They recoiled, bodies slamming back on the sleeping bags, faces contorted in a shared expression of visceral disgust.
"This is... disgusting!" Kelvin choked out, his face rapidly turning a furious crimson.
"Why, why would someone desecrate this place like this?" James lamented, clasping unto his head desperately as he tucked himself in the sleeping bag.
"Who... who do you think it is?" Priscilla whispered, her face completely flushed.
Jeremy's thin lips curled into an unsettling smile. "Oh, it's our dear Stella and the Chemistry teacher... what's his name again?"
"Mr. Dave? How can you possibly be certain it's them?" Kelvin demanded, his tone now thick with heavy irritation.
"Oh, I've got my tricks, ya know?" Jeremy flashed another deeply disconcerting grin, and a distinct, shameful bulge swiftly pressed against the fabric of his pants.
Just then, the sound tore through the still silence again—raw and unmistakable.
"Ahhh! Y-yes! YES! YES! Awwn, don't stop now!" The moan was passionate and unfiltered.
"They need to be stopped! Now!" James lamented, his hands clenching into white-knuckled fists.
"I guess we're just forced to sleep now, huh?" Tolly stated flatly, before her eyes drifted down, widening as they caught sight of the undeniable protrusion in Jeremy's trousers.
"Great! We have a freak in the team. Now I know why the other guy hates you," Tolly spat, her voice laced with sudden irritation.
"No, I—I... ah! F*ck it," Jeremy exploded, his voice trailing off into a defeated rasp as a humiliating crimson stained his cheeks.
He swiftly retreated, burrowing deep into his sleeping bag like a wounded animal, squeezing his eyes shut to blot out the searing memory of the moment.
The sun rose with a blinding haste, and the students were rousted from their uneasy slumber by the sudden, insistent blast of the large bus's horn.
They gathered, waiting for the teachers to break the tense morning atmosphere.
"Trust we all had good nights?" Eric began, his smile unnervingly bright—too bright for the moment.
'This man just freaks me out. What a weirdo,' James thought to himself, his palm briefly slapping his forehead.
Jeremy's grin returned, sharp and unsettling.
"You think? The sound of mating animals didn't exactly guarantee rest," he drawled, letting the implication hang heavy in the air.
Eric and John's heads snapped up, their gazes instantly locking onto Stella and Dave with an audacious, accusing glare—the look of men who had just caught thieves in the act.
The Chemistry and Geography teachers instantly dropped their heads, faces bowed in an unmistakable shame, their guilt palpable and absolute.
"Well... we should forget that because the quest begins now!" Eric declared with strained exuberance, desperately attempting to shatter the awkwardness.
The teachers reiterated the quest rules and issued some other essential tools: mallets, thick ropes, sacs, etc.
"Lastly, we've clearly marked the territory boundary. No group is to cross that line. There are no artifacts and absolutely no business for you beyond it. The jurisdiction is only where safety is guaranteed."
With their share of equipment distributed, the groups scattered, each vanishing into a separate quadrant of the dense wood to begin their quest.
◇◇◇◇
"It's been more than an hour, and we still haven't found a single thing!" Kelvin wailed, his frustration now a seething, physical heat.
"You shouldn't be the one complaining. I'm the one lugging this weight," Jeremy countered with practical indifference.
"Calm down, Kelvin. No one promised ease, even with the best students, " Priscilla soothed, but her efforts were utterly futile.
"You don't understand, Priscilla... one! We haven't found one out of twenty-four artifacts!" Kelvin shrieked, his face contorting frantically.
"Twenty-five, including the Moonstone," Jeremy corrected with infuriating, practical indifference.
He was instantly hit by a volley of intense glares that threatened to scorch his skin and etch the silent message: 'use your brain, dimwit!'
"Complaining is useless. We need a strategy," James cut in, his expression calm, his voice as steady as still water.
"We recall what Eric said?" James asked.
"Yeah, no..." Kelvin tried to reply but was sharply cut off.
"Wait a minute—he mentioned connecting artifacts to tribes, yes?" James pressed, the dots connecting in his head.
"Quick, check the first tribe!" James commanded, his voice suddenly taut with urgency.
"It says Bambara tribe..." Kelvin replied, his fingers flicking through the pamphlet as his eyes scanned the contents with the focused intensity of an eagle.
"Hold on! Did you see Balafon there?" Tolly interjected with practical logic, her face a mask of resolute focus.
"You devils!" Kelvin exclaimed, a wide grin tearing across his face as he got the idea. "Finally, some progress!"
"Yes, the image of a Balafon is right here, and if I recall my History lessons, Bambarans were well-known for hiding objects in trees," Kelvin added, his eyes already sharply assessing the surrounding foliage for any anomaly.
"Reference the map—we might find a hint there." James intuited.
They huddled over the crumpled paper, and to their collective shock, a key piece of information emerged.
"Here! See the tiny red dot?" Priscilla was the first to sight.
Kelvin paced forward, scrutinizing the map, then sweeping his gaze across the environment.
"Luck is on our side. We're standing directly on the marked location," Kelvin announced.
"Now where is..." he muttered to himself.
"Over there. Doesn't that look... strange?" Priscilla whispered, pointing shyly.
"It's a tree with three rocks beside it..."
"I'll check it out." Jeremy answered, his voice decisive as he roughly dumped the heavy burden from his back.
With a surprising burst of agility and brute strength, he scaled the tree, returning moments later with a loud thud, landing dramatically like superheros from moder day franchise.
"Here. Record it," Jeremy instructed, holding up a glistening, smooth stone carved like a xylophone.
"You don't tell me what to do!" James snarled, a menacing undercurrent lacing his voice.
While the two were bickering, the others were lost in bewildered speculation about Jeremy's climbing feat—it had been too quick, too strong. Unnatural, yet utterly real.
Eventually, the Balafon artifact was handed to Kelvin for registration, allowing them to finally press on.
The moment the artifact was officially logged, The Red Group (an alias for James's group) shot to the top of the leaderboard.
The achievement did not go unnoticed. It was a clear, shining beacon that immediately dictated the next course of action for every rival group.
◇◇◇◇
Elsewhere in the greenery, a posse of five stood motionless in a sun-dappled clearing, their equipment clutched tight.
"Dammit! I knew that group was trouble! They've got five points already," a blonde boy cursed, his face a road map of wrinkled frustration.
"So... what's the plan now, Dylan?" Robert, the same boy who had complained throughout the journey here asked, his voice now tinged with cautious curiosity.
"Plans? Oh, I've got plans," Dylan—the blonde boy—cackled, the sound dry and chilling.
"Are you going to talk or just stand there smiling like a lunatic?" Sunny, a sharp-featured girl in the group, demanded, her voice laced with impatience.
"Let's just say we'll follow the elite squad. We'll let them bleed for the artifacts, and then... we take what 'rightfully' belongs to us, huh?"
---------------------------------------------------
Yeah, the moment is here! Hehehe!
Your ideas, thoughts, expectations, and all—let me have them in the comments section.
Like it? Give it a Power Stone.