On the field at the back of the Academy, Master Achebe has assembled the kids for their first mixed-race exercise. He stands before them with his feet spread apart and his hands clasped behind his back.

"Now, I know you all have been waiting for this day for quite some time," Master Achebe says as he flashes them that dazzling smile he's known for, only to be met with grumbles and moans from the kids.

He chuckles to himself and continues. "Enough with the protests. It's absolutely critical that you learn to work in mixed-race teams. Based on yesterday's performance, though, it's more critical than ever that you get things right today. If you can't successfully complete this training exercise, we'll have to have a long talk about your future here at the academy," he cracks a devilishly wide grin, "as you jog with me on my 6:00 am five-mile morning run!"

All the kids' eyes go wide.

It's that last part--the idea of running five miles with Master Achebe at that gods-forsaken hour, trying to justify your very existence at the Academy--that seems to have woken the kids up and forced them to take the exercise seriously.

"Great," he says. "As far as groups when I call your name, go and stand by the marker for your particular team. Team A will consist of Inez, Farid, and Ava."

The three of them congregate around the makeshift marker, a tall stick plunged into the ground with a paper sign bearing the team name and an old, leather knapsack pinned to it. Ava and Farid smile at each other shyly. And while Inez reads the note and checks out the knapsack, Farid and Ava pick up their conversation with the same ease they displayed in the hallway.

Fiona sees this and glowers, balling her fists at her side. Ugh! They're at it again?!  If she were a cartoon character, steam would be pouring out of her ears right about now.

Jake and Patrick also see this and frown, exchanging concerned glances.

"Next up," Master Achebe announces, "Team B." He points to the marker. "Patrick, Aidan, and Fiona." The three gather around the marker for Team B.

Stewing, Fiona stands off by herself with her arms crossed defiantly over her chest. Besides having to be witness, yet again, to the electricity sparking between Ava and Farid, she's also annoyed that she got stuck with Patrick and Aidan. Patrick kinda scares her, to be honest. And Aidan, well, he's really hyper and sort of... odd.

Aidan glances sideways at Patrick and takes a couple of steps away to put some distance between them. Patrick notices this, and confused and insulted, scowls at him.

"And the last team: Team C," Master Achebe finally announces, "will be Cameron, Sebastian, and Jake."

Given their last encounter, the look of indignation on Sebastian and Jake's faces says it all--this is going to be one hell of a long day.

"Now," Master Achebe says, "the objective of today's exercise is for you to use the items contained in those knapsacks to find the artifacts I've hidden around the campus. You'll need to use deductive reasoning, pool your knowledge, and assume that the artifact you've been sent to retrieve will not be easy to get at. It's approximately," Master Achebe looks at his watch, "half past eight. I want all teams back here, whether or not you've retrieved your artifact, by noon."

He looks around at the kids who just stand there, staring at him blankly and barks, "Well, get a move on! You don't have all day!"

This gets them going and they all start digging through their knapsacks. Over by Team B, Patrick holds the knapsack open and peers into it.

"Okay," he says, "this is just a big bag of nonsense."

"What's in there," Aidan asks eagerly, reaching out for the knapsack. But irritated, Patrick pulls it out of his grasp.

Scowling, he says, "There's a bone, a rock, and a plant. Oh, and this..."

He pulls out a note and reads it out loud. "What you seek may not be hidden; but rather, obscured by your bias, ignorance, and insensitivity to culture. So keep your minds open, work together, and what you seek shall be revealed." He snorts and rolls his eyes then continues. "Good luck, Master Achebe." Patrick rolls his eyes again. "I mean, seriously, what the--"

"Good gods! That can't be all there is!" Fiona interrupts. She plucks the bag from Patrick's hands and rummages through it but finds nothing else.

Patrick slides her his infamous "Yep! Told you so,"  look and Fiona's eyes narrow in reply.

"Well, that's just stupid!" she mutters underneath her breath, then shoves the bag back into Patrick's arms.

"Well, stupid or not," he says, "it's all we have."

"All right," Aidan says as he begins to pace in front of them. "Let's think about this for a minute then, shall we?" He holds up a finger. "When we go on a mission, we're expected to locate a piece of the tablet that our hosts are currently guarding, correct?" He looks over at Patrick and Fiona. They stare back at him quizzically, not realizing the question isn't rhetorical, and he's actually expecting a response.

After a beat...

"Oh, yeah... Sure, of course..." They say, simultaneously.

"Okay, then." Aidan nods. "And it's not like they're gonna give us a map or anything. Like Master Achebe said, we'll have to deduce where they're keeping the thing. So, I'm guessin' each of these items is a clue. And when we put them together, it'll give us an indication of where we need to go."

Patrick purses his lips, impressed. He says, "Yeah, all right, that sounds like a good bet."

"I agree," Fiona says. "So let's figure out what we have."

Patrick fishes around in the bag, then holds up the first item, smiles, and says "It's a deer's jawbone."

"Eeew!" Fiona scrunches up her nose.

Aidan looks sideways at Patrick. "What are ya goin' on about? You can tell just by lookin' at it?" he asks.

"Yeah," Patrick says, nodding slowly. "When you grow up hunting and fishing all your life, it's really not that hard to do." He thinks about it for a second, then adds, "Okay... so, in our culture, we often use a deer's jawbone to mark spots along the river that have really good fishing, where it becomes shallow and creates a kind of a sandbank. You would tie it to a tree or a bush or something so that others in your tribe knew where to set up camp or find food for the night."

Fiona, having never seen this side of Patrick before, narrows her eyes and looks at him with a new sense of appreciation. "Wow... that's pretty clever," she says. "You know there is  a river by the gorge at the edge of campus. Maybe it's referring to that?"

"Yep!" Patrick agrees. "I remember seeing it when we first got here."

Without thinking, Aidan slaps Patrick on the shoulder, like a supportive coach would to a struggling trainee. "Excellent work!"

Patrick gives him the side-eye and is about to say something snarky when--excited by the prospect of a puzzle--Aidan rises onto the balls of his feet, claps his hands, and chirps up, "What's next?" He cracks a big, goofy smile and peeks into the bag.

Sort of charmed by Aidan's unadulterated enthusiasm, Patrick decides to bite his tongue. Instead, he reaches in and pulls out the second clue--a crystal. He holds it up to inspect it, then shrugs and hands it over to Fiona. Fiona looks at it for a second, shakes her head, and then hands it to Aidan. Aidan holds it up to the sun and smiles.

"Ah, ha! I know this one. I know what this is," he says with pride. "It's a Hawk's Eye Quartz. We use it as a... well, sort of like a compass. When you cast a Seer's Spell on it, it can point you to an object that's lost or hidden or out of place--out of its natural element, you know? It's kind of hard to explain, but I know how to use it."

"Okay, fantastic!" Fiona pipes up.

Fiona, whose mood has now been lightened by the puzzling element of their assignment, turns to Patrick and smiles. "What's the last item?" she asks, eagerness perking up her voice.

Patrick pulls out a flower and Fiona's eyes go wide as she claps like a gleeful child. "I know this! I've got this one!" she exclaims. Carefully, she plucks the flower from Patrick's hand and sniffs it. "Yep!" she says. "It's an elderberry flower. We use the berries to make a ceremonial wine that you drink, but only during the Holy Days. They usually grow on the south bank of an east-to west river because they need a lot of sun."

"Ah, interesting!" Aidan says as he begins to pace again, all the while tapping his chin. "So, let's review what we have here." He holds up a finger. "We've got a deer's jawbone that points us to a shallow part of the river." He holds up a second finger. "An elderberry flower that tells us we should be looking on the southern bank of said river, and..." He flips up a third finger. "A Hawk's Eye quartz that we can use as a divining rod if we need it."

He taps his bottom lip as he tries to put it all together. And after a few beats, he throws up his hands. "Nope! I got nothing! I'm stumped!" He shrugs.

"Wait!" Patrick says with a snap. "I think I've got it! There's a prayer temple. It sits on the edge of the gorge, about ninety degrees northwest of the Academy. If I remember correctly, there's a bend in the river right beneath it where there's also a sandbar." He nods. "I remember thinking if I could just make my way down there at some point, it'd be a great place to fish."

Aidan's smile freezes as he squints at Patrick suspiciously. "Wait a minute. How do you know about all of these secret places on campus?"

A muscle in Patrick's jaw twitches. "I've had a lot on my mind lately," he mumbles. "I've been taking a lot of long walks." Then, he rushes out. "Look, the point is--I know where we need to go, okay? So, we should get cracking."

Aidan nods in agreement as Fiona bows, making a sweeping gesture as she bends over. "Well then, sir," she says playfully. "Lead on, my good man, lead on!"

***

Later, at the far eastern edge of the campus, Jake, Cameron, and Sebastian--Team C--are hopelessly lost.

Somehow, their interpretation of the exact same clues have taken them to the forest that encircles the Academy grounds.

Jake is bent over, sitting on a boulder, holding his head in his hands while Sebastian and Cameron fight over which direction they should go.

"I tell you," Sebastian implores, "we're going in the right direction. I'm certain of it!"

"Sebastian," Cameron replies, frustrated. "We're practically off campus grounds at this point! I really don't think Master Achebe intended for us to go out this far."

Sebastian tilts his head, defiant, and challenges Cameron, outright. "Why wouldn't he? He always tells us to think outside of the box, push ourselves to our limits."

"Not this far outside of the box!" Cameron retorts as he points to the forest's edge. "There's a ward around the Academy--I can feel it. And it's getting weaker and weaker the farther east we go."

"Look," Sebastian says. "Master Achebe's note said that we had to pay close attention to culture, and I've done a thorough analysis of the clues. As I said before, I'm 99% certain the clues are all related to a Vampyric holiday called, The Night of the Sanguinarium. And if that's true, then it means we have to find a cave." He turns away from them to face the forest.

"Now, I wouldn't expect you guys to know this," his voice becomes instantly haughty, "but caves are where our Vampyric ancestors used to practice the Sanguine ritual, which always involved elderberry wine..." He turns back and opens up the knapsack, then pulls out the flowering sprig of elderberries and hands it to Cameron. It also involved, "stones..." he plucks the crystal from the bag and hands it to Jake. "And..." fishing out the jawbone, he holds it up--and slightly ashamed--mutters underneath, "...well, and animal sacrifice."

Jake tilts his head and throws Sebastian a searing glare.

"What?" Sebastian shrugs, innocently. "Don't blame me. It was a long time ago!"

"Ugh!" Jake clenches his fists and cries out in frustration. Then, popping off the boulder he heads for the forest. "You two have been fighting about this for over and hour! Let's just get this exercise over with," he growls, teeth clenched. "I'm 99% certain Sebastian's wrong, but we won't know until we go check it out."

"Okay, but where, exactly, are we going?" Cameron asks as he and Sebastian turn and follow Jake.

"We're about a quarter mile from the base of the foothills," Jakes says. "If there's a cave we need to locate, it's gonna be there, so c'mon!"

Jake strides off, not bothering to look back to see if Cameron and Sebastian are with him.

They are, but they're very careful to stay a few paces behind.

******

A/N - I love this part of the story.  😄

And what did you think of the exercise and what it says about the kids and/or their culture? I'm super curious!

The next segment of this scene will be enlightening, and dare I say, shocking. I can't wait for you to read it!

~ Paula 💖