“How did your trials go?” John asked as soon as he came within earshot of the group. They all looked just the same, except for Lin who was shaking a little and was very pale.

“Don’t ask,” Ara groaned.

“Eh, it was horrible, but it helped me grow...I think,” said Big Crow

“I hated it! Hated it! Hated it!” said Rose. “It was even worse than being buried in manure.”

Lin just stared into space silently.

“How’s Sher Khan?” John asked Lin.

“Uh? He’s fine. He’s safe within my pet space.” Sher Khan appeared out of the air and ran to John, licking his boots.

“I wonder if we all had the same trials,” said John. “What were yours about?”

“Eh, in my first trial,” said Big Crow, “I died over and over again. It didn’t matter what I did. I’d always end up dying. I died thousands of times in thousands of different ways. After the fifth hundred time or so I got used to it. The second trial was easier. I had to fight some monsters and when I killed them I lived their lives.”

“My first trial was different,” said John. “I was all alone on the planet the elves found me on. I lived out my whole life there, for perhaps centuries.”

“I grew roots in my first trial,” said Rose, “and turned into an ordinary rose bush. You have no idea what it was like. Dogs peed on me, and people picked my flowers, and I couldn’t say a damn thing. I lived like that until I finally withered and died. The humiliation of it all...” Rose shook his head sadly.

“I was back on planet Tata, organizing the protests,” said Ara. “Everything I did made things worse. Soon, we became rebels and outlaws, labeled as terrorists by the people. Everyone hated us and our movement. We were killed off one by one. I was hanged in the end.”

“Eh, what about you Lin?”

“I was alone on a planet, just like John,” he said.

“Eh, who do you think you’re trying to bluff? None of us bought your story of being sent here because your dog peed on a noble. They’d have whipped you in public at the most.”

“Wolf, not dog,” said Lin.

“Eh, tell us the truth. Without trusting each other we won’t last long in this place.”

“What really happened Lin,” John asked.

Lin hesitated and then finally burst out, “I’m a murderer all right? After the things that noble did to my sister I couldn’t stand it anymore. I made Canine rip his throat out.” He was shivering with rage. “You have no idea how that man tortured my family.”

“Did he deserve death for his crimes, eh?”

“Yes he did. A million times over.”

“I know something about that,” said Big Crow. “If you think he deserved it then let it go. What’s done is done. We need to keep our minds on the big picture...Survival. I feel much better letting you have my back now that I know you aren’t hiding things from me.”

“What happened in the trial?” asked John.

“My last few years on Artoo were fixed in a time loop. The events just kept getting worse and worse with each repetition, until finally I couldn’t take it anymore and killed myself. Suicide didn’t stop things from happening though. I came back to life and went through the whole thing again. I killed myself over and over, but it just wouldn’t stop. Finally, I just let it all pass over me. I began to live like a zombie, without feelings or emotion. I didn’t do the next trial.”

“Eh, it seems like the first trial tested us on the deepest fears of our mind. Some of us succeeded in overcoming them and some of us failed. Success or failure, it doesn’t matter. We have to push forward and get to that damn checkpoint. Can we count on you, Lin?”

“You can,” Lin said with determination. “I might have failed the trial but I will not fail my friends again.”

“That’s the spirit,” Ara patted Lin’s back. “Let’s move.”

Rose began to sing as they walked.

I don’t have roots

I don’t bear fruits

I tell you I’m no tree

Not even a bush you see

I’m Rose, the one and only

I’m Rose, the one and only

“Eh, shut it.”

“You shut it.”

Ara glared at Rose and Big Crow, “stop shrieking at each other.”

John chuckled. It felt good to be back with these strange people. He had not realized how he missed all of this. It soon became dusk and they found a spot to camp for the night.

“Lin,” John said. He wasn’t sure how to go about comforting him. “Your family. Were they safe when you were taken prisoner?”

“They were,” Lin said. “But now, I’m not so sure. Without me there to help, I don’t know how they’re getting by.”

“They must surely have friends?”

“They do, but nobody would dare offend the nobles. If they want to take revenge on me, they’ll start with making my family’s lives a misery. They’ve been through enough already.”

“I’m sure they’re fine. The nobles wouldn’t pursue the matter after the culprit had been apprehended.”

“I hope so too,” Lin sighed. “I hope so too.”

John and Big Crow took first watch.

“Eh, is it just me or is the forest too quiet tonight?”

“It is very quiet,” John listened carefully. He thought of something and activated his perceiver circuit. He could see a wave of aura coming at them from a few miles away. He recognized it immediately. “A beast tide,” John gasped. “Quickly, wake everyone up.”

They woke up as soon as they heard Big Crow shout, and got into a defensive formation within seconds. Rose warmed up his flame thrower, Ara checked the magazines in her rifle and Big Crow took to the sky. They spread out in a loose semicircle with Rose in the middle. Big Crow swooped down.

“They’re coming. At least a thousand of them stampeding this way.”

“The mosquitoes must have released pheromones to attract them,” said Ara.

“Why don’t we just kill all the mosquitoes?” John asked, fingers crackling with lightning.

“Don’t! If we kill the mosquitoes the audience might sponsor something worse than a mere beast tide. If they can afford it, they can call down an orbital bombardment on us. The Conglomerate’s satellites come equipped with everything, not just antidotes. They can nuke us anytime they want to.”

The first ranks of the beast tide came upon them at that moment. John’s laser pistol was useful this time, killing off all the smaller beasts before they came close. John let loose massive wind blades to take care of the bigger ones. The second wave was soon upon them. They managed to defend themselves with ease. When the fifteenth wave came at them, they were exhausted. Rose’s flamethrower had been flaming nonstop and the temperature in the area was unbearable. Sweat dropped into puddles by their boots. John’s aura reserves were running low. After the eighteenth wave, just when everything looked hopeless, the beast tide stopped. The group fell to the ground, too tired to move.

“We can take on anything, as long as we stick together, eh Lin?”

They rested for a while and then began to move out once more. The next morning John took Sher Khan and Lin out to hunt. He wanted to teach the little tiger to find its own prey. They found several rabbits. John ran in and stabbed them before they could run away. Sher Khan seemed to understand and chased after one of the rabbits, but it managed to escape. Sher Khan was still too small and weak. Still, it didn’t hurt to let him practice. John hunted in the mornings, journeyed through the day, and slept for a few hours at night when he wasn’t encountering beast tides. The beast tides grew more frequent but the group’s experience at handling them grew exponentially. Even the biggest monsters posed no challenge anymore. With his stealth circuit and glaive, John could run right into the tide’s midst and kill them from the center, disrupting their rhythm, while Rose and the others dealt with the ones leading the charge. Sher Khan watched all this from the side, knowing that he was too weak to participate. The journey lasted several months, but they finally came to the Conglomerate’s Checkpoint, safe and sound. There, they found distressing news waiting for them.