Chapter 8: The camp

The more Trip thought about going on the trip the more he thought that it would be a good experience. His life was pretty boring at the time; it was just training. Trip believed that if he could improve his mental state then it would naturally positively affect his training. He was especially excited about the fact that they were going to the forest. He was planning to sneak off once in order to gain some magic combat experience. After all, Trip had learned the hard way that strength is useless if you don’t know how to use it.

Seeing the faces of the three other members however Trip could only sigh. With Trip being the leader it would definitely be tedious keeping this ticking time bomb from exploding. Just looking at the scene in front of was painful; they were sitting in the carriage which was to bring them to a specific opening in the forest, yet before the carriage had even started to move Alex was already trying to serenade Eleonore, and in order to prevent her from exploding Randolph had to sit in between trying to get Alex to stop, which Alex just thought of as another obstacle.

Eventually Trip picked up Alex by the back of his collar and had him sit next to Trip, as far away from Eleonore as possible. Trip looked him dead in the eye and said “Silence.” Looking at Trip Alex sneered, but he did stay quiet for the rest of the journey.

Trip closed his eyes in order to try and get some rest. He was very tired, because he spent the whole of last night practicing magic. When the group arrived it was only an hour later. Before Trip even opened his eyes he could already hear the arguing of his group. It was mainly Alex screaming about how Randolph was clearly getting in his way whenever he wanted to talk to Eleonore. Trip couldn’t take it anymore and decided to stop being a nice leader. However, just as he was about to stop the carriage stopped and they all stepped out.

What they saw was a nice large opening with a large field, and a lake. It looked very refreshing and beautiful. For today everyone was to be given free time after they had set up their tents. This was considered a team building exercise. However Trip was already dreading how everything went. The moment he assigned roles there was already conflict. Alex had been assigned to gather and organise the materials, which he did with me, whereas Randolph and Eleonore were responsible for setting up the tents.

Alex was angry for not being with Eleonore, it was really shocking to Trip just how stubborn Alex was when it came to girls. Because of Alex being angry many of the materials he was meant to gather and organise broke as he threw them all violently on the ground. The other team wasn’t doing to great either. Eleonore was clearly making Randolph do everything, Trip was truly sickened by how selfish this girl was and was surprised that her brother hadn’t properly disciplined her yet.

Unwilling to see the teamwork continue this way Trip immediately called everyone over to him. He cleared his throat and started to speak “Ok! It seems that we are experiencing some issues in teamwork. Alex, you keep throwing everything on the ground and breaking it, and Eleonore, you aren’t doing anything. Since you two are completely ruining everything, I’m going to give you a bit of incentive to work harder.”

Alex looked at me, clearly interested in what this incentive might be.

I then continued “There will be a competition between the two of you. Whoever acts the most efficiently and most willing to work in a team will win. This will be judged by Randolph and I.”

Suddenly Eleonore chimed in “What might this prize be?”

An evil smile appeared across Trip’s face “If you win” I said facing Eleonore “then you will not have to work at all tomorrow, and Alex will not be allowed to so much as glance at you.”

Eleonore seemed really excited. It really was the perfect prize for her. The entire trip Alex has been bothering her.

“And what about me?” Alex asked

I smiled at Alex and said “If you win, then you will have the whole of tomorrow where no one will interrupt your conversations with Eleonore. You will not have to do any work of course.”

Alex grinned wildly, looking at Trip thinking that he had already won over Eleonore. Trip couldn’t bear to look at Alex anymore as he said “Ok, you can start now!”

With the new attitude everyone was happier and everything went fairly quickly. While the competition seemed like a good idea, there was no way the teachers would accept if one person in the group didn’t have to do anything. Therefore Trip thought of a genius plan. Both Randolph and him would say that the competition ended in a draw, and then state that since they both did a good job they should get another chance with the competition. Then every time they had a competition it would always end in a draw, meaning that they would try harder every time, eventually creating a highly efficient group that never experienced arguments again.

It was a flawless plan, according to Randolph Eleonore would not notice if it was a draw every time, because she was too competitive to care about the judgement of others. Alex would not notice anything either, because he was blinded by the fact that he wanted to have time alone with Eleonore.

The tents were all set up very quickly, and the plan worked flawlessly. Several minutes later the teachers brought high quality food for all the students so everyone had a nice meal and then they were instructed to go to sleep. Every student got their own tent. Trip looked over the camp from the top of a tree and was entranced by the sight. Hundreds of lights and tents appeared in the open space, creating a large ray of light that was clearly visible from everywhere in the forest. What was even more beautiful was the barrier that the teachers had set up. In order to ensure the utmost safety of the students the teachers that could use wind magic had created a wind barrier. It was like a dome.

Trip was quite comfortable up in the tree; he didn’t like the noise in the camp. He felt more comfortable just looking at people from a distance. Trip saw as the lights slowly started to disappear, leaving the area in complete darkness. He climbed down the tree and then made his way over to the tent. He peacefully slept the night away in the darkness.

The next morning was the first real day of the camp. The students all woke up and made their way to eat breakfast. They then went to the teachers, whom handed them a sheet telling them what to do. The moment Trip gained the plan he was surprised by what they had to build. It seemed the teachers wanted to use this spot as a place for future years, thus they sent the current children off to work on buildings and even a wall, in order to ensure that students in the future would have a nicer stay.

Trip’s group had to build a small section of a wall. This was the most common task that was assigned. Trip was happy with this, he would much rather build a wall than having to build the toilets. Due to the competitive nature of Eleonore and Alex the work that the group had was finished very quickly.

After the group finished their work Trip went off to the lake. Just by standing in the water Trip felt comfortable. It seemed he really was built for water magic. However something bothered him, there were slight vibrations in the water. Not enough to make a normal person feel it, but Trip was able to feel them. When no one was looking Trip sent a water bullet into the water. Trip wanted to find where the vibration was coming from. He closed his eyes and guided the water bullet to the bottom of the lake. It seemed normal, but after moving the water bullet around a bit he felt that the vibration came from a tunnel. Trip was surprised and thought ‘Who would have thought that the lake would have a tunnel, I wonder where it leads.’

Trip payed the tunnel and the vibration no further attention, with all the teachers around here there was no way of anything going wrong. Walking back to his tent he couldn’t help but feel a slight shiver in his spine. Like there was something watching him, something hostile and terrifying. Afraid to turn around Trip ran back to his tent and sat down. Even though the feeling was gone he was still shivering and his face had become pale. ‘Whatever that feeling was, it came from that lake.’