“Is that just me, or is that guy staring at you?” Kailey whispered to me. It was the last dinner before we leave. I was sitting with my teammates with Kailey on my right and Jeremy to my left. Jeremy had stuck to my side ever since we found out that I could compressed little poison cube. He just kept looking at me like I had grown a new head. It was kind of like adopting a new puppy.

“Who?” I asked without looking, my eyes glued on my bowl of rice. I was not going to let anything disturb my last hot meal for a while to come.

“That hottie over there.” Kailey said, bumping me on the shoulder so violently that I nearly dropped my chopsticks. Knowing she wouldn’t give up until I turn, I had to abandon my sweet meal for a few seconds to turn around. Argh I was turning into Oscar.

“Who?” I asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Not that Kailey would notice since she was busy staring at the guy that was apparently staring at me.

“That dude with flat hair.” She said, nodding towards a table cross the room in what she thought was an inconspicuous way. Squinting I tried to follower her line of vision and my eyes connected with Tom’s. He was frowning at me with a disapproving look. What was that about?

I quickly raised my eyebrow at him which he returned with a deepened frown, but turned back to his dinner nonetheless. I shook my head and got back to my food; even as a mind reader I found it extremely hard to figure out what Tom Triole’s deal was.

“Kailey, I am beginning to think that all you do is look at hot guys.” John moaned from the other side of the table. Kailey decided to ignore the jab and went back to her food. I stifled a laugh; it was true that Kailey had been pointing at every remotely good looking guy the past few days, but she never went beyond eyeing them.

Emily, however, was an entirely different story. She currently had her back to us, busily flirting with a boy from the table next to us. Vladimir was passively eating his food, seemingly detached from his surrounding; in that he was different to Oscar. I craned my neck at the thought in search of the foodie and saw his towering profile at a table on the far side of the room, busily devouring the food on his table. I stifled a laugh at the astonished glances his teammates shot at him; some things never change.

“Oh my god oh my god they are here!” Jeremy suddenly gushed next to me and elbowed me in the ribs, causing me to nearly choke on my mouthful of rice. Coughing I quickly ducked my head and covered my mouth to make sure I didn’t spite on everyone. I resisted the urge to hit Jeremy; I mustn’t draw attention to myself and hitting him would definitely make a scene.

When I recovered enough to pay attention to my surrounding I realized that nobody would had pay the slightest attention to me even if I were to hit Jeremy repeatedly. They were all screaming and staring at the entrance.

Following everyone’s line of vision I saw a group emerged from the doors, seemingly unaffected by the effect they had on the whole dining room. With a jolt I realized it was none other than Trevor’s group that were the center of attention; they strode in like they were used to this kind of situation.

Gawking a little my eyes connected with Maria who just glanced right over me; my disguise was working better than I thought. I was sure that they knew of our mission but it was probably better if they didn’t know our new identities; for both ours sake.

“I can’t believe the Hunters are here!” Kailey exclaimed next to me nearly bursting my eardrums. Jeremy had the same excited look in his eyes as he watched them walk by.

“Hunters?” I asked after my air pipe was cleared of food. Jeremy and Kailey gave me a shocked look.

“You haven’t heard of them?” Jeremy shrieked in an incredibly feminine way. I winced at his high pitch voice.

“They formed two years ago and had moved from Class G to Class D in the space of a year!” Kailey gushed, as if that would clear up anything. Not wanting my lack of knowledge to show I nodded as if I understood her.

“They aced every mission they took on and had zero casualties.” Jeremy added, “Several other clans offered them an olive branch, some even tried to abduct them but they dodged every attempt.”

I nodded, my face strained as memories of the attack during our test flashed back in my mind. I clenched my teeth and silently cursed those people. The POE world had one simple rule: grow stronger or be preyed on.

The conversations drifted back to something else after a while, but I kept track of the Hunter’s movement out of the corner of my eye. After the information I had just received about them I was starting to see them in a new light.

The rest of dinner went by uneventfully. When I left the dining room and saw Owen winked at me. Remembering that as our signal for meeting up, I made up an excuse and headed back towards our old quarter at the other end of the base.

“Hey.” Evanna greeted me softly as I side stepped into the room and closed the door behind me quietly. I returned her smile and sat down on the nearest chair next to her.

Fred and Natalie were the only other people that were in the room. The two of them was talking to each other with the heads almost touching. I smiled at their cuteness. They were adorable together; well, Fred on his own was a nuisance.

“Hi.” Owen entered the room and his eyes immediately darted towards Evanna. However the later seemed to be oblivious to his attention and seemed to be staring at something, eyes unfocused.

“Hey.” I smiled at Owen who smiled back and sat down next to Evanna. After a few more minutes everyone arrived.

“So tomorrow is the big day.” Tom said, after everyone had quieted down from catching up. “We need to remember to stay blend in and our emergency code in case anything happens.”

Everyone nodded; Fred rolled his eyes but didn’t start an argument. Tom shot him an annoyed stare but continued.

“No contact with people from another team unless it’s necessary.” Tom said, “We also need to work out an emergency strategy as well. Evacuation, fight or flight.”

Everybody nodded and we launched into a lengthy discussion. It was surprisingly hard to reach a plan that everyone agreed to. Fred and Tom were almost at each other’s throat by the end; if it wasn’t for Natalie I was sure that some kind of fight would have followed.

Although the chances of an emergency event happening in this trip were slim, we were all still a little edgy. I could tell that Evanna didn’t have a good feeling about this either; her thoughts were dark and ominous. She couldn’t see the future clearly; there were too many variables and too many little decisions and external influence.

I took a deep breath. Sometimes no news is good news. Especially in such a big mission; but something was nagging in the back of my mind. Surely it wouldn’t be that difficult to predict a mission with a set route; and usually the respond of a Legre is standard to its type, unless it’s a high class.

The more I thought about it, the less certain I became with our decision to go. Shaking the grim thoughts away I decided I was being silly. The Ganesh family guard wouldn’t put a hundred POEs in danger; they couldn’t afford to lose such a large proportion of their armed force.

Our final plan was that if something did happened, say a Legre attack that the camp can’t withstand; we would split into groups of two according to whoever was in our team (which put me and Tom together. Great)  and make a run for it. We will then relay on Owen and Evanna to track us down, leaving a sword sign in trees along the way. If we couldn’t find each other after two days we will carry on and meet back in the POE Academy.

“Let’s get back and get some sleep, we are going to need it.” Owen said, slapping on Tom’s back and standing up. Everyone muttered a chorus of goodbye before exiting the room. By then I was too tired to linger for conversation.

Sliding carefully back to the dorm that I now shared with Kailey and Emily, I settled down on my bed as quietly as I could. Pulling the covers to my chin I briefly wondered what my life would be like if I had taken up Nirmal’s offer and stayed as part of the family guard. Then I shuddered thinking about being called Gwendolyn for the rest of my life.

Closing my eyes I drifted into sleep. In my dream I was back in London Citybase with my parents and Dan. A dream where I was never discovered and never left.

Sitting up groggily I doubled checked my supplies. Food checked. Sleeping bag checked. Torch, standard issue carving knifes and hunting knifes, spare cloths, first aid kit…

“Have anyone seen my makeup kit?” Emily asked, bursting into the room with her hands on her hips. Both Kailey and I blinked at her and shook our heads. Makeup kit? In the wild? This girl need to have her priorities sorted.

“Oh got it!” She suddenly shouted, making me and Kailey jump. Dashing into our bunks she pulled a rather sizable red bag out and made a triumphant shout.

“Oh no, we better get going!” I said, my heart beat accelerating as I saw the time on my watch. 4:45, we were meant to meet at the square in five minutes!

Dashing out of our dorm the three of us rushed towards the square. It wouldn’t look good if we were late on our first mission. Half way there we saw Jeremy coming towards us with a panicky face.

“Thank god you guys are awake!” He said, relief evident on his face. “We all thought you might oversleep.”

Without further conversation the four of us ran all the way to the square and managed to make it before the clock hanging in the square hit the 4:50 mark.

“Cutting it close now are we?” John raised an eyebrow at us; I ignored his jab whilst Emily pouted. Catching my breath I looked around and was awed by the sheer number of people around us standing in circles.

“Silence.” A voice boomed and the sound echoed back from the stone walls, hushing the conversations. I turned in the direction of the source and saw Trevor, who was standing in a circle with ten other people including Ho. The rest of the Hunters stood not far from them, dressed in their usual leather gear.

“We are splitting into five groups to leave the City.” Trevor shouted, surveying around the room to make sure everyone was paying attention. “Each group will be assigned a number, please remember yours as this number will be use throughout the expedition.”

Raising my head I began to pay more attention. I concentrated on Ho as he waited for his turn to come forward.

“Number 4.” Ho came forward and said, then came back towards us. I repeated in my mind. Number 4, remember that Gail.

“Number 4 and 8 will go through the Eastern gate. We will meet in three hours’ time at the meeting point.” Trevor said, addressing the team leaders. Ho looked around the room searching for team 8’s leader and nodded. I followed his line of vision and saw a blond woman in her mid-thirties, and also Tom behind her.

Just my luck.

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Sorry for taking so long everyone! I had the busiest month imaginable.

I have to wake up everyday at 5am to be in the field for my mapping porject and I also cut my knee badly :( but I only have 2 more weeks left before my summer holiday begins so yays!

This chapter is pretty raw - please forgive me for the immediate update as I finish :D

Are you guys excited about the new adventure? I am! I can't wait to hopefully finish Selection this summer :) I don't even know what they will encounter yet ;)

Hope everyone doesn't hate me for taking so long! And I wish everyone a good summer holiday!x

PS Greece is pretty amazing! If only I get to enjoy it more instead of sweating and dying in the field