“Well, Elizabeth,” The trainer says with a smirk, “You better get started.”
I feel the tingle at the back of my spine again, but nod and smile fakely back anyways.

“Remember to count to sixty,” The trainer reminds me. “And don't forget I'm playing too.”

I swallow the spit in my mouth forcefully to get rid of the foul taste, then turn around and head to the nearest tree.

I get piteous grimaces from other people in the group. I realize they're trying to be nice, but I ignore them.

I don't need pity.

Putting my hands up to my eyes and leaning my head against the tree, I start counting.

“One, two, three...” As I count, I think about the people surrounding me currently.

Abigail and Hazel. They stuck to each other like a bug and tree sap. They never seperate from one another. They're nice, sure, and I'm appreciative for them welcoming me so graciously. But I can't trust them; they'd chose each other over me any day.

The Johnsons. They're okay, although the oldest one is really bossy and the younger ones are immature. I can't trust them either.

The trainer is the next person that comes to mind, as does one word when I picture his face in my mind- 'snake'. A chill runs down my back just thinking about him. He makes me sick and he makes me want to puke. I hate everything about him. Especially that voice- covered in honey and blood.

“Fifty-nine, sixty,” I say loudly so everyone can hopefully hear me and know I'm not afraid (actually, I am). “Ready or not, here I come.”

I start walking in a random direction away from the tree I just came from, trying not to think of what I'm going to have to do.

The most immediate and immature thought in my head is, you could die. I shake my head. That's stupid! You're not going to die.

You could die.
I swallow nervously, wiping the stupid thought from my head.

But that thought was enough. I can feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins, causing my hands to shake. My sore muscles are strong and ready for whatever, and my senses are sharp.

I can see and hear everything within at least a 50 meter radius- the downward twitch of a treebranch...

I stop walking. Wind didn't blow treebranches downward, which means.... A person must be hiding up there! I squint at the small pine tree, trying to make out the form of a human- I can just make out light brown hair and tan hands gripping the trunk of the tree. Smirking softly to myself, I stride confidently forward. Afterall the person I found wasn't the trainer, who I knew would be merciless.

And after this, I'd only have to find 4 more people.

“I found you,” I say as I reach the bottom of the tree. Looking up, I see it's the eldest Johnson boy who's grimacing at me from where he's perched. He leaps down and I see he doesn't have a sword, only a small wooden knife like mine.

Relieved, I crouch a little bit lower into a more comfortable fighting stance so I'd be ready for when he comes at me.
And he does, suddenly. Raising his knife above his head, he charges at me. I can see the knife coming down straight above me and step to the side. His hand comes down where I had stood less than a second ago.

He looks slightly startled and refocuses on me. Coming at me again, he slashes towards my arm and I jump backwards. He keeps lunging and slashing at me, and I keep dodging to the best of my ability. I can only imagine how stupid I look, doing everything to not have to fight and stay on my feet.

After a few minutes of this, the kid stops and glares at me, panting. I exhale the breath I had been holding the whole time and realize how exhausted I am from this. Could I really last another four people like this? I snap out of my thoughts to realize that the kid in front of me is charging at me again.

Sighing, I prepare to dodge again. He slices sideways and I take a step backwards. He slices again and I take a step sideways much more forcefully than I meant to- I run straight into a tall pine tree.  Sharp bark and flesh meet, and a searing pain shoots up my arm.

I duck just in time as the boy slices at my head. His wooden knife comes in contact with the tree and flies out of his hand. I reach for it with my free hand, bringing my injured arm over my head as I dive for the knife. My hand grasps the wood handle and I somehow manage to stand up, a knife in both hands.

The boy looks shocked for a few seconds, then raises his hands over his head. "Okay, okay. You got me. I surrender. And keep the knife. You'll need it."

"Thanks," I say, grinning at the boy. I wince as a cool wind blows, my arm stinging sharply. I look down and see my arm is smeared in blood. I look back up at the boy for help but he's disappeared.

W-what am I supposed to do now? I look around, feeling completely lost. My arm is badly cut and bleeding slightly, my head hurts from what I assume is dehydration and the gnawing in my stomach won't go away.

~

I fight two more people. I don't know either of them, but they're really strong and hit me a few times pretty hard before they dissapear like the first boy.
I'm not able to find my last people before I hear a whistle being blown from somewhere to my right.

Everyone that was hiding just a few seconds ago seemingly melt out of the trees. How had I not found them? They were in plain sight!

"Okay, okay, good job everyone," The trainers says. "Except for you, Elizabeth. You didn't find everyone, meaning no dinner for you tonight!"

I try to swallow the spit in my mouth but it sticks to the back of my throat. I already knew I wasn't going to eat dinner tonight. There was no way I was going to be able to find 2 more people, much less fight them.

We head back up the tree as a group and go to the huge platform the meeting was at last night. There are huge tables set up with lots of food layed out on top of them. The rest of our camp is sitting around the tables already, eating and laughing and talking noisily.

"It's just like in Peter Pan," I say to Abigail and Hazel. They look at me with a puzzled expression but nod as if they understood me anyways.

We sit down load up the plates set in front of us with food- there's some sort of roast bird and pig, and lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

"How do we get all this food up here?" I ask incredulously, biting off a huge piece of meat from the chicken leg I'm holding. "And how do they cook it?"

"Well," Hazel begins, but Abigail interrupts her.

"We have wood stoves up here," She says, "They're made out of stone, but burn wood. You just stick the turkey inside and in about an hour it's all cooked."

"She also wanted to know where we get the food, Abi," Hazel says with a pout, clearly mad at being interrupted.

"That's easy," Abigail says. "We have a hunting party that goes out every few days to hunt. They bring the food up here and we eat it."

I laugh. "So what do we do after we eat? You said today would be tough mentally and physically."

Abigail and Hazel look at me solemnly.

"You'll see."

~

Four hours later, my brain feels as though it's going to explode.

I had just spent the past chunk of time undergoing a crash course in some language called 'Korean'- the national language of Beleg.

"You must know it to be able to get around successfully," Our tutor had said. Then he made us memorize and repeat hundreds of words over and over again until we could spit them back out without having to think.

"That wasn't too bad," Hazel says afterwards as we eat our lunch at the dining platform. "We've been memorizing this set of words forever. It'll get easier."

"Are we done for the day, now?" I ask.

"No way," Abigail laughs. "We're far from done. We still have to do math and geography. And then we learn snares later..."

I don't hear anything she says after that. The day wasn't done yet? My head was pounding and felt like a time bomb, ready to implode any minute. My whole body was aching and it hurt to move at all.

After lunch we head back to the small room that we had just learned 'Korean' in. We have a different tutor that teaches us something called trigonometry- I had learned some of it back home. The tutor says it's essential to know for when you need to use a map. I understand most of this lesson, but I'm completely clueless when it comes to geography. I didn't know any of the towns or roadnames in Beleg- after all, back in Landion I had no need to.

I immerse myself heavily into this lesson. I'm good at memorization so I try to remember each and every street name and town with as much gusto as I can. It's hard, but I find it rather fun to look at all the maps and repeat the street names.

"Good job for today, everyone," Our tutor says at the end of the lesson. We crowd out the door of the small classroom and walk tediously onto the platform just outside the room.

"Where do we go now?" I ask Abi and Hazel. They show me another small cottage just to the right of the geography class.

We head inside and sit down on the floor. I see there are lots of ropes hanging on the walls and small sticks stacked in a pile across the room.

"Hi everyone," Our new teacher says. "Snare time."

Our snare teacher teaches us lots of new knots and snares- "Because when you're on your own, being able to catch your own food is essential." I'm pretty good at tying the knots and using the sticks to create small traps that would be lethal to any small animal.

After a few hours we leave and head down to the dinner tables once again.

~

Abi and Hazel ask me to spend the night in their hut, so I do. We spread out all the blankets they own and lay down on them, not bothering to cover ourselves with anything but our leggings and tunic.

"So how do you like it here?" Abigail asks me once we've settled in.

"It's okay," I say. "I'm really really hungry though."

We all laugh. "You'll get used to it," Hazel reassures me. "I can tell. You're handling the physical and mental stress better than the rest of us did on our first days."

I grin gratefully at her for the compliment. "I hope so," I say. We're quiet for a few minutes as I mull things over. "I really don't like the trainer," I say finally. Both Abi and Hazel look at me with rather startled expressions.

"Really? Why?" They say at the same time.

"He bugs me," I say, trying to push away the tingly feeling in the back of my neck that I get when I think of him. "He... He just doesn't seem... right."

~

Days pass, and the soreness slowly gets better. Although it's only been about a month, I can feel myself getting stronger. I'm getting better at the whole fighting thing, too, and I figured out how to turn on and off the adrenaline flow when I need it.

Just being outside so much has turned my once pale face into a peachy complexion with a light tan. I've also lost a lot of weight and my muscles are toned.

I feel strong. And ready.