Neferet walked slowly into the mist, holding her elbows as she walked in slowly, feeling a shiver run down her spine.
With each step she took, she began to smell the soft scent of a forest, the sound of her footsteps on stone gradually turning into the sound of footsteps on wet ground.
Behind the mist, Neferet could see a huge, thick forest growing between the stones, the ground of dirt and grass spreading out and lost in the forest.
The group of seekers looked at the forest as they walked slowly without going into the forest.
A young man climbed on a rock that protruded from the stone floor. The young man had yellow hair and reddish eyes.
He wore a similar uniform to Neferet, but over the navy-blue vest, he had a dark brown, almost black leather breastplate.
On his left arm, he wore a round bronze shield with a small crescent cut.
In her right hand, a spear entirely made of bronze tipped with silver metal and a bracer similar to the one Neferet wore.
Giving a firm blow with his spear on his shield, he raised his voice, saying.
"Listen, I know we all have the same goal. But we do not know what is in this forest, and five days is a long time to be able to go each one on their own."
Slowly the vast majority of the group of applicants surrounded that young man while they stared at him, nodding, Neferet slowly drawing a smile behind her white veil and approaching the group.
She could see Brian yawning away from the group a bit as he looked at the stone wall instead of the forest.
The blond-haired young man, seeing the large group, stopped smiling, saying, "If the majority of us agree, then we should all collaborate. And then we will solve the test."
Neferet stared at Brian as he walked away from the group staring at the wall. The young blond yelled loudly, "Hey! Where are you going!?"
Quickly Neferet turned and looked at the young blonde who jumped off the rock, going at a steady pace on Brian's back, pulling Brian's shoulder hard, the blonde-haired boy puffing out his chest.
Both young men were the same height. But the blond young man seemed bigger with his puffed-out chest and big arms.
While Brian's shoulders were broader, they both stared at each other's eyes. As Brian rested his spear on the ground and moved his shoulder, he said, "I'm going over the edge. I prefer to go alone since I don't know them."
Brian turned his head to see the group of young people saying, "Being a survival test, any of you can have a funny idea."
Both young men stared at each other when Neferet was able to understand that they were both partially right. So, she took a long step, more like a jump placing her hands on the chests of both young men.
"One moment, please…." Neferet said as she looked into Brian's burgundy eyes and the reddish eyes of the young blonde. She continued, "There's no need to fight. Both of you are right. Going in a group is the best we can do, but we can't blindly trust others we don't even know."
Both young people separated, and Brian looking at the girl behind the veil, said, lowering his shoulders a little while he sighed, "Listen, I won't get in your way, and I won't follow you."
Brian raised his spear and rested it on his shoulder while looking at the girl. He added further, "But I don't refuse anyone to follow me either."
The young blonde looked at Brian, letting out the air deflating his chest and nodding. He turned his back, starting to walk back to the group that was a little further apart.
All the applicants looked at each other, and there was a big and heavy silence. When a girl with long thick black hair, tied in a long ponytail.
The girl wore the uniform in a tight fashion, not wearing any armbands.
With a single-shot pistol on his waist, carrying on his shoulder a long black wooden rifle with a long silver steel barrel full of small ornaments.
Neferet watched as the girl walked away from the group and lifted her hand. Looking at Brian, she asked, "Excuse me, can I go with you?"
The girl was staring at Brian with big, bright emerald eyes when she said, "I'm a hunter, so I wouldn't want to fight you."
Brian looked at her, nodding. While both began to walk, the young man with blond hair and reddish eyes.
He began to organize the already somewhat divided group. Away from the group several other students walked away from the group.
Neferet wanted to go along with the couple, Brian´s attitude made her curious, and he seemed to move with confidence even in this situation.
But moving among the large group would provide her with greater security from any threat, and advancing through the forest would also be easier.
So, she decided to approach the group of applicants staring at the blond young man, and she gave him a smile behind her thin white veil.
Neferet realized that the large group was made up of fifteen applicants, number sixteen being her.
Aside from Brian and the black-haired girl, three other hopefuls left on their own started to scatter in and around the forest.
The group moved slowly through the forest, the hours passing quickly. But they felt eternal as they entered the deep and thick forest. The group of young people was walking slowly.
While some with a little more experience, like Neferet and the young blond, saw their position on the map that was on the back of her forearm, they were moving very slowly and by all accounts.
There were not many hours of sunshine left, the sunset was approaching, and they had not advanced even half the way they felt they should have traveled.
As the group leaned out of the trees and sat on the ground, annoyed or disappointed glances were exchanged.
Neferet crossed her hem below her breasts, caressing her bracers as she bit her lip thoughtfully behind the veil. The young blond slowly approached to tell her, "Miss, we are going very slowly..."
The young man looked at the group that was either sitting or looking at his companions with anger, "I think it would be good for the group, both in terms of function and morale, to take a few and create a small advance party."
Neferet looked into the blonde boy's eyes and moved her head to look at the floor. She thought for a few seconds and then said, raising her voice a little, "Splitting up now after making the decision to go together is not necessarily a good thing..."