Chapter 3: Into the Woods!

The next morning found the tenth years sitting quietly in the Great Hall. This was it, all there training was used to gauge for this decision. Every thing linked to every novice was portrayed in this decision. It was time to hear the pairings!

Each group would have 3 guys, and 3 girls, and each group would be perfectly tailored to work perfectly. There were no changes, your partners were your partners, and even if you couldn't stand them, they were your family for the next 2 weeks.

"Over the past 4 months," the Women in black, (the western headmaster) began, "each of your teachers has been tirelessly looking over the full records of students from the other schools. We have been working tirelessly to make sure each one of you will survive to pass this test. These teams are permanent, so you had better get to like your teammates."

"Now," began the old scholar, "let us begin our pairings. You will be assigned a name and 5 teammates, the position of leader will be voted upon by the whole team."

The headmasters began to name off the teams. After 2 hours of the pairings, there where 5 teams left. Corkk was pretty sure about part of his team, considering that Colin and Friiy had not been picked.

"Next team will be called Springtime of Winter," called out the western lady, "and the members are thus: Colin Varden, Friiy Tsungyen, and Corkk Ramirez for the boys."

"Hell yeah," thought Corkk, "the demon squad is all together."

"The women of the team will be Tsukasa Aito, Anya Karlov, and Claire Dupont."

Corkk had no idea who they where but he didn't care, the demon squad would tear this course up.

After they named the last few teams, the headmasters dismissed the students to get their packs and weapons. With a harsh reminder to be at their respective starting points in an hour, or else risk failing.

Now, Corkk is your average nineteen year old male, so he had not packed at all last night. So he spent almost the whole hour packing, but still got to the starting point early. There was an old priest waiting there to warp them to their spot in the hundred mile square course.

While they waited for their female counterparts, the guys did what they always do, screw around. Colin was shooting leaves off the tree next to them, while Friiy was alternating between freezing and thawing a puddle on the ground. Corkk on the other hand, was sharpening his blades. He started with his spear, since it was the easiest to sharpen, and worked his way through, sharpening his knife, sword, axe, and the points of his mace. As he finished polishing his armor, the girls arrived.

The first thing out of the mouths of both groups was, "YOU!"

It was the same girls that they had "escorted" to the guest cabins, and there in the front, slightly red in the face was the girl that Corkk had gotten so pissed at the previous day. Now, Corkk being still very naïve, wasn't sure why she was blushing. In his mind there were only two possibilities, 1. She was mad at him and wanted to kill him, or 2. She was embarrassed that she had said such awful things, (didn't I just tell you he was naïve?) but couldn't get the strength to apologize.

He didn't really care though. She was wearing skin tight chain mail, and some well crafted plate-mail, which showed her feminine curves very well, but being as ignorant as Corkk was, he noticed these things, but was too distracted by drooling over the plate-mail, which was twice as good as his own armor. She two carried a spear, a hunting knife (not the fighting kind that Corkk wore, but the kind for cleaning kills) and a scimitar. She, also just like him, had her belongings in a bag tied at the end of her spear.

Colin was carrying his bow and a carving knife, to make new arrows, a quiver of 50 arrows, and his good spiked boots, to use for climbing trees. Other than that, he carried a pack to carry supplies as they moved around the course, and a tarp for making a shelter.

Friiy on the other hand, carried with him, his staff, carved out of the wood of the mystical tree Yggdrasil, and a sharp ritualistic dagger made out of an unknown metal, which he called a Damascus. In his pack he carried graphing tools, to help them map the course as they went along.

The Curly brown haired girl was dressed in camouflage, and had on special boots designed specifically for the forest, that made practically no noise no matter where you stepped. She had a pair of Combat daggers on a belt around her waist. She carried a pack for supplies also.

And finally, the short red head, hade a nice mace strapped to her belt, and was wearing a belt with a number of pouches used to hold medicinal herbs.

While the others conversed, Corkk and The blonde one, which he soon figured out was named Tsukasa, though her friends called her Kasa, traded insults. When the priest finally received the orders to warp them to their starting point, it was already beginning to get dark.

The old man wished them luck, and then muttered something under his breath. A Spinning circle of light appeared on the ground, and they all stepped in it, ready to begin the test. They felt the familiar lurch as they where wrenched between two dimensions.

Suddenly, they where falling. Before they had time to even let out a yelp, they where in a heap, with an unhappy Corkk on the bottom.

After they untangled themselves, they surveyed their surroundings. They were in a large clearing, with a stream running through the center, there was a giant boulder with a huge overhang to their right, and dense forest surrounding them. In the gathering darkness, they decided to stay here for the night. So they set up their camp under the overhang, and pulled straws to see who got which watch.

You can't afford to sleep unwatched in an unfamiliar territory, was the first thing that had been taught those many years ago when they had joined the academies. There were nasty things that crawled around in the woods at night, and the professors, never set up any wards to keep the strongest away, preferring to let the youngsters fight for their life if they had to.

Lady luck seemed to really hate Corkk that night, he had drawn the exact wrong straw, and had to do, both the first, and the last watches. So, when he got to sleep in between his watches, he was very grateful.

Thus ended their first day in the woods.