As the wagon approached a town, Anita had a moment of reflection. She had always read stories of knights with sword, shields, and plate armor, two of which Matt had; his lack of plate armor made sense to the woman though, as the clothes they wore were specifically tailored to allow better mana proficiency, especially for self-defense. No such luck with the cool wind whipping the wagon as it sped along, the kid’s short sleeved shirts and shorts giving them no protection. The men were used to these cold winds, there city being frigid most of the year unlike these tropical and arid regions. ‘They might have laughed at our lab coats back at home, but we’re getting the last laugh now’ Anita smiled devilishly to herself.

As the wagon stopped, the groups leapt out, leaving one researcher to take the carriage to a building in the distance. “Believe it or not, we don’t have carriages where we come from. Anthony learned how to drive one pretty quick, one reason I like having him around.”

Looking at the kids, the older woman hadn’t noticed before that the leader of the teens was eye level with her, quite tall for his age, and rather humorous compared to the blonde spear wielder who was on the opposite end of the spectrum; perhaps his short stature made him more aerodynamic?

As the group looked for an inn, the researchers couldn’t help but note the quaint town’s surreal amount of modern conveniences. There were laundry mats, modern looking restaurants, and the Inn had somewhat resembled a motel. ‘If it has a dirty pool and a leaky air conditioner, I’m going to start feeling homesick.’

“No monsters in the bathroom, under the bed, or in the closet” Eric reported from inside his room. “Will you kids be fine with one room?” Before Eric could respond, Adriana cut him off again, as was her job, “Yes. Me and Jessica take one bed, Matthew and Brian take the other. Eric will sleep on the floor.” Eric prayed she was joking, but this wouldn’t be his first night getting acquainted with the ground.

The group was ready to head out for a relaxing day before the real work began, but Matthew had signaled Anita to stay behind, letting the others know to wait for them.

“I am curious, what are we facing that only takes the five of us but also takes two years to do? As the leader of the group, I have to know what we’re up against so I know how to prepare.”

“As you know,” Anita took in a deep breathe, “we sent out a scout to search the area. That was a lie. In truth, our group wasn’t offered such a luxury, and in fact we were blessed to even be able to leave the city. Unlike your kingdom, which lets you kids run around the continent as soon as you start fighting puberty, our city does not like people leaving or entering the continent.”

“So you searched the area yourself then? I imagine that are more than Hi and Loboars hanging around the area?” Matthew was now concerned and more than a little suspicious. How important was this mission actually? These people seemed to not be looked highly upon from their own city, and if that was the case, how much money did they have to be asking for help?

“The other two men joined me, but I was the only one even capable of peering into the city proper. Do you see this?” Anita pulled the left tail of her coat aside to reveal a gun, “I can channel water through this gun, a strong enough blast to kill those boars, but it takes enough time to channel lethal force that killing is a last resort. As you can imagine, we weren’t capable of dealing with the sheer number of monsters hanging around the city.”

“What did you see in the city though? Can you give some kind of estimate of their numbers?”

“All of the things your friend described: the boars, the Fowlcrows, Octoplants, and even a Hellion. If that weren’t enough, we saw several Hiboars, one in particular looked several times larger than what you faced, both in height and weight.”

Matthew was fretting over this new beast, never imagining a ferocious Hiboar. “More than one Hiboar can lead a tribe if it becomes too complexed, but I’ve never heard of a exceptionally strong or mean Hiboar, they always let their minions do the work.”

“Getting through one of the gates was a laborious effort that took hours, and it was only a couple feet. I probably killed an entire tribe, picking off boar after boar that all lived in the abandoned homes that overpopulated the entrance. The city itself was just as packed.”

“Thank you, I’ll be sure to tell the others.” The boy sighed to himself, his mind trying to process the grim image presented. His mind filled with the scene of his kingdom without any buildings, flooded with the bodies of monsters; that was why this would take two years, that was why the kingdom selected them, the ‘prodigies’ to help with this task. At the same time, Matt couldn’t help but consider again how independent the archeologist group really was if they could not get a scout and instead had to brave the country by themselves.

As the two joined their respective groups at a restaurant, Matthew had filled in the group, each one realizing the daunting task ahead. “That’s crazy, but it sounds like crazy fun.” Brian expected his chipper attitude would get him chewed out. “You guys can sit out this time, keep the researchers company; let me and Adriana have our fun.” Adrianna nodded, “I agree, you two had all the fun, it’s our time to shine.”

“Speaking of ‘our’ fun, me and Jessica need to do…girl things, so you boys go find something to do, alright?” Matthew, Eric, and Brian all looked confused at the girls. “Do we want to know?” The girls simply nodded their head, leaving the boys to ponder what to do, realizing too late the girls had also left them with the bill. “Don’t worry about it,” one of the men had walked over, “it’s on us.” The boys were grateful, especially when they noticed the men were in a similar situation.

“So, what do you girls plan on doing?” The aforementioned party jumped, only to realized it was just the head archeologist behind them, “well, since we’re going to fighting for a while, we may as well shop for certain necessities and maybe something cute while we’re at it.”

As the sun floated from its perch down to the trees, the girls agreed it was time to head back.

“So that other boy said you once sneezed so hard you froze somebody solid. Is that true?” The redhead’s face matched her hair, “Yeah, he was the one I froze. Back before I…” the girl stopped, sighing to herself, “before I really had any friends, I met Eric one day. He was talking about something, I wasn’t paying attention, and I was about ready to slap him; that’s when I felt a sneeze, probably the biggest I ever had. For a moment, I was just going to sneeze the other way, but right in time, I got the idea to sneeze on him. I was just hoping it would shut him up, I didn’t know it would lose control for a second.” Anita crossed her arms, enjoying the story, “I see. So how did you unfreeze him?”

“I started to panic, which caused Matthew and Brian to find us. Brian does more than just blow air, he can blow hot air. Literally, he used his fire to unfreeze him. That’s how I ended up meeting them all. I was the last one.”

“You’re not going to tell her about your little crush on Matthew when you first met him?” Adriana gave the red head a sheepish smile, but Jessica was done being the punching bag. “Are you going to tell her about your current crush on Eric?” Adriana quickly turned away, Jessica drinking in her revenge, no matter how small and petty.

“Oh the joys of being married, I don’t have to worry about crushes anymore.” The girls stopped their bickering and began egging one another on before Jessica worked up the nerve to ask a question, “Anita, i-if you don’t mind me asking…how old are you?” The woman huffed, becoming indignant at the question, “You know it’s rude to ask a woman that!” The redhead began to feel guilty, but Anita quickly lowered her façade, “I’m a wife, but my husband doesn’t have gray hair yet, so he’s not for sale. And my daughter is only ten, but I know when I get back, I’ll be dealing with my own teenager.”

“Ten? That’s Luke’s age.” Adriana blurted out. “Luke?” Anita seemed confused at the name, yet it sounded oddly familiar. “Yeah, Matthew’s brother.” It hit the woman that the boy had said the name while they left the kingdom. “Oh, well if he’s half as good looking and well mannered as his brother, I’ll definitely see about sending my daughter is way.”

“Speaking of Matthew,” The girls stopped outside beside the inn, “where are the guys? I hope they’re not still paying the bill?”

As the sun floated from its perch down to the trees, a ball whizzed high in to the air before being sent down at blistering speeds via an aerodynamic blonde.

“It’s nice the city has a volleyball court, I was afraid we’d have to shop with the girls.” Matthew nodded to Brian’s comment, even if he didn’t mind shopping and had been hoping to plan with the group some more. “I hope we’re not bad competition. It’s been years since I was on junior varsity, and this fat man over there needs his exercise.” As the ball was sent up, said fat man was able to send it flying, Matt signaling to Brian to let him have a shot; after further the gap, the group agreed Matt and Brian far out performed to older, out of shape men.

“So how did you boys get to know each other?” Matthew chuckled to himself, recalling his first encounter with Brian was not unlike the one a few days ago. “I met Brian during the first week of school when I was ten. He was training to be a dragoon, but he hadn’t mastered floating with the wind, so he was crashing with the earth. When I asked if he was okay, he just ignored my question and introduced himself, and that was that.” Brian simply nodded his head, having no more to add.

“And what about him,” one of the men pointed to Eric, who was enjoying the show from a bench, “how did you three end up meeting?” Brian cut in this time, “Me and Matt were rushing to get to class, on the way we notice Eric being held up by some bigger kids, so without stopping, we ran, picked him up, noticed the two jerks on the floored, ran over them to get to class, and we never saw from them since.”

The men looked to the sky, “It’s getting dark, I think the girls are gonna kill us.” It was Brian’s turn to huff, “They owe us for that bill, I think they can wait a few minutes. Besides, what are they going to do? Make us sleep on the floor?”

As the Moon began to rise, the separate points of view coalesced, but not without karmic retribution. “Whose idea was it to spend all night at a volleyball court?!” Jessica’s fury was met with two fingers pointed at Eric. “Alright, you both can sleep on the floor then while Eric gets the bed.” And so, Eric slept comfortably on his bed while the two boys had to keep each other company on the floor.