Chapter 18
Limits Crossed
“Today's midterm will test what you've learned, your physical aptitude, your ability to work in teams, and your intelligence,” Instructor Garcien announced, her clothes immaculate. “We’ll be dividing you up into groups of five, allowing for five minutes of introduction. Your main objective today is to survive.”
That didn't sound ominous at all. The dim light from sunrise wasn't helping.
“Your secondary objective, the one you will be evaluated on both individually and collectively, is your ability to locate and acquire this,” she held up a large tropical flower.
“King Protea. These are not flowers you can buy at any market, so you'll have to find them in the wild. You have until sundown to acquire them and return to the outpost. The team that returns with the best crop of them will receive the highest marks.”
My mind raced back to the lessons, trying to recall where exactly those flowers grew on Mesmoria. They weren't a coastal plant, which meant we'd have to travel inland. It was sunrise now, so we had a total of twelve hours to find the flowers and get back.
“Any team that returns with none will fail. We will open the gates when the midterm begins.”
She began calling out names, separating us into teams. “Green team: Pasha, Orin, Georlan, Lisia, and Mikalyn,” she declared, pointing to an area near the barracks for us to gather.
My stomach sank as I walked over. I didn't know any of these trainees from anything besides brief interactions during lessons or training, with the exception of Orin. Maybe that was part of the midterm too?
“Okay, let's get names straight. I'm Mikalyn,” a woman with dark skin and long inky curls pointed to herself, “And this is my roommate Pasha.” Pasha looked sturdy, despite her diminutive height. She held up a bandaged hand in a wave. At least I wasn't the only one going into this midterm injured.
“I'm Orin,” he greeted, tipping his head toward the other man in our group. “Which makes you Georlan.”
Georlan smiled, his bright blonde hair bobbing. “Yep! The one and only.”
“And that means you're Lisia,” Mikalyn deduced.
“Great, now that we have names for all the faces, who remembers where we can find King Protea? And keep your voices down.” Pasha looked around at the nearby teams.
“They grow on Mount Kael, my family lives near there,” Orin shared quietly.
“That's pretty far from here,” Pasha worried a short caramel strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail. “Even if we ran, it would take us at least four and a half hours to get there and back.
I winced. Now wasn’t a good time to reveal my recently sprained ankle. It felt fine now, and I'd been training on it for the last few days without issue, but it wasn't back to one hundred percent. I hadn't tried running on it at all, yet.
“It’s not that bad,” Georlan said. “They could be making us run to the other end of the island and back.”
My mind was churning with everything we needed to succeed at to pass this test. But one requirement stood out above the rest as the most critical. “If we get separated, we should meet back here before sunset,” I said.
They might disqualify teams with missing members.
Orin frowned. “We don't know how they'll be evaluating each of us though. It could be on quantity, size, quality...if some of us show up with the flowers and others don't, wouldn't that be a mark against the team?”
“Better than missing team members,” Mikalyn stated.
Pasha examined Mikalyn and I's hair. “If we each carry at least two while we run, we can get ten of them back here by sunset. We might even be able to make two trips. We might get more if you both wear cradle braids and wedge their stems in.”
Orin scratched at his ear, tilting his head as he considered it.
The plan’s feasibility was questionable, my hair wasn't nearly as thick as Mikalyn's. Regardless, I pulled out my bun and fought the tug of the cold breeze, rapidly braiding it down. Mikalyn did the same.
“That sounds like a good pla–.”
“We could consolidate them when we get back here and then divide them bet–” Orin interrupted Georlan.
Collectively, all heads turned as the tall portcullis gate creaked with its ascent. “No time like the present!” Mikalyn ran toward the opening. Many others in the courtyard were also running for the gate.
Tying off my braid, I jogged instead of running. Even though it left me behind everyone else, it wasn't too much strain on my ankle, and it gave me a good view of the other teams. And what they were doing.
Izaiah and Talissa's team were running in a different direction than Mount Kael. Doubt stabbed me as I wondered if Orin had recognized the flower correctly.
Henrik's team split off into five different directions as soon as they were through the gate. Was it an attempt to conceal where they were headed? If so, it worked.
Veridiana's team was headed in the same direction as ours, and Sarina's team wasn't moving, still in discussion in the courtyard. Why were they all looking up?
I chanced a glance up, and the true challenge of this midterm slapped me in the face.
It was still too dark to make out much detail, but there were slate gray cumulonimbus clouds fanning out across the sky, as far as I could see. We'd be completing this test during the middle of a summer storm. That explained the chill in the air.
My stomach clenched. None of my teammates had realized it yet. From the look of the weather, we had about two hours maximum before the winds would pick up, and the rain would fall.
I kicked up my speed, breathing through the dull complaints of my ankle.
Focusing inward on what I needed to do, I used the first hour of the run to think through the risks, keeping an eye on my teammates up ahead as we made our way inland.
Even though it was gargantuan, Mount Kael might not be visible, if the storm reduced our visibility enough. The outpost wouldn't be on our return journey. We'd have to rely on our directional navigation training to get back, and it was likely we'd have to rely on it to get there, too.
Yeshar outpaced me, running past me a few yards away. That was fine, this wasn't a race.
My memory around King Protea flowers was fuzzy, but my gut told me it wouldn't be as simple as finding them and returning with them. They'd given us enough time with this midterm to make two round trips to Mount Kael. Something wasn't adding up.
They weren't poisonous. At least I didn't remember them being on the list of poisonous vegetation.
Opae River unfurled up ahead, water gurgling as it ran toward Lake Mirae. It was only a few yards across to the other side, but it stretched out for leagues in both directions. There were three low palmwood bridges visible from here. I hurried across the nearest.
This landmark was roughly the one hour mark, so I still had another hour and some change to go before I reached Mount Kael. It grew larger and larger as I continued toward it.
My ankle was thankfully only an irritation at this point. It hurt enough to distract, but not so much that I couldn't keep running.
I kept tight control of my breathing as I ran, monitoring my ankle as a slight limp started another thirty minutes later. Thankfully, I was close now to the target.
When I reached the edge of Mount Kael, no fellow trainees were in sight.
That's when the first drop of rain splattered my cheek. The dirt began to mottle with darkening spots, insects scattering. Within a few scant seconds, it was pouring, and I was soaked.
I hugged my arms around myself, trying to ward off the chill.
Pushing back wet leaves, there wasn’t any sign of the mulberry color of the flowers.
Dismay bubbled up when I saw them. They were growing out of the sides of the cliff edges of Mount Kael.
This is what I hadn't remembered from my notes on Mesmorian vegetation. King Protea wasn’t a ground plant, it only grew out of the crags of mountainsides. Climbing was necessary to reach them. Using my recovering ankle.
And the mountain was rapidly becoming slimy and treacherous from the downpour.
The cliffside was jagged, with plenty of hand and footholds I could use to leverage myself up. I could see a route to the nearest cluster of flowers.
Hastily, I went to the side of the cliff and began to climb, finding each grip and foot groove with as much patience as I could allow.
I risked precious seconds trying to shake the water off my hands as I went. If my hold became too slippery, I would lose my progress and have to start again. Or worse, injure myself falling.
It felt like years before I reached the first King Protea cluster, two large flowers peeking out their glossy petals. Balancing, I reached for the flowers, tearing their roots from the rock. Spiny bracts pricked my palm. My ankle was beginning to burn.
“Hey, Lisia!” A male voice called from below. I craned my neck, seeing Orin roughly twenty feet below me. “Toss them to me!” He held up his arms.
Holding out the hand they were in, I relaxed my grip. I waited with bated breath until he caught them with both hands, careful not to damage them. Another cluster of five flowers poked out from a small outcrop ledge another ten feet up.
Laboriously slow, I made my way toward it. Multiple times, my boots and fingers slipped, and it was only because of the snail’s pace I maintained that I didn't fall to my death.
The sky lit up white. A loud growl of thunder almost broke my concentration.
Heaving myself sideways, I reached the ledge, bending over to catch my breath.
“Great job!” Orin called from below me. I gave him a thumbs up.
This outcrop was only a foot or so wide, barely enough to stand on.
Plucking three of the blooming flowers from the cliff, I wrapped their stems through multiple layers of my braid to hold them in place.
Their thorny bracts kept them secure, it would be enough to make it back to the ground without them falling out.