The voice said with a smile. "Excuse me. You are not even maggots yet. Right now I will call you Dirt Piles. Or better yet Meat Bags. Any Objection? I didn't think so. There are forty of you here. Not all of you will survive. Try to back out, run away, or quit and you will be killed. My name is Master Kris and I will be your head Master for your first year. Now then. Time to separate you lot."

He smiled and began sorting us. I had no idea what method he used, it could have been random and spontaneous, but all I cared about was following orders. He reached my seat and I remained quiet. "Ahh, you must be the Rabbit Killer I heard so much about. Thrass was impressed by you. Old man doesn't Impress easily. So Rabbit Killer, I was instructed to push you harder then the others. Go to that group and lead them. If any fail I have been ordered to do as I please. That means anything from torture to death."

He smiled and moved away. Blood drained from my face and I walked to my group like a dead man on his last steps. I shuffled around and looked at who I had. It must have been a cruel joke. I had all three girls in my group, the tall Tanners boy and myself. I sighed and looked them over. With the five of us that meant it would be eight groups of five. Master Kris finished forming the last group and went back on stage. Each group had a leader. He smiled as he surveyed his work.

"Good now listen up. You are allowed to talk among yourselves during your own hours. Those hours being meal times at the beginning and end of day. There will be very little time between them for anything else. You will however be free to interact inside your group. I suggest you do just that. Anyone fails a task, you fail as a group. Failing to move passed first year and you will be killed. Any questions?"

We were too afraid to ask any. It seemed like anything would kill us. One boy finally decided to ask a question. "Is there a test at the end of first year or is it just an accumulation of everything over the year, not enough completed tasks leading to a fail?"

I didn't see who asked but whoever did seemed to impress Master Kris. "I am very glad you asked. And you are absolutely correct. There are no tests. Not like other places. If you fail too many tasks we give you or do not reach goals we set for you, then your group will fail." After the explanation he called eight masters onto the stage. "These will be your group masters. They will show you to your living quarters and around the mountain. The only ones allowed to talk to them are your group leaders. Think of this as your chain of command. They will punish you as they see fit. I hope you enjoy your time here."

It was a lie of course. He didn't care. But it eased some of the others. As we were dismissed, our masters came to us. My group's Master introduced himself as Master Sim, though he spelled it Schim, and lead us to our room. The room was fairly large but bare. Only five beds lined both sides, three on one side and two on the other. At the foot of each bed was a large chest that rose to my knee.

"Here are your beds. Those chests are to store whatever you earn here. Other then the cloths on your back you have nothing. On top of each chest is a pair of lock-picks. I suggest you learn how to use them. They are the only way into those chests. You break them you got to earn another set." Master Sim chuckled dryly to himself as he left the room. He only threw a few words over his shoulder as he left. "You have thirty minutes to open them chests and get acquainted. Hurry up."

As the door closed we dashed over to our chosen beds. As I would have predicted the three girls took the three on one side and me and the Tanner on the other. The sounds of metal scrapping metal filled the room. For a few minutes nobody spoke. The work of picking the lock was nerve wracking and frustration quickly set in.

"So anyone want to introduce themselves?" I asked. My eyes never leaving the lock, but my hands stopped for the moment. The question seemed to hang in the air for a thirty count before the Tanner spoke first.

"Name's Grif. Isn't my full name but rather stick with that. Frustrated as hell now." he said. He groaned and kicked his chest before trying again. That was one down.

"Sasha. " Sasha is a blond haired girl with blue eyes. She was slender for a ten year old and her skin is pale looking.

"Samantha but you can call me Sam." Sam is the tallest of the three girls, only slightly taller then myself. If I was a good judge of the obvious, Grif stood hands taller then all of us. Sam's hair is an angry red and her brown doe eyes matched her sun kissed brown skin.

The smell of salt water hung on her. "Tomiko. I can't do this." the last girl said and threw her picks aside and began sniffing. It seemed she broke hers in her attempt to open the chest. Tomiko was the middle sized girl and has straight black hair. Her eyes were an odd purple color which I had never seen before.

"My name is Ven. Hope you all don't kill me." I said. It may have been rude but I felt it needed to be said. I went back to work on my lock, the pick almost breaking a few times. My breathing grew more aggressive with my frustration. It was Sam that was first to open her chest. Turned out she grew up on the streets of some city and had to learn to survive in a Thieves guild.

She showed us a few tricks on how to open the chests and by the end we all unlocked our chests, Sam letting Tomiko borrow her picks to use. Inside the chests were black tight fitting robes that Tomiko joked ninja's would wear, whoever's they were. Under them was a belt with slits cut in them to hold daggers of some kind. And lastly, a pouch of more picks. Grif made the point that it might be wise to change cloths to show we succeeded our first task.

The girls were nervous about changing with us in the room but there was no choice. Grif and I turned our backs and began to change. The girls took turns watching us as the others changed. When we were all changed, and the belts in place Master Sim burst into the room. He saw us in our new outfits and only grunted.

"Lets go. We got work to do before the nights meal comes." Master Sim marched us through the tunnels of the mountain. He explained the best way to find your location and where you need to go. It was an ongoing test of our skills in tracking, he said.

Though the stone floors and walls left no markings of peoples passing, there was a noticeable pattern of wear to it. The first part of our training took place in a cavern that seemed to have no bottom. Stalagmites stood scattered throughout the room and on the tops of them were small platforms. Master Sim looked us over.

"This will be your first bit of training. Reach the platforms. Across this cavern is the finish line. I will meet you on the other side." He didn't give us much to work with. Master Sim only turned his back and left us in the cavern alone. Looking around there was nothing to really find our way across. Torches ringed the outer walls of the Cavern and gave us light to see by.

Tentatively moving forward I examined the room passed our starting point. There was no telling how far of a fall it was. As I looked over the edge, a part of the floor cracked and gave way. I lost my balance and Grif grabbed me by the back of my top and pulled me to safety. Tomiko and the others had shrieked and the sound echoed in the cavern.

"Ven be careful." Tomiko said shyly. Sasha and Sam stood by me to make sure I was ok. My heart pounded but we had to move. It took longer than I would have liked but eventually we found a rope hidden on a thin ledge just on the side of the entrance to the cavern. It took us longer to figure out how to use it to reach the first platform. The torches began to slowly burn out one by one.

A sense of fear rose and we worked quicker to move from one platform to the next. Just as the last torch died we reached the other side. Master Sim stood there and sighed. He wasn't very happy. The next cavern was filled with ropes. hanging from the ceiling or tied into bridges. Cris-crossing the cavern all around. Unlike the previous cavern there was no exit on the other side.

"We will be using this room often as you progress. Get used to it. Whoever stays the longest will not be punished." He turned and left us again. we each took turns choosing ropes to hang by. some of the girls moved to the bridges and sat on them. This seemed easy enough. Then Grif decided to speak.

"He said whoever stays the longest won't be punished right? But if any of us are punished then you are punished. What is the point of you even trying?" I had missed that when master Sim was speaking. I forgot what I was told as I was placed into this group. A sick feeling rose in me.

"I would be punished only four times. If I failed it would be double." Grif and the girls looked at me with pity. I hated it. After a while it felt like this was a pointless exercise. If we got tired we could move to a bridge to rest. The girls were taking a turn having a break when the bridge began to move.

Sashsa was first to notice as it began to wiggle under them slightly and then more and more as it continued. Sam screamed and pointed to the ends of the rope where spiders the size of cows moved through the ropes. There were two of them and they moved quickly. It was then I realized.

"We are on a web. These are not ropes." The others looked horrified. We began swinging and jumping from strand to strand. The webs were not sticky, but they were very strong. The spiders chased us around for what felt like hours. Though it may have only been a few minutes.

Tomiko was first to fall. She couldn't get to a different string as the spider chased her so she jumped off the web instead. she screamed and a splash came which let us know we had a safe way out. Sasha was the next to fall. And then Grif. His large size worked against him. It left only Sam and I on the webs. One for each of the spiders to chase. It seemed like they hunkered down and moved faster now that there was less pray to choose from.

Again we ran or climbed or swung. Anything to get away. Sam was about to swing from a bridge she was on when a web shot from the spider and caught on her foot. Drooling jaws opened on the spider. Slowly she was being dragged closer and closer to the beast.

I was currently running across a bridge a good distance above them.