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11

"So, what'd she want?" Colson asked, giving a curious look to Zoe.

"Yea, she was just saying goodbye," Zoe said quickly.

"Alright, then, let's hurry up," he said, looking at Ivy, who had zoned out and stared into the distance.

"First, the quest master."

"Oh yea," Colson grumbled as he jammed his hands in his pockets and trudged forward.

The quest master was a tall, serious-looking man; his suit was spotless, with not a single crease to be seen.

His dark eyes studied them as they filed in through the door. The office was clean, almost to the point of sterile.

"So," he started when they were paying attention. "According to this here, this will be your first time having an out-of-wall assignment. So it's my job to brief you on what to expect and tell you what Crater's expectations of you will be."

"Okay," Ivy said.

"Are you aware of the concept of community optics?"

Colson and Ivy shook their heads.

"When you are moving through the world, you are a representation of Crater and its people. We don't want you to act like the people outside; we expect you to act better. Because you are better. We need you to be an example. This includes how you look and how you act."

He explained the different travel methods and emergency numbers to call, specifying that the mission would be considered a failure if they were to contact them for emergency purposes. "For this, we've estimated that it will take a maximum of one week to complete. If we don't hear from you in four weeks, we will consider it a catastrophic failure on your part."

Before leaving, the quest master handed them a letter. General warnings and dangers to look out for beyond the walls of Crater. "Don't embarrass us," was the last thing said before shutting and locking the door behind them.

Outside, Colson ripped open the envelope, skimming it with his eyes, holding it out so everyone else could read it.

"Certain groups of people, poisonous plants..."

"Magic?" Ivy said inquisitively. Pointing to a line on the page.

"Yeah," Colson assured, "Particularly insidious. You weren't around when Crater taught this to us a year or so back. Things the outsiders use to control and influence others."

"They taught you how to use it?"

"No, they told us how to defend against it and what to watch out for."

"They think they'll try and trick us?"

"Maybe," he shrugged, "It'll be diff-occult to say the least," he smirked.

"Alright, so I was researching this stuff last night..." Zoe took out a large map from her backpack, "The closest town is about forty miles west from the bottom of the mountain. Once we get there, there's a train station that can get us to the coast of Montana. We can either take a taxi across the St.Peter's bridge to Oregon and take another train to LA or take a ferry directly to Las Angeles. The money they gave us should be enough for tickets there and back."

"Okay, so how do we get to the town?"

"We can just run!" Ivy said.

"Ehh, no," Colson said. His backpack was custom-made to hold the wooden sword called the bokken he had with him, which was customized to look like a hockey stick.