With introductions complete, Noah and Moxie herded everyone up to the top of the transport cannon. Tim was, as usual, sitting in his place, a tired expression on his face. He rose as they all emerged from the elevator and into his room.

“Vermil!” Tim raised a hand in greeting, a smile crawling across his weathered creatures. “It’s been some time, lad. How have you been?”

“Busy,” Noah said honestly. “It’s good to be back, though. Getting things started again for the new school year.”

“With some new faces, I see,” Tim said, his gaze dancing over the students. “Preparing for exams already?”

“Not intentionally. I still don’t know what exams are coming up,” Noah admitted. “I hear we’re going to find out soon. Just doing some exercises to get to know each other.”

“Sharing fun facts?”

“Something like that.” Noah chuckled. “Do you think you could get us sent to the Windscorned Plateau for a day?”

Tim nodded and turned his attention to the controls on the wall. A faint rumble shook the room as he adjusted the transport cannon, lining it up with a new destination before nodding to the waiting tube. “It’s all set up for you, Vermil.”

“I’ll go first to make sure the area is clear,” Moxie said, lying down in position. The transport cannon hummed to life and, with a whump, she vanished in a beam of blue energy. Emily promptly walked over to lie where Moxie had been.

“Thank you. I should have asked this earlier, but how was your vacation?” Noah asked as the transport cannon sent Emily after her mentor.

“It was enjoyable. I spent most of it here, but there wasn’t all that much to do, so I mostly watched the sunsets and sunrises,” Tim said. He looked out a window and let out a soft sigh, a smile crossing his features. “They’re really quite beautiful here. If you ever get a chance to sit down and be still for a little while, I highly recommend it.”

“I’ve done it once or twice,” Noah said, thinking back to the ruins Moxie had brought him to before they’d left Arbitage. “And it was very nice, you’re right.”

The transport cannon hummed and Emily vanished. One by one, the other students all got on and were launched as well. Lee was the last of the group to use it, leaving Noah and Tim alone in the room.

I remember promising that I’d find a way to fix up Tim’s Runes. It’s not like I don’t have the actual Runes to do it now… but how am I meant to fix anything without revealing Sunder’s powers? Do I knock him out and fix everything while he’s unconscious or something? Can you even use the Mind Meld potion if you’re unconscious? Maybe I should just leave a good Rune somewhere where he can take it.

That wouldn’t really fix any of the issues of his other Runes immediately, but he could try to shatter the bad ones and I could discretely find a way to use the Fragment of Renewal on him.

“Is something amiss?” Tim asked.

Noah shook his head, realizing he’d been standing silently for a minute. “No, sorry. I just got lost in memories.”

“Thinking about the sunset?”

“Yeah. It was a nice sunset.” Noah laid down in the transport cannon’s tube.

“Have a fun trip,” Tim said.

Noah didn’t get a chance to reply. Energy erupted within his body as the cannon activated, and then he was gone.

***

The world slammed back into its proper shape and Noah’s feet alighted on soft grass. The Windscored Plateau was exactly as he remembered it. Steep landmasses surrounded them – some towering in the sky, and others far below.

Soft grass stretched across the ground, broken up by plump blue flowers. He was still completely convinced that the flowers were probably poisonous.

The others all stood around Noah, taking in the new sights. Luckily, it didn’t look like there were any monsters in the area that they’d arrived in.

Isabel and Emily were both kneeling beside one of the flowers, examining its petals.

“Don’t eat that,” Noah said.

They both looked up at him in confusion.

“We weren’t planning to,” Isabel said. “It just looked pretty. Why would we eat it?”

Noah cleared his throat. “Never mind. No reason. Welcome to the Windscorned Plateau. Assuming not too much has changed since the last time I was here, the main monster we’re going to see is a Fluffant.”

Moxie frowned and stepped closer to Noah, lowering her voice to whisper. “What? That’s not what the Dossier said.”The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I can assure you that the majority of what I fought here were Fluffants.”

“What’s a Fluffant?” Todd asked.

“It’s a big fluffy creature with a long trunk.” Noah pointed at the flower that Isabel and Emily had been looking at. “They drink from those flowers, and they’re pretty damn protective of them.”

“Flower Sapper. They’re called Flower Sappers,” Moxie said.

“My name is better.”

“Flower Sapper seems more descriptive,” Emily said.

“Fluffant is cuter, though,” Todd mused. “I like Teacherman’s name more.”

“I think it’s more useful when a monster is named after an attribute,” James said. “Too many are named arbitrarily and hearing the name doesn’t give you enough information about what they are.”

Does it really matter if we know that they like flowers, though?” Isabel asked. “Fluffant is a good way to identify them because it shows that they’re fluffy. A flower sapper could be anything.”

All four of them turned to Alexandra. She blinked and shifted back slightly. “What?”

“Which name is better?” Emily asked.

“Guys, please,” Noah said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “We aren’t here to debate about the name. We’re here so we can see how far everyone has come over the summer and to get to know each other’s abilities better.”

Everyone fell silent, and he earned himself a round of begrudging nods.

“Besides,” Noah added, “Mine is obviously better.”

That immediately ignited the argument in full. Alexandra stared at the group in disbelief as they all started yelling at each other. She turned to Noah, sending a baffled look in his direction.

He just shrugged in response.

The fact that they can just jump into an argument over something this pointless is actually good. They’re comfortable with each other. I suppose that’s not real surprise, but it’s good to see.

Moxie prodded Noah in the side and he cleared his throat to get their attention again.

“Okay, okay. Enough screwing around,” Noah said. “Call them what you want. Since we’re focusing on your own techniques today, I’ll tell you what we’re up against. Fluffants are pretty much docile right up until you use magic next to them. As soon as you do, they’ll try to murder you violently – and if you kill any of them, every other Fluffant in the area will come try to kill you.”

“How big of an area?” Alexandra asked.

“I never actually tested that,” Noah admitted. “But it seemed to be just on the specific plateau you were on, and their attention span isn’t very long. As long as you don’t stick around in the same spot for too long, you’ll be fine. Fluffants fight mostly by charging and trying to crush you. They’ve also got some nasty fast trunks.”

“Yeah. We've fought them before, but it was a bit ago.” Todd scratched the side of his face. “Can we just attack from afar? Or do we have to get close. I’d assume we can beat them pretty easily if we just lob things at them from outside whatever their magic-sensing range was.”

“I was about to ask the same thing,” Emily said.

“You’re welcome to fight them however you want to,” Noah said with a shrug. “I want to see how far you’ve come individually. If you think you can best show that at a range, then go ahead.”

“I don’t have any way to fight at range,” Alexandra said.

“You could always throw your sword,” Todd offered.

Alexandra’s eyebrows tightened and she sent him a flat look. “I’m not doing that.”

“As I said, you’re welcome to fight however you want,” Noah said, walking past the group toward the edge of their plateau. They all fell in behind him and Noah peered over the edge down at the landmass below them.

There were a fair number of Fluffants milling about below – fifteen, by Noah’s count. Not a single one of the monsters had yet to pay them any attention. The drop was probably several hundred feet, so Noah doubted the Fluffants had any idea of their presence.

“Range is one thing, but I don’t think I can hit anything from up here,” Todd said with a frown. “My magic won’t make it that far.”

“I might be able to hit something from here, but I’m not sure the amount of energy it would take is worth the effort.” Emily closed an eye and squinted down at the monsters. She shook her head. “Yeah, it would take way too much energy to get a good shot off. If they’re resistant to magic, then they probably won’t go down to an attack that’s lost most of its power by the time it gets to them.”

“Sounds like we’re fighting in close range, then.” James rubbed his eyes. He looked half-asleep, which wasn’t the most comforting state of mind when one was about to go fight monsters. “I could get us down there if you want.”

“Is that allowed?” Alexandra asked, glancing to Noah.

Noah shrugged in response. “Go ahead. I want to see your fighting abilities, not your terrain traversal abilities. I was going to offer to bring everyone down myself, but I didn’t remember James had wind Runes.”

“Hold on,” Isabel said, putting a hand on James’ shoulder before he could step forward. “The Fluffants are going to get aggressive the moment we use magic near them. If we kill one, then we’re going to have to fight all of them, aren’t we?”

“What, should we kidnap them to fight one by one?” Todd asked.

“I was more thinking sectioning parts of the plateau off,” Isabel replied. “If there are big rock walls in the way of the other monsters, we should be able to take one on one fights a lot easier.”

That’s a really good idea, actually. I was fully planning on just killing all the Fluffants that weren’t currently fighting someone. I’m not worried about Todd or Isabel’s fighting abilities since they’ve both got armor. Todd and Emily also have Shields, and Alexandra is hard to hurt, so the only one who I really need to keep a close eye on is James.

“I like the thought, but do you have enough energy to actually maintain it? What if the Fluffants try to break through the barrier?”

“Then we can just kill them,” Todd said. “It should slow ‘em down enough for us to take out the Fluffant we’re fighting, and that’s what matters. The barrier doesn’t have to stop anything. It just has to make sure we don’t get overwhelmed too quickly.”

“Fine with me.” James yawned. “I’m ready when you all are, then.”

“What do we do?” Todd asked.

“Jump,” James replied. “Together, that is. I’ll slow our fall.”

Noah snuck a glance at Alexandra, but she didn’t seem perturbed by the suggestion. Either she trusted the others enough to believe James’ promise that they wouldn’t splatter against the ground or she just wasn’t worried. There was a good chance the fall wouldn’t hurt her in the first place, but she had said that her body wasn’t as resilient as it had been back in Dawnforge.

“Feel free to go whenever you’re ready,” Noah said, drawing on Natural Disaster to channel some of his own wind magic. He could have pulled it from one of his newer Runes, but he hadn’t had a chance to play with them yet and didn’t want to mistakenly over or underestimate their power. “I’ll grab Lee and Moxie if you focus on the other students, James.”

And I’ll have enough ready to catch the kids too, in case you don’t.

James gave Noah a nod.

Then, as one, the group stepped up to the edge of the cliff and jumped.