After Lee finished brutalizing the body of the monster, Isabel set about preparing the clearing. She erected six stone cones in the center of the clearing, leaving openings to peer out of to make sure nothing could sneak up on them too easily.

Isabel then formed a pit in the center of the camp. Meanwhile, Todd and Emily gathered dry sticks of wood from the ground and piled them into the pit. Todd burned away the grass in the immediate area around their soon to be campfire to make sure it wouldn’t mistakenly spread.

A little under half an hour later, they had everything prepared. The three students stood around, staring at each other.

“Well?” Moxie asked.

“What do we do now?” Isabel asked. “We’ve got a camp.”

“What do you think?” Moxie raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to be here for a while. Are you happy with what you’ve currently got?”

Todd dug through his travel bag. “I’ve got some beef jerky, cheese, some changes of clothes, and water. Not much in the shape of anything to sleep on. Maybe we should get some moss to make beds?”

“That’s a good idea,” Isabel agreed. “But if we go into the forest, we’re also losing the relative safety of our camp. I don’t know how big the big bird thing’s territory is.”

“That’s exactly what we should find out,” Emily said. “We need to figure out what the potential enemies that could come up on us are.”

Moxie nodded in approval. “We’ll shadow whatever you do, but Vermil and I won’t give any suggestions unless you need them. Keep it up, Emily. Can you lead them for now and try to impart the lessons I gave you to them? It’ll be good for all of you.”

Emily pressed her lips together, but sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Fine. Come with me.”

The students set off into the forest, and the three teachers headed after them. As they walked, Lee jogged to join Noah – still covered in blood from head to toe.

“I’m going to go scout the area and see what we’re up against,” Lee said. “Please don’t kill the Great Monster before I get back.”

“I have no plans of killing any more Great Monsters that Arbitage set up for training,” Noah said, looking sheepish. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not stupid.”

“Whatever you say,” Lee said. She didn’t look convinced. Lee stepped into the shadows of a tree and faded from view.

Emily hadn’t waited around while they were talking, so Noah and Moxie hurried to catch back up with their students before they could get too far away. Instead of walking straight away from the camp, Emily took them in large circles around it, slowly increasing the diameter of their loops to make sure they didn’t check the same area too many times.

It wasn’t the fastest way to cover ground, but it did result in getting a pretty good understanding of the general surroundings. All of them were on their guards as they walked, and Emily held her frost bow readied by her side, her eyes sweeping the forest.

A snake whipped at them from the bushes. Both Noah and Moxie prepared to act, but an ice arrow sprouted from its head before it could finish its strike. The monster flipped through the air and thumped into a tree, sliding down to the dirt below.

Emily didn’t even stop moving. Isabel and Todd exchanged an impressed glance – and promptly just followed after her instead of saying anything. Noah’s eye twitched.

Goddamn it. Compliment her. That was a great shot. What’s up with you lot?

“Good shot, Emily,” Noah said after waiting a few more moments, hoping one of the others would speak first. “That was some impressive reaction time.”

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye,” Emily replied in a flat tone. “I just didn’t shoot until it moved.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Todd asked with a frown. “We could have–”

“Because I didn’t need help.”

I think we’re somehow managing to regress. What’s going on? I don’t understand at all. Moxie is right. They were getting along fine during the trip.

Todd shrugged, and Isabel didn’t say anything. The group just continued in their ever-growing loops. After a little under an hour, they’d cleared the majority of the area around the camp.

There were several other snakes. Three fell to Emily’s bow, two went down to Todd shooting bolts of flame, and Isabel managed to spear one that had hidden in a large bush. Not a single time did the two groups help each other.

Even Todd and Isabel hadn’t mentioned too much to each other. They were both focused on trying to spot monsters and, instead of working together, the three of them were each just trying to gun for themselves.

Moxie caught Noah’s eye and raised an eyebrow. He just shrugged in response. For the time being, the tactic worked. Actions always spoke louder than words, though. They’d run into a monster that they’d need to actually work together on soon enough – and, if they didn’t, Noah would find one.

“Not yet,” Noah mouthed with a shake of his head.

The group, having completed their survey, returned back to the camp that Isabel had set up. The sun was already well on its way to setting, and the temperature in the Vibrant Woods was starting to drop.

Todd walked up to the prepared campfire and knelt beside it, sparking his bracelets and sending a small arc of flame into the dry wood. It caught a moment later, and fire started to crackle as it spread.

“There,” Todd said, pulling out some of the food he’d packed. He glanced at Noah. “Do we need to set watches?”

“What do you think?”

“I’ll take first watch,” Emily said.

“I’ll take second, then,” Todd said with a shrug. “Isabel, are you okay with third?”

Isabel nodded. She and Todd headed into one of the stone tents to eat. Emily silently walked into her own tent, leaving Noah and Moxie standing outside beside the growing flame.

Lee strolled out of the forest, walking up to the two of them and looking from Isabel and Todd’s tent to Emily’s.

“That didn’t go too well.”

“No,” Noah agreed in a low tone. “It didn’t. They aren’t working together at all. I’d be willing to settle for them not being friends if they at least tried to extend an olive branch, but I don’t think the thought has even crossed any of their minds.”

“Maybe time to just tell them?” Lee offered.

“It might be,” Noah admitted. “But it’s not like they actually dislike each other. They just don’t care. Isabel and Todd probably haven’t even realized what they’re doing, but they’re so co-dependent on each other that they don’t leave room to trust others. Emily hasn’t had the chance to properly interact with other people, and she’s too proud to approach them.”

“So it’s a standoff,” Lee said. “And we can’t just tell them to stop being sour and work together because…”

“That could work for the time being, but just saying it won’t actually teach them anything,” Noah said. “We aren’t in a classroom. We’re in the wilderness. We should take advantage of that to give a lesson that actually impacts how they think, not just tell them how to act.”

“You say that like you have a plan,” Moxie said slowly.

Noah grinned. “The beginnings of one, perhaps. It might interfere with what you had planned, though.”

“We can get to that later. What is it?”

“Well, it starts with Lee finding something big and ugly.”

***

Emily leaned against the cold stone of the shelter that Isabel had erected, staring at the ground before her and idly drawing on the ground with lines of frost. It had been a little over an hour since she’d retreated to her tent, and the Vibrant Woods were starting to darken. 

It was just about time for her to take watch.

She rose to her feet, steeling her face before she walked out into the camp. It was silent, the only sound coming from the gentle crackling of the flame. Todd and Isabel were both in their tent – she could see the gentle light from a flame Todd had formed within it casting their shadows over the ground.

Emily wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that the two of them had left her alone. They didn’t care about her. They weren’t even nobles. It didn’t matter what they thought.

I wish it was just Moxie and I again. The training we did together in the woods while waiting for Vermil to get back from the Linwick Estate was so much fun, and I didn’t even have to listen to any boring lessons while we were at it.

It’s not like they even want me around. They’d prefer if it was just them and Vermil. So why do we have to stick together? It’s such a pain in the ass.

Emily leaned against her stone house and crossed her arms, shivering as a cold wind blew past her. She considered moving closer to the campfire, but that also would have involved getting closer to the opening in the tent, where Isabel and Todd would probably just be sitting together by their own little fire, whispering under their breath and huddling for warmth.

A pang of longing and disappointment bit at Emily’s heart, but she crushed it ruthlessly. The Torrin family didn’t have room for weakness – especially not in the main branch. It didn’t matter what anyone else did.

Moxie was right. Friends didn’t matter. She was strong enough on her own – and it wasn’t like Isabel or Todd even wanted to be friends with her. They were happy enough on their own.

I don’t belong here.

Emily’s musings were rudely interrupted as a massive crash shook the clearing. One of the stone tents to her side collapsed as a brown-furred gorilla stumbled into the clearing, two massive fangs jutting out of its mouth. The monster stood almost three times Emily’s height, and its body was pure muscle. Its massive hands dragged on the ground behind it, eyes wild.

“Monster!” Emily screamed, her bow materializing in her hands as she pulled the moisture out of the air and froze it into shape. Her eyes darted around for the professors, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Isabel and Todd dashed out of their tent.

“What happened?” Isabel called back, stone erupting to cover her in armor. “I thought you were on watch!”

“It came out of nowhere,” Emily replied, firing an arrow at the monster’s head. The gorilla jerked its head back, avoiding the spell, and turned its furious eyes toward her as it let out a howl.

“Wait!” Isabel yelled, her armor still forming around her. “I’m not ready–”

Todd tackled Isabel to the side – an impressive feat while she was partially encased in stone, and they narrowly avoided getting trampled by the gorilla as it charged Emily.

Emily’s eyes narrowed and she darted to the side, throwing herself forward at the last moment and landing in a roll as the gorilla’s fist whistled past her. She shot back to her feet, an arrow forming in her bow, and fired at the monster.

She was close enough that it didn’t have time to dodge, but that also meant that getting a shot at a good spot was considerably more difficult. The ice arrow thunked into the gorilla’s arm and it let out a furious roar, spinning to face her again.

I can handle this on my own.

“Get out of here,” Emily yelled, firing another arrow at the gorilla and darting away as it lumbered after her. “Find where the professors are! They’re missing.”

“They’re missing?” Isabel asked. “Why? What happened?”

“Does it matter?” Todd sent a bolt of fire into the gorilla’s back, singing it heavily. The gorilla snarled in fury, missing a step and glancing over at him. Todd swallowed. “Oh, shit.”

Isabel shoved Todd out of the way. Her shield finally materialized in her hand and she raised it to take the blow – but she didn’t have time to reinforce her position, and the gorilla’s fist sent her flying.

Isabel slammed into the stone tent, crashing through it and skidding a foot across the ground with a groan to land beside Emily.

“What are you doing?” Emily demanded, firing two more arrows at the back of the gorilla’s head. The first shattered against the monster’s thick skull, and the second whistled by harmlessly as it spun toward them and charged.

“What are you doing?” Isabel shot back, pushing herself upright with a grunt. “Stop drawing its attention! Let it focus on me!”

“That would work if you could actually keep its focus,” Emily snapped, firing another arrow and dashing away as the gorilla charged.

“You aren’t giving me a chance to!” Isabel braced her shield against the ground, and pillars of stone erupted to reinforce her position.

The gorilla’s fist whipped down, slamming into Isabel. Her supports shattered and she skidded back, digging her feet into the ground and slowing herself. She slammed into Emily, and both of them tumbled to the ground.

A roar echoed through the forest as the two girls untangled themselves. Todd fired bolts of flame at the gorilla’s face, but the gorilla ignored his ineffective attacks as it lumbered toward Emily and Isabel. The muscles beneath its skin rippled and it flexed its fingers. Electricity crackled across its body, sizzling the ground beneath its feet.

“Where in the Damned Plains are the professors?” Isabel asked, scrambling backward together with Emily. Emily paused to shoot an arrow. The gorilla’s hand whipped out, grabbing the arrow and shattering it in its grip. A chill ran down Emily’s back and she swallowed, a sliver of fear worming its way into her.

I don’t think I can handle this on my own.