‘I… uh… It’s nothing, really,’ the girl answered nervously, looking down and apparently more interested in the design of her shoes.

‘That was nothing?’ Hirei interrupted, disbelieved.

‘Shhh, Hirei…’ Penelope snapped back sternly. She turned back to the girl, her face soften. ‘It’s alright if you don’t feel like telling us. I’m Penelope by the way, nice to meet you!’

‘I’m Cedric, and that guy over there is Hirei,’ said Cedric as he offered to help the girl stand on her feet. She allowed him to do so after collecting her knife from the ground.

‘My name is Aalaiyah, nice to meet you,’ said the girl, looking much less terrified than before. ‘Thanks for helping me, and I’m so sorry I troubled all of you back there. I’ve been here since this morning, I’m all alone and I’m really not good at this…’

‘You’re welcome,’ Cedric smiled. ‘You could join us to the exit. Four is better than one, after all. I’m sure everyone wouldn’t mind.’

Penelope was most pleased by the idea, Hirei had no objections. So the trio became a quartet, and they started to set up camp as the sun started fall below the horizon. Hirei unpacked his items onto the bare ground, potions, towels, garments, medications… you name it, overflowing from his backpack. Aalaiyah helped him pitch up the tent intently, wanting to pick up skills she lacked. Meanwhile, Penelope was trying to prepare dinner from the materials they had at hand.

‘We got a fire!’ Cedric announced gleefully, his hands soiled by the soot from the burning branches. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, standing back to admire his work. Quickly, they managed to boil themselves some drinking water Hirei collected from a river nearby and roasted some Lunatics to fill their tummies. The boys were not shy to chomp up on the meat, Aalaiyah hesitant about the idea of eating freshly cooked game took awhile to convince. Penelope said a prayer, thankful for the Lunatic’s sacrifice.

‘I still can’t believe there was actually a flowing river in here. We’re still in the Novice Training Grounds!’ said Hirei, poking the rabbit meat at the end of his stick. ‘The building’s not that huge, and yet it could house such a big forest like this.’

‘It makes me wonder how big this forest is…’ pondered Penelope. ‘But I think we should be able to make it to the exit if we keep going on tomorrow.’

From the illuminating light from the fire, they could see Cedric staring down at the ragged cloth, wrapping his brother’s gift in it. He was concentrated in his thoughts, his serving of Lunatic was half in his mouth, half on the stick.

‘Thinking about your brother?’

Cedric jerked forward, as if waking up from his sleep. He rubbed his jaw with his hand, having hurt it accidently with the stick when Penelope spoke to him. ‘Oh, uh, yeah… I kinda wished he’d be here, watching me do all these stuff. I’m sure he’ll be proud,’ Cedric started scratching his dirty blonde hair, gritting his teeth excitedly. ‘Ah! I just can’t wait till I become a Swordsman and join him in his work and travels.’

‘I wish I had siblings…’ Aalaiyah mumbled quietly. ‘I was always the only one growing up, and well… my dad is always so overprotective over me. That’s why I haven’t had much chance learning about things outside.’

‘You know… I keep feeling that you look awfully familiar to me…’ Penelope started, chewing on her fingernails softly. ‘Have I met you from somewhere before?’ Aalaiyah simply smiled in response.

‘Anyhow, we should be getting some sleep soon,’ Hirei yawned as he stretched his arms in the air, rising up from the log of wood he used as his seat. ‘Ced and I can watch the fire and sleep in the sleeping bags. You girls can take our tent.’

‘But that’s your tent!’ Penelope retorted, uneasy about taking someone else’s sleep place. ‘And… wouldn’t it be cold outside for you guys?’

‘Nawh, don’t worry about us, we insist,’ Cedric continued for Hirei as he threw his sleeping bag close to the fire, then laying his gift on it. ‘Rei and I are used to camping out. We just lie around the Prontera fields throughout the night on the weekends just for fun.’

‘Thanks so much,’ Aalaiyah said gratefully. ‘The man at the Training Hall was right… I didn’t come prepared.’

‘We learn from mistakes,’ Penelope smiled. She too, had to cover her mouth as she yawned. ‘Aaaah… I guess we should all tuck in to bed now. We’ll start early tomorrow!’


The next morning, they were awoken by Penelope’s morning call. She had already prepared a simple breakfast of baked beans she had brought along with her for the test. After cleaning up the campsite, they left towards north again. It was the same routine of hack and slash, collecting of loots and navigating their way through the dense forest. At noon when the sun was hanging high in the cloudy skies, they saw the boy with olive green hair from before.

‘The exit is just over there,’ said the boy when questioned by Hirei, pointing at the direction behind him. ‘I’m just staying back here to train myself a little more.’

Before they could say thanks, Hirei had already sprinted towards the exit. Feeling the adrenaline rush, Cedric chased after his best friend while keeping an eye on the two girls. They walked through a clump of younger trees, soon arriving in a large opening where they found…

‘Guys! Don’t come too close!’ yelled a busy Hirei, tackling a large, overgrown plant with a purple flower on the top of its mouth-like lid. It was writhing around too much to be considered a plant, its pink vines lashing out wildly and entangling Hirei tightly at his ankles and arms.

‘Mandragora!’ Aalaiyah gasped in fear. Penelope drew out her mace, but griped by shock to make any movement. Cedric threw his rucksack on the floor and ran towards the monster, his sword over his head. Swiftly, he landed three strikes behind the Mandragora before being whipped by the sharp vines surfacing from the ground. The Mandragora, excited at the arrival of a new victim, shifted its attention to Cedric, the pink vines now crawling up Cedric’s leg.

‘Get off me!’ Cedric bellowed, slashing at the vines before it could wrap itself around any of his body parts. After being overlooked by the Mandragora, Hirei, now released from the binds thrust his dagger into the body of the plant. Aalaiyah, trembling and emitting a strange aura, started sending stones from the ground towards the enemy, not doing enough to hurt it. Penelope fought her way forward and tried her best to assist the boys.

‘Penelope! Throw me my rucksack!’ Cedric called out, struggling to keep his hand on his sword. Penelope nodded and lifted Cedric’s rucksack from the floor and threw it into the air, the gift from Caleb spinning towards him. With his free hand, he caught the long object, using it to sweep the Mandragora away from him. Then, he stuck it onto the ground, vaulting himself into the air and landing the sharp edge of his sword right through the opening of the plant. It seemed to do the trick, the Mandragora’s vines released themselves, its flower withered and the lid was left hanging backwards.

‘T-that was incredible!’ Hirei cheered as he patted Cedric on the back, amazed by his feat. ‘Where did you even learned that?’

‘I… I dunno,’ Cedric breathed heavily, taken aback by his own skills. ‘It just came to me and I did it…’

Penelope, hoisting an exhausted Aalaiyah joined Cedric and Hirei near the remains of the Mandragora. ‘Are you guys alright? Aalaiyah seems a little tired… Maybe she had a shock.’

‘I’m alright… It’s just a weird ability of mine,’ said Aalaiyah weakly. ‘It’s like telekinesis… that’s what happened yesterday when I couldn’t control it. I’m not really good at it… Please… don’t let anyone know…’

After regrouping and salvaging anything they could get from the plant, they headed towards the exit, where another hall awaits them. They were glad to see that Sakda was there to welcome them back into the building.

‘You guys made it! Did you guys kill that Mandragora?’ asked Sakda. They nodded and Sakda mouth gapped, impressed. ‘That was amazing. You weren’t exactly required to kill off the Mandragora too, it was just meant for distraction, and we were fully prepared to help any new people to fend it off. Heh, now I guess we’ll have to get a new Mandragora from Prontera.’

‘Gee, you do know it was dangerous right?’ Hirei retorted. ‘Thank goodness we had a bigger group. Imagine what I’d do without Ced, eh?’

‘Ah, Miss Wingstaff, you have returned too!’ Sakda turned towards Aalaiyah, his tone gentler than usual. ‘We were getting worried you might not make it. We were given orders to – ’

Whatever the orders were, they never find out as Sakda stopped in his tracks when Aalaiyah looked at him apprehensively. ‘Anyways, congratulations again! You have completed the practical test, and with that, you have passed the Novice test!’

Cedric and Hirei gave each other a high five, laughing gladly over their achievements. Aalaiyah heaved a sigh of relieved while Penelope gave her a hug. ‘Usually, we would give you guys job advices at this point,’ Sakda continued. ‘We offer a personality quiz for those who are undecided too. Have you guys given a thought about it?’

‘Definitely!’ Hirei flashed a thumbs-up towards his chest. ‘Ced and I have already decided this long ago. I’m gonna be an Archer and Ced’s gonna be a Swordsman. You should’ve seen him back there just now with the sword and stick, magnificent.’

‘We already know that I was training under the Prontera Church,’ Penelope answered. ‘Which reminds me… what about you, Aalaiyah? We haven’t heard about which profession you’ll be choosing after becoming a Novice.’

Labels: NaNoMadness, The Eminent Guardians