Dusk was beginning to set in as the group continued jogging on the dirt trail.

Arthur was the first to realize they were getting close. The wooden peaks of the buildings barely peaked over the tree canopy, but he knew they were almost back.

During the trek back to campus, the group had maintained good pace. They’d discussed different options in terms of what to do based on the bear encounter.

No one was sure who to report to or if they even needed to report to someone, but Arthur convinced the others that they should let Vincent know.

A few more minutes running finally let them clear the forest and reenter the campus proper.

The group came to an abrupt stop upon hitting a concrete sidewalk after so much time spent on dirt or gravel. They were each breathing heavily with a sheen of sweat on every brow.

“Wow,” Tom said, “I’m not sure why, but it almost felt like we’d never make it back here. After running for our lives for so long, it almost feels anticlimactic to just calmy walk back to the dorm.”

“I’ll take easy walk back to the dorm over potential bodily harm anytime,” Arthur responded.

Willow bobbed up and down in what seemed to be agreement and Shona grunted affirmation.

Arthur continued saying, “I’m just glad we’re back on campus before the curfew. I didn’t want to get in trouble on the first day of class.”

Tom and Shona shot him funny looks with Tom asking, “You think we’d get in trouble for being a few minutes late? I think our story is easily good enough to prevent them from being mad.”

“Just say, ‘Sorry, we went for a hike and were trying to do our school projects when an emergency occurred. Then we had to hide in the woods until it was safe to come back. Sorry we’re late.”

“You know I’m a terrible liar though. I’d never make it through that lie with a straight face.”

Shona spoke up, “It is very close to the truth. I agree with Tom that we would have been fine. Showing them the injury on Willow would be all the proof we’d need.”

“Well, regardless, we’re back on campus now. Let’s start walking back. Now that we’re not running, I guess I’ll tell Vincent what happened. Since it’s late, it’s probably better to just text him a summary.”

The group set off once again for the dorm, with Arthur lagging behind slightly while inexpertly trying to type on his phone. He managed a rough synopsis of the events from the evening before clicking send.

Moments later, Arthur felt his pocket buzzing and reached down to see Vincent’s name on the screen. Arthur accepted the call, putting the phone to his ear only to pull it away immediately due to the sound of Vincent’s screaming.

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“Why didn’t you call me sooner! I gave you both phones for a reason. Who doesn’t call for help during an emergency!?”

The yelling stopped and Arthur heard an audible intake of breath before Vincent once again began asking why they hadn’t reached out to him.

“Everything happened so fast that I didn’t think to call you in the moment. Once we were off the mountain, our only focus was running away and it wasn’t until we made it back to campus that I thought to reach out,” Arthur answered, “Sorry Vincent.”

Tom provided similar apologies. They sat waiting for silence coming from the phone to end.

Finally, a loud sigh rang out from the phone, “It’s okay guys. I’m sorry you had something so jarring happen and thank you for letting me know. You said that none of you were hurt, right Arthur?”

“Only Shona’s idol Willow was injured. She got scratched by the bear.”

“Please let Shona know that the school has resources to help her idol recover. I’ll reach out by email soon with more information.”

Shona spoke up for the first time saying, “Thank you Mr. Vincent. I should be ok helping her with what I already have, but I’ll certainly look into what the school has to offer.”

“Great. Arthur and Tom, I’ll talk to you both more tomorrow on safety steps you can take going forward. For now, how about you all head back to your rooms and get some rest. Sounds like you’ve all had a long day.”

The group said their goodbyes to Vincent and Arthur clicked end call.

They refocused on reaching the dorm with the main campus building slowly passing by until they finally reached the dorms.

Shona also lived on the first floor, so Arthur and Tom dropped her off before continuing to their own dorm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ez was sitting peacefully on the couch in the living room listening to a cooking show on the television when the door to the apartment burst open revealing an out of breath Tom.

From the door, his eyes locked on to Ez and he exclaimed, “Ez we almost fought a bear!”

Arthur appeared in a flash and shoved Tom out of the way saying, “That’s not true. We didn’t fight the bear. We just ran from it.”

“Why are you both out of breath?” Ez asked.

At that question, Tom darted into the room past the grasping hands of Arthur who sighed as his hands caught only air.

“We’ve been running for miles tonight and whenever he’s sweaty, Tom tries to beat me to the shower so he can take one first. He started sprinting to the room as soon as we dropped our other friend off at their room.”

“You guys really encountered a bear?”

“Yeah. It got pretty close to me, but our fiend Shona has an idol named Willow that saved us.”

“That sounds horrifying. I’m glad you guys are okay.”

“Thanks Ez. How was your night?"

"I started on the some of the homework that's due later this week. We're supposed to have a quiz in history on Friday."

The look on Arthur's face became somber, much more so than when he'd been describing his encounter with the bear, before Arthur said, "I knew I should have started on the homework..."

"Don't worry man. There's still plenty of time to prepare for the quiz and do the work."

"Yeah. You're probably right. I'm gonna study a bit before I get a shower and head to bed. Night Ez."

Arthur headed to his room and took a seat at his desk, diving into some of the material they'd covered in history class. Tom took a roughly twenty five minute shower, but Arthur wasn't mad as it gave him time to prepare for tomorrow's lecture.

After taking a shower of his own, Arthur took one more quick look at his notes before brushing his teeth and getting in bed.

Arthur laid his head down on the soft pillow of the comfortable bed in his personal room provided by a school designed to help him learn his abilities. It still didn’t feel real. His first day of class was finished, but it had been almost overwhelming, not including his close call with the bear.