Chapter 9: Chapter 8–Into the Thicket

It's well into the morning, and we'd been walking for at least two hours.

"Ugh," Marshal shouts, stopping to study the map closely.

"Let me see," Kate says. Though reluctant he surrenders the map. Kate stares at it for a moment before making a face. "I don't even know how you can read it at all," Kate says, turning expectant eyes toward me. I move closer, taking the map from her to study myself.

Though I'm not sure if what I'm looking at is even a map. It's so poorly drawn it might as well be a doodle with chicken scratches. Marshal looks over my shoulder at the map spitefully.

"Why'd they give us such a terrible map anyway? The one headmaster lent me was a hand-crafted sculpture to this mud pie," he fumes.

My guess is to simulate difficult mission clients with bad handwriting or a less than helpful map. The one we have now is competent when it comes to leading us in a general direction—such as the arena—but for finding a specific location it's borderline useless. The "landmarks" circled in red consist of a large tree and rock. To put it simply—a map rookie like myself stood no chance in the face of such incompetence.

I sigh, handing the map back to Marshal, then with my most confident smile I say, "We're counting on you, man."

He gives me a dreary smile and lets out a frustrated sigh. He studies the map again before giving up.

"Damn it, I can't get his pretty map out of my head," he says.

"Why don't you use that then," Kate says, laughing at her joke.

"Ha Ha," Marshal says, squinting at the map again.

"Okay I think we need to go this way," he says moments later in an unsure tone. Kate and I exchange glances. I shrug, and she stifles a giggle.

After walking aimlessly for what felt like hours, we managed to walk in a giant circle. Marshal's face is boiling with rage. He's gripping the map so hard I'm almost afraid he'll tear it. Kate and I stay a few paces behind him—just in case.

After studying the map again for the umpteenth time, he looks up with a devilish smile and an intense look. "I've got it," he says to no one in particular. He then abruptly switches direction, quickening his pace to a brisk walk.

I look up through the thicket—we'd definitely been at it for at least a couple of hours. It's nearing noon. By now Marshal is muttering to himself like a crazy person—map jargon I didn't really understand. Kate and I like the supportive friends we are continue to follow faithfully—two meters behind him.

'How poorly made was that map to get him to this point.' I wondered. Sure it's poorly drawn even I knew that, but there must be something inherently wrong with the map to lead Marshal—an apparent map nerd—to his breaking point.

After more tedious walking, it's now fully noon. Kate and I are enjoying the nature walk. We're chatting cordially, when Marshal suddenly breaks out into a full-on sprint, which surprises both of us for multiple reasons. We run ourselves out of breath just to catch up. After all, we're lagging behind him by quite a lot at that point.

When we finally catch up to him we see him smiling maniacally at a large boulder at least two times his size, and not too much further ahead there's a very imposing tree. After a few strained laughs, he teeters falling to the ground. He lets out a relaxed sigh.

"I vote we rest here before searching," he says. I sit down leaning against the boulder in response, while Kate flops down beside me. She's still breathing heavily, and understandably so—when Marshal's motivated he's practically a blur.

I yearned for the cool of the shadow plane—devoid of heat it'd be the perfect place to cool off. Once again I curse the mark and it's existence. I stare off into the trees spacing out. I snap out of it when I notice something stumble into some bushes. I'm curious, but I write it off as some small monster or animal.

After a good while, Marshal hops up to his feet. He walks a little ways toward the tree marveling at its size. "Okay, let's get to searching," he says—jovial. Kate groans, dragging herself to her feet. "Do we even know what we're looking for," she asks as I stand up.

"Well no, but we do know it's in this area," he says, gesturing to the surrounding area. The map having a big circle going around here.

I do a couple of stretches as I say, "I'll look in the tree."

Marshal nods, "You go up high and I'll search down low."

"And you can search the rock," he says pointing at Kate.

"Okay," she says.

"Hey Benji, lend me your dagger," Kate says, holding out her hand.

I don't even think, reaching into my pocket's shadow for my dagger, handing it to her. My face immediately feels extremely uncomfortable. Pain isn't the right way to describe it, but it's annoying. Similar to the sensation of your leg falling asleep.

Kate gives us a small thumbs-up before inspecting the boulder. She starts to tap on it with the butt end of my dagger slowly making her way around it. I muse at her interesting plan.

'It's not impossible for there to be a hidden compartment after all.'

"I never asked Benji how do you do that," Marshal asks as we walk up to the tree. I look at him confused. "Like, I know you can store your stuff in shadows, but how do you keep it with you," he reiterates.

"Oh, well that dagger is imbued with my magic—you know the crystal on the handle," I say. Marshal nods. "Well, it's basically imprinted with my internal magic, and like a weak magnet, it's drawn to me. So in the empty shadow plane, it follows me," I explain.

"Oh," he muses. "Teach me," he asks a little too seriously.

I let out a nervous laugh. "I'll break it down for you once we get out of here," I tell him. He seems pleased with my answer and begins searching the tree's sprawling roots. I take a couple steps back looking for a good branch. When I see one that looks sturdy enough, I back up then with a running start I leap up to it. I catch the branch pulling myself up.

I lean against the tree thinking about where on a tree I'd hide something. 'At the very top?' I look up not even seeing the top due to the branches—not that that'd stop me. I start to make my way up the tree searching as I went. After some climbing I hear a thud below me, I look down to see Kate has toppled the boulder over and is marching toward the tree.

After a while, I'm almost at the top, and it isn't looking promising. 'Should I go back down?' I question, but Marshal answers it minutes later shouting my name.

"Benji—come on down you're gonna be excited to see what we've got," he bellows.

My interest peaks and I start making my way down. It's easier than going up but still a bit slow. I think back to a stunt I pulled back when I was young. A smile spreads across my face as I immediately want to try it out, but it dissipates as I remember the mark once again. My eyebrows furrow in frustration. 'Be daring.' my mind whispers. I grit my teeth squashing my uncertainty, and jump out of the tree.

I see Kate and Marshal—their faces are more than concerned. You know because I just jumped out of a tall tree. 'I probably should have warned them.' I think, but the rapidly approaching ground has other plans.

Focusing on my shadow that's darkening as I approach—I expel shadows from my feet passing into it. It's almost like a cannonball only there's no resistance, I'm spinning uncontrollably. It's been a long while since I've done this so I forgot how I managed to stop. I focus on the shadow I expelled before and broaden my influence to some of the shadows around me—telling them to stop me.

They're happy to oblige—gathering around me. Once I've stopped I look around wildly through the non-light, before finally spotting Kate and Marshal. The shadows help me up, and I erupt from Kate's shadow.

Not wanting to run into her I angled myself weirdly and headbutt the tree. I clutch my head. "Ow Ow Ow," I moan as the mark flares up as well. Luckily at worst it's the feeling of sandpaper rubbing vigorously on my skin, but it wasn't helping.

"You okay," Marshal asks, more curious than concerned. Kate is crouched beside me inspecting my head for a bump.

"Yeah, I just wanted to try something I did as a kid," I say embarrassed now that I'm saying it out loud.

Marshal laughs, "Well it worked all right."

"But why were you doing such reckless things as a kid," Kate asks genuinely concerned.

I let out a nervous laugh. Now I was definitely not telling her my mom had taught me that stunt. "The best way to get from high places in a snap," she'd told me. She was actually quite disappointed when I mysteriously stopped using it as much—she'd taught it to me around a year before the mark appeared.

"I guess I was just that kind of kid," I say simply.

Kate pouts, not satisfied with my answer. I divert my eyes, changing the subject. "So what is that," I say pointing at the cloth-wrapped object.

"Dunno," Marshal says before giving a mischievous smile, "But we're about to find out!" He strips the object of the cloth. Kate tries to object, but the deed is done.

It looked like a human arm, only it's carved from wood, and adorned with many small yet intricate marks. The joints appeared to be functional too almost like a—

"—puppet's arm," Marshal says aloud—confused. Kate takes the arm and cloth from Marshal.

"Hey—" he starts but she interrupts.

"You shouldn't open a client's item," Kate says, wrapping it up.

"It's only practice Ka—" but Marshal cuts himself off when he sees the look Kate gives him.

"You're too carefree about the wrong things," she sighs.

"Yes it may be practice, but we should act as if this is the real deal. Survival and retrieval are skills important for adventurers and 'elites'," Kate says emphasizing the word "elite".

"Well—" Marshal starts.

"What? Are you going to 'take a peek' at sensitive intel when you're on missions," Kate retorts, challenging him. Marshal hangs his head in shame.

"Alright alright. I'm sorry for unwrapping it," he says.

I stifle a laugh. Kate looks a bit embarrassed but smiles despite herself. "Let's get this thing out of here," Marshal mumbles. I'm about to nod in agreement, but an unknown voice interrupts me.

"Finally."

I turn to look at what Kate and Marshal are already looking at. There emerging from the bushes are two adventures. Just from a glance, they looked to be 19, maybe 20, and while it's possible they're teachers I highly doubt it. These guys are definitely adventures. The male adventurer, the one who spoke, stares at us with cool, and confident eyes. His hair is blond and he has golden blue eyes. The female adventurer who stands beside him looks even more confident—cocky wouldn't be an overstatement—her hair is brown and she has hazel eyes.

"This'll be easy money. All we've got to do is beat up some kids," the male adventurer snickers to his partner, cracking his fist.