There were ten people in front of me instead of the usual five. Though I knew the other five. Mrs. Jones, the old librarian, with owl-like eyes and giant glasses. Samantha and John, the Jacksons siblings, aged 1 year old and 3 months old. Mrs. Falster, the baker's wife. There was finally one true man, Mr. Thompson, he was previously in the military. I found potential in only Mr. Thompson. I knew this was some cruel joke of theirs, and they didn't believe I could undertake their challenge, they were trying to shut me down.

They just didn't know I was crazy enough to take on any challenge, and that I was about to challenge them. I somehow managed to control my anger, instead channeling it into confidence and cockiness. "Howdy y'all. Quite the party outside."

"Yes, indeed." Matt chuckled. "They've been waiting for you."

"Oh, I know. It was fun outside." I said, earning a confused look from Sara. "They did happen to mention that these five will be here for a while, I only need two or three days."

"Really? I would have thought you would need to go more in-depth with these...folks. Besides, these will need to teach the neck handful and so on. You see? We just can't have them leaving and forgetting all you have taught them."

I decided to go a different route. "Sara when you're catching fish what do you do?"

She was surprised by the sudden attention but adjusted quickly. "You use your claws, which is key, and then through continuous watching and fast reaction time you snatch the fish up."

"Correct." I said, then changing my attention to the others. "You see I only spent one night teaching her, and you never forget my lessons." I silently promised to thank Sara and give her a giant salmon as payment. "These guys will teach the way I will, right?"

"Yes." The five recruits said in unison.

"See, nothing to worry about. These people only need to stay 5 days tops." I told the elders.

Matt glared at me, I stared back, not willing to back down. "Fine." He said at last. He then gave me one last look saying, you'll pay for this. I didn't care momentarily, these people where my friends and neighbors, I couldn't see them spending all their time here. I finally understood in full why Sara didn't want me to come her. Again, I silently promised to thank her, maybe I'd give her two of my salmons, I love my salmon so that's saying something.

"When do we start?" I asked eager to leave.

"Right now." Tyler said. He must have messaged someone or pressed a button or something, because in that exact moment, eight security guards came in at once.

"What is going on?" I asked suddenly extremely concerned.

"You're going downstairs, where we can take notes, we've created a replica of woods." Tyler told us, flashing his deadly smile.

"Though we need water and fish and real trees and flint and fallen trees and a sun, we can't work without all that." I said panicked.

"We've got everything covered except for the sun, the sun is just lights." Tyler said, caught off guard with the sun.

"We need the sun. How else could I teach them to tell time in the wild?" I asked, gaining a little bit more confidence.

"There will be time for you to teach that later." Tyler decided.

We were all forced down several flights of stairs to the basement. There was a single door in, with only a keypad to get in, no handle. Once in, I felt like I just walked into the same forest I showed Sara. Hoping that this was based off the same one, I lead them to where the pond was. Mrs. Jones had a tough time keeping up because of her age, while Samantha and John kept falling down, tripping on roots and dead twigs. Other then that we were doing good. I decided that it would be best to start with fishing.

"Anyone hungry?" I asked.

Samantha and John raised their hands and shouted "ME!" immediately.

"Good!" I told them. "I can show you how to fish."

"Really?" The little ones asked in amazement.

"Yeah, of course!" I said crouching down to their level. "Sara you want to help show half and I'll show the other half."

She nodded. We thought it best o split it between the three older ones, and the two younger ones. I took the younger ones since I had more patience.

I showed the little ones how to catch the fish, though their biggest problem was that because of their size, the fish were more powerful then them. I had to help them whenever they caught one to bring to the pile. Careful to only grab enough so that we could have a solid diner of two fish each, one bigger, and one smaller.

I couldn't watch Sara's group, but from the pile of fish we had, I was starting to feel confident in this group, despite the age differences and various backgrounds, they could work hard and work well. After fishing we all tried to start a fire, one at a time. The young ones were overly cautious, which was a good sign, the older ones had no really problem starting the fire, they liked their claws. After diner we made beds of pine needles and leaves, a slightly noisy bed, but a comfortable one. When the little ones asked for a blanket we all chipped in to give them a coat. The most challenging thing for them was being away from home for so long. They wouldn't admit it, and I don't blame them, but they feared that not having their parents right there for them meant that something would happen, and they'd never go home. I slept next to them, making sure to take the first watch. Promising to be there if they needed anything. 

Chapter 17 is currently in the works. I have lots of thoughts for the upcoming chapters. I will do my best to update soon, but it might be around the 6th or 7th of September.