“We will camp here tonight.” Ho shouted back and a wave of relieved sighs and cheers erupted across the group. I dropped my over-sized backpack onto the ground with a grateful sigh; it landed with a loud thud creating a dent in the snow-covered ground. Thank the gods!

“Come on Gwen, let’s pitch the tent quickly so we can get started with dinner!” Kailey said, moving with surprising energy as she pulled out the parts of the tent that we shared out of her bag. Emily was supposed to share with us as well; that was until she ran off to a different boy’s tent every night.

Laughing at Kailey’s eagerness I complied. It was the second week of our mission and we were in the mountains now. Our bags were already heavy from the spoils of animals and Legres that we hunted; but mainly of the more commonly found wild herbs, fruits and vegetables we gathered. So far it was an easy mission. Legres ran away from us whenever we went and game was only procured if small groups of us went out. I heard that we were meant to hunt down herds of wild boars but that wouldn’t be until we were deeper in the mountains.

“Let’s hope they catch a chicken tonight!” Jeremy said, his eyes sparkling and I could practically see him drooling. Because of his power he was always on gather mission; poisoning your game would really be an idiot’s thing to do. I got to go occasionally, but they tend to send John, Vladimir or Emily as the representative from our group; and I wasn’t going to complain. The less exposed I was the better.

“I am going to get some water.” I declared to the rest of my group after Kailey and I finish erecting our tent. Before anyone could protest I slipped between the tents and into the main part of our campsite for the night.

Tonight we were camping on a ridge that dropped steeply down for a hundred meters; there were some snow on the rocky plain, since we were rather high up now. I meandered through the maze of tents; the campsite was rather noisy, with people setting up their tents and the smell of cooking drifted through the air.

We had to collect water from the main point, where a water elementalist summoned clean underground water into a common tap. I got to see it one time and it was pretty cool, the middle age lady put her hand on the ground and water gushed out, ripping through the ground like a rocket.

“Hey.” A familiar voiced called behind me and I turned to see Owen smiling behind me, holding a bucket as well. I smiled back at him, happy to see him after so long.

Evanna was right behind him as well, looking happier than I had ever seen her. “How are you?” I asked them, moving forward to join the queue waiting for water. Owen moved into the queue behind me as well; I could tell he wanted to tell me something, but he kept hesitating.

“What’s…” “We er…” both Owen and I started talking at the same time and Evanna laughed nervously. Owen scratched his hair timidly and I gestured for him to talk.

“We.. er, wanted to stayonwiththeguard.” Owen spilled out the words; I struggled to understand for a few seconds before the information finally sank in. they wanted to, stay?

Evanna smiled apologetically at me, whilst Owen looked at me guiltily, like he did something wrong. I sighed, everyone was entitled to his or hers own choice and it wasn’t my position to judge. I wanted to get back to my family; but that was a long shot. Who knew what we would face even if we managed to get back to POE Academy.

“Are you sure?” I asked; it would be sad to see one of my best friend go. Owen nodded, exchanging a happy smile with Evanna, their fingers laced together. I raised an eyebrow at them. So that’s why…

Owen gave me a sheepish look and I rolled my eyes jokingly in return. “We are happy here.” Owen said, sharing another loving look with Evanna that could blind. “With Evanna’s power we would be quite well off in the guards. Both of us don’t really have a family to go back to…”

I blinked as Owen trailed off, remembering that some of the POEs were discovered under unfortunate circumstances. Those whose power came to play during Legre invasions, like me, except people were killed and families were lost. A group of people joined the queue behind us and we immediately ceased our conversation.

Deep in thoughts, I filled up my bucket and headed back. I realized that I had been more involved with the guard so far than I ought to. We were not meant to attract attention, or get too close to other people. But I had befriended Jeremy and Kailey, I convinced myself that I did it to remain normal; but the truth was that I gave into my desire – of fitting in.

I felt at lost as to what to do; not only with the rest of the mission, but also with my life. I never thought beyond getting back to POE Academy. It seemed that every time I made a plan, something would happen and throw everything out of place. When I first got into POE Academy, all I wanted to do was to learn to control my powers, graduate and get back to London Citybase so I could be with my family again. Then we got attacked at the test and it was all we could do to keep ourselves alive.

A pounding headache began to develop when I realized with a jolt that in my reverie I had wondered off in the camp, not in the direction that I came from. Cursing myself I looked around and saw no one I recognized. Just great.

“Bec…Gwen?” I heard someone’s voice and I whipped my head around to see Fred standing next to a campfire, frowning at me. I gave him a meek smile, knowing that I shouldn’t be here in the first place.

“I am lost.” I declared to him, then proceeded to look around for Natalie. Fred looked around too, but to make sure no one was watching our exchanged.

“Nat is getting water.” He said, walking towards me in long stride. Tugging me behind a bush so that no one saw us, he rolled his eyes at me. “You really should try and get a better sense of direction Beckett.”

Easier said than done.

“Owen and Evanna decided that they wanted to stay.” I told him with a sigh, ignoring his jibe. A look of surprise fleeted across his face before it went back to annoyance.

“So? They are allowed to make their own decisions. And this is even better; they won’t suspect us with a smaller group.” Fred said matter-of-factly. I glared at him; even spending three months together in the wild would not get this guy to be more agreeable.

“Why are you so upset?” He asked. I looked at him flatly; this guy truly had a heart made of stone.

“You realized that if we part ways, this would be forever?”

“So?”

“We will probably never see each other ever again?”

“Even better!”

“Have you got no heart?”

“Apparently not.”

Feeling extremely agitated at his attitude I span around on my heels, splashing some of the water in the bucket in the process. I didn’t even know why I bothered to chat with him. To my surprise Fred grabbed my elbow, pulling me into a halt.

“What.” I asked him angrily, flinging his arm off me.

“You are upset about something else as well.” He observed, looking at him with an expression that I never saw before – something close to concern. “What are you thinking about?”

“Why do you care?” I asked grumpily, my voice beginning to rise louder. Fred hushed at me and pointed around us and I quieted down. I realized I had been acting like an angry child and sighed.

“Why do you want to go back?” I asked; I never asked my friends this before, assuming them, like me, wanted to get back to their family. Owen and Evanna’s decision made me realized that not everyone had a strong bond with their family, or even one to go back to. I knew Oscar was going back for his little sister, but for Tom, Fred, Holly, Nate and Natalie, I had no real idea.

Taken aback by my question, Fred eyed me wearily; a silent descended between us and I thought he wasn’t going to answer. “Natalie wanted to go back.” He answered finally. “I wanted to stay with her.”

Knowing Fred, I knew he wasn’t going to give me a straight answer. So when I asked him the question I opened my mind, readied for whatever he conjured up with his.

A series of playback entered my mind.

A family of three, I recognized young Fred immediately, eating dinner with who I assumed were his parents. He looked around eight and they appeared to be a loving family. I could see the skyscraper skyline of Pax outside their window, which itself were also on a high elevation. The family was laughing about something the father had said.

The next one Fred was older, his father and him appeared to be in the library of the house. He was seated across the table from his father, who had a solemn look on his face as he told Fred how he had to go to POE Academy. I felt what he felt; fear, confusion, and betrayal. His father walked around the table and put his hand on the young boy, calming him.

“We need you there.” His father said, young Fred’s eye lingered on the sigil on his father’s ring – an one-eyed staff surrounded by a ring of ivy with two snakes intertwined with it. It looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“Something is going on there.” The father said, placing his hand on Fred’s shoulder. It felt heavy, like he was placing responsibility on him. “We need you to find out.”

The next few images were all related Natalie, the first time Fred saw him – there looked around thirteen; but there were also a few of Fred snooping around the dorms, tailing some students.

“Right…” I said, my mind wheeling from all the images I received. I needed time to process them, and I couldn’t do them in front of Fred. Noticing the bucket of water next to my feet I grabbed it. “I need to go, I got lost, they must be wondering where I was now.”

Eyeing me warily Fred pointed me to the right direction and I quickly set off. okay, facts facts facts. I thought to myself. Fred had a good relationship with his family, who lives in Pax; his father sent him to the Academy not because he couldn’t train him but they needed him to watch out for something.

At least he is serious about Natalie. I smiled at that. And I definitely had seen the sigil that was on his father’s ring before. Where though…

“Gwen! Where have you been?” Kailey’s voice greeted me as I entered our campsite. I gave her a sheepish smile and set down the bucket of water.

“I got lost.” I announced, noticing that John and Vladimir are back, and there was a chicken roasting on a spit. Everyone laughed and shook their head; it wasn’t the first time I got lost in a camp before, however I was genuinely a lot better at orientating myself. It was just that Owen and Evanna’s decision had thrown me off.

“That’s why we try to avoid sending you to get water; but you ran off so fast this time.” Jeremy laughed as I set down the water next to the fire. I noticed that Emily still wasn’t back yet; maybe she wouldn’t be at all. Good.

“How was the hunt?” I asked John conversationally; he was sitting on the ground leaning on his backpack looking extremely relaxed.

“It was great, everyone caught some game. We didn’t see any Legres thought.” He added regretfully.

The night passed uneventfully. The chicken was delicious; John assured us that it was borderline Class G Legre, but by now we were all used to his boosting and believed not a word of it.

Within seconds of getting into our tent, Kailey was fast asleep half-in and half-out of her sleeping bag. I smiled at her sleeping profile and shifted around in my sleeping bag, trying to fall sleep. However my mind was too preoccupied with Owen, Evanna and Fred. Which lead onto questions about the others.

Sighing I quietly unzipped the tent and got out. Cold air nipped at my exposed skin sending a shiver down my spine; I wrapped my jacket around myself tighter and walked towards the dwindling fire. it wasn’t our group’s night for guard duty so everyone was fast asleep.

I glazed up at the twinkling night sky. It was a new moon tonight; I wondered if my family was watching the same moon thousands of miles away. Then I realized it was probably still day time over there.

My left hand automatically reached up to find the necklace that my grandmother sent me. I had kept it under my shirt all the time. Fingering the pattern I realized that I sort of missed my grandmother too, even if she was annoying.

Reaching into my other pocket I found Mr. Andrewson’s notebook. Since I wasn’t sleeping, I might as well do something useful.

Scouting closer to the fire for light, I flipped through the notebook. Squinting my eyes I noticed an inscription that was definitely not there before.

Abigail, I give this book to you as a guideline for your power. I believe you have the greatest potential of us all. Have faith in yourself and use your power wisely.

I touched the words gently; even though I hadn’t spent all that long in POE Academy, he felt like an older brother, or even a second father to me.

Flicking to the first page I saw that it was a sort of introduction.

The complexity of the human brain has always been a great mystery to us even back in the Old Age. Its operation is not understood and the genes controlling it are even less so. To this age the mutation of the brain remains a subject of great interest but little discovery.

The typical mental related power is telekinesis; the ability to move objects, about two thirds of the mutation will be this. Perhaps this is due to a basic gene mutation; some even said this existed before the Dark Ages

Second most common are mental walls – sometimes this can be with combination with telekinesis as well. It’s the manifestation of mind power as a wall that can protect against both physical and mental powers, depending on the strength of the POE’s mind.

Third is illusion, the ability to deceit other minds by making them see what they desired.

Fourth is telepathy, which comes in different way – some can read minds, some control minds, some sense their surroundings and some can communicate with their minds. The last two are the most common.

There are other rare mutations that have occurred, such as empathy, the ability to control and feel what other people feel, which might be a conjoined mutation connected with one from the hormone glands.

All in all, the possibilities that a brain mutation can bring is endless – but one wrong mutation and it can cause fatal conditions. Mutations have stabilized now since the beginning of Dark Ages but there are still many cases of mental mutation causing death in new borns and children coming into powers. Most people only have one or two of the described powers above, but it is my believe that one day, all these will occur on one person through random mutation and inheritance – and this person will be the true mental POE.

The true mental POE…. If it wasn’t for the shock I probably would had laughed at the poor choice of words.

Most people only have one or two of the described powers above

Counting the powers I have: telekinesis, mind wall, mind reading and sense my surroundings. That’s like, four. Some I had never even tried.

Flipping back to the inscription, I couldn’t helped but felt that Mr. Andrewson probably knew more about my powers then he let on. Shivering I was glad that he was a friend and not a foe. Inheritance…surely with four mutations some of it must be from my family and not random mutation. However even the thought of it seemed ridiculous in my mind; my parents could never have any powers, we live in District 9 for crying out loud. And if my grandmother had any at all, she would have boosted about it.

Crawling back into my tent, I decided that I should really get some sleep. I will think about it tomorrow, I thought to myself, about what I was going to do with my powers. I should probably tell the others about Owen and Evanna’s decisions as well. Argh…I hoped they were going to take it well; I knew Nate probably wouldn’t.

Rolling over, I couldn’t help but felt a little uneasy. It felt as though something had just slipped out of control, like the reverse of a wheel in a watch that’s going to escalate and bring everything out of control and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

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Here it is :D a bit off the weekly deadline but better than a month right? ;)

I know I need to put more fighting scenes in and I promise they will come soon!

What do you guys thinkg of Gail's powers? ;)))

Also I am working on some new stories - I sort of switch to them when I got stuck on Selection.

Currently I am getting started on a Harry Potter fan fic and a Fantasy/Paranormal story, here's a description of the later:

“Congratulation on making it.” Said the stranger; giving me a knowing smile that sent chills down my spine.

“Aren’t I dead?” I asked, wincing at the last world; I eyed his eccentric top hat and yellow swallow-tail pea coat warily. “What is this place?”

“This is Pandora.” the stranger smiled and gesture around us. “And yes. You are dead.”

Charlie was an athletic, handsome, popular, well liked teenager with a bright future ahead of him.

This was all before he got hit by a car.

And now, he was dead.

Thrown into the world of Pandora, a world that operates very differently to Earth, Charlie had the chance to live a new life, or try and find his old one.

What would you do, if you have the chance to do the same?

let me know what you guys think in the comments below!

Don't forget to vote ;D