Will

I peeled my eyes open, feeling as if they had been sealed shut with glue. I blinked several times and brought a hand up and rubbed it down my face.

"It's about time you woke up."

I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them once more, my vision coming into focus finally. Axel, Christian, and Carmen were kneeling down beside me. Axel and Christian looked worried; Carmen looked annoyed.

"Where is everyone else?" I questioned. "James? Caspian? What about Aria?"

"We don't know. Wherever they are, it isn't here. We've searched all around the area but there has been no sign of them," Christian explained.

"Great," I muttered sarcastically. "Do we at least know where we are?"

I looked around. We were surrounded my dense forest on three sides, with the fourth side looking as if it opened into some sort of clearing just over the ridge of a small hill. I was lying on a patch of needle pines. I sat up and brushed the needle pines from my clothes. 

"Well, we've dropped into a pretty prime spot, actually. Just up over that ridge, it drops off suddenly. We're essentially on the edge of a cliff. This is a strategically advantageous cliff, however, because it overlooks what appears to be a military training camp for the forces of the creatures of the dark. There are wearwolves, deamons, vampyres and more all training together down there. They have been working since yesterday on attack and defence tactics," Axel said.

"Wait, I've been out since yesterday?" I questioned.

Christian nodded. "We had a pretty rough landing. Yours was especially bad. You smacked your head off of a rock and you wouldn't wake up. We were honestly scared that you never would. And with James, Caspian and Aria already missing..."

"What do you think went wrong?" I asked. "Why did we end up scattered?"

"Probably because that girl you hired is just some child and has no idea what she is doing," Carmen snapped.

"It wasn't the girl's fault. Magyk is very hard, and there are so few people alive today that still practice that could help her learn. I think she has done a wonderful job of teaching herself so far considering the circumstances," Axel offered. 

"I agree," Christian grunted.

"Me too. But alright, if no one actually has an answer to that question instead of a speculation, then I'll move on to the next question: what do we do now?"

"I think that what would be in our best interests would be to use this advantageous location to get an idea of what we're dealing with in terms of the enemy here. Maybe we can gather valuable information about their fighting tactics and armies that we can then send back to our own so that we may get the upper hand," Axel suggested.

"I suppose that is a good point. We're in the prime location for some recon, we shouldn't waste the opportunity. I also don't want to travel too far away in case Caspian, Aria and James turn out to not be that far away. They might be able to find us if we stay here. Let's set up camp," I decided. 

Carmen frowned, but Christian and Axel both smiled and nodded.

"Whatever you say, Boss," Carmen sighed.