Sundance trudged down the clean halls of the large Ghost Bear infirmary. The electric lights cast the same strange glow as the planet's white sun, and large displays connected to cameras on the outside of the building acted as faux windows. It was a strange experience, seeing so much white in one place. On more than one occasion, delirious from the potent medications he had been put on for both his physical and mental states, he had walked out of his room and been convinced he had died in his sleep and had entered the afterlife. This was usually followed by a frantic search through the building as he tried to find Tangelo who, of course, wasn't there.

A shrill scream from a nearby room made Sundance jump as he passed. Intrigued, and maybe a little frightened, he stepped through the door, which hissed open as he neared. Mint came into view as he walked slowly through the opening, and she was surrounded by ponies who appeared to be holding her to the bed as she shrieked and writhed in pain.

"Just a few more seconds. You are almost done," the nurse holding her chest down said comfortingly. It was little consolation though, as her screams picked up again as one of the other nurses tapped quickly on a computer.

After a few more seconds there was a light click, barely audible through the noise, and Mint's cries of agony died off. She sighed in relief and the ponies around her stepped back. As they did this, one of the nurses noticed Sundance in the room and frowned at him. "You can not just enter a girl's room like that. Knock first," she said, slightly annoyed.

Mint shook her head. "It's alright. He can stay," she said, her voice wobbly from the lingering pain.

The nurse's frown deepened, but before she could reply the pony behind the computer interrupted her. "You should be all good. More likely than not, that limb is going to outlive you," he said with a nod to himself.

Mint smiled at him. "Thank you. Is that all? How long until I'm able to use it?"

The nurse who had rebuked Sundance sighed at Mint. "It has been months, and I feel like I have to say this every time I see you. How many times have I told you to let your body heal?"

"Not enough, apparently," Mint said as she shrugged and smiled playfully.

"That should be it for today. Let us know if you feel any more pain, okay?" the pony behind the computer said. "Alright everypony, back to work. Stop slacking off," he said jokingly as he walked towards the exit. Sundance pressed himself against the wall as the nurses all filed past him, exchanging more friendly banter as they went.

Once they were all gone and the door hissed shut, Sundance stepped further into the room. It was a little larger than his own, seeing as he had been transferred from the intensive care unit when the worst of his wounds had healed. Mint smiled at him as he approached. "Hey. Sorry about Ivory. She can be pretty fussy."

The corners of Sundance's mouth turned up slightly as he took a seat on the chair near her bed. He didn't say anything, though. Now that he thought about it, he really didn't want to be alone right then, and he was content just sitting near a friend.

After a moment, Mint broke the silence. "You doing alright today?"

Sundance nodded slightly. "Yeah. Medication's doing its job, and the therapy is helping somewhat."

"That's good. You need to keep your mind off of... well, you know." Mint coughed awkwardly and shifted slightly in her bed. "You want to see my new foreleg?"

Sundance nodded and Mint lifted her prosthetic right foreleg into the air, wincing slightly at the soreness in her body. It had a covering of light pink artificial fur that matched Mint's perfectly, and it almost looked natural, save for the gaps around the joints where a dark grey material could be seen. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah," Sundance said. He frowned slightly. "So what was all the screaming about?"

"Getting a new limb is really painful with all the internal stuff attaching. They put the base on my shoulder last month through surgery, so the whole process of attaching the leg only took a few seconds and it wasn't worth using anesthetic. This thing has the exact same number of nerves as a real leg, so it shouldn't feel any different," Mint said as she ran her left hoof lightly along the fake limb.

Sundance raised an eyebrow, impressed. "They can do that? That's cool."

Mint nodded. "I know, right? It costs almost half as much as an entire house did back in Styx and Colonel Dash just gave it to me. It's made of carbon fiber and myomer, the artificial muscles that move 'Mechs. Ivory tried explaining the details to me, but I didn't really understand much of what she said." She held out the limb and turned it slightly to look at it from another angle. "They could have made it visibly indistinguishable from my other legs, but I kind of like the look. Makes me seem tough, don't you think?" she said with a wink.

Sundance smiled. "Yeah, I guess so."

The two of them waited in silence for a little longer. Sundance just sat in his seat, his mind lost in thought, while Mint admired the mechanical limb with her excited hot pink eyes.

After a few long moments, they heard the door hiss open. The sharp sound of boots filled the room as Cobalt entered the room, clad in his silver and blue dress uniform. He took note of Sundance's position in the room before walking over to Mint's bed and nodding to her. "I heard you got your new leg. How does it feel?"

Mint grinned and flexed the foreleg. "Great! Most of the pain already wore off and I think I'll be able to walk on it pretty soon. Though, Ivory's probably gonna try and force me to stay in bed for a few days," she said with a pout.

Cobalt smiled at her. While he kept up his tough demeanor around most ponies, he tended to show his softer side and relax a bit in private. "That is good to hear. They can make adjustments as you grow, so do not worry about outgrowing it. And also, do not worry about Ivory. You and your friends will be out of here in just a few short hours. Becoming an abtakha is a long process, so the sooner you start, the sooner you can be back out in the fight."

"Really? That fast? Awesome!" Mint cheered. She leaned back in her bed and threw up her forelegs in excitement, only to jerk them down again at a twinge of pain. "Ow. Maybe I shouldn't have done that so soon." She rubbed her shoulder and looked Cobalt over. "So was the Khan meeting today? Is that why you're in uniform? How'd that go?"

Cobalt frowned. "About as you would expect. After seeing the evidence one of my soldiers gathered, there was barely any resistance. The vote was unanimous to conduct a Trial of Annihilation against Clan Draconequus."

Mint tilted her head at him. "That's a good thing, right? The ponies responsible for starting the war are going to pay, and the fight will be finished. Why don't you seem happy?"

"Because there is the problem of innocent lives being taken. Clan warfare usually prevents unnecessary casualties, but knowing Clan Draconequus, it could be a bloodbath. And it is not just the civilians we have to worry about, either. More freeborn units like yours might be hesitant to surrender, and we would be forced to eliminate them, too. None of them are fighting by choice, and many of them will be young ponies, like you two." Cobalt sighed deeply. "Justice will come, I just hope the price is not too high. Life is an expensive thing."

Mint nodded. "I hadn't thought about that. Well, if they're smart they'll surrender in a heartbeat. The only reason they wouldn't is if they were on Khan Bolt's side."

"I hope you are right." Cobalt shook his head slightly. "But I am being un-Clanlike, worrying so much about the future. It is my role to lead my soldiers and carry out my orders."

"Un-Clanlike? What do you mean by that?" Mint asked curiously.

"I am showing weakness, something not favorable in the eyes of the Clans. I imagine you would not have been brought up in the ways of the Clans during your training since their plans were to use their freeborn soldiers as cannon fodder, and it would have been a waste of time in their eyes. Clan Draconequus has fallen from the way in doing so.

"Anyway, I should be going. I will be here again exactly two hours from now, so be ready for my return. We will leave immediately afterward," Cobalt said to Mint. He gave Sundance a curt nod and moved to leave the room, his boots clacking against the tile floor.

Sundance bit his bottom lip and glanced after the older pony as he left. Ever since Mint had talked to him in the courtyard he had been unsure of what his future would be. Now, however, he felt a strange stirring inside of him. He wasn't quite sure what that feeling was yet, but he was certain of what he had to do.

"I want to fight," Sundance called after the Colonel as he heard the door hiss open.

Cobalt paused midway through the door in surprise. He backed into the room and turned to Sundance, an unreadable look on his face. "What did you say?"

Sundance lifted his chin slightly and looked directly into Cobalt's eyes. He had gotten the feeling that he had disappointed the Colonel over the past few months. After all, the only thing he had done since being in the infirmary was mope around. Sundance suddenly changing his mind like that must have been quite a shock. "I want to fight."

Cobalt stepped over to him and looked deep into his eyes. "And you are certain about that? You must be alert and operate at one-hundred percent at all times on the battlefield. There will be no room for languishing. That will get you and your comrades killed."

"I won't. I know I can fight. I will fight," Sundance insisted.

For a long moment, Cobalt stood there silently as he stared at the young pony before him. Somehow, the withered, weak pony who had been seated there just moments ago was no longer present. There was a determined light in his eyes now as if he had suddenly overcome his despair, and the strength in him the Colonel had thought was gone had returned stronger than before.

Cobalt eyed him closer, and it felt to Sundance as if the Colonel was peering into his very soul. "We have no room for weakness, especially being the personal unit of saKhan Snow. Know that if you fail your trials you will be thrown out of the warrior caste and left on your own to find your place in the Clan. Are you certain you want to take that risk?"

"I'm damn certain," Sundance said stubbornly.

"Very well. I will be by your room in two hours." Cobalt said. He turned to leave and cast one quick look over his shoulder. "There is a fire in you I thought had long died out. I once had high hopes for you, and now I can see that potential returning. Do not disappoint me, soldier." With that, he faced forward and left the room without another glance towards the two young ponies.

After a moment of stunned silence, Mint turned to Sundance. "Well that was unexpected," she said with one eyebrow raised. "I thought you were going to become a laborer?"

Sundance scratched the back of his neck lightly. "I was going to, I just... I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain. It felt like this was what I had to do, you know? Like it was the right decision to make."

Mint nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean. I'm just surprised you changed your mind so suddenly."

"Me too. I think it was a 'heat of the moment' kind of thing." Sundance shifted in his seat nervously. Even now, after he had a few short moments to think about his choice, he still felt like it was what he had to do. The only difference was the anxiety at what would come as a result. Death was obviously a potential risk, but he almost worried more about what permanent mental effects might linger as a result of fighting longer.

"That makes sense. It kind of gives you a chance to avenge our friends, too. Just don't let that get to your head, okay?"

Mint slipped her hind legs over the edge of the bed and dropped down onto her three real hooves. She gingerly placed her prosthetic on the ground and winced slightly as she leaned her full body weight onto it. After a brief moment to adjust, she took a few careful steps towards Sundance and looked him in the eyes, a serious, but kind, look on her face. "Don't become so caught up in vengeance that you forget what's right and what's wrong, and why we're really fighting. They wouldn't want that, especially Tangelo. You'll need a clear head out there, so work on it. Me, Vermilion, and even Mist on one of his good days can help you. Trust us, okay?"

Sundance nodded and smiled slightly at her. "Okay."

"Good." Mint stepped back and moved over to the short shelf in the back of the room where her few belongings had been placed. "We'll be leaving soon, so you should go get your things and say goodbye to anypony you need to."

Sundance slid off of his seat and walked towards the doorway. "Alright. See you in a bit."

Mint nodded to Sundance as he walked through the exit. The door slid quietly shut behind him and he glanced around the white halls, which were noticeably less busy than usual. It was around lunchtime so it made sense that most of the staff would be in the small dining hall, which served what was unironically the best food Sundance had ever eaten even though many of the nurses and doctors considered it to be low quality. Living where and how he did for about twelve years gave him quite a different perspective on many things.

"I hope they're all eating right now. I'd rather not spend half an hour searching for them," Sundance thought as he walked down the empty hallways. He had become fairly close to the nurse in charge of his therapy, a pegasus with an almost overly friendly demeanor. The nurse had taken so much time out of his life to try and give Sundance the energy to continue, and he felt he needed to thank the pony. There were a couple of others as well, nurses who took care of him while he was still healing and the doctor who was in charge of him.

Sundance smiled to himself. He'd been so absorbed in self-pity recently that he'd barely even noticed anything that had gone on around him, and he'd basically been neglecting his friends. "I guess all of that can change," he thought to himself. "From now on, I'm doing things the right way."

---

The door to the armored pony carrier slammed shut behind Sundance, and he glanced around the interior. Thin slots high on the walls allowed some light to filter in, though not a significant amount. A single strip of what appeared to be a deactivated light ran down the middle of the ceiling. The benches that ran along the walls, while certainly not the most comfortable things to sit on, had at least a thin padding of rubber to ease the longer journeys.

Sundance took a seat in one of the back corners, next to the rear doors. Mist was seated directly to his right, followed by Vermillion and Mint, who was still playing with her prosthetic. On the bench across from them, Hazelnut and Obsidian sat silently. Next to them, two ponies whom he didn't recognize were sizing up the newcomers. Like Cobalt, they both wore the Ghost Bear dress uniform, though they had lower ranks on their uniforms, and the cutie marks sewn over their hearts were obviously different.

One was a crimson female unicorn with a flowing black and white mane and eyes the color of red velvet cake. Her cutie mark was a telescope, and the rank sewn to her jacket showed she was a Star Commander. She seemed to pick apart each of the young ponies with ease, storing away information that they didn't even know about themselves. Sundance decided then and there he never wanted to make her angry.

The other pony in the carrier was a tall, almost gaunt earth pony with the comparatively lowly rank of Warrior. His fur was a shade of blue so pale he almost appeared to be white in the faint glow coming from the slim windows. The blood red mane covered half of his face from Sundance's angle, and he thought the pony had blue eyes until he turned his head to face Sundance. While his left eye was indeed a dark shade of blue, his right eye, which had been obscured previously, was curiously rose-colored. His cutie mark was a smiley face with x's as eyes; a very strange thing to see.

Sundance frowned to himself. The earth pony certainly was odd, and not only in appearance. He slouched slightly on the bench and was very relaxed, but there was something else off about him. Something dark that lurked beneath the surface, but refused to show itself at the moment. Sundance didn't know what it was, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

A voice from the front of the vehicle caught the ponies' attention, and they all turned their heads as Cobalt walked through the narrow entrance from the driver's cabin. The engine roared to life as he did so, and the light finally turned on, illuminating the dark space.

Cobalt grabbed a small package from the light blue earth pony and glanced quickly around the space. With the two of them next to each other, Sundance was shocked to discover that the pony's single pink eye matched Cobalt's perfectly in color.

"Now that all of you are here, your path to joining the Ghost Bears can officially begin." Cobalt pulled six woven bracelets from the package, each made of three colored cloth strands woven through a metal pin of the Silveroot Keshik's symbol. "These, your bondcords, will be removed when I or your instructor deem you worthy to join our venerable Clan. This band," he said as he pointed to the blue strand on one of the bracelets, "represents combat talent. The silver band represents integrity. The white band represents loyalty. Once each of you demonstrates these qualities to an acceptable degree, you will become full-fledged Ghost Bears."

Cobalt walked around the cabin and wrapped the bondcords around each of the ponies' right forelegs. When it was Sundance's turn, he held his foreleg perfectly still and noticed a barely audible click when the cord fixed itself in place. After a brief delay, he felt the silky-smooth strands slither across his fur and pull the bondcord tight against him. He gave it a light experimental tug and found it to be secured firmly in place in a way that didn't feel like it restricted blood flow or movement.

Once he had fixed the last bondcord to Obsidian, Cobalt moved back to the front of the cabin and squeezed himself in next to the thin earth pony. "It is time for me to explain how the six of you will be trained and evaluated. I prefer initiating abtakhas in an... unorthodox manner," he said with a strange tone to his voice. "Rather than becoming laborers or technicians for countless months, you will be spending the next half year in the wilderness. You will be split into three predetermined pairs, each sent to different locations on Strana. It will be your jobs to work together to both survive and locate each of your 'Mechs, which have been fully repaired to fighting condition. Then, assuming you survive in the wild, your training will be complete."

Cobalt leaned forward on the bench. "This will not be an easy mission. Though we try to keep the ponies who enter these trials alive, we are not always successful. We have no room for hesitation in the Ghost Bear touman, our military. If you are not prepared to risk your lives on this, now is your last chance to back out."

There was silence in the cabin after Cobalt spoke. Sundance had noticed the Colonel looking directly at him for the majority of that discourse, but he refused to back down. Cobalt obviously wasn't entirely convinced that he was fit to be a warrior, but he was going to prove the older pony wrong.

Cobalt nodded after a moment. "Very well, then." He glanced through the opening in the front of the cabin and stood up as the APC shuddered to a halt. "Mint, Mist, you two are with me. Hazelnut and Vermilion will be with Scarlet. Obsidian and Sundance, you two will remain here with Enzo." He nodded to Enzo, then walked to the back of the cabin and swung the rear door open. Scarlet stood and followed him, with the two pairs of ponies trailing behind, confused but determined.

The APC lurched forward as the door was slammed shut, leaving Sundance, Obsidian, and the unusual earth pony alone in the now seemingly empty space.

"So, you two survived the hell that is Clan Draconequus," Enzo said in a thick voice.

Obsidian nodded. "Yeah. You've heard how bad it is over there?"

"More than that, I've seen what goes on in those training camps. Scarlet managed to get videos of a few of them." Enzo shook his head. "It's barbaric. Oh, and don't let Cobalt or Scarlet hear you address somepony of higher rank so casually. I don't really care, but they'd throw a fit."

"Sorry. We had a really loose command structure back on the Constellation," Obsidian said, scratching the back of his head.

"I wish I could say the same thing about the Silveroot Keshik. I swear some of these commanders have a stick shoved so far up their ass I can see it through their mouth."

Sundance and Obsidian both stifled laughs. It made sense now why this pony only had the rank of Warrior. He didn't seem to care at all about the chain of command, and humor like that would certainly be demerited for higher ranking officers.

Enzo gestured with on hoof. "Go on, laugh! Nopony here's stopping you. I've been dying to talk to someone who isn't a statue for ages." He shook his head lightly as the other two ponies giggled. "Just don't tell my brother about that. I don't want to give him another reason to be annoyed at me."

"Your brother? Do you mean Cobalt?" Sundance asked after he had recovered enough to speak.

Enzo grimaced. "Yep. He's a year older than I am, though he acts like he's my father sometimes. And good job on noticing that, by the way. I'm gonna assume the eye gave it away since that's the only thing we have in common. It's not like I don't like my brother, we just butt heads on a lot of things."

"Well, he's a Colonel. Being uptight is just part of the job description," Obsidian said jokingly. "If you don't mind my asking, how can trueborns from the same gene set be so dissimilar?"

"Ah, that's because we're not trueborn," Enzo said with a nod. "The Silveroot Keshik is made up entirely of freeborn ponies. Good ol' fashioned sex and all that. That's also why most of us don't talk all plummy."

"I wondered about that. You were the first pony I've heard here who uses contractions," Obsidian said. He frowned slightly and scratched the back of his head again. "So, if you're the Colonel's brother, does that mean you're a descendant of Rainbow Dash too?"

"Yep, the one and only," Enzo said with a grin. "Supposedly I look almost exactly like my great-great-something-grandpa. As far as I know, me, my brother, and our mother are the only three left of Rainbow's line who aren't casket born."

Sundance's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Wait, what? You and Cobalt came from Rainbow Dash? The Rainbow Dash? The same one who the House of Loyalty was named after?"

Enzo gave the excited pony an amused look. "Seriously? Did you not hear a word I just said? And how did you notice our similar eye color but not the fact that my brother is her spitting image? The only physical differences are a slightly darker coat and a few obvious dangly bits."

Sundance sighed. "I just assumed it was a coincidence. I thought her descendants had all been killed during the Clan Invasion."

"What? Nopony with Rainbow's blood in their veins could fall to somepony as weak as an Inner Sphere soldier, especially with the technological differences of the time. We're as talented as freeborns come. Where'd you hear that ludicrous story?"

"I don't remember. I think somepony mentioned it before I got moved to the Sibko," Sundance said.

Enzo shook his head. "Well, obviously that was a lie. We're still alive and well." He pulled a small tablet from his uniform and tapped on the screen a few times. "I guess now that it's just the three of us, I can tell you what your trial is going to be.

"We're heading north, to the mountains of Strana. You'll each be given winter clothing, a spear, a revolver with six shots, enough rations to last a week, a communications device, a small med kit, twenty meters of rope, and a map that shows the locations of item caches and your 'Mechs. A trained mountaineer could make the trip in four months, so don't expect to be back any time soon. We'll be watching you the whole time, but we're not likely to intervene if something goes wrong. It's difficult to get a VTOL up there. Once you're at your 'Mechs, the trial is basically over. All you have to do then is follow the nav points to the bottom of the mountain without breaking the machines. Your friends will have similar trials at different locations on Strana. Any questions?" Enzo asked as he slid the tablet back into his uniform.

The two ponies shook their heads. Sundance was sure he'd have questions if he had more time to think of them, but this whole process had gone by too fast for him to really grasp the situation.

"Good. Enjoy the warmth while you can. You won't feel this again for a very long time."

---

The frigid air sapped the heat from Sundance's body almost immediately, leaving him to shiver violently. "Fuck, he wasn't kidding. It's cold out here. Bright, too," he thought as he shielded his eyes against the glare of the snow. It was as if thousands of tiny mirrors were embedded into the mountains, and it felt like the backs of his eyes were full of needles.

"Good luck out there, you two. If starvation and frostbite don't get you, the wildlife will. Oh, and watch the eyes. You'll go blind out here if you're not careful," Enzo said from the safety of the small concrete structure Sundance and Obsidian had just exited. He slammed the heavy door shut, leaving the two huddling against the bitter cold.

Sundance turned to Obsidian with a hoof over his eyes. Only now did the doubts begin to creep into his mind, and he almost began to regret his decision to remain a soldier. "So what now?"

Obsidian stared out at the snow-covered mountains. They were only halfway up one of the massive peaks, and from what Sundance remembered from his quick glance at the map earlier, they had three mountains to cross.

"I guess we get moving. I hope you're ready for this, Sundance. We've got a lot of ground to cover, and it won't be easy."

---

Mist fanned himself lightly as he stepped off of the DropShip and out into what he was convinced was a massive sauna. The humidity was suffocating, and he felt as if he were being boiled alive.

"You have six months to cross the jungles of Strana and find your hidden 'Mechs. Do not disappoint me, soldiers." With that, the VTOL's bay door slid shut and the whine of the engines picked up as the ship took off.

Mist glared after the departing ship. "Yeah, thanks, asshole. Way to explain things," he called. Cobalt obviously wouldn't have been able to hear him, but it still made him feel better. He sighed and turned around to survey their surroundings.

Trees the size of skyscrapers reached into the air around them, breaking only at the small clearing the aircraft had briefly landed in. The undergrowth was extraordinarily thick, and moving just short distances on the ground would be a challenge. It was darker on the forest floor than Mist would have expected, and he imagined night time would be nearly pitch black. A river could be heard easily through the trees, but it sounded like it came from every direction, making it impossible to locate.

"Huh, that's exactly what he said to Sundance earlier today. So... what do we do now?" Mint asked, stupefied.

Mist shrugged. "Hell if I know. Cobalt didn't exactly explain much. He didn't even tell us what we have to work with," he replied as he shrugged the packs off of his sides. He rifled through the packs and placed the objects inside on the ground one by one. "Flint and steel, a first aid kit, a map with a compass, a metal water bottle, a machete, a revolver, comms, and some food. We might be able to get ten days out of this if we're careful," he said as he placed the last items in the dirt.

"A revolver? Really? What is this, an old cowboy movie?" Mint asked. She sighed. "Any extra shots?"

Mist picked up the weapon and flicked the cylinder open. He shook his head. "Nope. Just the six."

"Damn. This is gonna be rough," Mint said as she glanced back at her own bags. "I guess we're expected to hunt and find clean water." She shuddered. "I know we're omnivores, but I'd really rather not eat meat."

"Me neither, but we might not have to. Look at this." Mist unfolded the map to its full extent. A number of recommended paths were marked out, along with supply caches indicated on each of them. "The trip might take a bit longer if we do this, but at least some of these are bound to have food."

Mint glanced at the map over Mist's shoulder. "Well, that's lucky. It would have been helpful to have been told that sooner."

Mist nodded and folded the map back up. "Yeah, but I guess Cobalt's more of a 'learn by experience' kind of a pony." He glanced back out at the jungle as he put the last of the items back in his bag. He swore he could see dozens of pairs of curious eyes observing the newcomers, and for some strange reason, it didn't exactly invoke a welcoming feeling. "I just hope this isn't the kind of experience that gets us killed."

---

"So that is your mission. Survive the desert, and come back alive. Simple enough, right? Now is your last chance to chicken out," Scarlet said.

Vermilion glanced back at the older pony. "We won't. We're staying."

Scarlet nodded. "Good. I had a feeling you two were the strongest. That is why you are here instead of someplace soft, like the rain forest, or the mountains. The desert separates the weak from the strong, and if you are not resilient enough, you will be dead by the time your rations are depleted."

The engines of the VTOL fired back up as the red unicorn climbed into it. "It is easy to get lost in this massive expanse of sand. Know that if we deem you to be hopelessly off course, we will collect you and call the trial a failure. Good luck."

Vermilion shut his eyes as grit was blown into his face by the machine's rotors. It lifted high into the air, and he watched as it flew off into the distance, unobstructed by even a single cloud.

"I can't say I expected to be left stranded in a desert at any point in my life. This is going to suck," Hazelnut said.

Vermilion nodded. Beads of sweat had already begun to form on his brow from the intense heat, and he could immediately tell the supply of water they had been left was not going to last long. He frowned and ran through their list of supplies mentally. "Ten liters of water each, food for one week, comm systems, a map, a compass, a med kit, a short barreled shotgun with five shells, and a combat knife."

"We should probably conserve water as much as we can. I'm not really an expert on deserts, but it doesn't take a genius to know what we have won't last long out here." Hazelnut shielded his eyes against the sun and glanced out across the open expanse around them. They were facing a slight slope upwards, and the crest of the hill appeared to be two or three kilometers out. "Well, we might as well get started. There isn't much point in just standing out here."

"Yeah. The sooner we get this over with, the better," Vermilion said as he followed Hazelnut in the direction indicated on their map. The first supply cache was located about two hundred kilometers from where they were, and if they were lucky, they could reach it before they ran out of water. "This is going to be hell," he thought to himself. "Dear Celestia, please see all six of us safely through these trials."

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 - Trial by Ice Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 32 Minutes