“Gather round everyone.” Liam’s dad said.

They were assembled on the top of the cliff of the floating island that the recruits had arrived on. Not far away, the Ark that Liam’s father had jumped from had moored itself along the cliffs edge. Many of the group had been enthralled by the size and design of the ship. The Ark seemed to be a strange cross of old and new technologies, the hull of the ship was a deep mahogany wood intertwined with thick metal wires with blinking white lights; the wires presumably a part of the technology helping keep the large ship afloat in the sky.

“My name is Guy Cacas.” He introduced himself. “I am an instructor at Ventus Academy and I would like to formally welcome you all to Planet Ventus. As you would have all realised by now, it is a beautiful place, very different to Earth, but please don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because it’s beautiful it’s not dangerous. This planet is home to monsters and it is for this reason that I will insist that you listen to everything that my colleagues and I have to tell you, it won’t be the first time a recruit has died during training and it will not be the last.”

The group had grown silent in the wake of the mans words, some had faces of worry, looking around the planet in wary trepidation, waiting for something to jump out at them. On the other hand, some of the recruits had the opposite reaction, eyes lighting up with excitement, hands twitching as if itching to get in a fight.

One such recruit chose this moment to speak up.

“And what makes you so qualified to teach us. We all saw your little flying display, but that doesn’t mean you’re any good at fighting.” The boy stepped forward, singling himself out from the crowd. He was tall, by far the tallest recruit there, he had a sharp chin, which was lifted as if pointing down on everyone there. A sneer plastered to his face as he continued his tirade. “My father says I should only be taught by the best, are you the best? I’ve never heard of the Cacas name, who even are you?”

Wren looked to Liam, his face had turned red in anger, his eyes bloodshot and focused singularly on the boy speaking. He took a step towards the boy, ready to lash out. Wren placed a hand on Liam’s shoulder, he was considerably taller than Wren so he had to stretch his arm up a little, he pressed down firmly, grounding him in place, reminding him that this was neither the time nor place to fight.

Guy, caught the flash of movement in the corner of his eye, and witnessed the short dark haired boy place his hand on his son’s shoulder, he flashed the boy a grateful look, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be able to help if a fight broke out.

He turned back to the issue at hand.

“I can assure you young man that I am more than up for the task of teaching the likes of you. I’m not in the habit of proving myself to newly awakened recruits, but I suppose telling you that I’m a grade A adventurer will have to do.”

Whispers swept through the crowd and they all stared up at Guy with respect. Although the activities of the seven factions were not made public opinion on Earth, the operations of the Adventurer’s Guild were. They were a separate organisation that facilitated the hunting of monsters across the galaxy and were largely respected by both the seven factions and the people of Earth themselves. Once you became a member of the Adventurer’s Guild you were given a rank, usually starting around the F grade. As an A grade adventurer it was clear that Guy deserved the respect he garnered, he would have to have the ability to take out an AA rated monster, something that would cause an unbelievable amount of destruction.

“Now if you’re quite done, questioning my credentials, I have a register to take.”

~

Wren and Liam were sat at the window seats across from one another as they sailed through the sky. The seating arrangements on the Ark resembled that of trains, with groups of four or six chairs grouped together next to the windows on either side of the Ark, and a long walkway through the middle. Wren was looking out at one of the sky islands; each of the terrains differed from one another, isolated from each other by the far expanses of the sky, each island seemed to have their own completely unique ecosystem, ranging from deep jungle on the bigger islands, to a more classical forest on some, and others were just a desolate wasteland of dust and rock. The island that Wren was focused on was very much on the pretty side. It was one of the smaller sky islands and was completely made up of flowers; he was too far away to see what kind of flowers they were, but they were bright and colourful. They reminded him of his time back on Earth, one of his old foster parents’ boyfriends would always bring flowers to the house, they looked a lot like the flowers down on that island.

“Pretty aren’t they.” Liam said. Wren wasn’t sure why he was sat with him, he wasn’t sure if they were exactly friends, but the boy just seemed to go wherever he did. Then again, its not like either of them had many options for separation on the ship flying thousands of miles up in the sky. Liam noticed the look in Wren’s eyes, it was similar to the one he had earlier when his father was being questioned. “You okay pal?”

“Yeah, absolutely fine, you?” He replied, plastering his face with a smile.

Before he could reply the two boys were interrupted by a third.

“Look what we have here, two pansies fawning over some flowers.” It was the boy from earlier, surrounded by a small group of people all laughing at his joke.

The register that Liam’s father had taken earlier had revealed this boy to be Chadwick Pound.

“Ha, ha, very funny, can we help you?” Wren said sarcastically.

“You,” he said pointing to Liam, “your name is Cacas. You’re related to that instructor.”

Wren watched as Liam’s eyes widened, obviously Wren and Liam hadn’t been the only ones to use the register as a means of identifying their fellow students.

“I am. Good of you to put two and two together.” Liam said.

At that moment Chadwick raked a look over Wren, looking him up and down, studying his clothes, his shoes, his hair. Wren was by no means dirty, he kept himself clean and presentable, but it was obvious that he did not come from means. His clothes were at least a few years old, the sleeves and collar of his jumper were starting to fray, and his shoes were scuffed around the front. He turned back to Liam with a smug look.

“You should hang out with us, the son of an A rank adventurer shouldn’t be associating themselves with such… rabble.” He said, sneering at Wren.

Wren waited for Liam to get up and join them, to tell Chadwick that he was right and turn around and tell him what gutter trash he was. That moment never came.

“You know what. I think I’ll stay with my friend here. Thank you though.”