Groaning, Solera got out of his bed to open the pounding door. Behind him, Guinness continued sleeping like a baby.

The door swung open to reveal Chianti.

“Up? All right, cool.” She turned away and began walking to the next room.

Somewhat annoyed, Solera closed the door. He had stayed up until midnight trying to figure out the control kit, but he had no idea how it worked. As a result, he was both low on sleep and frustrated.

After waking Guinness up, Solera went to the common bathroom on the first floor to clean his teeth. In a room on the other side of the building, breakfast was being served. Solera looked down at the food, cringing to himself. It looked no different from the black mud on the ground. Reluctantly, he began to spoon some into his plate. Vinoh had drilled into him that complaining was unproductive and useless, and that food could be cut off at anytime, so it was best to take what one could get.

A soldier walked over, snickering. He was holding a bagel in one hand and a piece of meat in the other.

“It’s over there, bro.” The soldier laughed again, pointing at a door. “You actually fell for that, tha’s pretty funny.”

His face beet red, Solera set the plate on the table and grabbed a new one. Opening the door, he found a table filled with sumptuous foods. Around it were more tables, where soldiers sat eating. He took a biscuit and some meat cubes, sitting by himself in the corner.

Solera shoveled down his food as quickly as he could. He didn’t like being surrounded by all these strangers very much. When he walked outside into the courtyard, he saw Chianti and several other kids.

“Get your stuff, it’s nearly time to go.” Chianti called out to Solera, a sunny smile on her face. In a few minutes, Solera and Guinness were back in the courtyard, sitting off to the side. The other children babbled incessantly, but the two of them stayed quiet.

The courtyard doors opened, and another ten or so children Solera had never seen before were led in by an officer.

“Heyyy, here’s the Peat City kids.” Chianti said cheerily. She walked up and greeted the official, before taking the children and sitting them down next to Solera’s group.

“All right, guys!” Chianti clapped her hands. “The Bamboo Eagle should be arriving soon. Until then, let’s have some introductions!”

She patted the head of the kid next to her cheerily. “Name, age, and something you like. Go!”

“I’m Cesar.” The kid mumbled, blushing. “I’m six years old, and I like my mommy.”

Everyone started laughing, except for Solera, Guinness, and a tall Peat City teenager. Solera vaguely knew Cesar; he was from the Grove. Solera frequently saw him playing with the monsters.

“Stop laughing.” Chianti’s face turned ice cold, and the courtyard instantly quieted down, cowed by her sudden change in attitude. “If you think that’s funny, keep it to yourself. Next.”

“I’m Ada.” The girl next to Cesar said. “I’m nine, and I like plants.”

“Hi, everybody!” Pinot waved at everyone, a happy smile on her face. “I’m Pinot. I’m ten years old, and I like haloshine!”

“Verdeca, nine years old, I like plants and haloshine too.” The girl sitting next to Pinot spoke.

“I’m Merlot, I’m thirteen, and I like, no, I love the Halo.” Merlot nodded matter-of-factly.

“We get it.” Pinot said sullenly.

“Well, they don’t.” Merlot glared at Pinot.

“Next.” Chianti said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m Cassady.” Cassady said. “I’m fourteen years old, and I like creating talismans!”

“Solera, thirteen, training.” Solera mumbled.

Guinness stared off into space, not paying any attention as to what was going on.

“He’s Guinness, eleven, food.” Solera spoke after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Chianti looked up as the ninth person began introducing himself. Gusts of wind swept across the courtyard as a shadow blocked out the sun. Solera looked up, squinting his eyes.

A large bird was descending from the skies. No, to say it was large would do it injustice; it was gigantic! Its wingspan was around ninety meters, almost the size of the courtyard itself. Cages hung off the sides of its feathered body, with ladders leading up to a sizable house on its back.

Solera stared at the bird, his eyes goggling. How could a monster be that big?

Chianti grinned. “All right, our transport’s here! Just say your names, and then split into groups of four people each. They’ll be your roommates for at least the rest of the trip!”

“Orion.” “Koshu.”

The Peat City kids began to speak, but Solera didn’t look at them. He realized the cages on the sides of the bird were toilets. Any waste would simply drop off the bird and onto the ground below… Solera wondered what would happen if it landed onto somebody’s head.

“Neko.” “Savi.” “KD.” “Jezzno.” The last people finished introducing themselves.

“Okay, like I said, get into groups of four, we’re going to start boarding the Bamboo Eagle.” Chianti rose up from the ground. Pinot instantly grabbed Cassady, Verdeca, and Ada, while Cesar tugged on Merlot’s shoulder. Merlot was talking to Orion and Koshu. Solera and Guinness just stood there.

“Qiao, get over here.” The tall boy said calmly. He turned and nodded to Solera.

Solera blinked, nodding back. This tall boy had an arrogant, cold expression on his pale face. He seemed to be angry or frustrated about something, but Solera couldn’t put his finger on why he thought that.

“I’m Chip. Sixteen years old.” He said, shaking Solera’s hand. “This is Qiao, ten years old.” Qiao was a frail boy with light yellow skin. He looked to be of eastern descent. “You two seem to need a group.”

“Yeah.” Solera muttered, dragging Guinness with him.

“Get along, guys! Yall are going to be friends for a very long time!” Chianti said, handing out a paper to each group of four as they boarded the eagle. “Here are some icebreakers you guys might want to try.”

Chip took the paper, climbing up the ladder onto the eagle’s back. “This room’s ours.” He said, pointing at a secluded room that grew out of the side of the house. Inside were two bunk beds, each with two bunks. Chip tossed his backpack onto one of the lower beds, crumpling up the paper with the icebreakers as he did so.

“I’m going to be creating now, so I’ll need some quiet.” Chip looked at them with his cold eyes.

“... Go take that bunk, Guinness.” Solera pointed at the other lower bed, tossing his backpack onto the top bunk. Qiao took the bunk above Chip wordlessly.

Chip took out a blank talisman, smoothing the paper over as he sat down at the one table in the room. Solera looked the talisman over curiously. All equipment, such as wings, golems, and gauntlets, required talismans to properly focus the power being channeled through them, but talismans for wings, golems, and gauntlets were each completely different! Solera wondered what kind of talisman Chip was going to create.

Chip set the paper down on the table and pressed his hand down on it, closing his eyes. As he channeled power through his arms and out of his hands, parts of the paper began to rise up, turning into green lines on the paper’s surface. They snaked their way across the talisman, forming a beautiful circuit pattern that covered the entire paper.

Chip opened his eyes and looked down at the paper for a long time. Finally, he nodded to himself.

“Satisfactory. Qiao, the transistors.” He extended his hands. Qiao scrambled out of his bunk, rummaging through his backpack. Some small plants were handed to Chip, who began inserting them into slots formed by the lines. Solera watched, a curious expression on his face. He had never seen the creating process occur before, so watching it was a very interesting process to him.

Chip continued to demand strange components, and Qiao continued to meekly hand them over. After another hour, Chip held up the finished product, a small, ten centimeter by ten centimeter paper, coated in a clear film.

“The laminating process is done.” Chip murmured, holding the talisman up to the window’s light. “Satisfactory.” He tossed the finished talisman into his backpack as Qiao handed him another paper.