So, like, there had to be a bad fight. And then you don’t come back for the next quarter.”

“Yeah, cause I got expelled for disobeying orders,” he sighed.

“We believe you, but for people that don’t know you then it’s a logical leap,” Songbird said.

“That, me, a kid, is going on secret quests?”

“Well… yeah… you were supposed to be suspended for, like, only a quarter and you’ve missed the whole year. It’s, like, maybe that’s cause you’re doing too good on these secret quests to be taken away from that,” she shrugged.

“Which isn’t what we think,” Eda added. “We just hear these things. I’ve overheard rangers talking about those quests.”

“‘Overheard’?” he raised a brow.

Eda flushed.

“I’m supposed to practice with my familiar…”

“She’s got a baby owl!” Kat said proudly.

“I can see and listen through Sir Hoot’s-a-lot… sometimes.”

Alin couldn’t help but grin.

“Wow! That’s pretty cool! This is the witch stuff you’re learning?”

He was glad to snatch the opportunity to shift the conversation elsewhere.

“Yup!”

“Congrats on the class by the way. I would’ve brought a present if I knew.”

“We had a party,” Songbird said.

Kat’s gaze narrowed.

“What? Oh— right, sorry. Listen, Boy, that wasn’t, like, shots fired at you… you know?” Songbird said.

“We’re all bummed that you couldn’t have been there, but we get it,” Bluewolf said.

“It was a short notice surprise thing. We didn’t have time to let you know and it was tough even squeezing it into our schedules,” Kat said.

“No, no, it’s cool, guys. I’m fine with it. I mean, I totally would’ve gone if I could’ve. So, you can use your owl to spy on people? That’s a good ability.”

“I wasn’t spying. It was an accident,” Eda said in a small voice.

Songbird laughed.

“Sure, the first time! What about the other twenty?”

“I’m supposed to practice…”

“Yeah, it’s not your fault that they aren’t practicing opsec like they’re supposed to,” Bluewolf said.

The rest of their friends trickled in with more food and drinks from various booths and trucks.

Steph tried to approach Eda, but was rebuffed by a stony glare and crossed arms.

He raised his hands and backed way.

For the rest of the night he conspicuously kept his distance from the containers of vegan food.

“Dude, I swear, the last time was a total accident,” Steph whispered.

“I believe you, but the times before that weren’t, so…” he shrugged.

“I know and I regret it so much, but she won’t even let me apologize.”

“You’re on her schedule now, dude. You fucked up. You owe her an apology, but she doesn’t owe you acceptance.”

“I know… harsh, but you’re speaking truth.”

“Then just give her time.”

“I know… but… I heard about the curses,” Steph hissed, “I keep waiting for it and I just can’t! Like, I’m losing sleep, bro. What do you think if I ask her to just curse me now and get it over with?”

“Do you think Eda would do something like that?”

“Well… no… but I was really stupid and I’m thinking I deserve it.”

“You might consider that you stressing out is part of your deserved punishment.”

“Yeah… that makes sense…”

They ate and talked about stuff while waiting for the concert to start.

Alin’s feelings of isolation only grew when he realized that he was having to ask them to explain a lot about the events they were talking about, the people.

They were all making new friends and acquaintances in J.R.R.P. and beyond.

Kat stayed close to his side the whole time, giving him comfort.

The bleachers and chairs filled.

The open spaces around them was filled by other people.

There were small groups of rangers in full gear scattered throughout the crowd, which was definitely weird.

Ranger Curious waved her knife at him when he glanced in her direction.

He wasn’t the only one that noticed.

The word went out through his friend group before he could mention it.

They started to check their own gear when a voice of reason emerged.

“Guys, relax,” Victor said. “If there was something really dangerous about to happen that they’re sure about then we wouldn’t be sitting here. The concert would be canceled and we’d be evacuated. So, there’s only a possibility that something dangerous might happen.”

That seemed to be good enough for them and the rest of the massive crowd.

No one appeared to be concerned about the rangers’ presence.

They were probably just extra security.

“Who’s playing?”

Kat handed him a program.

“Here. Casey Cool and the Glitterbombs are headlining!”

He scanned the folded paper.

He recognized the headliners.

They were one of the top rock-pop acts over the last decade. Them, The Tempertones, Tyler Hasty, though she was more pop with a dash of rock, Reb’kah Rose, The Allison Smith Band. All the classics. Still just as popular as always.

He wasn’t really into the modern music scene.

Most of the stuff he knew was the really old stuff that his dad and mom occasionally put on at home.

They had a few music crystals from the post-spires acts, but those didn’t get played too much.

“It’s like a band war. There’s a huge Quest. After the show the spires is going to ask us to rate them across a bunch of different performance categories. Highest total rating wins,” Kat explained.

“Oh, so that’s what this concert week is all about.”

“Yeah, it sucks that this is the only night we can go.”

“Wait, so how does that work? Since we obviously can’t vote on the bands from the other nights.”

“I don’t know, but the rules said that’ll be taken into account.”

“Who do you want to win?”

“The Glitterbombs, duh!” She winked.

“Alright, I’ll rate them high.”

“Don’t worry about that, just be honest. The spires said they’ll enforce it anyways. You can’t just give your favorites all tens.”

The sky darkened as the sun dipped below the west.

Small lights came to life around the stage at ground level and in the aisles and rows.

Kat pulled him to his feet when the countdown clock went under thirty seconds.

He took a deep breath and focused.

He was here to have fun with his friends.

Not worry about things out of his control.