Morningstar

Agrion searches for his sheet in the night. He touches around, but he doesn’t find it. He instead feels something hard as if he isn’t lying on the bed. He then opens his eyes. The sky is filled with many stars and a crescent moon. He sits up quickly. He went to sleep in his bed, not outside. He looks around. He is sitting on the floor that is made of stone.

How did he get outside? Then he notices another person beside him, lying parallel to him, and two more after that person. He kneels besides the person to notice that is Beta. She is not wearing her night clothes. She is wearing her uniform and armor. She even has her bow and quiver of arrows beside her.

That’s when Agrion notices that he is also in his uniform. His long daggers, the ones that Icarus gave him, are also near him. He remembers going to sleep in his night clothes. Someone must have changed him.

“What is going on?” he hears someone say. He looks towards the voice to find Vil sitting far from him. Her hair seems somehow messier than usual. She finds quicker than Agrion that she is wearing her uniform and she has belts of knives on the floor beside her.

“I don’t know,” Agrion answers. He shakes Beta by the shoulders. “Beta?” He continues to shake her. “Who’s that beside you?”

“Who?” Vil says. “Oh, it is Wither. Wither, wake up!”

“What is going on?” Beta asks as she sits. Agrion sits down beside her.

“Where are we?” he hears Wither say.

“I’m afraid that we are at the third trial,” Agrion answers.

***

Icarus has taken the boat with the rest of the mentors. He didn’t bother talking to anyone. He preferred to keep his distance. Nevertheless, he watched Lodge closely. Lodge was around Icarus’s height. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He also had visible muscles. He leaned on the ship’s edge whenever he talked to someone, making him look smooth. Icarus couldn’t believe that the person who graduated first at the previous graduation of Morningstar was his opponent.

Now, Icarus is holding a small piece of paper that a hooded figure handed him. He has climbed down the ship and is now walking through the forest to where the map in the paper is leading him to. Then, he stops where the paper tells him to. He is in front of a cave, but still in the middle of the forest.

“Mr. Hallow,” he hears the familiar voice after minutes of waiting. Morning appears from the forest. “Welcome to the third trial.”

Icarus nods. “What’s the trial about?”

“In front of you, there is a mountain,” Morning begins to explain. “It has been divided inside in several floors, each one with their individual obstacles. Your team has been divided and placed in different parts of the mountain. Their job is to find the way out, which is right through this entrance.”

Icarus looks at the cave. It is dark inside. That shouldn’t be the only obstacle. There has to be more deadly obstacles. There has to be more to this trial.

“What’s the catch?”

Morning half-smiles. “The cave has another entrance right at the opposite side from this one where the Prophetic team’s leader is.” Icarus knows that that’s Lodge. “His team is also scattered in the mountain. They are all allowed to kill anyone from the opposite team, just like your team members are. The first team to come out of the mountain passes the trial. Let me be clear, you will need at least ten people out of the twenty to be here in order to pass the trial.”

“Why ten only?” Icarus asks.

“Because there are many obstacles. Many people can die. We are not expecting for every team member to walk out of this trial alive.”

No. Icarus would not let this happen. Every member of his team will walk out of the mountain alive. He has made them a promise. They will survive until graduation. “What’s my role in this?”

“You get to search for them,” Morning says. “You are allowed to enter and show them their way out.”

Icarus is already forming a plan. Enter, find everyone, help them through the labyrinth of the mountain, and find a way out. No setbacks. He needs to do this fast in order to win against Lodge and his team. Even though he thinks that the plan is easy, he knows that it will be one hell of a trial.

“You are allowed to begin the trial,” Morning says, and before he ends the sentence, Icarus is sprinting towards the inside of the cave.

***

East wakes up by someone hitting him. He doesn’t remember going to sleep with someone. The last time that he slept with someone was with Tilray, and that was like a year ago. He opens his eyes to find someone standing beside him, ready to kick him again.

“Get up,” Phoenix says as she plants her foot again.

East sits up to find Kobo and Lexan behind her. He looks around, finding that they are inside some dark cave. He wouldn’t be able to see if it weren’t for the flaming torch that Kobo is holding. “Where are we?”

“At the trial,” Phoenix answers.

“Ah,” he answers as he stands up. He sees his belts with all of his guns on the floor, so he begins putting them on. “Where did you find the torch?”

“They gave us a bag. Turn around, Kobo,” Phoenix orders. Kobo turns around to reveal that he is wearing a brown backpack. “They gave us ropes, first aid kit, flint, and other things just to guarantee survival.”

“All right,” East says as he checks that his belts are tight enough. “What’s the trial’s objective?”

“To get out of here,” Phoenix says. East rises an eyebrow. “I am not kidding. That is the trial. They left us a note with that. Kobo, show him.”

Kobo shows the piece of paper, but East rises his hands. “I believe you,” he says. “But that must not be the whole trial. They must have set up traps.”

“And we know that we are facing another team so they must be here also,” Phoenix says.

“And we four are partnered together,” East says, making sure that there is no one else. “All right, then let’s find the way out.”

East, who self-appointed himself as leader, decides which way to go at random. He begins to walk without looking back, and soon hears the footsteps following him. They continue walking for minutes, not knowing where they are headed.

“I hear something,” Kobo says. East had forgotten how great Kobo’s hearing is, but nevertheless, East cannot hear anything.

“What are you hearing?” he asks as he stops.

“Drops,” he says. “Like if there is a leak somewhere and water is dropping slowly.”

“Water?” Phoenix asks. “Where are we? Are we at an underwater cave?”

“Could be,” East says. “If that’s the case then finding a way out will be harder than we thought. Let’s keep going.”

East continues walking and after minutes, he hears the drops. He looks up towards the sound, but the torch’s light does not get to the ceiling. They are definitely near a place with water. Even the cave is becoming colder. Then, he stops completely, and almost Kobo trips with him.

“What?” Phoenix asks.

East lowers himself and touches the ground in front of him, but there’s no ground. There is only water. “Bring the light closer.” Kobo obliges. He sees that there is only water in front of him and a wall a little farther. He submerges his arm inside the water, seeing if he can reach the bottom. When he sees that he can’t, he pulls his hand back. “We might need to swim.”

“That’s not smart,” Phoenix says. “We might not be able to see underwater, and what if we ran out of breath? What if this doesn’t lead to anywhere after all?”

“We can go back to where we started and check for another way out,” Kobo offers.

“I don’t think that that’s a good idea,” East says. “If there is water in here, then the other way out might have water too. This is the only way out.” East begins to take his belts off. “Well, I’m going to check if this water leads to somewhere.”

“No,” Kobo says. “Let me.” He hands the torch to Phoenix before taking his backpack off. “I’m a good swimmer, and I can hold my breath for a long period of time. I’ll swim in, memorize the path, find a way out, and return.”

“Are you sure?” East asks.

Kobo nods. He sits on the edge and throws himself into the water. He gives one last look behind before he submerges completely. East waits, not taking his eyes from the water. He doesn’t count the time. He doesn’t want to know how long Kobo is taking to find a way out. After what feels like hours, but it clearly isn’t, Kobo’s head appears.

“There’s a way out,” he says. “It will take a lot of swimming with no other chance of breathing.”

“How long will it take to get there?” East asks as Kobo gets out of the water.

“Like three or four minutes,” he says. “But if I take the lead and you follow my pace, it will take around two minutes.”

“All right,” East says. He turns and looks at Phoenix. “You said that there was a rope inside the backpack, right?”

“Yes,” Phoenix says as she nods.

“Then we will tie ourselves with that,” East says as he searches in the backpack for it. “That way, we know where Kobo is leading us without us needing our sight.”

“But what about the torch and the flint,” Phoenix says. “If we get them wet, there’s no way that we will light it up when we reach the other side.”

“There was a plastic bag inside the backpack, and I placed the flint inside of it, just in case,” Kobo says as he wraps the rope around him.

“We’ll figure something out about the torch,” East says as he hands the rope to Phoenix. Then he moves to Lexan, who has not spoken at all.

“I’m not going,” Lexan says as he shakes his head.

“What? Why?” Phoenix asks.

“I-I-I don’t deserve to live until graduation,” he says. “I don’t deserve to be happy while he-he-he…”

“I understand,” Phoenix says.

“I’m lost,” East whispers. He doesn’t understand what is going on.

“What happened yesterday wasn’t your fault, Lexan,” Phoenix says as she places a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve known you Lexan, ever since we were kids. You’ve been the nicest person that I have ever met. You wouldn’t hurt anyone if you have the option. If anyone from our team deserves to survive, it is you.”

Lexan looks at Phoenix. “How do you know what happened?” Then he shakes his head. “I know how…” Then he nods. “All right. Let’s do this.” He takes the rope from East’s hand and begins to wrap it around his waist. “Give me the backpack.”

“Wait, you will carry the backpack? It will be an extra weight,” East says.

“You have your guns, East,” Lexan says, “and Kobo is going to be leading us. You cannot hold any more weight. Phoenix can take the torch and I will take the backpack.”

“All right,” East says. He smiles, even thought that he is sure that no one can see him smiling. Who would’ve thought that Icarus was right all along? All of his training was so that they could work together, and now, this trial is less difficult because of it. They all move into the water. “Ready? Three, two, one,” and they all submerge.

***

“Tilray,” Tilray hears a warning in a low voice. “Get up slowly and do not make a sound.”

Her instincts kick in as she opens her eyes. She doesn’t know where she is, but she searches for her shotgun close to her anyway, where she always lays it before going to sleep, and stands up. She finds Slier near her, holding her hammer with her hand. She cannot see her very well in the dark, but she sees her signal with her head at something.

Tilray follows the direction to where Slier pointed at. She focuses on the dark until she is able to see. There are four figures lying on the ground far from them. “Are they…”

“Enemies,” Slier whispers.

“How sure are you?”

“Like eighty percent,” Slier says. “Moneo and Hakea are still sleeping behind us. This must be the trial, and that means that Morning had us separated from our team. I am pretty sure that he wouldn’t place eight people of our team together. That is a big number. That makes those four enemies.”

“Then let’s kill them before they wake up,” Tilray whispers.

“No,” Slier says. “There is still that twenty percent that they could be our allies, and this is just some twist joke of Morning to make us kill ourselves.”

“Then what should we do?” Tilray asks. She seems weird asking questions instead of taking the initiative of being the leader, but she knows that Slier is an excellent warrior. She knows that asking Slier’s opinion on the battlefield will never come wrong.

Slier takes a second before answering. “Let’s wake Moneo and Hakea before we make another–”

Tilray hears someone groaning. She rises her shotgun and watches as the shadow of a figure sits up. “Where the fuck am I?” the figure asks. It is a male. She doesn’t recognize his voice. Then the figure touches the figure next to him. “Moni, wake up.” Tilray doesn’t recognize the name either.

“They are definitely enemies,” Tilray whispers.

“What?” the figure shouts. “Who’s there?”

Tilray sees the rest of the figures move, snapping awake. Without giving much thought, she jumps towards them. She is not surprise when she sees Slier doing the same. She doesn’t like to admit it, but they both think alike when it comes to strategy. They both like to make the dirty work themselves.

She sees the figure stand up and draw a gun. That is when Tilray fires her shotgun.

***

“We have to find a way out of here,” Agrion says. “It says it right here on this note.”

Vil continues to remain standing with her arms closed. She is no leader. She is a lone wolf. She won’t be the leader of this small group, and she knows that Wither won’t be either. Agrion continues searching the backpack that was left right next to a torch. Beta, on the other hand, is walking around.

“We are definitely on a mountain,” Beta says as she returns. She points to somewhere. “There is a cave there, which will probably lead us out, but knowing how Morningstar works, it won’t be easy to follow that route.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Wither asks. At least, Vil is glad that his leg is now working. She doesn’t know what Sonny did, but she began to heal it faster than ever.

“How good are you at climbing?” Beta asks, not answering Wither’s question.

“I’m good,” Agrion answers.

“Me, not so much,” Wither answers.

“Wait, are you thinking of climbing down the mountain from outside?” Vil asks.

“Well, we have to find a way out,” Beta says. “We are standing at the top of the mountain. That means that we have to walk down the whole mountain and face whatever obstacles are inside. I think that it is going to be harder to go through the mountain than climb down the mountain from outside.”

“Makes sense,” Wither says.

“Fine,” Vil says as she rolls her eyes.

“There are ropes in here,” Agrion says. “We can attach them to us. Wither and I could be using the same rope while you and Vil use the other. That way if one of them fall, we can catch them.”

“That’s a great idea, Agrion,” Beta says. She extends her hands to grab one rope. She hands one end of the rope to Vil, who begins to tie it around her waist. As she does, she watches a spirit float its way towards them. It takes her a second before she realizes that it is Yenta.

“Shit. Let’s hurry up and go,” Vil says.

“Why?” Agrion asks.

“Just, let’s go,” she says. She doesn’t want Wither to see Yenta.

She moves towards the edge of the mountain, but Beta stops her. “Let them go first.”

“All right,” Agrion says as he places the backpack behind his back. Agrion and Wither move to the edge of the mountain. Agrion is the first to begin descending, while Wither follows exactly where he stepped at.

“Our turn,” Beta says, but then stops. Vil turns around to find shadows of people making their way towards them. “Fuck. Hurry up, Vil. Let’s go before they see us.”

“No,” Vil says, stopping. She takes four knives out from the belts, one for each person, and places two in each hand. “They will follow us. We have to at least hurt them.”

“Vil, there is no time,” Beta says, pulling her by the rope.

“Wait,” Vil repeats.

“Vil…”

Vil ignores Beta. She waits for the figures to get closer. She then takes a deep breath. She pulls her arms behind her head and swings her arms, letting go of the knives. She hears the knives stabbing into their flesh and she hears the groans.

“Now we go,” Vil says, rushing towards the edge. Beta follows her but then takes the lead. She moves fast, and Vil follows at Beta’s pace. They need to disappear before the four figures search for them. Then, she hears a rumbling, and she and Beta stops.

“Fuck,” Agrion curses. Vil looks towards them, who are a little away from them. Agrion is holding with his two hands the rope and Wither is hanging from it with no place to step onto. “I can’t hold you any longer!”

“Vil,” Beta says as begins to climb faster. Vil follows, but she knows that she won’t make it in time. She hears something cracking. She knows that Agrion’s floor is also giving in. “Hold on!”

“Hurry!” Agrion says but as he finishes talking, the floor under him gives in. They begin to fall.

Vil closes her eyes. Wither and Agrion cannot die in here. They have to survive! There is something that she can do! Then, her eyes snap awake as she feels the presence near. “Yenta!” she yells. It will cost her, but Wither is worth it. “Yenta! Save them!”

Vil sees the spirit of Yenta fly towards them and stop their fall by holding the rope.