I wander around the forest for a good few minutes more, (although it certainly feels like it's been much longer) when another messenger orb, this one a pretty shade of pale spring green, careens around a peeling silver birch tree and screeches to a halt before me. "Ah-ha! I knew that we were missing one more!" It hollers in a shrill female voice, rousing several noisy birds from their nests with her screaming. "I come round here to do my final check for stragglers, and what do I see? A poor lost soul wandering these humongous woods, all alone! That idiot Tim always leaves one behind for the wrong person, and I see that she hasn't done her job properly, either!" It then yabbers out a hasty apology, bowing to me in midair several times in its haste to soothe me.

"I'm also missing a pint-sized griffin chick. I don't suppose that you've seen any fearsome bewildered fowl on your way here?" I question it hopefully.

The ball tilts around, thinking. I watch it make one full revolution before it pauses breathlessly. "Hmm, no. I can't say that I have." It then straightens itself out. "..But I'm sure one of the bigger Hunter familiars will find it sooner or later. Who knows? They may not even eat your bird!"

"What?!" I admit that I momentarily panic a bit. "Please don't kill my baby!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!" It responds. "..But I can't speak for the others."

I glare at it, a wordless threat embedded in my gaze. "I appreciate that, but could you please just tell me where I'm supposed to go?" I ask.

The sphere revolves around to face me, now glowing a delighted lime color. It seems to be rather pleased with my request. "Oh, I can do better than that. I'll lead you there myself, straightaway!"

I chuckle. These things change moods even faster than my dear great-grandfather Jakob.

"Hurry up, hurry up! We don't have all day!" It flits around my head, nattering away as I obediently follow it.

Some time later, we emerge from the forest into a massive labyrinth of spacious clearings, wooden buildings, and milling people. So many people..

My eyes must be quite huge, because the sphere suddenly giggles, amused. "Yes, take it all in, my dear. This is going to be your new home for the foreseeable future." It states smugly, sounding very proud of its home base. I roll my eyes, but I have to admit that this beats the mental image I had of evil horned creatures whipping prospective people into shape in a shadowy underground dungeon.

"Wait here, the gathering should take place shortly." The orb instructs, instantly zipping away to yell at my failed helper. Tim shies far away from her, crying and screaming ridiculous excuses for his terribly rude behavior with me back at her.

"May I have your attention, please." A magically amplified voice blares loudly throughout the entire vicinity, and I notice many young heads immediately snap to attention. "We will have all of the new Night Hunter candidates assemble in the main clearing." Then there's a burst of sporadic static, and some rapid scuffling sounds. A new, more nasally voice hastily replaces the first one, then begins languidly rolling his words out over the system.

"Of course, what this idiot conveniently forgot to mention is that you newbies probably have no idea where 'the main clearing' is, so let me just quickly explain to you. It's the one where you all just got dumped. Thank you and have a most terrible day." He then grunts with extreme effort, and a struggle for control is suddenly evident once more on the other end of the line.

The owner of the first voice presumably snatches the apparatus away from the second, because he begins speaking again breathlessly into the magic mike. "Grim! Don't interrupt! You're being an ass again!" An offended snort greets his words, and the man's voice sighs in exhaustion. "You new people, please just.. Oh, just stay put." He barks. "I'll come out to greet you myself."

Several children suddenly begin to die of laughter, their arms wrapped around their stomachs as they burst out chuckling. A couple of boys even fall over in fits of convulsive giggles as the man's voice abruptly cuts out.

A timid-looking girl turns to face me. "When he says come out, you don't think that he means..?" She inclines her head at a large podium situated directly in the middle of the clearing.

I shrug back at her, inwardly just as perplexed as she herself is. "I don't know about that for sure, but probably. I just arrived here myself, so I can't be too certain."

She seems a bit saddened by that. "Oh. I'm sorry for bothering you, then. It just looked like you might work here and know something that we don't." She hesitates, then adds. "..Maybe like a night-shift janitor or whatever."

I raise an eyebrow at her and puff out my chest a bit. "Really?" I ask her, but it seems that she's already moved on to speak with someone else.

I huff quietly in disappointment as a refined middle-aged gentleman in a well-fitted, sleek white jacket paces towards the podium, his long, elegant coat tails softly brushing the ground where he strides. He takes his place there, bestowing us with a gentle, reassuring smile.

My goodness, these just seem like normal, everyday people to me. Where are all of the bloodsucking creatures of darkness that everyone seems to think the Night Hunters are?

A cloud of theatrical, over-the-top smoke puffs up in a very obvious column near the stand, and a shadowy form steps out neatly from it, staring up at the first arrival with clear disgust written all over his features. "Boo!" The scrawny, pasty-skinned man then crosses his arms and leans against the frame of the podium, smirking. He inclines his head teasingly at the gentleman, sticking his tongue out at him and mockingly wiggling his fingers behind his ears to get his attention.

The other man pointedly ignores him as he begins speaking to the assembled crowd. "A big hello to our dear Hunters, old and new. Please call me Duliban." Duliban once again smiles welcomingly at everyone, a small pair of delicate crow's feet forming around his eyes as he bows respectfully to us. He's really quite a handsome and refined gentleman. I decide. "Once again: Greetings, greetings to our new friends and allies. I hope that you will find life here at the Night Hunter's headquarters completely to your satisfaction."

"..Not that you'll be allowed to complain if it isn't good enough for your exacting standards. The words of a pampered pooch are worth very little here." The ashen faced man comments, raising an eyebrow sarcastically and leering at us one by one as he joins Duliban on the podium, lazily beginning to speak to the amassed throng himself. "And if you're one of those woeful types, then good luck to you. I hope that you'll be eaten alive by something very big and nasty, you pathetic pile of miserable old sad sacks. And don't expect me to come running to save you, nuh-uh! Not on my life, you ridiculous little good-for-nothings. Idiot nitwits like you don't deserve my sympathy." He spits at the ground and glares around at the assembled company, squinting maliciously at all included.

Duliban glares at him. "Grim! Don't start this again!" Grim gives him an innocent look, but doesn't stray from his side as the kinder of the two continues. "For interaction's and greater education's sake, you'll all be assigned communal bunkhouses-"

"-Cabins." Grim corrects, glowering at the children nearest him. They squeak in fright and rapidly move away from him as he makes a scary face in their direction.

"..It's the same thing, really. The point being, we're going to mix you all up a bit, so that you can experience different cultural backgrounds, powers, and the like. It'll be great fun for you, I'm sure. But I would like to remind you people that this is going to be nothing like your soft Summer camps of old, so please bear that in mind as you begin exploring the woods today. Some smart alecs do think that it is a perfectly alright thing to do to set deadly traps in random places as a sick sort of prank, so please mind your step as you move around out there." Duliban begs of the younger children. "We care about your safety."

"..Unless you want to lose a foot." Grim snickers, a twisted grin plastered onto his face as he adds. "It's not like it hasn't happened before, and I really couldn't care less about it, gimpy."

Beside me, a female voice whispers quietly. "I once shot my Summer camp counselor in the head with an arrow a couple of years ago." The tween girl mutters conspiratorially to her friend. "They had to hush it up when he died from the wound."

"Was it fatal?" The boy asks, his voice hushed and holding a note of reverence for her.

She stares at him and repeats herself slowly, as if speaking to an utter imbecile. "Um, it was a perfect headshot. He died. There was a lawsuit."

"How fatal, though?"

"Completely so." The girl rolls her eyes and moves away from him in disgust. "..And you might just be my next target, idiot."

Duliban clears his throat. "Anyway, you'll all be given the rest of this beautiful day to adjust to your new surroundings, so that we can all start fresh tomorrow morning with our energies fully recharged. Unfortunately, I know full well that some of the messenger spheres can have a tendency to wear you out with their idle chatter. Don't worry, though, you'll get used to them in time." He suddenly spreads his arms out in profound wonderment, baffling Grim as he admires the fine view of the sun from his stand. "How delightful this magnificent sphere of heaven is!" The nicer of the two exclaims, clearly awestruck by the beauty of it all.

Grim rolls his eyes and deliberately moves to block his companion's view of the fiery orb. "Ugh. The sun makes me break out into a horrible rash. The eternal void of darkness' deep ebony cloak is much better." He scratches at his neck in discomfort, glaring up at the sun and hissing through his fingers at it, becoming slightly grayer in seconds.

"What an absolute epiphany for us!" Duliban fires back sarcastically. "You fool! You naysayer! How can you subject the youth to your idiosyncratic tendencies while the glorious beams of ethereally radiant light do bathe us with their holy glow?!"

"By living, you buffoon."

"Does the great blue vastness of the yonder not inspire some form of immense excitement within you?! It is the very vault of the heavens, man! Have some respect!"

"I only like it when it disappears." Grim grumbles in response.

"What a shady character." A teen boy next to me mutters. Several of the surrounding people nod their heads in quiet agreement with him.

"Duliban, Grim, we wouldn't happen to have a problem here, would we?" A deep baritone voice booms out from the sidelines. The crowd parts respectfully for him, and a large, broad shouldered man walks purposefully up to the podium, sweeping his night-black cape aside as he settles there. The other two men meekly bow to him, taking their places on either side of him, their heads bowed.

"No problems here, sir." Grim comments, instantly acting remarkably subdued for a man of his character. His lazy attitude has vanished for the time being, and he almost looks respectable now.

Almost.

"Indeed." Duliban agrees, standing to attention and staring straight ahead as he replies. "Everything's running quite smoothly today, Commander." He smartly salutes the new arrival, puffing out his chest and thumping his foot on the wooden slats underneath him.

Commander-?!

The barrel-chested Hunter's eyes search subtly through the assembly, and I'm absolutely sure that the dark-skinned man suddenly winks at me as he notices me lurking near the edge of the crowd. He then turns to the troublesome pair of adult Hunters, one eyebrow cocked at them in disapproval. "I'm not stupid enough to believe any part of what you both just told me, but let's simply leave it at that for today, shall we?"

Duliban gasps with relief and tears up gratefully. "Thank you, sir!" He sobs.

Grim's eyes stop mid-roll when he notices the Commander's gaze settle solely upon him. "Hmm, yes. Thank you, sir. It's always a pleasure to serve you." He babbles, his night-accustomed eyes instantly seared a bright red by the sun's rays. He doesn't seem to dare to move until the Commander's eyes are off of him once again. Grim whimpers and clutches at his face, mewling in discomfort. "The light, it burns! It burns!"

"I'll bet it does." The more powerful man murmurs, uncomfortably reaching across his front to pull the fabric on his opposite shoulder a little closer over his arm. Or where there should be an arm. Oh Nox, he's really missing that thing, isn't he?

"Hello, everyone. My name is Commander Ivis Vidalia." The man announces. "..As some of you will have no doubt been made aware of during the course of your scouting, I am the Head of the Central Mirian district of Night Hunters, Division One. We have many outlying branches of Hunters as such, but this is the standard meeting place for many of the bigger events and gatherings that we hold, as it is the easiest destination for the members of the different districts to meet and share information. We make full use of transport portals when they're available to us, of course, but it wouldn't do to get too reliant on them. That being said, we do shuffle around the outposts here and there for safety's and edification's sake, so if you'd like to travel around a bit as a representative for us, all you need to do is ask." Several of the Hunter candidate's eyes begin to shine with excitement as Commander Vidalia says this, smiling. A pair of boys (clearly best friends) high-five each other, hooting.

Grim squirms uncomfortably as his superior continues to speak, still not daring to move from his flanking position. Duliban shoots him a stinging glare, and the gray-faced man falls still once more. "As these two men have no doubt told you already, the rest of this day is left open to you to begin meeting your bunkmates. You will each have a list of names appear in your hand in a few moments. This slip will essentially act as a compass to guide you through the crowd and find them when we're done here."

True to his words, I hear a small rustling of paper, and I feel a neatly folded piece of parchment suddenly manifest in my clenched hand. It rubs against my fingers, tickling me. Several of the younger children gasp and let out nervous giggles as the same thing happens to them.

"There is one thing that we will do today, mind you." Commander Vidalia grins at us encouragingly. "We're going to play a little game in the evening. You will each pair or group up with at least one other Hunter, forming teams. They don't have to share your bunkhouse, so choose whoever you want, though in later games, you will certainly want to have your own teammates on your side, I'm sure. You will each attempt to take other groups down using magic, weapons, your wits, or a combination of any or all of the above. It's a very simple way to start building connections with other people here, and to begin thinking of how best to use other people's varying types of powers to their best advantage, instead of focusing solely on your own in every fight. Please make the best use of this time together as we give you the rest of this period to strategize. Good luck, and may the best team win." He steps back as Duliban nervously takes the stand once more, hastily blurting out some last minute details and adjustments to certain rosters and schedules. I don't understand half of what he's going on about now, so I elect to listen in to the conversations around me instead.

"Oh, that sounds awesome!" Some teen roars out, thrilled.

"Yeah, just wait until we get to do the mock battles!" Another responds to the first, sounding completely over excited about it.

"Heh, my parents were both Hunters, too, so they told me about those. They sound epic." They bump their chests together, grinning idiotically at each other and high-fiving. "Woo!"

A chilling voice interrupts them in a heartbeat. "-Just wait until you get to lose half of your head in a tragic, totally preventable accident." Grim whispers, sidling up next to them and snickering as they turn to him as one, abject terror now written clearly on their faces. He pats one on the head roughly, then stalks away again, whistling cheerfully as he leans down to speak to someone else, no doubt telling her something equally malicious and unnerving.

"Alright, you may now depart!" Duliban's voice filters back into my anxious reverie, and the assembled body of new blood spreads out as they begin the search for their cabinmates. I catch many of them glancing down at their papers and using them like compasses, to be safely guided through the throng of flowing bodies.

I look down at my own sheet and read the names contained therein. They are, as follows:

Isabella Grace Blanche-Snow

Amber Burns

Brianna Vespa

Luka Malvern

And, of course, my own: Evelyn Mortis.

I raise my eyebrow as a small you are here notice appears next to my name, along with a ridiculously small map of the entire area. A nearly microscopic pinprick of shadow shows up at my exact location, twitching forwards the slightest bit whenever I take a step. The other names then start to light up, each taking on a different color. Miniature arrows spin uncontrollably in a myriad of directions, finally settling into tracking each individual as they move around the grounds. I groan, wondering if maybe I should just stay still and let them find me instead.

No sooner than I think this, a pretty, lithe, lavender-haired girl timidly makes her way towards me, gliding smoothly and soundlessly over the grass. She hesitates, then continues nearer, glancing multiple times at the piece of paper that's clutched tightly in her grasp. It blips loudly upon entering my vicinity and begins to glow pleasantly in response. "Hello." The girl whispers in a soft, wispy voice, finally reaching me. "Are you.. Evelyn, then?"

I nod and am just about to answer, (really, I am) when another voice cuts in. "Heyo, newbies! Welcome to boot camp, otherwise known as Murder Magically 101!"

The flame-haired redhead from before wanders up to us, laughing uproariously at her own joke (at least, I hope it was a joke) and grinning a warm welcome at me. "We meet again, blondie!" She waves a shining slip of paper about, or at least she does, right up until the moment when it catches fire and burns up from some sparks flying off of her sleeve. "Looks like I'm bunking with you guys. They've finally released m- I mean, placed me!" She then jumps and glances at her empty hand, startled, but not seeming unduly surprised at noticing the crumbling charcoal ashes that fall through her fingers. "Whoops! Burned that to a crisp, as well. It's nothing but cinders now." She murmurs woefully.

"..You mean that those poor endangered adults have finally had enough of your pyromania and have set you upon us youth now." A cold voice corrects her. "I noticed earlier that you were wandering around in the woods instead of being locked up away from all of us, as well, which would be the normal thing to do. How you finally managed to persuade them to release you, I still have no idea."

"I set them all on fire, duh." The redhead cackles evilly, meeting the newcomer's jibe with great gusto.

The beautiful dark-skinned woman from the woods slowly walks towards me, glancing at her own paper, and then back at me again. "Oh, joy. It seems that I'm getting this one." She comments in a flat tone, blowing irritably through her nose and rolling her eyes at me rudely.

"Same to you." I rumble out, gritting my teeth at her condescending manner. "You don't have to sound quite so displeased about it, you know." I mutter back at her. "That's just hurtful."

She gives me an arrogant look. "You weren't even capable of following me, idiot." She says, waving me off.

I blow up.

"You never even said that you were my guide!" I scream. "Aren't guides supposed to, you know, guide?"

"Like I said, you should have followed me. Don't pin this on me just because you're too incompetent to follow my lead."

"And just how was I supposed to know that when you barely even spoke to me at all?!! You left me alone in the woods!"

"You're lucky that you didn't get eaten by a wild hydra, then. You should be grateful for that." She answers snidely. "..Though I don't think that you would make a very delectable meal for such a fine and majestic creature." Her nose twitches delicately in my direction at some imagined stench, and now she's acting very offended by my mere presence.

"How about I kill you now?" I growl quietly, about to do just that. Then, suddenly hit by a bit of divine inspiration, I add slyly. "I bet that Head Commander Vidalia would love to know that one of his Hunters was treating a new untrained operative in this way, leaving me to suffer in the dangerous forest, all alone. What do you suppose he'd do to someone like that?"

The woman gulps and straightens nervously, suddenly seeming very on edge. Apparently, I've hit my mark. A perfect bullseye. "C-Commander Vidalia..? No, you misunderstand, I-I was simply testing you."

Sure you were. I smirk at her as she distractedly checks her list.

The black-haired woman halts, then stares at her paper in shock as she reads it further. "WHAT?!! This must be a gross mistake! They can't possibly have released you to-"

"-Ooh, are more names coming up?" The redhead runs over, leaps up onto her shoulders, and snatches the paper from the woman's grasp, immediately scanning it as she drops back down to the ground and rolls upright again in one fluid motion. Wow, she's amazingly athletic for someone of such questionable intelligence. "Hey! It says that you get me, too!" She exclaims in surprise. "Isn't that awesome?"

"This simply must be some form of clumsy clerical error!" The dark-skinned woman moans. "There is absolutely no way that I will be teamed up with the incompetent with the unstable powers. I refuse!"

"Are you sure about that, Miss Isa?" Head Commander Vidalia's deep voice rumbles through the crowd alarmingly, reaching her.

"Ohh, his ears are good." The redhead exclaims. The dark-skinned woman glares murder at her, but doesn't speak, her eyes cautiously shifting back to the Commander as he nears her.

The black-haired woman hesitates, then huffs in exasperation, shifting nervously from foot to foot. "W-well, if you're entrusting her to me, I suppose that I can manage somehow..."

"Excellent!" Head Commander Vidalia booms back. "See that you're civilized with them."

The woman bows respectfully to him. "Of course, sir."

Commander Vidalia nods to her, then continues making his rounds.

The redhead theatrically checks to see that the Commander is indeed gone, then smirks at the dark-skinned woman, her tan, strong arms crossed cheekily across her chest. "Well, I guess that we'll be bunking together from now on, Isa."

"You'd better not go around making any more trouble for me, Amber."

The tan-skinned girl widens her eyes innocently. "Who, me?" She slowly rolls her shoulders around her neck, showing off her broad, muscular frame. "Oh, I'm just getting started." She flashes her teeth at the other woman, the glow in her eyes suddenly seeming quite demonic.

"That's what I'm afraid of. You have a bit of a reputation around here, you know." The pretty lavender-haired girl groans as she floats up to her, as quietly as a ghost. I admit that I jump a bit in surprise when I realize that she's literally hovering just a few millimeters off of the ground before she touches down, a few small emerald leaves swirling up daintily around her ankles when she lands. "Hi, everyone." She announces, her breath a soft, rustling breeze. "I just arrived here a week ago, so I'm still rather new to this Night Hunter thing. I'm Brianna Vespa, and I'm a wind elemental."

Amber's eyes light up, tiny flames twinkling inside of her pupils as she shouts out joyously. "Oh, we've got ourselves a Wisp! ..Are you really good at wind magic, then, Brianna? Because we could probably make a pretty awesome and deadly duo, just the two of us, even." Amber cackles maniacally, and a few people give her scared looks and go out of their way to avoid her as she begins to hum an unnerving little ditty to herself. "Hmm, hmm, la lala lala. Oh, fire, fire, fire." She sings. "How I do looove fire."

I immediately do some quick mental math. Fire + Wind + Living in the woods = A massive walking fire hazard.

..I absolutely do not like those chances. It sounds awfully risky, but I'm sure that the famed Night Hunters know what they're doing. Maybe that's why we have an ice mage in our group. In case there are any unforeseen.. Accidents.

..And I'm just here to dispose of the bodies. Yes, that must be it. I nod and paste a friendly smile onto my face as I listen to the other girls talking, silently hoping that I don't come across as too threatening.

Brianna blushes shyly as she responds to the other girl. "I guess so. I do seem to have a strong affinity for wind magic. ..Um, Amber, was it?"

The redhead hugs her warmly, nearly crushing her to death. "Yes! Welcome to the clan, Brianna! Can I call you Bri? Like the cheese? Or maybe like breeze without the Z E?"

Brianna's hair swirls about her in a small cyclone as she deliberates for a moment, then settles neatly onto her shoulders as she smiles breezily at Amber, patting the redhead on the shoulder as she struggles to escape her death grip. "Why ever not?" The lavender-haired girl huffs, wheezing as she wiggles desperately in her grasp, but all to no avail.

Amber gives her another happy bear hug, just barely avoiding cracking the other girl's ribs. "Yay! We're gonna be great friends, I just know it!"

"If you don't break her body first, you mean?" Isa snaps. "Let go of her before you kill her!"

"Oops! Sorry, Bri!" Amber immediately drops Brianna with a somewhat psychotic laugh. "Now wouldn't that be a funny way to start off my first day of freedo- I mean, finally being in a group with some of the other people around here. Hahahaaa! Wow, I nearly slipped up there, didn't I?"

"Oh my Nox, this woman's actually insane." Isa grits out, rubbing her temples anxiously as she contemplates how quickly we all might die in her care. "What's going to happen to us? Why do I always get the neurotic ones? I'm still barely older than a child in Cryolean years, myself!"

"Hey, Isa! Stressing out already?" Amber grins evilly at her, a large yellow fireball suddenly manifesting in her hand. "Just think about what I'm gonna do to your precious life here at base from now on- AAH!" Isa whirls on her, expertly twirling her hand in an upwards spiral motion, and a massive column of freezing ice obediently explodes out of the ground and encases the redhead, who starts screaming and pounding on the walls of her frigid prison.

"Did that Amber girl actually forget that she can use fire to melt it all away, or is she really just that dumb?" I wonder idly, watching as the girl in question panics inside of her cage for nearly a whole minute before she suddenly stops, goes quiet, and then slowly places her hands onto the surface of the frozen wall. Her tanned face remains completely expressionless as her palms glow white-hot for a moment, and then the crystalline prison magically melts and sloshes down embarrassingly around the redhead's feet.

"Yep, maybe just a little bit stupid." I decide.

"What'd you do that for?!!" Amber roars at the ice mage. "I could've died, you know!"

"And what a loss that would have been for us all.." Isa counters sarcastically, stalking over to her. "You are now my nemesis, and I will destroy you if you ever try to do something insanely stupid like that again. Understood?"

Amber salutes back to her sassily. "Okay. I'll just stick to somewhat stupid stuff from now on then, shall I?" She snickers and high-fives herself. "Oh, I'm so funny. I kill me." She then suddenly sticks out a friendly hand towards Isa and announces brightly. "Now that that's out of the way, let's be friends!"

Isa recoils from the redhead as if the latter's carrying some kind of highly contagious, incurable disease. "NO."

Amber shrugs and pulls back her hand. "..Fair enough."

"Brain of a squirrel." Isa notes to herself. "I simply must avoid her at all costs, for my own sanity and safety's sake."

"I heard that!" Amber barks.

"Good! I meant for you to hear it, you little idiot!"

"Oh, stick a squirrel in it, Isa! Stop acting like a dumb old git and have some fun once in a while. Burn the whole world to ashes, that sort of thing!"

"Have you completely lost your mind?!!"

"Can't lose what I never had, ahahaha!"

Brianna and I exchange awkward looks. "This is going to be a much longer stay than I had anticipated." I confess to her.

"Tell me about it." Brianna exclaims. "It's going to be a lot more rambunctious from here on out, I can tell you."

"Oh, introductions!" Amber suddenly spins around to face us, and Brianna and I both instinctively take a frightened step back as a shower of sparks whips off of her smoldering hair when she turns around. What'll happen in Autumn, when all of the leaves are dry?!!

"Ooh, I'll go first!" Amber insists excitedly. "Is that okay with everybody?"

Isa sighs. "Brianna was technically already first, but just get it over with, little Miss Flammable. I really can't stand the sound of your insufferable voice for much longer."

"Fine, I'm starting now! ..Hi, I'm Amber Burns, a completely random and ordinary Vulcanite citizen who was selected, (or maybe abducted on my parent's orders, who can tell?) by the Night Hunters nine weeks, five days, three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and forty-two seconds ago. Oh, now it's 43.. 44.. Anyway, I like Summer best, because it reminds me of home! I also love butterscorch candy, llamas, and the color orange. Mainly the fiery shades, though, because the cool ones are a burnt-out fashion trend. I've got a bunch of siblings, none of which can hold a candle up to me, of course, because I'm the best one that there is. I look fire in a swimsuit, and my skill with a spear is totally lit. Fun fact: The Night Hunters locked me up in a distant hut in the Nameless Woods for a couple of months in the hopes of curing the flames of my rage, but that obviously didn't work, so here I am! ..Oh, yeah! I'm also an Ember mage, but maybe I should have just led with that." She exhales exhaustedly. "Phew! ..Did I miss anything?"

Isa massages her temples slowly, looking about ready to head home. "No, I think that you've already used up all of the best heat metaphors."

Amber shrugs. "Okee-dokee, then! It's your turn now, you pretty little princess, you."

Isa directs a sweeping glare at all of us. "My name is Crown Princess Isabella Grace Blanche-Snow, (yes, I'm directly related to those Snows, of course you know of them) but you may call me Isa, if you must speak with me at all." Her imperious look indicates that this would be a very unwise idea, so I make a mental note to stay as far away from her as I possibly can in the future. "I am the next in line to the Cryolean throne, the heir to an entire empire, so you'd do well not to trifle with me. Elsewise, I will order an immediate execution and have you beheaded. ..That is really everything that you need to know about me. Now leave me alone, you filthy little peasants. I can't stand your unpleasant faces, and your malodorous stenches greatly offend me." Amber opens her mouth to make fun of the tall woman, but Isa quickly cuts her off. "I suggest that you leave me be. Under pain of death."

"Oh, really?" Amber fires back mockingly. "Whatcha gonna do to me? Chuck me into a frozen pond?"

"Have you ever heard of hypothermia?" Isa asks slowly.

Hippo-what?"

The beautiful ebony-skinned woman cracks a thin, humorless smile at her. "You'd do well in my collection of human-sized ice sculptures back home." Isa responds, her voice cryptic.

"What do you mean, human-sized? Why are you stressing that?!!"

"You may just find out one of these days, so I would suggest that you never cross me, Amber." Isa answers darkly, her tone suddenly becoming suspiciously evasive. I shiver, a frigid chill quickly running down the length of my spine.

I watch as a boy in his mid-teens wordlessly walks over to a small tree near our group and flings himself down underneath it, carefully opening a large book and beginning to read it with an almost-inaudible sigh. I'm relieved to notice that he doesn't pay any of us the slightest attention, as Amber and Isa are continuing their senseless bickering and still acting rather embarrassingly, indeed.

I cough and clear my throat meaningfully, trying to get the girls to listen to me. "Hello, I'm Evelyn Mortis, and I'm, uh.. Well, I suppose that you could call me a necromancer."

"The only necromancer here." Amber corrects proudly. "Of course we know who you are! And we've got you. Lucky us, we've got the special one with all of the dead people! That's so hot!"

"A rare specimen, indeed." Isa mutters coolly. "I'm surprised that no one's hunted her down for sport and impaled her decapitated head on a sharp spear yet."

Amber glances at the spear that's strapped to her back, but she makes no move to pull it out. "Nah, I'm not doing that today." She says, waving her hand at it dismissively.

"Please, don't ever do that!" Brianna whispers out loudly, horrified.

I immediately lift up my hand. "I second that."

Amber nods, completely serious. "Duly noted."

"You couldn't kill her if you tried, you're just a weakling elemental!" Isa calls out insultingly, unwisely restarting the girl's feud.

"I am not!" Amber fires back, then pauses, confused. "I mean that I'm not a weakling, not that I'm not an el-"

"We know what you meant!" Isa snarls, then adds. "Though I doubt that you're nearly as good a fighter as I am. Back home in Cryolis, we're all able to take out a guard with one hand-"

"-Well, of course that's easy if the guy only has one hand!" Amber argues. "What kind of idiot only hires one-handed guards, anyway?!!"

Commander Vidalia walks our way, and the two girls guiltily close their mouths. He silently passes by them, stone-faced, but I notice him crack a smile the moment that they can't see his face anymore.

Isa watches him leave out of the corner of her eye, then explodes once the Commander is completely out of earshot. "I MEANT THAT I CAN USE A SINGLE ONE OF MY HANDS TO KNOCK OUT A GUARD THAT HAS TWO, YOU CLUELESS OAF!!!"

Amber tilts her head, thinking deeply. "Oh, yeah. That would make much more sense, I suppose."

The quiet boy continues to ignore us, silently flipping to the next page in his novel with a long-suffering sigh. The pages rustle pleasantly in the breeze as he lovingly handles his novel with the utmost care and respect.

Brianna finishes up with the introductions while the two girls continue to argue with each other. Amber and Isa's voices gradually fade into the background, no doubt somewhat manipulated by Brianna's wind magic, as I notice a constantly-swirling vortex continuously circulating around us, blocking out the rest of the world. "..And the silent one's name is Luka Malvern, or so I gather. Contrary to what you might think, he's with us." She says, pointing at the reading teen. "He hardly ever speaks, so don't take it personally, that's just how he is. But he seems really nice." She waves at him cheerfully. "Hi, Luka!"

The boy looks up, startled, then smiles shyly and waves back at her.

"We get the girl that everyone's been talking about! That's pretty wonderful, don't you think?" Brianna continues, probably trying to initiate some form of conversation with him.

Luka glances at me quizzically, tilting his head as he looks full-on into my retinas. His probing eyes suddenly turn searing violet as he observes me, and I suddenly feel extremely exposed. Then the intense color of his irises fade to a somewhat more normal shade of light purple, and we both relax.

"Sorry!" He whispers, his voice cracking from an obvious lack of use. "Force of habit." He looks a little pale as he returns to his book, his finger lightly trailing over the pages as he reads it.

Brianna claps and turns to me. "Yay! We got four whole words out of him today. That's got to be a new record! And he's reading outside, not holing himself up in our cabin all day to hide from everyone else! He must've been curious enough about the new people arriving to check them out!"

"No, I just ran out of glowworm food and lamp fuel." He corrects quietly. "I needed the light."

Well, that explains the paleness, at least. It's from an absolute lack of natural sunlight.

Brianna's face falls disappointedly. "Oh."

"What did he just do to me, Brianna?" I question her. "That violet-eyed thing that he did a moment ago?"

"Oh, that thing. He's a Crackle, actually, so he's basically just read your emotions."

"Ah. I've heard of those."

"They're kind of terrifying, aren't they?"

"Yes, they really are." I mutter back to her.

Luka blinks at us apologetically, and Brianna grins at him. "That's okay, we'll get used to it soon enough, we don't mind." She tells him reassuringly. "I myself think that it's a very useful power to have, Luka. You can read the room just like that." She snaps her fingers at him and emits a cute giggle.

The boy cracks a small, sweet smile at her, then enthusiastically continues reading his book, rapidly becoming lost in his own fantasy world again.

"Oh, dear. I really hope that I haven't burnt him out or anything." Brianna states in a concerned whisper. "He doesn't seem to be used to human contact, or maybe he's just that kind of person. Either way, maybe I should-"

"-Really, he seems fine." I interrupt, politely trying to stop her from rambling on into tomorrow.

Brianna laughs awkwardly, her chuckle ringing out like a bell's clear chime into the forest. "Ehe! I guess that I'm a bit of an airhead, but I do try my best." She says, dropping her shielding spell. Every decibel of Amber and Isa's argument instantly filters back in, and I step back in shock at the kind of language used.

Amber curses loudly at Isa, and Brianna's head immediately shoots up. "They'll start casting spells any moment now, if I know them as well as I think I do." She warns us, grabbing Luka by the wrist and dragging him upright, while he calmly continues reading his book in his other hand, completely ignoring us. "Our cabin's this way, Evelyn. I suggest that we escape while we still can." She says, beginning to lead us away. Luka blindly jogs after her, still buried in his novel.

"Why, will it really be all that bad?" I ask, glancing back at the two furiously snarling girls. They call to mind a pair of vicious, territorial chihuahuas, but they look a good deal more dangerous than those yippy little things.

Brianna shoots a worried glance at me, gently bopping Luka on the nose to get his attention. He blinks at us in confusion, finally taking his nose out of his book with a puzzled 'hmm?' as she continues. "Whatever you may think or imagine they'll do, I guarantee you that it'll be at least ten times worse than that." She whispers, letting go of Luka for a moment to wipe her pretty forehead, her dainty brow furrowing with concern for us.

Luka nods rapidly in agreement with her, his eyes wide as he registers his surroundings. He stops reading for the moment to make a cutthroat gesture at me, then slams his fist into his open palm, miming an explosion, then cringing.

"I see." I answer slowly. In the background, Isa's hair rapidly grows streaks of icy blue and white, while Amber's becomes supercharged to the point of bursting into actual flame. "Um, Bri, Luka?" I point out the changes to them. "Is their hair supposed to-?"

"Oh goodness, they're powering up already!" Brianna pulls Luka after her as she breaks into an all-out sprint, boosting us all with her wind magic. "There's only one thing for it, then. Run for your lives!"

Isa lifts her glowing hands and weaves them in front of herself threateningly, while Amber lights up a fist and thrusts it forwards. They both speak in tandem as they cast their first spells.

"DEEP FREEZE!!!"

"FIRESTORM!!!"

Twin blasts of fire and ice collide into each other, and Luka, Brianna, and I instantly run inside of our cabin to take cover. Shots of magic shake the very foundations of the building with an awful lot of suspicious creaking, and Brianna screams and jumps away as a two-meter-long spike of deadly ice suddenly protrudes from the place where she was standing not a moment ago.

Luka moans quietly and protectively throws his book over his head, shutting his eyes and seeming to wish it all away. "Not me, anyone but me." He mutters, squinching his eyes together tighter when a fireball shatters and ricochets through the window and sets someone's bed on fire. Brianna and I listen in surprise as he actually speaks a full sentence. He then inhales a deep shuddering breath. "Please don't hit any of my books, they're the only true friends that I have left in this world-"

"EAT FIRE!!!" Another one of Amber's runaway spells ignites Luka's nearby bookcase, and now he shrieks when he smells the burning bookbinding, his eyes flashing open in terror. "My books!" He yells, leaping over to the flaming bookcase and swatting runaway tongues of fire away from an ancient-looking volume, its edges already crispening up and shriveling from the heat. "Nonononononono, this one's a first edition..! Brianna, help me put it out! Quickly!"

"On it!" The girl puffs out her cheeks and rapidly blows a jet of air through the building, then suddenly sucks it back into her cheeks with a small hiccup. She looks like a hamster, but at least all of the flames are put out without any oxygen left in the room. She proudly rests her hands on her hips, seeming to be quite pleased with her ingenuity. "All done!"

"Um, Bri?" Luka's face is starting to turn blue as he gapes at her like a fish, his eyes slowly beginning to bug out of his head. "We literally need air to breathe." He drops his book in a blind panic and makes weak gasping sounds as he struggles to breathe.

"Oh, you guys can't generate your own?"

Luka and I glance at each other, clutching at our throats, and then we both simultaneously lunge for the window and take big gasping gulps of the stuff before ducking inside again, flames and icicles now dancing around positively everywhere outside.

"Sorry, sorry! I'll get the air back now!" Brianna puffs out a lungful (at least, I'm now assuming that she too has lungs) of sweet oxygen back into the cabin. "My mistake!"

Luka looks around our living quarters, wild-eyed. "Windows. We're going to need more windows!"

"Lots more windows." I agree, brushing the charred remains of something dead off of what I assume was once supposed to my bed. Another icicle slams through the wall, right between Luka's legs. He glances down, then collapses in shock.

Brianna and I pry him off of it between the two of us, carrying the limp boy over into the middle of the floor (which is arguably the safest point at the moment) and sitting down in a sort of terrified protective circle together.

"Cease fire! We surrender! WE'RE HERE TOO, YOU KNOW!!!" I yell out loudly, but the crackling and snapping of the outside ice and fire all but drown out even my considerable vocal volume.

Luka's eyes slowly begin to glaze over, and he starts mumbling horrified nonsense over and over to himself underneath his breath as he comes to. "I'm going to die here. I'm actually going to die here. Tell my mother that I loved her dearly, because I'm going to die here. My books! Oh, my beloved books! Nox, I still haven't finished my current one yet. Do you know why? Because I'm going to die here!" He sobs wretchedly. "Why me? This can't be happening to me! I've always been such a quiet, obedient sort of child. What could I possibly have done to someone in a previous life to deserve this sad fate?!!"

"I haven't heard him talk this much since he arrived here about a week ago." Brianna whispers to me. "He's usually more like-" Here, she holds her palms together like an open book and shoves her nose close to her hands, staring intently at them without moving a muscle for a few moments, then suddenly vigorously miming flipping a page. Then, she becomes still again, still with her nose in her imaginary book, never saying a word.

I snort quietly. "There's nothing wrong with a good education, but I get your point."

"I didn't think that he could scream, to be honest. Or be, oh, I don't know.. Vocal, in any way whatsoever." Brianna confides to me quietly. "I was just beginning to get used to the idea that he was an odd sort of living rock, and then this happens. He's definitely been triggered into some sort of extreme emotional reaction now. That's what I think, anyways."

"Oh, my book!" Luka gives an agitated twitch and immediately jumps up, racing over to his fallen novel and leaping over some fallen timber beams like a new breed of insane juggernaut to grab it. He snatches it up and vaults over another beam as it creaks and breaks free from the roof, quickly returning to us and flinging himself onto the floor again.

Brianna and I stare at him, awed, as he calmly opens his book to his marked place and starts to read it once more.

"He may yet be in better shape than either of us realized." I mutter, calmly ducking my head down as yet another flaming beam, this one also deeply embedded with rapidly melting ice, rips off of the side wall of our newly established home. I narrowly avoid getting hit in the back of the head with it, but I'm pretty sure that if we don't stop the two girls, and soon, then there'll be plenty more chances for that to happen. "How do we stop them, Bri?"

"Why do you think that I would know?!" She wails softly. "I'm quite new here too, you know! I've only been here for a week!"

"And it was so nice and peaceful to live here up until this point." Luka whispers reverently, bowing his head in sorrowful mourning for the great calamity that has befallen us all. "We'll never survive this." A charred maple tree of ill omen smashes through the roof as he says this, and he sighs in utter defeat. "We're totally dead."

"I have to say that you're most probably right, Luka." Brianna agrees. "I'll miss you all dreadfully when we're gone."

They each place a comforting hand on the other's shoulder. "Goodbye." They say softly in unison.

"You're both giving up too easily!" I bellow at them in admonishment. "Where's your will to survive?"

"Eh, could be stronger." Luka mutters. "But fine, I'll figure something out."

"Please do." I mutter back.

"Look! Look at how much he's talking now!" Brianna's eyes are shining with joy, even as we discuss certain doom. "Even if we do die at this very moment, at least we'll have done it after properly communicating with each other just once."

"We are not going to die yet!" I holler. "Luka, what's your plan? Please tell me that you have a decent plan."

He blinks at me, dead-eyed and completely serious. "I plan on giving up on life and letting the great vast void of eternal nothingness claim my soul and devour my consciousness, so that I may finally rest in peace. You?"

I grab him by the shoulders and jostle him violently until he drops his precious book. He shrieks as I glare at him threateningly, trying to shake a better answer out of him.

"Um! Uh! W-white f-flag double p-plan!" He wails in desperation, his jaw clacking loudly with the force of my assault on him.

I let go of him abruptly, rather pleased with the effectiveness of my method. "Good enough."

He drops onto his knees in relief and gently picks up his book, holding it protectively to his chest as I march over to someone's dresser and yank out a clean pair of white underwear. I don't check to see who it belongs to. I'm not an animal.

I quickly rip it in two and mount the pieces onto a couple of fallen twigs that I break off from the fallen tree, tying them in place. I then wave the whole sorry lot out of the broken window in the hopes that somebody will come to save us. "HEEELP!!!" I scream, my voice hoarse and raspy from the smoke of the flames, icicles dropping to the floor around us as they become loosened from the intense heat and cold difference.

Isa's voice suddenly cuts through everything, surprising us all. "Amber, stop! That's a code three military surrender, and a fine example if ever I saw one! It would be unsportsmanlike to continue this disagreement now."

Brianna turns to Luka, glowing as the two feuding girls run inside to check on us. "Luka, you're brilliant! Er, Luka? Are you alright?"

Luka breaks down into loud brokenhearted sobs as Amber looks around the destroyed cabin sheepishly. "Um.. Welcome home?"

A.N: Well, how are you liking these guys so far?  Please comment and let me know!  😊

Word count: 8442