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“I’m here,” Dutch said behind me.

I flinched. I was tempted not to turn around and face him, but I did it anyway. I couldn’t ignore the bully forever, no matter how much I wanted to. He certainly wasn’t ignoring me. He was watching me closely, like a dragon appraising his next meal.

It totally creeped me out.

“Hey, it looks like our mentor is Eris Bentley,” Bronte said, bringing us back to the reason we were here.

She pointed at the Scoreboard. The screen now displayed the names of all six mentors and the Apprentices assigned to them.

“Eris Bentley,” Asher said. “That’s the Nymph.”

I glanced at the Knight in green, who was standing under the Scoreboard, waving us over.

“Good. She looks the nicest,” Kylie whispered as we headed toward Eris.

But our mentor heard her anyway. “Oh, I’m definitely the nicest,” she said, laughing. Her voice was beautiful, a melody that sang like snowflakes and whistled like a gentle spring breeze. “Well, now, is everyone ready to embark on your first Discovery Quest?”

“Yes,” Bronte, Asher, and Dutch said in unison.

Kylie was more cautious. “What does this Discovery Quest involve?”

“Oh, nothing too deadly, I assure you,” Eris said lightly. “After all, it wouldn’t do for our new Apprentices to die a horrible death on their very first Quest.”

Asher and I laughed at her statement. Our other teammates shifted their weight, looking uncomfortable, even nervous.

“Anyways,” Eris continued, pulling a slim stack of notecards out of a slot in her armor, “here’s your first Discovery Quest!” She handed one of the cards to Bronte.

“The scenario,” Bronte read. “Your team of Knights from the Green Nation has discovered a rare treasure—designated Object 2861—in the Woods, unclaimed territory. Your objective is to bring Object 2861 to the point indicated on your map.”

Eris pulled a neatly-folded map out of the huge trash bag at her feet and handed it to Kylie.

“There you will find a phone you can use to call in the extraction team. They will rescue you and bring you and your treasure to the General,” Bronte continued. “But beware! Yours isn’t the only country after this treasure. Five teams of enemy Knights from the Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, and Purple Nations will each do everything in their power to steal Object 2861 from you and claim it for their own government. To win this Quest, make it to the extraction point and escape the Woods to hand over Object 2861 to your government.”

“Cool,” Asher said when Bronte was finished. “We get to play war games!”

“No, not cool,” Kylie told him, clutching the map in her hands. “Especially the part about each team doing ‘everything in their power to steal Object 2861’ from us.”

I totally agreed. In fact, this whole Quest felt like a recipe for disaster.

“Don’t worry, guys. It’s not like the other teams are going to hurt us or anything.” Bronte glanced at Eris. “Right?”

Our mentor shrugged. “Apprentices don’t typically get hurt in the Discovery Quests.”

“Typically.” Kylie went a little pale.

“The other teams will do whatever is necessary. And so will we,” Dutch said, clenching his fists with determination—or maybe that was his eagerness to hit someone.

“So, what exactly is this Object 2861?” I asked Eris.

“All in due time,” she replied. “First, these are your assigned roles.” She tapped the small stack of cards in her hand. “Each of you has been assigned a role for this Quest, based on your performance in yesterday’s Assessment.”

Bronte got the first card. “Team commander,” she said brightly, obviously pleased.

I wasn’t surprised. Bronte was in first place on the Scoreboard. She was smart, studied hard, and knew how to follow the rules. She was exactly the sort of person the Government would put in charge of a Quest.

The second card went to Dutch. “Warrior,” he declared with satisfaction. He folded his thick, tree-trunk arms across his chest.

Again, no surprise there. Dutch was built like a tank. I bet he hit hard too.