“Seks?”

“Here!” He jumped to his feet.

They were in the school lobby which had been converted into a waiting room filled with fellow potential students and their families sitting in rows and columns of chairs. All were eagerly or hesitantly awaiting their turn. He however, waited alone. Following the precedence set by earlier students, he walked towards the double doors and exited onto the school field.

The field had been partially turned into a small simulated village. Temporary tents had been set up amongst obstacles and dirt walls built by earth mages. There were also slopes and mounts to give variations to the terrain.

It was the final day of the entrance exams. Seks had done everything on the list of tests. He had filled out papers; ran laps; sparred in some of toughest fights he ever had ever undergone; and was even asked what kind weapons he personally preferred. At times, the tasks felt simple. At others, unhinged. But he was glad for them to be nearly over with as he walked up to the modified field where a older drakin waited.

“Welcome to the final test. I am Rehiy, your instructor for today,” Rehiy spoke with the dispassionate tone of someone who had repeated the introduction too many times to count. “I hope you are ready.”

Seks gave a curt nod.

It was odd for Seks to see a drakin outside of Drakspire. While the world had become inclusive, his kind did not often leave their home, let alone become a teacher for a foremost academy in the world.

Rehiy began explaining, “Before you, we have a 'village'. Within the village are fifteen straw dummies. Your goal today is to rescue them and bring them back here, the 'rescue point'. Once you have rescued six straw dummies, you can head towards the 'extraction point'.” He pointed to another instructor standing at the far end of the field. “This is a search and rescue operation. The dummies are to be considered civilians in mortal danger. Your entire run through the course will then be timed and the score calculated. No magic allowed. Any questions?”

“No sik!” Seks replied.

“Alright then. To your starting position. On my mar–” Rehiy stopped short, turning his attention to the stands.

Moving up the stairs was Loch Tehir. The ruler casually strolled through the seats to a prime spot overlooking the field.

He caught their stares. “Don't worry about me!” he shouted to them. “I'm just here to watch.”

Seks pushed out a puff of air he did not realize he had been holding back. He was not sure why his guardian and loch was there, but it without a doubt placed a strain on his shoulders as pressure mounted. He would need a good time to impress Tehir.

The loch gave his blessings. “Carry on!”

Rehiy nodded and turned back to Seks. “On my mark! Three! Two! One! Begin!”

He rushed in, weaving through the obstacles as fast as his dexterity can take him. He planted his foot in the ground and took a sharp turn, his entire spine stretching to carry his weight. The pain did not matter. What mattered was the time. He found the first straw dummy hiding underneath a bed within a tent. He pulled it out only to find that it weighed the same as a person. He might be able to carry one at a time, maybe two, tops.

Shaking away his thoughts, he decided to simply act until the situation required it. He carried the dummy out and made a beeline for the rescue point. As soon as he set the 'victim' on the ground, he turned and ran back into the 'village'.

The second dummy was behind a stone wall. The third was sitting behind a bunch of barrels. The fourth and fifth were together inside another tent. He tried to bring the pair out together but dropped one when the weight was too much to handle and made two trips instead. He sixth dummy he found atop a mount before bringing it back to the rescue point.

By then he was out of breath. Running back and forth while carrying the weight had taken its toll. He breathed hard and a gasp of hot air escaped his lungs. Like other reptilians, drakins do not sweat. However, because of their size, they can overheat in exhaustion. Thus, their body regulated heat by expunging it in controlled breaths. The same type of breathing that marks them as biological cousins to dragons and drakes.

As his body cooled with each blow taken, he calculated the straightforward distance between him and the evacuation point. If he made a rush for it now, he would no doubt pass whatever marks was needed for time. After all, he had the six dummies needed to clear the passing criteria.

He looked to the stands to see Tehir watching stoically. With a deep breath, Seks faced away from the evacuation point and ran back into the village instead.

***

The same chugging of the train that lured Seks to sleep also pulled him awake. He was in his seat in Class C's cabin. Opposite him, Pip sat reading a book. She had chosen to stay in their cabin until they were closer to Rubicum. Her argument was that there was more than enough space for her and sharing a cabin with the rest of her larger class got claustrophobic really quickly. But Seks thought maybe she simply missed them.

He looked outside to see the plains bathed in an orange glow. “What time is it?” he asked her sheepishly.

She checked her pocket watch. “It's six in the evening. Twilight, basically.”

He stretched his arms in a yawn and looked around. “Where's Trini?” he asked when he found the seat next to him empty.

Pip pointed to the roof. “She's getting some fresh air with Shimona. Funny how being trapped in an enclosed space for hours on end gets so suffocating, so fast.”

He looked out the window at the passing landscape. Wild bulls grazed the plains while another herd of gruffloo wandered in the distance. He wondered if it was the same herd they had saw earlier as something continued to seem off to him about the creatures.

“Say, Pip,” he spoked. The girl looked back up to him. “Do you know which test you had to pass to move into Class B?”

“Why? Are you thinking about retaking it?” she asked with a frown. “I didn't change class because I wanted to, you know? My parents' and their expectations simply got the better of me.”

“I know. Must be hard having parents who are so tough on you.”

“They just want what's the best for me, that's all,” Pip sighed. “It's no different from you, I heard? Son of Loch Tehir? I heard from Trini. Must be quite a burden.”

“How so?”

“I know you drakins have this whole 'mantle' thing. The loch's mantle isn't something easily shunned or lived up to. Harmony. The balance between two worlds. Not an easy thing to do.”

“I like humans and elves.” He gestured to his clothings. Most drakins did not wear them as they felt it restricted their movements. But he personally felt they brought out certain flairs to their existences. “Your culture, your way of life, it's all fascinating to me.”

She smiled at him. “If that's your way of thinking, then I won't worry about your whole 'mantle' thing too much.”

“But I am still curious why we're in Class C. As far as I can tell we're not that much different than those in the other classes in terms of scores.”

“I...” she paused and he could see the familiar look in her eyes whenever she had something to hide.

“You know our reasons for being in this class, don't you?” he egged on to her discomfort. “You could never lie when you spilled drinks over the classroom and you can't lie now, Pip.”

She smiled back. “I know. But I can't tell you. I made a promise.”

“To who?”

“Can't tell you that either.” She smiled. “But I can tell you that it's nothing to worry about.”

He cocked a brow and watched as her face squinted inscrutably. He knew that the other races always had trouble reading drakins' faces and he enjoyed the reaction, perhaps more than he should.

He chuckled. “Fine. I'll take your word on it.”

“Hah. Thanks,” she replied. “So. New topic?”

“You used to travel with your parents, right?”

“Daughter of merchants, that's me.”

“Any interesting stories to tell?”

She pulled gently at the lobe of her ear, something she tended to do when thinking. “Not really. Aside from the war, nothing really happened in the travels. I mostly read and try to learn about interesting things I come across.”

“Is that where you get all your trivia from? I always thought you were simply a bookworm.”

She scoffed. “Bookworm is a compliment to me.”

He laughed. “Any new fun-facts? Might as well use them to pass the time.”

“Well, did you know watches were invented in the north? Loads of people think it came from Eltar, but the first watch and clocks were created by Lutvvinians?”

“I knew that.” He smirked, happy to have known more than her for once. “Kingston told me.”

She grinned. “Did you know that the inventor was Kingston's granduncle?”

“You're pulling my leg,” he replied disbelievingly.

“It's true!” Kingston yelled out from the partitioned seat behind them.

Pip pulled at her lobe again. “What else?” She looked out the window and her eyes lit up and she chimed. “Did you know that when not in a stampede, gruffloos split up when threatened to avoid greater danger to the herd? Actually, kind of like what they are doing now.”

Seks looked out of the window once more, now able to see the oddity he had been feeling since earlier in the day. “Yeah. They're in a herd but... separated. What's a threat to a gruffloo? They're one of the apex of the plains, right?”

“Maybe a behemoth?”

“Behemoths are huge, Pip. We'd see a behemoth before we see the gruffloos.”

A train of thoughts clicked in his mind. If something had spooked the gruffloos, a thing larger than the beast but not one they could see, there was a very likely chance of it being a worse case scenario.

Then, it happened.

A crash like the sound of a landslide echoed and the train shook violently. Their luggages in the overhead compartments fell out and clattered out onto the aisle.

Pip cried, “What's happening?”

Seks called out, “Pempe! Get ready to give the order!”

He reached across the table and slid opened the window panels. Almost as if having read his mind, Trini swung into the cabin from the outside followed shortly by Shimona.

Trini shouted a report. “One unspawn! Fast! Big! It's chasing after us and attacking the support pillars!”

Pempe was on his feet in the aisle, his shotgun already out of storage. “Class C!” he commanded just as another rumble rocked the train again. “Load up!”