The Test of Waning: The Cave

I've teleported before, thanks to Regina and the Order, but it still left me feeling queasy. The moment our whole bodies turned from something liquid to something more solid, I could hear the muffled groans of the others in our team.

I managed to land on my feet, albeit a little unsteadily. Charles kept a tight grip on my hand, and he too kept his balance. In fact, he didn't look all too bothered by our mode of travel.

'He must've travelled a lot through teleportation, being a prince and all,' I thought. I also remembered how my brothers would use teleportation to go to and fro in the continent, but that would be years from now. Maybe Charles was a little different, being the crown prince of the Empire itself...

"You alright?" he asked, still not taking his hand away from mine.

"Yeah," I replied honestly.

He frowned. "You don't need to lie. The first time I teleported alone I had to stay in bed for half a day."

Laughing, I said, "Well, at least you didn't puke."

He looked at me strangely. "... Have you teleported before?"

I blinked innocently up at him. "How could I? I only heard rumors about it."

"Huh..." he said, although his brown eyes kept looking down at me with suspicion. I only replied with a wide smile.

Our little bubble soon got broken by the sounds of someone vomiting. I groaned as I made to approach the dark haired prince, breaking away from Charles' hold.

"Albert? Are you alright?" I asked in worry, feeling the others come towards us as well.

"Ho... Even I'm feelin' like that time my Ma fed me that awful cooking from another continent-" Joren mumbled, and then crouched down beside me. I looked down at him in pity.

"Don't worry," I said. "The nausea will be gone in a few minutes. It's just your physical body and your notes gradually coming back together."

"And I suppose you heard that from rumors as well?" Charles asked with a knowing smile.

I laughed. "Rumors get really detailed these days."

"Sure," Charles replied with a shrug.

With that, I looked around at our group. Charles and I were perfectly fine. Joren was still crouching down with his head against his knees, and Albert was still emptying up his rather big breakfast. Turning to look around, I saw that we were in some sort of cave, although it wasn't as dark as it should be. I couldn't even see the exits.

I went around after patting Charles' shoulder, looking for the other two members. It didn't take long for me to find them. They were huddled up together on the ground, looking like they were well asleep. With their dark clothes, it was no wonder we didn't immediately see them.

Kneeling down, I prodded at the boy's frail-looking shoulders. "Jordan?"

With a slight delay, he started to rouse. He blinked up at me for a short moment, his mind probably still not understanding the situation.

"Feeling okay?" I asked. This time, his eyes began to clear up, but in turn, his face paled even more.

"Ugh!" he let out a groan, and began to sit up. For a moment, he only stared at the ground of the cave, taking slow and long breaths. After a while, he started to mutter, "Damn. I never thought teleportation would be this bad."

I chuckled, and deemed him on the right path of recovery. So, I edged towards the other dozing creature. Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, I mumbled, "Kendra? Wake up."

It took a longer time, but we soon managed to wake her. Just like Albert, however, the girl had to release some of her breakfast too.

Minutes later, we had all gathered into the center of the cave, sitting on the bare floor.

Charles was the first to speak. "For now, I think we can allow a few more minutes of rest, and I think the Academy should have considered this as well, so they probably allotted some time for rest. However, I still think we should make a move the very moment we can."

"I agree," I said, and then turned to the other girl. "Kendra, can you take out our envelope? We should take our time reading through the instructions while we rest."

The girl still looked a bit too pale, but she still managed to nod with a smile. The envelope was soon passed around the circle until it reached Charles. He then passed it on to me. Grinning, he whispered, "You read it, your majesty."

I rolled my eyes, and took it with gusto. Ripping through the parchment, I took out a folded piece of paper. Then, I held it open onto the ground at our center. It was a map.

Frowning, I started to look at the insides of the envelope again, but it was empty. I grumbled, "There aren't any instructions..."

The others started to lean over to look at the map on the ground. Charles picked it up gently and turned it over, inspecting it from all angles. He sighed. "Yeah, it's just a map. No other words either."

"What the-?" Kendra shouted. "Are we really supposed to go through the test without instructions?!"

Joren shrugged. "Maybe the map is the instruction."

Kendra pouted at him. "Ha ha, very funny."

Then, Albert let out a short shout. "No, Lady Kendra. I do believe that Joren might be on to something. I've handled with enough maps to make me puke again, bless me, but if my suspicions are right, then... Prince Charles, might I have a look at it?"

"Of course," Charles said easily, handing the map over to him.

After a few seconds of poring over it, he finally smiled. "Ah ha! I knew it! This is, indeed, the article I suspected it to be. Yes, yes... Considering the altitude and the humidity, I reckon it would refer to this same place. Ah yes, we would need to check the outside temperatures out of this cave, but-"

I coughed. "Yes, Albert? An article, you say?"

"Ah! Forgive me, Eleftherion. I tend to go out of the topic, but yes. If I am right, and I seldom turn out not to be, then this might be a treasure map," he said with an excited smile.

"A... A treasure map?!" Joren exclaimed. "No way! If we find it, do we get to keep it?"

I laughed, but couldn't deny the excitement that was bubbling up inside me. "It's probably not real treasure, Joren. It probably just wants us to go there."

"What do you think will happen when we get there, Eleftherion?" Kendra asked me with red cheeks. "Do you think we'll have to fight beasts like those those trolls in the Forests of Elara?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know. All I'm sure is that this could get really dangerous, probably even more dangerous than the entrance examination."

"Ugh..." Joren groaned. "I already died in that forest. If this is going to be harder than that, then I don't know what'll happen to me."

Kendra tutted at him. "No one died back then, Joren. The teachers were ready to teleport us into the castle the moment we'd get hurt."

"And die!" Joren shouted. "I would've already been dead if I wasn't saved! So, I definitely failed there."

I sighed. "Can we please go back to our current issue?"

"Oh, yeah!" Joren continued on, ignoring me. "How come I didn't feel that bad when I got teleported that time?"

Charles replied, "You had a mage with you. Of course he could make it more comfortable for you."

"Oh!" Joren said with wide eyes. "You sure know a lot, Charl- I mean, Prince Charles."

"Oh, just call me Charles. Therion calls me the same," he said with a shrug.

"Alright, then, Charles," Joren said with a smile, although I heard him mumbling afterwards, "Therion... He still calls him Therion..."

Hiding a giggle, I then said, "Alright, for now, you guys should rest up. Albert and I will try to decipher the map in the meantime."

Soon enough, our little circle broke apart. Charles led the sickest ones back to the corner, telling them to rest a bit more, despite their weak complaints. Joren started to look around at the walls of the cave with excitement. The last I saw was of him trying to catch the water droplets that fell from a looming stalactite.

Chuckling, I edged towards Albert, who was still sitting down on the ground, studying the map. "So? Do you think you could lead us towards the lovely, hidden treasure?"

Albert smirked, but then quickly frowned. "I would like to say I'm very confident of my skills, but we still don't know the actual terrain we're in. I'll probably need some time to even be sure about our current location first. Well... I actually want to try and look for the cave exit now so I can search for high ground."

I nodded. "I understand. Do you want me to come with you?"

"Sure," Albert said with a grateful smile. "Although it isn't quite advised to split up our numbers."

I shrugged, and looked at Kendra and Jordan. "It'll be fine. They need more time to rest anyway."

"Understood," Albert said stiffly, and started to stand up. He then started to smile shyly. "Would you tell them for me please?"

Laughing, I nodded. It seems like Albert acts a bit timid with strangers. I then began to run towards Charles. "Hey!"

He looked down at me with a slight startle. "Great Luna, you're fast."

I grinned at him. "So... Albert and I are gonna look for the exit right now, and once we get a good look at our surroundings, we might get an idea about where we are now."

The prince looked against it at first, but once I had looked up at him with my incessantly blinking eyes and pouted lips, he only had to sigh in defeat. "Fine, but stay alert, and shout if you find trouble. Keep your scouting as short as you can, too. If I think you've been gone for too long, I'll be out looking for you."

I jumped up in triumph, saying, "Thank you, father~"

I dodged easily before he could land a punch for my teasing. I traipsed over to Joren and told him, "See you later! I'll be out scouting with Albert!"

"Yeah, sounds boring," he mumbled, still staring up at a stalactite with great concentration. "Have fun."

Soon enough, the both of us were going around the cave. Thankfully, it didn't have any forks and only travelled one way. Soon enough, we saw the exit.

"That was unexpectedly easy," I muttered, staring at the glimpses of tree branches at the mouth of the cave.

Then, I noticed how Albert quickly folded the map again and then handed it to me. I took it, but stared at him in confusion. Feeling my gaze, he only shrugged. "I don't need it anymore."

I let out a long breath of admiration. "You're definitely the brains of this bunch."

He snorted. "I just don't think we should be showing the map off when we go outside... I have a strange feeling that this has been going far too easily than I expected."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you think you're underestimating the test too much? Although reading the map might be easy for you, but the other students might have more trouble at understanding it, you know."

"I know..." Albert mumbled. "But it's not just that. If what I've heard about the Test of Waning is even the slightest bit correct, then I doubt it will be a steady path from here on out. I mean, we don't even know what the other groups received on their envelopes. What if they had different instructions? What if this is some sort of battle royale to get our map, and it's the only one?"

That made me think too.

"... You're right. It seems like I'm the one who underestimated the test. For that, I'll make sure to keep this hidden," I admitted, and quickly hid the map inside my inner shirt pockets.

"You better." Albert smiled down at me.

As we neared the mouth, I realized that I found a different side to Albert. I've always seen him to be an intellectual, but I never thought he would see through things the way he just did. If the test really was like the way he predicted, then I would've failed the first moment I stepped out of the cave, holding out the map for all to see.

If the test doesn't end up the way he predicted, then all the more better. I finally understood why it's important to see the worst outcome in order to come to the best one.

At the very edge of the cave, where rock met with soil, we both stopped. I turned to the taller boy. "Ready?"

"As I ever could be, considering the situation," he replied.

Smiling, I stepped forward, my boots landing on soft soil. I didn't know what I expected. Fireworks? A herd of trolls jumping out to attack? No matter, when we both came out of the cave, we were only greeted by a wonderful view.

"Wow," I whispered, looking out at the scenery. We seemed to be on top of a mountain, where the smaller trees gathered. Down below, on the lower parts of the mountain spread a gigantic forest of wide-trunked trees. Oh, and by smaller trees, I meant that the trees around us were only twenty feet high or so. I let out a short breath. "You asked for high ground, and they definitely gave it to us."

Albert let out a low whistle. "We got lucky."

I allowed myself a soft laugh. It seems like our test started off in a great note. "So? Any idea where we might be?"

He then began to whisper, "Based on the surrounding landscapes... With that lake, and that faraway snow-lined peak... Yes, we're currently a bit southwest of the destination, but we're still a long way away. The dimensions of the map hinted out a smaller scale, but I guess I was wrong. Our travelling could take hours, even days at this rate..."

"Wow," someone said loudly, but it definitely didn't come from either of us. We both jumped into action, jumping away from the voice. When we saw him, I already realized we were cornered.

'Why didn't I feel them come?!' I thought in a panic.

Already, all thoughts came into my chest, where I hid the folded up map. When I looked around at our ambushers, I realized they were all inner ring students, with their distinctive robes.

'This will be hard to get out of, especially with them outnumbering us so greatly...'

I was about to shout out for help when the older student started to speak again, his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Calm down, boys. We're not here to harm you."

"Well, duh," another one said, laughter in his voice. "I mean, they don't even have their robes yet. Sinus Fidei, probably off to take their first test."

"Shut it, Con," the first one said harshly, and then turned to us, his smile back in place. He seemed like their leader, judging by the way the others cowered before him. "I'm Telken of House Laurent. If you're wondering, then yes, you heard it right. My father is Viscount Semuel of the Mond Empire. But I'm not here to flaunt or anything."

He then smiled even wider, his hands opened wide at us. "We're here to offer you a place in our team."

'Offer a place?' I thought. 'Does this have something to do with the instructions they received?'

"... Is that even possible?" I asked.

His brows went up. "Didn't you read the instructions? It said to gather more members."

His teammate immediately hissed at him to shut up, but the peacock boy simply shrugged it off. "So what if they know? They're only Sinus Fidei."

"And if their teammates come to find them?" the other one sneered back.

Telken only sighed, although he didn't look a single bit worried. However, he did question us, "Well? Where are your other teammates? Where's the other four?"

I immediately started to answer, grateful at the fact that Albert stayed quiet. "W-We don't know, sir... There were four students from the inner rings who forced us to join their team, s-saying that it's the only way we could join the test anyway... When- When we reached here, t-they quickly left us behind while we were still resting from the effects of the teleportation. We di-didn't even get to read t-the instructions."

Telken pouted down at us. "Poor things. They probably thought you'd just drag them down, but I don't think that way. I'll gladly kick their asses if you tell me who they were. Well, that is, if you join us."

My mind immediately tried to look for a way out of this. If we joined them, then it won't be beneficial to us at all. After all, we received a different test from theirs in the first place. It might even be that if we join them now, we'll probably fail the test altogether.

I cursed under my breath, making Albert stiffen beside me. I then turned towards the upper year. "And what if we don't?"

"Don't what?" he asked back, his smile still in place, his face a picture of perfect patience.

"... What if we choose not to join you?" I slowly asked.

His smile quickly disappeared. "Oh, then surely, we both don't want that."

Then, he snapped his fingers, and I felt the other five of his team start to inch closer to us. I turned to Albert, and when I saw his face devoid of hope, I knew he didn't have a brilliant idea this time.

So, even though I doubted he could hear me from so far away, I still screamed out, "CHARLES! HELP!!!"