Patli glided down onto Tonauac’s shoulders, and between he and Xoco they took the lead to guide the group back into the jungle. Only a short way in and they saw the dilapidated stone walls holding up all manner of greenery that had long ago overtaken this ‘building’. Three walls still stood at uneven heights, and one now lay scattered on the ground and overtaken by moss. Beams of fading light streamed in through the canopy above to give it a serene yet ever so unsettling air of old ruins.

“Are we sure that’s a cabin?” Xoco asked with a hand to her chin, Citlali looked just as unsure as she took careful step after step forwards. “It looks like it was only ever one level…”

“That is um…” Tonauac fished around for the words, looking to the bemused vulture on his shoulder for counsel. “Standard! I think you might be used to the more deluxe versions! My grandparents have one about this size. Only about four or so rooms but it’s cozy!”

Their drow companion shook his head at the rich girls as he ambled closer to the building, careful to watch the ground and the trees above. “Yeah my parents would rent something like that once a year for our squidding trips down in The Grayblood Abyss.”

“Haha you are so right!” Isak’s nervous laugh hid the pain as he took the lead once again as the shame in his eyes was a bit too much to hide with false joviality. As ruined as this small building was, it was still almost twice the size of the only home he had ever known. “Vidal! Let’s go find that metal disc and get–”

“I’ll do it.” Citlali said as she straightened out her posture. “You brought me this far, now it’s only fair that I do my part.”

No one objected as they cleared the way, and even Vidal gave her a curt nod as she crouched down low and spoke to her raptor. “Remember Coztic, quick on your feet.”

The small raptor yipped her understanding, and in a yellow flash that matched her name was darting off into the stone ruins. With bated breath, the group waited while sneaking glances at one another to try and silently confirm any further steps to the plan. The lizardfolk flicked their tongues out with a bit more vigor than normal until the small dinosaur dashed back no worse for wear. “She didn’t see anything threatening, aside from a large bug. Which she ate. I’ll go get the disk. But if it turns out the traps are far worse than a mud trap and I die, know that I have appreciated all of you in the short time that I have known you!”

Citlali grabbed a nearby stick and gave a final bow to the bemused group before an eye rolling Isak spoke up. “Okay no, we’re not splitting up. Lead the way but we’ll be right behind you.”

The lizardlass fidgeted on the spot as her eyes searched the human’s. Only with fleeting glances as she also checked that of the others with as much apparent nerves. Her voice was holding onto whatever confidence she could as she spoke. “Understood.”

She turned and led the group into the dilapidated building as Isak got the distinct feeling that, somehow, she only partially understood. Isak scratched the back of his head until a small spark of realization hit him, and wondered if she too was having trouble getting used to…all of this.

The loud chirp of a frog kicked him from a haze of introspection as they entered the dilapidated remains of the building. If it were not for the presence of all the straight lines still remaining, it would be easy to mistake this place for some overgrown outcropping of rocks overtaken by moss, vines, and other plant life. They hid the stone of the walls but retained the rectangular shapes of the structure.

The group stepped over the remains of a collapsed inner wall, chunks of stone so covered by dirt and moss as to be mistaken for rocks. More frogs hopped out of the way and chirped their annoyance as Citlali spotted a now familiar totem and made her way towards it.

She held up a hand for the rest of the group to wait as she went about checking around the totem for any traps with her stick. After nothing revealed itself, she took a hesitant step towards the totem and swiped the metal disk. There wasn’t even much time for waiting with baited breath.

Some tension was let out as they all shared a look and a chuckle between themselves at the absurdity of it all, and the nerves that wanted to make everything funny given the chance. The chance wasn’t fully there, however, as a peaceful silence returned and a moment to breathe was taken amongst old ruins reclaimed by nature.

Ruins that, Isak thought to himself, were still larger than his home while all the others noted even the ruins to be very quaint. 

He kicked over a piece of crumbled wall, watching the bugs from beneath go scurrying about on the jungle floor as several frogs leapt in to take advantage of the surprise meal. The human insisted that there was still much trekking back to do as he led them all out of the ruins, being careful to lead them around the feasting amphibians at his feet.

Citlali looked over the metal disk in her hand as a genuine smile returned to her face. 

“Well, that was remarkably easy. I suppose–” She stopped as she tilted her head to the side, staring at Isak with a widened eye. “Didn’t you have a necklace on earlier?”

His hand shot up to his neck, and Isak’s blood ran cold as he groped around for the necklace the Zyn had given him. Finding nothing there but flesh and the collar of his uniform, his eyes shot open. “Uhhhh…Zyn after you promise to not kill me, do you have any spares of those?”

“Not going to kill you no matter how much they cost. Which is enough for me to not have any more.” Zyn groaned as he buried his face in his hands. “Any idea where you lost it?”

“I last saw him wearing it at the pond!” Citlali said before flicking her tongue out many times in rapid succession. 

Isak raised a brow, wondering if he was picking up the correct implication here. Her green eyes met his, and the human saw the faintest hint of pleading in there. With the tiniest nod, he groaned and threw his hands in the air. “This isn’t the roughest day of my life, but it’s up there! Fine! Clumsy me lost the only thing keeping me from frying in the island sun. Ugghhhhhh…sorry guys. Let’s just…run back and get it?”

The blood mage stepped forward to rest a hand on his shoulder and he said with all seriousness. “As your doctor, I must insist that we retrieve that amulet as soon as possible. If you get too much sun, it will take one of the school blood mages to regrow your eyes! It’s going to be a while until I can do that…”

“Wha– I mean yes! I can’t expect Vidal to lead me around everywhere until I can have someone regrow my eyes!” The human said it as much as he questioned the strange assumption.

“Master Isak, I am to ensure your safety and would have no issue assisting you in the event of loss of limbs or sense organs.” The rock man turned to the lizardlad. “Tonauac, if such a loss were to take place and there were one or more individuals at fault, could you temporarily attach any confiscated body parts?”

“Well it’s not recommended for long term usage…” Tonauac removed his hand from a horrified Isak’s shoulder to tap a claw to his jaw as he paced about. “But that spell is much less advanced than regrowth, and in an emergency situation it would provide a restoration of function far faster than regrowth so it would–”

“That’s enough nightmares for today.” The human interrupted their brainstorming session as his actual eyes were in danger of jumping out of his head and running screaming into the salty surf that could be faintly heard in the distance. “Let’s just go get that necklace.”

As they took off into a sprint, eager to be done with all of this, Zyn and Citlali alike both reassured Isak that they would assist in the ‘acquisition’ of temporary eyes and or limbs should it come to that. Xoco’s own bright pink eyes casting a beam of sympathy towards Isak as he met her gaze was a welcome consolation from his very odd friends.

The second mad dash, this time with even greater urgency, had all of them panting and hating this last bit of exertion in what should have been a normal day. Once he figured out that they were doubling back on purpose, Isak kept an eye out for any signs that anyone but them had tread on this path. He found none but light was fading a bit too fast for them, and they pushed themselves harder through the unforgiving grasses and island humidity until they finally saw the pond flowing into a stream once more.

They all fanned out, looking over the trampled grass for any sign of the necklace. Tonauac conjured a beam of light to look for any reflection, all the while casting glances around and flicking his tongue out far faster than Isak had ever seen. After seeing nothing in the grass and muck around the shore, Isak’s shoulders slumped as he stared out at the pond. Perhaps when Vidal had caught him while sinking, that’s when he had lost the amulet? With a resigned sigh and instruction to Vidal to help him search through the muck with any water abilities he may have, he started taking off his boots once more until a shout rang out.

“I found it!” The blood mage said, Patli holding it aloft in his beak before giving it to Tonauac who raced over to Isak with his fellow lizardfolk. As they stopped before Isak, both of them had looks so worried that there was no mistaking it even on their unfamiliar reptilian faces. Zyn and Xoco joined them a second later as Isak was putting on the amulet once more as they all had their realizations.

“Oh you’re a lifesaver!” Isak’s voice wavered as he put on a pained smile. “Where did you find it?”

Tonauac pointed to Citlali, who was busy staring at the ground where her raptor stared back to keep her spirits high. “Oh…patch of grass. Can’t believe I didn’t see it the first time…must have fallen off when you…uhhhh–”

“Oh dear!” The jungle troll lightly smacked her head before looking convincingly crestfallen. “It must have been when I picked you up! I’m so sorry I promise I won’t do that anymo–”

“NO– oh it’s no problem! I don’t mind at all!” Isak insisted while laughing and turning red. “You seemed excited! Why would I want to say don’t be excited? I was excited!...as were we all! Because who wouldn’t be…at victory followed by a very, very unfortunate fact.”

“Speaking of…” The drow’s smug grin endured through the worrying implications that the lizardfolk had in fact sensed something. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder as he and Ozzy pointed to the setting sun. “We need to get moving. Until I see how you all handle yourselves in the dark without crazed rich kids hunting us, I will just worry even more than I normally do.”

They all mumbled their agreement, letting things fall silent for a moment before their eyes fell on the lizardfolk. Tonauac spoke first in a low whisper. “Well…yes someone else is out there. Doubling back was a good idea, I caught the smell-taste the second time.”

“And it’s sweat.” Citlali confirmed as Coztic’s head darted about in every direction, searching for some visual they knew they wouldn’t see. “Fresh, too. At least that narrows it down? A bit? Does that help?”

Isak gave a quick thumbs up, then laughed as he put on a big smile. His voice boomed out to signal the shift into attempted deception once more. “Come on! You’re worrying too much! Getting back is easy, it’s just a straight line! Patli and Nelli can just fly up and point us back towards campus, right? We walk that direction, turn in the metal disks to complete the assignment and done. Easy. Might there be beasts and maniacs in the night? Yes. That just means we all stick together. And also hurry.”

None of them wanted to delay much longer, and they all followed as the flying familiars were released into the air to guide them back. Adrenaline took over and kept them moving when fatigue and humidity threatened to pull them down into the floor of the jungle and leave them there as yet another ruin overtaken by moss.

Of course, there was only the one thing that had been proven.

That there was someone out there in the jungle who had been watching them. And according to Isak, this was not the first time. And according to Xoco, both she and him were likely candidates for the focus of this. They had already been attacked by overzealous fellow students, why not some other mysterious party?

Nelli and Patli had led them back admirably well, as they started to encounter more and more groups of students all making their way back. More than a few pointed and muttered amongst themselves when the group of five was spotted. And the five didn’t even mind as they found relief in the fact that there were now too many around for their stalker to do anything, much less hear them out of every other student conversing.

They all realized they had been too focused on making it back in as little time as possible to talk in anything more than simple directions and instructions. No actual conversations until Isak breathed a sigh of relief and spoke. “We’ll talk more once we get back to my and Zyn’s dorm. Which I guess is our designated meeting place for privacy.”

“Yeah I’m not complaining about having new friends but uh…” Zyn gestured to the lizardlass that nonetheless rubbed at her arm and looked off to some other group currently pointing at them. The other students turned away and pretended like they had not been caught. “It’s going to be pretty crowded until we can find a better solution. No, no it’s not you Citlali you’re almost as compact as me. Everyone else here had to be really tall.”

Isak didn’t exactly see it that way, but he supposed that he was at least possibly maybe slightly above average height for a human male his age. Which left the notably tall, for their respective peoples, Tonauac and Citlali. And plodding alongside them was the ever towering Vidal who hadn’t met a door he didn’t have to duck through yet, and was likely thankful for his body not being in one piece. 

“Apologies for my lack of a compact form, Zyn.” The stone tower in question responded without actually looking down to him. “I do not know which if any of my component stones may be superfluous for the purposes of a reduction in size.”

While Citlali looked up at the being in confused horror, the other four shared a look before withdrawing their journals. “Will I…be informed about this in the dorm room?”

“Oh of course!” Isak didn’t look up but smiled at her still while he scribbled away.

“I’ve got spare journals if you need one!” The jungle troll was no better about making any eye contact.

Tonauac, at least, finally remembered what eye contact was as he looked up and whispered. “I should tell you now, it’s more secret stuff…..that leads to knowledge!” He added the last part in for some attempt at reassurance. 

Fortunately for them, there were many groups of students milling about back where they had originally started as they waited for friends and classmates to return from the jungle. Upperclassmen assistants all received and processed those who had come back victorious, collecting the metal disks signifying that their destination had been found. There was only minimal attention paid to four students focused on taking notes with a confused fifth member having many questions about her new companions.

Before Citlali could ask anything further, Professor Yesun was charging up to the group on horseback. As he stopped in front of them, the corners of his mouth struggled to hold back a frown from overtaking his tusks as his eyes betrayed his anger. The old orc called down to them as his gloved hands threatened to explode from gripping the reins of his horse so hard. “You four, follow me.”

“Um…” Isak’s hands balled into fists and relaxed several times as he gathered the courage to speak again. “It’s five now. She’s with us.”

At that, he reached into a pocket on his uniform to withdraw the teeth she had surrendered to him and held them aloft for the professor to see. He grit his teeth and his face turned a new shade of gray. “So…you are Citlali?”

“I am…” The lizardlass had gathered her raptor into her arms and hugged him close. “And I…did perform the ritual to swear my allegiance to–”

“So you were not taken captive by these four, and as was predicted I have no less than seven young troublemakers who are also liars?” The five were impressed that the professor managed to speak through grit teeth, especially with tusks like his.

“Not at all!” The dark green lizard girl in question held up her hands and bared her teeth to show that there were some missing. “I should have done that much earlier!”

The old orc’s gloved hands looked ready to explode from gripping the reins of his horse familiar so tight. His voice fought through the barricade of teeth in a low growl. “I’m going to have them mopping up every rain drop on this island for months.” He took a deep breath, and in an instant he had put up an absolutely impressive mask that betrayed no anger from moments before. “If I were to pull you in for a truth saying ritual, and I am not committed to that yet, I would find…what exactly?”

Isak spoke up without any delay. “That the four of us were attacked without doing anything to provoke them, but we did beat them! And Citlali did the whole ritual and joined us because she hated them?”

“And if these events happened, including triumph over insurmountable odds in combat, did you manage to make it to your destination?” Professor Yesun’s eyes grew wide as Isak handed over his team’s disk, followed shortly by Citlali surrendering hers as well as his eyes grew wider still. “You all did two?”

“Well there were some delays and the two were actually pretty close to one another…” Isak paused, backtracking as he motioned with his hands. “Well not close enough but the point is from one we were able to run to the other without much issue. Twice actually but-”

The professor leaned over in his saddle to grab both disks held out to him, then gave a firm nod. “There will be forms to fill out later, since there was a ritual and you can now count as a group of five in such exercises. Expect to find greater difficulty as a result, but take pride in knowing that you already rose to that challenge once. That can be handled tomorrow after breakfast. Run along for now. Whatever pride The Empire lost from seven wayward fools may yet be reclaimed and then some by all of you.”

And with that he excused himself to rejoin Professor Xipil, who he noted was likely going to have the seven doing community service for every town or city on the island until every pet had been retrieved from every tree and the streets were clean enough to eat off. As they watched the professor ride off, they let out a collective sigh of relief.

All of them stared ahead with unfocused eyes, rather than acknowledge the crowd that had formed of onlookers who had heard every detail clearly enough, and who would no doubt find out more details by the start of next week.

“Do we have enough time to go have some nice hot drinks?” Isak asked as his eyes lulled to the side to see the last glimpse of the proud blue sun, long having turned a dark violet as the day grew long, winking past the horizon to usher in the night. With it, the great solar body took all remaining energy left over from the adrenaline rush to force the group to suddenly remember their exhaustion. Isak lightly slapped his face to rouse himself. “Not ideal, but a few hours until stargazing time.”

“Let’s just grab some food and drink and head back to the dorm.” Zyn suggested as Ozzy slapped a few tentacles against the side of his face to help wake him until he could get some hot caffeinated drink in his system. If anyone had objected, they would have been dragged kicking and screaming by the others if they had in fact had the energy left to kick or scream. Though they did all suspect that there would be plenty of screaming later.